Preparing for the Agency’s Future, Part 5

Assignment 1: Evaluation of Agency’s Public Personnel Administration

Shahin Alakbarov

Strayer University

Prof. Dr. Mark Pantaleo

PAD 530

February 1, 2015

Organizational design

The U.S Department of the Interior is responsible for protecting natural resources and heritage of America and also honors tribal communities, cultures and supplies energy for future use. The Agency’s office of human resource is responsible for planning developing and implementing policies, standards and programs for effective acquisition, utilization and management of effective human resource within the department.

The office has departmental responsibility for the Office of Personnel Management, Office of Management and Budget, Federal Labor Relations Authority directives and Merit Systems Protection Board and it acts as the intermediary between these organizations and other agencies concerned with human resource management. It also interprets laws, rules and regulations, executive orders and provides both professional as well as technical advice and assistance to the Secretariat and the bureaus.

The director of human resource, aided by other four directors responds to the assistant secretary on issues that concern management, policies and budget. They also develop, adopt and implement policies, programs, services and procedures to ensure all the described initiatives are successfully implemented on behalf of the office of the Secretary (Guest, 2000).

The four divisions that work in hand with the office of human resource are: human resources information systems; executive resources; employee and labor relations; and staffing, classification and career management. Each division has its unique responsibilities.

The Human Resources Information Systems division is responsible for planning programs and policies such as strategic planning; workforce and succession planning; tactical planning; workforce modeling and analysis; maintaining relationships with professional societies among others. The division also plans and operates information management systems and human resource management data.

The Agency’s Executive Resources program is developed, formulated and administered by the Executive Resources Division. The division also provides the required administrative support to the Agency’s Executive Resources Board. This support includes: position management, qualifications determinations, performance appraisal systems development, Presidential Management Fellow certification, etc.

The Division of Employee and labor relations is in charge of employee relations, absence and leave, benefits, occupational health and safety programs, awards programs, drug testing among other programs.

The Staffing, Classification and Career Management is responsible for recruitment, staff planning, merit promotion, employment policy, qualification standards, outstanding scholar appointments, intern programs among other programs.

Global Linkages and Personnel Management

Agencies within the Department of interior have advocated for and implemented a program that provides the students and youth in general to learn about America’s natural resources. The Air Resources Division of the National Park Service, for instance, has partnered with the Girls Scouts to provide lessons on environmental stewardship and science. The program has encouraged more than 2000 Girls scouts to do volunteer work in various parks across the country. The partnership was as a result of a robust personnel management system within the department of interior which has assigned different responsibilities to all the divisions within the department.

Human resource management has shifted from domestic focus to international focus. As far as the Agency is concerned, personnel management has shifted from being concerned with only with the operational issues of human resource to include the more premeditated, global concern of the organization itself. As the profession of human resource has become more involved in external, global and strategic issues of the agency, so has its critical goals changed.

Various programs have been implemented in the department of interior to encourage women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. In addition, several agencies within the department support efforts in Indian schools to improve health for young women

Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices

The objectives of US Department of Interior’s recruitment policies for its employees are to: attract new employees who are able to perform their jobs with high levels of efficiency and competency; provide unbiased treatment with respect to employment without favoritism due to race, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, record of offence or marital status; develop and utilize present human resources to the advantage of both the agency and individual employee; and notify job applicants when they are individually selected to take part in an assessment process about availability of accommodation in advance.

The qualifications and skills required to do a specific job are determined by position summary. A Physical Demands Analysis supports the assessment of skills by providing relevant information on how basic duties of the job are carried out. When necessary, the physical demands analysis, in accordance with principle of employment equity, should be used throughout the entire election and recruitment process to provide agencies with greater approach into the working environment and all that the job entails as far as physical movements are concerned. The U.S Department of Interior is assisted by such analysis in accommodating people with disabilities (U.S Department of Interior, 2014).

The agency always advertises all continuing positions and term positions of not less than six months. It is the responsibility of human resources department to discuss the approved vacancy and decide on the language to be used in advertisement of the post. The same department then coordinates the advertisement of the vacancy in its website’s career section.

Nonetheless, demands for vacant positions which are to be advertised must be met and approval process must be completed and handed to the human resource department a week before the advertisement date. The advertisement should be easy to understand and to the point. All required minimum credentials and qualifications of the advertised position as well as physical requirements must be identified. Applicants are given a period of one week after the advertisement to respond.

If all the internal candidates fail to qualify, then the vacant position can be advertise locally, nationally or internationally so as to bring in new qualified employee from outside the agency. However, external advertisements are only done after interviews on internal candidates have been fully conducted and completed. An external advertisement may be done so as to meet specific employment impartiality objectives. Consistent with the Agency’s employment impartiality objectives, divisions are also encouraged to take part in some form of outreach recruiting to attract applicants from across the board.

Employment skills training

Many ways are provided by the Federal law and regulations which support employment skill training. The U.S Department of Interior uses the guidelines from the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004, which provides greater emphasis on employment skills training to promote strategic configuration with agencies’ goals.

To ensure that an agency’s performance goals and missions are achieved, the head of each department is required by the law to develop, maintain and implement programs for employee training by and through both government and non-government facilities. Examples of programs initiated by the agency include: targeted career training; tuition assistance programs; and professional development.

In targeted career training, a centralized approach is used to provide consistent and effective training. Usually, this training combines prescribed coursework with rotations and is based on pre-determined targets. Through such programs, employees get relevant training in technical, professional and leadership fields.

The agency also offers chance to its employees to further their education by allowing them to attend academic courses that are related to their jobs. It has also established and developed programs that aim at providing technical as well as general knowledge and skill to career employees. These programs also ensure the directors of various divisions continue to develop the knowledge and experience required to effectively lead the divisions.

There are various options for training and they include: using program funds to pay cost of education and training; reimbursing employees for education and training costs; paying for academic degrees; and catering foe expenses to attend meetings from set-aside funds.

Recruiting and training recommendations

Before commencing a selection and recruitment process, there should be clear definition for each role in the agency. The job description should include minimum academic qualification as well as the required experienced and what is expected of the applicant. Job descriptions provide useful information to employees regarding their duties and responsibilities and can also be used by hiring panel to choose the most qualified applicant based on his/her credentials.

Procedures and policies should be clearly defined and held on for the selection and recruiting process, and should ensure that all employees within the agency hold on to local, state and federal regulations. The hiring personnel should be guided by policies and procedures within its constitutional framework.

Once procedures and policies are clearly defined, the human resource management team should be given necessary training on hiring process. Other than the steps required to select and recruit employees, the training should also include information on effective and appropriate ways of interviewing the applicants. Organization’s goals as well as applicable laws and regulations should also be introduced during training.

Involve all the stakeholders in the hiring and firing process. This provides direct oversight and ensures that individuals are being hired or fired as per the constitutional framework of the agency. It is also advisable to involve senior members of the agency as most candidates who interview will feel their contributions will be valid.

References

Guest, D. (2000).Human resource management: a critical text: IT, London

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) (2014): Human Capital Management: from http://www.opm.gov/

U.S Department of Interior (2014): Office of Human Resources http://www.doi.gov/

U.S. Government Accountability Office (2013): OPM's Revolving Fund Policy Should Be Clarified and Management Controls Strengthened