Wednesday, recently confirmed Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director John Berry made his first appearance before a Congressional committee as Director, testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia.
Titled “Public Service in the 21st Century: An Examination of the State of the Federal Workforce,” the hearing was focused on determining a new way forward for human resource management in government.
In the hearing, Berry offered a sober, and often critical, assessment of the current personnel management situation in the workforce. Some of the issues discussed were recruitment deficiencies, lingering problems with the federal retirement system, complexity of the federal pay system, and diversity.
Tasked with confronting these daunting challenges, Berry appeared resolute in sharing his vision for improving government personnel management:
“We need to review our human resources practices and policies to ensure that employees are being treated in a fair and respectful manner. This means we need to identify policies that are not consistent throughout the Federal workforce, select those that are the best, and enable all employees to share in what should be the best personnel system anywhere in the Nation.”