News from the VA’s Office of Human Resources and Administration

What’s Inside:

1. Discrimination in the European Union: Perceptions, Experiences, and Attitudes
2. 3 Keys to Increasing Employee Retention and Nurturing Diversity.
3. Inclusion Incorporated: Meet the People Driving Diversity. 
4. Best Practices From the Best Employers. 
5. Federal Human Resources Shops Are Slow to Change. 
6. Organization Development Basics. 
7. Federal Appointment Authorities: Cutting through the Confusion. 
8. Panelists Say Workforce Issues Will Gain Momentum Under Next President. 
9. Work-life Programs: How the Big Seven Flex. 
10. Should We Embrace a 4-Day Workweek?

1. Discrimination in the European Union: Perceptions, Experiences, and Attitudes
2. 3 Keys to Increasing Employee Retention and Nurturing Diversity.  Organizations have become better at recruiting people of color, but many are still doing a terrible job when it comes to employee retention for diverse employees.
3. Inclusion Incorporated: Meet the People Driving Diversity.  The titles vary somewhat—from “inclusion executive” to “chief people officer”—as do the written job descriptions.  But the one-word mission is the same: diversity.
4. Best Practices From the Best Employers.  What makes these the top small companies to work for?  Their No. 1 priority is good communication as part of management strategy.
5. Federal Human Resources Shops Are Slow to Change.  Government human resources offices need to make significant changes to the way they do business to provide greater value to the agencies they serve, according to a new report released by a Texas-based consulting firm.
6. Organization Development Basics.  Purposive organization change begins with the analysis of the organization, its structure and characteristics, the internal relationships within it, and its interfaces with its environment.
7. Federal Appointment Authorities: Cutting through the Confusion.  A report from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board notes that the use of competitive examining is on the decline for white-collar jobs, while the use of authorities that allow for a limited applicant pool are on the rise.
8. Panelists Say Workforce Issues Will Gain Momentum Under Next President.  The creation of the chief human capital officer role at Federal agencies demonstrates the importance of personnel issues, an area that will continue to gain momentum in the next administration.
9. Work-life Programs: How the Big Seven Flex.  Employees at audit firms can pretty much write their own work-life script.  Here’s a roundup of how the seven largest firms approach flexible work arrangements.
10. Should We Embrace a 4-Day Workweek?  As the price of fuel continues to skyrocket, there’s a workplace trend afoot to shorten workweeks to save energy.
11. Single Moms Appreciate Employers’ Flexibility.  Once less common, single parenthood has become a more prevalent part of the American social fabric.  That’s meant an impact on workplaces, on how parents rely on extended family and strive to provide nurturing, healthy homes for children.
12. Bloomberg Says to Offer Workers More Flexibility.  Bloomberg LP has competed in delivering news and financial data over the past two decades by fostering a culture that pushes workers to their limits.  But soon, Bloomberg may mellow.
13. Making Telework Work.  As gasoline costs and other expenses rise, more companies and their employees are finding payoffs in telecommuting.
14. Building the Corporate Lattice Organization.  When people are allowed to explore their personal goals—whether they want to travel the globe or pursue another degree—they tend to be happier at work.
15. 14 Things Corporations Can Learn From Seasoned Web Workers.  While the giants have been slowly waking up to the concepts of distributed work and remote collaboration, Web workers all over the world have been steadily figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
16. E-Learning for Multiple Generations.  Different generations have different traits.  Research tells us that there are differences in how people learn based on when they were born.  Here are five strategies for designing e-learning to address multiple generations in the workforce.
17. Bridging the Gap: Managing Workers from Different Generations.  Four distinct generations of employees are currently at work in companies across America, all with very different attitudes, expectations, and management styles.
18. Companies Cater to Gen Y’s Needs as Demographics Shift.  Like workers of all generations, the under-30 crowd wants to feel valued and empowered at work.  Increasingly, they’re likely to get what they want, because they’re also willing to walk if they don’t.
19. Snapshot of Diversity.  If you want to take a snapshot of a major corporation that takes supplier diversity seriously—and which has done so for decades—look no further than the first place you’d think of to take a snapshot: Eastman Kodak Company, based in Rochester, New York.
20. Federal Employee Union Launches Public Service Campaign.  The National Treasury Employees Union has launched its first-ever public service campaign aimed at dispelling negative stereotypes and increasing the visibility of government work.
21. Agencies, Unions Clash Over Pay-for-Performance Programs.  Agency leaders and labor union presidents painted sharply contrasting pictures of Federal pay-for-performance systems at a recent Senate hearing.
22. OPM Report on Senior Executive Pay for Performance.  The Office of Personnel Management reports that Federal agencies are making distinctions in levels of performance and are recognizing their top-performing executives with the highest pay adjustments and awards.
