
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – the federal government’s central human resources (HR) agency – announced on Monday that it plans to launch a new, single governmentwide human capital management (HCM) system.
In an Oct. 20 blog post, OPM Director Scott Kupor said the system will be “transformational for how we manage talent across the federal government.”
OPM estimates the federal government runs at least 119 human capital management systems, with limited interoperability. Kupor said the government employs about 44,000 HR professionals at a cost of roughly $5.5 billion annually – resources that are often tied up navigating “outdated and duplicative technology systems.”
Kupor said the envisioned end state is a single platform to house information on job titles, salaries, benefits, and employment histories, enabling full visibility into the federal workforce.
“Key to this ideal is our hypothesis that one system at government-wide scale will drive significant per-user cost savings over the current siloed, duplicative, ad-hoc landscape,” Kupor wrote, adding, “And that is what we are launching today.”
“We are inviting industry to tell us how they would propose to accomplish these objectives. We are excited about this very important project, because we believe that this type of transformation is crucial for managing the government talent pool of the present and future,” he said.
A spokesperson for OPM pointed MeriTalk to a final request for proposals (RFP) posted to SAM.gov on Oct. 17 for the “Federal Human Resources Information Technology (HRIT) Modernization.”
According to the RFP, OPM is looking for a secure, cloud-based HCM platform that can support the entire government. The contractor must deliver a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate or higher certified “Core HCM” platform.
“As America’s largest employer, the federal government requires accurate and timely workforce data to manage its civilian workforce effectively and increase accountability to the American taxpayer,” the RFP says. “A unified Core HCM platform will improve data accuracy, reporting, and interoperability, enabling the Federal government to manage its workforce as a cohesive entity.”
The Core HCM system will be the system of record for about 2 million federal civilian employees. OPM noted that Postal Service and intelligence community employees are not included in the scope.
Proposals are due no later than 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 31.
The announcement comes after OPM canceled its solicitation for a new cloud-based human capital management system earlier this year. OPM canceled the solicitation on May 9 after disclosing that it had entered into a one-year contract on May 2 with Workday for the new HR system.