CHCO Council Year in Review, Names New Executive Director

It its annual report to Congress, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council (CHCO) highlighted its achievements for 2023.

The CHCO Council, which marked its 20th anniversary in May 2023, is viewed as “the connective tissue for the largest and most complex workforce in the country” and is made up of HR leaders from across federal agencies.

In its annual report, the CHCO Council highlighted achievements of its various working groups.

Future of the Workforce

This group provided resources and support to help agencies navigate the hybrid work environment and plan for the workforce of the future. Highlights include developing a playbook for the future of work and helping the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on telework policy.

Elevating Human Resources

This group worked to develop a common understanding of the current HR workforce through research and data analysis. It also worked with the Partnership for Public Service Excellence in Government Fellows and launched four projects to help advance objectives focused on HR retention data analysis, emerging skills, career path evaluation, and communication.

Human Capital Data

This group worked to improve data, dashboards, and sharing capabilities to help agencies plan the future workforce. It also helped OPM with its various data products.

Employee Engagement Working Group

Employee engagement for federal workers has been trending up, with “confidence in an organization’s ability to achieve its goals is at a high of nearly 85 percent.”

The group worked to hit three priorities: Engaging Leadership, Improving Recognition and Retention Strategies, and Taking Action on Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results. It formed small teams to work on each priority. Those teams shared best practices on the various goals.

Recruitment and Outreach

This group was formed to discuss recruitment initiatives, a key goal as the federal government looks to bolster its talent pipeline. The group “facilitated the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and resources to attract and hire the most qualified employees into appropriate roles who reflect the diversity of our country.”

New Executive Director of CHCO Council

The report comes at a time of transition. OPM Director Kiran Ahuja left her position in May, with Acting Director Rob Shriver taking her place until a permanent replacement is named.

And Colleen Heller-Stein is the new executive director of the CHCO Council.

Heller-Stein previously served as Deputy CHCO at the Treasury Department. She also served in various HR positions at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Government Printing Office (GPO).

“I look forward to continuing to advance Human Capital management with CHCOs across the Federal government in this new role,” wrote Heller-Stein.