Our human resource workforce plays a critical role in advancing strategic human capital management in our agencies. Supporting the development of this workforce is pivotal to our ability to transform Federal human capital management.
In December 2005, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council released its Human Resources Management (HRM) Competency Model. The model outlined key competencies HRM specialists need to perform ongoing technical functions and to build a strong foundation for strategic human capital management.
Last year, over 10,000 HRM specialists were assessed against these competencies. Agencies used information from these assessments to set targets for closing competency gaps and toimplement improvement strategies. Agencies submitted their improvement plans and competency gap closure targets to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in June 2006.
As we approach the June 2007 deadline for reporting on competency gap closure, OPM will provide agencies with a tool they can choose to use to reassess their human resources workforce. The Federal Competency Assessment Tool - Human Resources (FCAT-HR) is a web-based assessment tool modeled on the recently released Federal Competency Assessment Tool - Management (FCAT-M) and the Information Technology Assessment Tool. The FCAT-HR will be available in April 2007.
We encourage you to consider the FCAT-HR as you identify strategies for assessing progress in meeting competency targets and determining whether other HRM competencies need attention.
Our Human Capital Officers will notify your agency points of contact when the tool isavailable and OPM staff will offer consultation on its use in your agency.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact OPM Project Manager Aline Ames at (202) 606-1935 or Aline.Ames@,opm.gov.
Thank you for your support of this important initiative to strengthen the Federal human resource management workforce.