23. Once Again It’s Leadership Integrity.  Despite Sarbanes/Oxley, business schools ramping up business ethics courses, and lofty corporate codes of ethics, the mortgage market crisis indicates that we still have problems with integrity and ethics.
24. Can You Interview for Integrity?  The first step in an interviewing process to screen for honesty and integrity is for interviewers to ask the right questions.
25. Agencies Urged to Make Better Use of Performance Measures.  The number of Federal managers who measure program performance has increased over the past decade, but managers are not using the results to inform their decisions any more than they have in the past, according to the Government Accountability Office.
26. Prepare for Baby Boomer Retirement.  With 25 million baby boomers retiring by 2013, this is an opportune time for talent management and succession planning.  Unfortunately, research indicates up to 75 percent of companies have not confronted this loss of talent and knowledge.
27. Using Engagement to Ride the Retirement Wave.  Research from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board indicates that engaging your retirement-eligible employees may help you keep them longer.
28. Specialties More Attractive to Younger Medical Students.  Specialties like plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, dermatology, and diagnostic radiology stood out this year as the most popular and competitive programs among residency applicants.
29. Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging.  The Handbook of Social Work in Health and Aging is the first reference to compile in a single volume the most current thinking on health care, aging, and social work.
30. Scarcity of Black Military Officers Tough to Change.  Sixty years after President Truman desegregated the military, senior Black officers are still rare, particularly among the highest ranks.
31. At DoD, Retired Officers Gaining Edge in Hiring.  The Defense Department is increasingly turning to retired military officers to fill its top civilian ranks.  And some experts worry that career civil servants without military experience are falling behind.
32. VA Teams with Jobs Web Site.  The Veterans Affairs Department has struck a deal with Monster Government Solutions, a division of Monster Worldwide, to help disabled veterans find employment.
33. Spending on Vets Exceeds 1947 High.  The Federal government is spending more money on veterans than at any time in modern history, surpassing the tidal wave of spending following World War II and the demilitarizing of millions of troops.
34. Veterans Officials Want More Federal Money to Serve Clients.  Veterans’ services officials from around the country say their offices are often in a better position to do outreach work than the Federal government.
35. Suicide Hot Line Got Calls from 22,000 Veterans.  More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.
36. Advocates Seek Aid for Homeless Female Veterans.  Every day, female veterans who are homeless in Connecticut confront barriers in a VA system where services and housing options for women lag in comparison to their male counterparts.
37. Appropriators Worry VA Isn’t Capitalizing on IT Centralization.  Senate appropriators are concerned that centralization of Veterans Affairs Department information technology operations has failed to improve efficiency, according to a report accompanying the fiscal 2009 VA spending bill.
38. Custom Interfaces Make Computer Clicking Faster, Easier.  Tests have shown that adaptive software closes the performance gap between disabled and able-bodied users by 62 percent, and disabled users strongly preferred the automatically generated user interfaces.
39. Sexual Bias and Glass Ceiling Issues Remain Intact in the 21st Century.  A recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that more than half of the companies polled report they’ve had a sexual discrimination complaint lodged.
40. Things to Say to Latino Coworkers.  Before you speak to a Latino coworker concerning something that may be culturally sensitive, take a look at these six things to say to Latino coworkers.
41. EEOC Issues Compliance Assistance on Religious Discrimination.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued a new Compliance Manual Section regarding workplace discrimination on the basis of religion.
42. Best Practices for Eradicating Religious Discrimination in the Workplace.  Employers can reduce the risk of discriminatory employment decisions by establishing written objective criteria for evaluating candidates for hire or promotion and applying those criteria consistently to all candidates.
43. Disabled Employees Make Up Less Than 1 Percent of the Federal Workforce.  Disabled employees represent 0.92 of the Federal workforce, a decrease of nearly 15 percent since 1997.  Disability advocates face a challenge in reversing the current downward trend.
44. Agencies to Boost Efforts to Hire More Disabled Employees, Report Says.  The Federal government is missing an opportunity by not reaching out more aggressively to people with disabilities to replace retiring employees, according to a report released by TMP Worldwide.
45. United Nations: Defeat for Discrimination, Victory for Inclusion.  The decision by the United Nations Economic and Social Council granting consultative status to two groups that work on sexual orientation and gender identity is a victory in the ongoing struggle for inclusion at the UN.
46. LGBT Aging Issues Network.  The LGBT Aging Issues Network works to raise awareness about the concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender elders, and about the unique barriers they encounter in gaining access to housing, healthcare, long-term care, and other needed services.
47. Beginning the Conversation.  Fifteen years after the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was enacted for the U.S. military, Congress is prepping to review the law.