Monday, December 19, 2016
OPM’s plans for integrating services will help improve the Federal HR experience

OPM leads the Federal Government's efforts to improve strategic human capital management.  OPM focuses on building a professional civil service based on merit principles, where Federal employees can effectively serve the public throughout the employment life cycle – while also receiving benefits and services from “hire to retire” that are consistent with best practices.  That effort continues today as OPM embarks on a new initiative to integrate HR offerings and HR data sets across the Government.  The new integrated solution is called “USA Suite”, which I learned about during a recent meeting with OPM. 

USA Suite will leverage and operationalize consistent human resources standards, in compliance with OPM regulations, for an end-to-end talent management solution from sourcing, recruitment, onboarding, staffing, performance, learning, succession planning and retirement. These standards are essential to move HR functions from stove-piped agency specific methods to process flows that work across the Federal agencies.  Through these common standards, OPM, as well as other providers, will have the opportunity to contribute high value solutions to the fulfillment of USA Suite.

USA Suite will create a consistent user experience that enables approximately 11 million job seekers, over two million employees, and millions of federal retirees with simple and secure access to relevant HR services and data over the employment life cycle.  This solution aims to improve human capital performance in agencies through the blending of HR expertise, data, and technology to enhance the HR service delivery experience. USA Suite will provide an integrated and consistent experience across OPM’s current offering, while creating plug and play opportunities for other providers to integrate their solutions. OPM’s current offerings include:

  • USAJOBS -- the Federal Government’s official employment site
  • USA Hire, an online assessment program designed specifically to meet the hiring needs of agencies.
  • USA Staffing, a hiring solution for agencies
  • USA Performance, which assists agencies in implementing performance management programs and systems
  • USA Learning, the government’s learning and career development site formerly GoLearn.gov 

Ultimately, USA Suite will serve as a platform for additional services that add value for government agencies and stakeholders.  Key to the success of USA Suite will be to promote interoperability for data and systems across its components, so that when users access multiple elements of the Suite – or other related services that help them in their career – they can expect a familiar user experience and the data they had previously submitted will be available.  USA Suite will modernize existing infrastructure, adopt an enterprise security profile and harmonize data. This will spur a transformation in the experiences of employees and managers - powered by analytics that leverage vast amounts of HR data available across the suite of systems under the coordination of OPM and provided in a consumable and insightful way.

Implemented effectively, the new USA Suite will help agency HR practitioners and Federal workforce stakeholders look across new integrated data sets to help make more informed and impactful decisions.  USA Suite will serve as a foundation for the Government to build a highly effective 21st century workforce that improves service to the American people, while enhancing the Government’s capacity to build an environment of outstanding HR service to current and future federal employees.