Influence Of The Presidential Memorandum On Federal Hiring
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by: Kevin Smith
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Word Count: 436
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 Time: 4:30 AM
Because of the economic recession the government has been frequently asked to cut down on costs. This will means that many government employees will confront pay cuts. It was not a long time back that the government decided to take some steps to change its recruitment policies so that it could address the unemployment problem caused by he reducing demand for employees in the private sector.
So, after an year of research by department heads to rectify the errors in federal hiring policies, the Presidential Memo : Improving the Federal Recruitment and Hiring Process was passed in May 2010. The Memo followed the frame work that was made by the President keeping the federal employees in mind.
Diversification amongst the employees and eradication of federal internship program were two of the President?s goals. While the Memo did not give any specific guidelines, it did direct the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to "develop a plan to promote diversity in the Federal workforce, consistent with the merit system principle that the Federal Government should endeavor to achieve a workforce from all segments of society".
The section about removal of Federal Internship Program was even more obscure. The OPM was told that they must assess the current scenario of the Federal Career Internship Program, which was kick started on 6th July 2000, and then make suggestions for its future.
For the employees at OPM it was clear what they were required to do. The program was started by President Clinton in 2001, and it allowed college students to work as paid interns so that they could learn about the jobs which they would apply for in the future.
The program evolved into a way for department heads to circumvent federal hiring practices. Heads have to wait a long period for employees when OPM makes job announcements, but they can directly employ from any of the interns. Veteran's groups complained that the intern program allowed managers to ignore veteran's preference requirements.
But, in the end President Obama had to take a decisive step when federal unions also started complaining about this program. To curtail the expenditure President had ordered a wage freeze for two years. This led to several discontentment amongst the unions, and the President hoped that the removal of the program would reduce the anger.
The Federal Career Intern Program has been replaced by another program that is directed only toward students. To make sure that manager get employees without much delay, OPM has been asked to make the federal hiring process more efficient. The Presidents Memo has gone down well with unions, OPM, managers, and veterans groups as well.
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