The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is launching the Federal Workforce Competency Initiative (FWCI) to identify key skills needed to successfully perform in a variety of Federal jobs and develop a competency database.
“The FWCI is an opportunity for OPM and your agency to work together to identify the competencies most important for success and provides critical data needed to continue building the foundation for effective human capital management across the Federal government,” Acting OPM Director Kathleen McGettigan said in a memo to agencies.
For phase one of the initiative, OPM will be sending a survey to a random sample of Federal employees in more than 350 occupations to learn about their experiences working for the Federal government and gather general competencies.
According to a fact sheet on the initiative, the agency will distribute surveys the week of April 26 in a process that will be open for about three to four weeks. After gathering survey data, the following phases will focus on technical competencies for specific job areas.
“This initiative will provide OPM and Federal agencies with a current data-based foundation for a wide variety of human capital activities, including job design, recruitment, selection, performance management, training, and career development. OPM also will use the data to inform policy areas such as qualifications and classification,” McGettigan said.
According to the memo, the initiative will build upon OPM’s MOSAIC (Multipurpose Occupational Systems Analysis Inventory—Closed-ended) studies, which have been around since the 1990s.
