HHS supports strategies to uphold effective and innovative human capital resource management. HHS is focused on building and sustaining a strong workforce through improved recruitment, hiring, and retention efforts. The Department is leveraging training and professional development opportunities to develop and manage a high-performing workforce while providing leaders and managers with the insight and tools to effectively carry out change management, organizational learning, and succession planning. Below is a selection of strategies HHS is implementing.
Contributing OpDivs and StaffDivs
All OpDivs and StaffDivs contribute to achievement of this objective.
Strategies
Build and sustain a strong workforce through improved recruitment, hiring, and retention efforts
- Develop and implement the HHS Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the HHS workforce and remove any potential barriers to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce, including establishing a framework to address workplace harassment.
- Leverage incentives and flexibilities to enhance the Department’s competitiveness in the job market, and develop mechanisms to the recruitment, hiring, and retention of a high-caliber and qualified workforce.
- Increase diverse demographic representation and promotion outcomes by partnering with hiring managers and leveraging data to make informed decisions regarding recruitment, promotion, and retention strategies consistent with Merit System Principles.
- Facilitate regular engagement between hiring managers, human resources professionals, leaders, and other stakeholders, and support collaborations with public, private, and academic sectors to advance opportunities to recruit, support, and train an ethnically, socially, and experientially diverse workforce.
- Invest in diversity and inclusion efforts, including Employee Resource Groups and interest groups, to increase involvement and participation of the workforce in cultivating a culture of inclusion and equity across the Department.
Leverage training and professional development opportunities to develop and manage a high-performing workforce
- Ensure better performance and greater job satisfaction by fostering a performance-focused culture aimed at bolstering existing skillsets and competencies while closing the mission-critical skill gap in emerging areas of high value, including both technical and soft skills, that benefit employees in advancing the mission of HHS.
- Increase leaders' and managers' accountability for delivering results in improving diversity and equity outcomes in their hiring practices and promoting a culture that supports employees in identifying, accessing, and receiving professional development opportunities that are unique to their career needs and aspirations.
- Increase access to diversity and inclusion training and developmental opportunities for HHS leaders, managers, and staff to foster a culture of inclusion and equity among an increasingly diverse workforce.
Provide leaders and managers with the insight and tools to effectively carry out change management, organizational learning, and succession planning
- Modernize human resource systems, policies, and processes using data and best practices for effective recruitment, staffing, retention, and workforce planning.
- Apply best practices in change management to improve how employees are managed and supported in today’s fast-changing workplace environment, contributing to recruitment and retention efforts while promoting transparency, trust, and accountability across the organization.
- Facilitate engagement, collaboration, and communication between HHS leaders, managers, and employees in ensuring a work environment that promotes inclusive policies and flexibilities, such as work schedule flexibilities and remote work opportunities, that are responsive to the Department’s evolving needs.
- Promote succession planning for mission-critical occupations to increase organizational resilience and effectiveness by facilitating the regular transfer of institutional knowledge among the workforce.
- Take a data-driven approach to advancing policies that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within the HHS workforce, while protecting the privacy of employees and safeguarding all personally identifiable information and protected health information.
- Support, coordinate, and encourage HHS efforts to conduct research, evaluation, and other evidence-building activities to identify leading practices, and other promising practices, for broadening participation and opportunities for advancement in HHS employment, and to assess and promote the benefits of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for Federal performance and operations and barriers to achieving these goals.
