FEDweek -

OPM has issued guidance on hiring for competitive service jobs downplaying the traditional roles of educational credentials and candidate self-assessments, saying the shift in approach will help hiring managers “recognize and value skills regardless of where they were acquired, whether in a formal degree program, on the job, or on one’s own.”

Natalie Alms, Government Executive -

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday issued guidance implementing a Trump-era executive order that instructed agencies to expand competency-based hiring while decreasing reliance on educational attainment and self-evaluations to evaluate candidates.

By Jory Heckman, Federal News Network

The Biden administration is looking to accelerate the pace of federal permitting and environmental reviews for thousands of infrastructure projects under the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The White House last week released a permitting action plan outlining ways agencies can ensure infrastructure spending projects remain on time and on budget.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

The Senate last week voted 50-49 to confirm former MSPB Chairwoman Susan Tsui Grundmann as a member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, finally putting Democrats in control of the agency that governs collective bargaining at federal agencies.

The vote, in which Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, broke ranks and joined all Democrats (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., did not vote), comes nine months after Biden nominated Grundmann and nearly 15 months after Biden was sworn into office.

Fedweek -

Through seven months of the counting period toward the January 2023 federal retirement cost of living adjustment, the COLA count stands at 6 percent, following an increase in April of 0.5 percentage points in the inflation index used to set the COLA.

Adam Butler and Ross Gianfortune, Government Executive --

Federal employees have a lot of options for their financial future, including around the Thrift Saving Plan. That is why it is so crucial to have a great tax strategy in retirement to make sure you can minimize your taxes as much as possible.

They’re not just financial.

Tammy Flanagan, Government Executive

Each year for the past 37 years, the first week of May has brought the celebration of Public Service Recognition Week, honoring those who serve our nation as federal, state, county, local and tribal government employees.

The federal government is hiring more than 8,000 people in the coming months, and officials will use that experience to fuel broader hiring process reforms.

Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja on Tuesday highlighted a “call to service” to encourage people to apply for the more than 8,000 jobs authorized by the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Biden last year.

By Courtney Buble, Government Executive

Leaders in the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Afghanistan withdrawal and efforts to curb greenhouse gases were among the 44 finalists for the prestigious annual Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals announced on Sunday.

The awards––known as the “Sammies” and the “Oscars of government service”––were renamed in 2010 for entrepreneur and nonprofit Partnership for Public Service founder Samuel J. Heyman. The program initially launched in 2002 to highlight public sector talent and has honored nearly 700 federal employees since then.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

A group of 62 House Democrats on Tuesday urged congressional appropriators to provide federal employees with a 5.1% pay raise in 2023, breaking with President Biden.

As part of his fiscal 2023 budget proposal, Biden proposed an average pay increase of 4.6% for civilian federal workers and members of the military, which, if implemented, would mark the biggest raise the federal workforce has seen in 20 years. Although it is unclear how that raise would be broken up between across-the-board increases to basic pay and an average boost to locality pay, traditionally, 0.5% of the pay raise has been set aside for locality pay increases.

By Erich Wagner, Government Executive

Federal employees reported decreases in both their engagement and job satisfaction when they responded to the government’s annual survey of workplace attitudes, although officials warned that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to color those results.

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday announced the results of the 2021 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which for the second year in a row was conducted in an unusual fall solicitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the federal government, employee engagement fell by 1 point from 72 out of 100 in 2020 to 71 last year, while the global satisfaction index, which seeks to measure federal employee morale, fell 5 points from 69 in 2020 to 64 last fall.

By Jason Miller,  Federal News Network

A few months ago, Sultan Meghji walked out the door of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for the last time. The FDIC’s first chief innovation officer gave up after just 12 months of effort to try to bring some innovation to the federal financial sector.

If you read his commentary in Bloomberg published the day he left, it was clear he was frustrated and had a sense of despair.

Meghji told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin in April about why he left with what he called a “bruise on his forehead.”

Staff Cuts and Budget Increases Are Both on Tap for 2019

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Trump administration has provided federal agencies with the latitude to request up to a 5 percent funding boost in fiscal 2019, saying the White House may accommodate a “limited number” of programmatic increases in its final blueprint.

Generally, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in a memorandum to department and agency heads, agencies should keep their 2019 spending requests in line with what the White House spelled out in the fiscal 2018 budget submission. They should also, however, “identify additional investments in effective programs that further support their mission and fill a clear federal role.”