Here are some of their highlights of the Federal Workforce
Flexibility Act:
agencies will have enhanced flexibility, within their budgets,
to pay larger recruitment and relocation bonuses based on the
length of an agreed-upon service period (capped at 25 percent
of annual pay multiplied by years of service, up to a maximum
of 4 years of service); agencies may waive the normal cap
on recruitment and relocation bonuses because of a critical
agency need in order to pay higher amounts over shorter
periods of time (not to exceed a total of 100 percent of the
employee’s starting salary); managers may pay retention
bonuses to employees who are likely to leave for other
federal positions under conditions prescribed in OPM
regulations; and new pay recruitment, relocation, and
retention bonuses may be paid out in alternative ways, such
as in installments or in a lump sum at the end of a service
period.
regularly evaluate and modify training programs or plans in
order to promote a more strategic approach to agencies’
integration of training programs into overall mission
accomplishment, and provide specific training to develop
managers as part of a comprehensive management succession
program. The flexibility also makes provision to ensure
training is provided for managers to effectively handle
unacceptable employee performance.
executives from outside of the government, members of the
Senior Executive Service and senior-level employees will
now accrue 8 hours of annual leave each pay period. In
addition, managers will be able to offer enhanced vacation
leave benefits to new recruits from the private sector.
In determining their annual leave accrual rate, newly
appointed employees may receive credit for non-federal
work experience. Qualified non-federal work experience
must have been performed in a position with duties that
directly relate to the position to which the employee
is being appointed and the agency head must determine
that offering the higher annual leave accrual rate is
necessary to meet the agency mission or performance goal.
rationalize the laws on pay-setting will enable OPM to
correct a variety of pay administration anomalies, and
will ensure that employees receiving locality pay and
special rates are treated similarly when pay is set
upon reassignment, promotion, and movements between pay
systems and schedules. No employee’s pay will be reduced
as a result of these corrections.