NEWSLETTER WEEKLY – KATHERINE ARCHULETA

It is not often that heads of human capital management are featured in places they don’t necessarily have to be.  Individuals in Human Resources and Human Capital Management often get a bad rap.  They are blamed for bad jobs or the lack of jobs and most of all not setting the standard for good management and respect of employees at all levels.  For that reason, our Newsletter Weekly is focused on the Chief of Human Resources for the largest workforce in the world, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Katherine Archuleta.

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OPM is the gatekeeper for everything human resources for the entire Federal workforce including retirees and their families.  The customer base is estimated at approximately 10 million strong.  Director Archuleta wrote a piece prior to the Labor Day holiday essentially wishing the Federal workforce a happy holiday.  However, she said something much more moving and heartfelt than just a simple–happy holiday.  She described the workforce as a Federal family expressing the need to work together, to respect each other in order to achieve the human resources goals of the nation.  Director Archuleta spoke to managers and supervisors appealing to their “humanness” to work with employees in creating a flexible environment that allows for balance in the work place and at home.  She spoke of the tug-of-war employees face when trying to make a decision involving a family matter and at the same time jostling to manage the demands of work.

Director Archuleta impressed upon managers and supervisors to expand the use of tools such as Alternative Work Schedules (AWS) and other flexible programs to create a culture of support within the Federal workforce.  She understands very clearly that if you give support to your staff they will reciprocate five times over.  It sounds as if Director Archuleta is a student of -The Art of War – by Sun Tzu.  It is a must read for anybody involved in battle who wants to secure the unblemished support of the troops.

Good leadership, engaging with people as different and as alike as each grain of  sand on a massive beach is indeed being engaged in battle.  When the grains of sand can be seen as a family no matter how scattered, the sand is not individual and separate grains of sand – but a sheet, a continuum without hard lines of separation.  Hard lines are barriers to cooperation, therefore, barriers to collective success.  Director Archuleta in her message to the Federal workforce asked that those barriers be removed and replaced with opportunities born of challenge to create a dynamic Federal workforce; a world class, high-performing, diverse workforce that not only represents America’s coat of many colors, but the promise of a nation whose very existence and sustainability is predicated on supporting and respecting one another.  Thank you Director Archuleta  for applauding and appreciating the efforts of the Federal family.

P. S.  Always Remember to Share What You Know.

Dianna Tafazoli