OPM launches SES matchmaking site
Connecting state and local government leaders
Officials in the Office of Personnel Management have created a Web site to encourage more job changes by Senior Executive Service members. The site, launched Oct. 25, allows agencies to post available jobs, SES employees to post resumes and both to search the databases for matches.
Officials in the Office of Personnel Management have created a Web site to encourage more job changes by Senior Executive Service members. The site, launched Oct. 25, allows agencies to post available jobs, SES employees to post resumes and both to search the databases for matches.
When Congress created the SES in 1979, its goal was to create a corps of mobile executives who could take on projects within an agency and move on after a short period of time. However, there has been minimal movement within SES jobs over the last 22 years, said Joe Rittle, director of OPM's SES Learning Center.
'We like to call the site a yearbook of executives,' Rittle said. 'It is a tool to get people talking to each other and ease the agency recruitment process. It hasn't always been easy for SES members to find out about vacancies.'
OPM produced the $75,000 SES Senior Opportunity and Resume System (SOARS) site in-house through its technical support center. It has received a good response, Rittle said. More than 600 SES and agency federal human resource workers registered for passwords and log-in codes, and posted 40 resumes and 15 jobs at https://sesmobility.opm.gov/ses.asp.
There are 7,000 SES career slots that include CIOs, chief financial officers and even some division heads. Rittle said 75 percent of all SES positions are in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. He added agencies almost always are looking to fill these slots and this site is a convenient way to do that.
SES employees may search for jobs by agency or keyword, and agencies may search by resume or keyword. Jobs and resumes include phone numbers and e-mail addresses to make contact quick and easy, Rittle said.
'At the SES level, if an agency finds someone they want to bring on board, they don't have to go through the vacancy and screening process,' Rittle added.
The ability to hire quickly has been especially valuable since the Sept. 11 attacks because agencies need senior managers to coordinate short-term projects such as security upgrades.
'The Web site also is designed to meet emergency needs as well,' Rittle said. 'Once the emergency is taken care of, the senior level person may not be needed anymore.'
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