Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), released a new memorandum today detailing a vision for the future of the workforce: a Federal government with a workforce that is inclusive, agile and engaged, with the right skills to enable mission delivery. 

“Our mission is to be a champion of talent for the Federal government,” said OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. “We endeavor to position the Federal government as a model employer that empowers the workforce to solve our nation’s toughest challenges. OPM is committed to supporting and strengthening agencies to ensure they are resilient for the future while continuing to achieve their respective missions in service of the people and communities they serve.” 

To help agencies achieve this future vision for the Federal government, OPM has developed a strategy focused on five priority areas: 

1. Develop policies and resources to support agencies as they continue to operate in a hybrid work environment and as the future of the workforce evolves. OPM will continue to work with agencies to identify areas of opportunity and will build upon recently issued tools and resources to be responsive to agency needs.   
   
   
2. Conduct research to investigate and memorialize lessons learned from the pandemic, identify leading practices, and determine how the Federal government can remain competitive with other sectors. OPM will leverage its Learning Agenda and expand partnerships with academics and research partners to conduct studies on emerging labor force needs, workforce flexibilities like telework and remote work, key drivers of organizational health, and other priority areas to inform and evaluate future workforce policies and guidance.  
   
   
3. Provide training and technical assistance to help agencies make strategic decisions, manage their workforce, and prepare for the future. OPM will support agencies through the development of new trainings on critical and emerging human capital needs. In addition, OPM will continue to provide on-going training and consulting services on key workforce and human capital management topics aligned to the future of the workforce to ensure agencies have timely and useable resources.
   
   
4. Support agencies with the necessary data and tools to improve our ability to make data-driven human capital decisions. Through the implementation of our OPM data strategy, we will enhance our delivery of data analytics to empower agencies to make data-driven decisions impacted by telework and remote work and other key workforce metrics.   
   
   
5. Engage stakeholders to learn, share best practices, validate future workforce needs and champion the government as a model employer. OPM will work closely with a diverse set of organizations, including private sector leaders, think tanks, academics, Federal employee organizations, unions, and local, state, Federal and international government leaders, to foster learning and sharing of best practices and to inform future Federal policies or practices. 

In addition, OPM released further guidance outlining new Telework and Remote Work data elements that will provide agencies with the necessary insight and information to best align their personnel policies to improve organizational performance. To support agency efforts, we are adding three new data elements that agencies and shared service providers (SSP) will be required to code for each employee. 

As outlined in the agency’s strategic plan and the President’s Management Agenda, OPM will build upon the vison for the future of the Federal workforce articulated above and will outline key actions agencies can take to build their workforces of the future and enable mission delivery. Periodic updates will be posted to the Future of the Workforce webpage.