Trump administration aims to up federal diversity, cut poor performers – By Jessie Bur (Federal Times) / Nov 18 2019
Agency chief human capital officers are charting a course to increase diversity within the federal workforce by leaning on programs and hiring authorities that would bring traditionally underemployed demographics — such as military spouses and previously incarcerated individuals — into the job application process.
At the same time, top administration officials are doubling down on efforts to expedite the response to and removal of federal employees that fail to meet job standards.
“Diversity and inclusion are topics that are critically important to the communities we serve, because having people that are truly representative of all of America is critically important. So bringing people in off the sidelines, who may not have had as much access to federal jobs, is a critically important part of what we want to do,” said Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, at a Nov. 18 Chief Human Capital Officers Council meeting.
The meeting highlighted two hiring efforts in particular that aim to bring people “off the sidelines” and into federal work: the Second Chance Act, which encourages individuals with prior incarceration or arrest records to apply for federal work, and a May 2018 executive order that encourages agency use of a hiring authority that allows agencies to noncompetitively hire spouses of active, 100 percent disabled or deceased service members.
According to Tracey Therit, CHCO at the Department of Veterans Affairs, approximately 30 percent of military spouses are unemployed, and 56 percent are underemployed — meaning that they work jobs below their education and experience level — due to the constant moves that are required of a military family.
A panel of military spouses that had been or were currently employed by the federal government told the CHCO’s assembled at the meeting that they frequently didn’t have access to the hiring authority designed for them within the federal government and would often have to take positions at a much lower General Schedule level than they had previously worked because it was the only spot open in the location their spouse was ordered to move.
Continue to article: https://www.federaltimes.com/management/hr/2019/11/18/the-administration-aims-to-up-federal-diversity-cut-poor-performers/
