THE US Federal Government’s attempts to improve strategic HR management through the appointment of Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) to each of its 24 federal agencies has met with initial success, according to a report from the US Office of Management and Budget
THE US Federal Government’s attempts to improve strategic HR management through the appointment of Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCOs) to each of its 24 federal agencies has met with initial success, according to a report from the US Office of Management and Budget.
CHCOs, who are responsible for assisting agencies in the implementation of civil service laws and the process of selecting, training and managing a high-performing workforce, are supposed to elevate HR issues to the highest level of agency management under the Chief Human Capital Officers Act of 2002.
They have six specific functions, including setting an agency’s workforce development strategy, assessing an agency’s workforce characteristics and future needs based on its mission and strategic plan and aligning an agency’s HR strategies with organisational goals and performance outcomes.
Other responsibilities include engendering a culture of continuous learning to attract and retain talent, identifying best practices and bench- marking studies; and quantifying the impact of intellectual capital on organ- isational performance and growth.
CHCOs are charged with the task of advising and assisting agency heads in these six processes.
The Office of Management and Budget, responsible for the supervision of US federal government agencies, found that a number of federal agencies had made significant progress through the appointment of a CHCO.
The US Department of Labor (DOL), for example, recently achieved the highest rating for strategic management of human capital under the President’s management agenda.
The DOL undertook a number of initiatives under the direction of its CHCO, Patrick Pizzella, including a human capital strategic plan to track key activities and metrics to measure results, agency-linked performance plans for more than 2,200 managers and supervisors and an agency-wide succession planning program, incorpor- ating a mid-level management development program and a mentoring program.
In recognition that the US Federal Government faces significant challenges in the marketplace to compete for talented employees, the DOL secretary said that: “In any large, complex organisation, people are key to accomplishing positive change.”
The CHCO Act charges the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the US federal workforce and also supports US agencies with HR services, with providing CHCOs with systems for assessing the management of human capital by US federal agencies.
Systems provide standards for issues such as aligning human capital strategies with an agency’s organisational goals, integrating such strategies into agency budget and strategic plans, closing skill gaps in mission critical occupations and sustaining a high-performance culture.
OPM director Kay Coles James said at a US Government subcommittee hearing that the emergency prepared- ness efforts of federal agencies had to be the highest priority.
