CHCO Council Back Under OPM Jurisdiction

According to an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) press release dated July 20, 2021, OPM Director Kiran Ahuja announced that the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council’s functions will be restored to OPM, after the previous administration split the council between OPM and the General Services Administration (GSA).

This move is meant to “elevate the voices of CHCOs and strengthen the connection between government wide human capital strategy and policy development, and agency-level human capital management,” according to the release.

The CHCO Council has seen a decrease in activity in the past couple of years after the OPM-GSA merger launched by the Trump administration stalled. Director Ahuja explained in the press release, “The CHCO Council is an invaluable collaborative resource for OPM and the federal government. OPM is committed to partnering closely with CHCOs to help solve critical human capital management challenges that face our federal workforce and I look forward to leading the council as we work to rebuild, strengthen, and support the federal workforce.”

Earlier this year, the Biden administration appointed Margot Conrad to serve as Executive Director of the CHCO Council. She has an extensive career handling human capital issues and served as a leader at the Partnership for Public Service. Various working groups have been created to improve the operations of the CHCOC including one that would help Conrad review the CHCO Council’s operations, resources, membership, and connections with other cross-agency councils. Additional working groups are focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility issues, as well as pandemic reentry plans and other workforce policies.

GSA Deputy Administrator Katy Kale said of the announcement, “GSA has enjoyed working with and supporting the CHCO Council these past few years, and we are supportive of reuniting strategic and administrative functions of the CHCO Council. We look forward to building upon our partnership with OPM in other ways as we continue to serve the federal workforce together.”