In a hearing last Wednesday on the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) efforts to solve the agency's retirement processing backlog, OPM Director John Berry told Senate members he plans to hire more staff to eliminate the claims backlog.

"For the foreseeable future, we are dealing with a paper and pencil process," said Berry. "That's why I am hiring more people and doing it with a frozen budget."

Berry said OPM is working to create an automated federal employees' retirement information system but is "still in a paper-pencil world." An IT project designed to automate the retirement processing system was abandoned by OPM last year after it did not produce desired results.

Currently, 130 retirement claims processing specialists work at OPM and Berry said he plans to hire 56 more and additional customer service staff. Berry also said OPM is debating whether to give bonuses to claims processing employees as an incentive to speed up the claims process.

Processing a claim takes 156 days on average, but many wait much longer for receipt of their full annuity payments. OPM faced a backlog of almost 50,000 claims by the end of 2011. Berry said his highest priority in 2012 is eliminating the current backlog.

OPM hopes to eliminate the backlog within a year and a half in a plan that includes hiring more staff, removing poor performers and upgrading technology, according to a plan OPM released last month. In January 2012, OPM processed almost 20 percent more retirement claims than in January 2011.

"The effect of such long delays on new federal retirees is obvious and serious - they must ‘make do' while waiting to receive the full amount they have earned," said National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association President Joseph Beaudoin. "The wait is too long, and the uncertainty is too much, particularly in the current economy."

The EEOC Executive Leadership Conference is designed to meet the professional development needs of senior leaders in the EEO field. The ELC was developed by the EEOC to help ensure EEO leaders have the skills necessary to meet the challenges of their profession. The training offered at the ELC addresses leadership competencies, personal growth, and other topics vital to the success of current and future federal executives.

The conference audience will include senior EEO officials from federal, state and local governments, EEO executives from the private sector, and those who seek to move into senior positions. The conference is also open to HR officials who have significant responsibilities in managing an EEO office. Conference registration is limited to the GS-14 and above population, and equivalents.

Who Should Attend
• EEO Directors
• Deputy EEO Directors
• Chief EEO Officers
• Deputy EEO Officers
• EEO Officials
• EEO Executives
• Chief Human Capital Officers
• HR Directors and Deputy Directors
• HR Officers and other senior HR officials

For more information and to register, please visit www.eeocleadershipconference.com.

A criminal investigator's retirement annuity should not be calculated including availability pay because she worked part-time during her last years of federal service, making her ineligible for such pay, the U.S Merit Systems Protection Board ("the Board") ruled last month.

In this case, the appellant served as a criminal investigator from July 25, 1983, until her retirement under FERS effective December 31, 2008. The appellant's criminal investigator positions allowed her to receive "availability pay" under 5 U.S.C. § 5545a, until February 25, 2001, when she began working part-time for the remainder of her federal service. Availability pay is a form of premium pay equal to 25 percent of the rate of basic pay for the position. As a part-time employee, she could not satisfy the legal requirements for receiving availability pay during that period of her service.

Following an OPM initial decision and the appellant's reconsideration request, OPM explained that it calculated the appellant's FERS retirement annuity in accordance with the requirements under 5 U.S.C. §§ 8401, 8412, and 8415, using the appellant's last 3 years of service to derive the average pay portion of the annuity calculation. OPM did not include availability pay in the determination of the appellant's average pay because she did not receive availability pay for her part-time work during her last 3 years of service. The appellant appealed OPM's decision to the Board, arguing that when determining her average pay, OPM should have included availability pay in the basic pay she should have been deemed to have earned during her last 3 years of part-time service.

In a recent decision, however, the Board concluded that OPM properly excluded availability pay from the appellant's basic pay in her last 3 years of service in determining the average pay for the appellant's retirement annuity calculation. The Board explained that as a FERS employee whose career included part-time service, the appellant's retirement annuity is calculated pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 8415(f), which provides, in pertinent part, that the annuity calculation is a two-step process. The first step is to determine the average pay of an employee as described under § 8415(f)(1)(A), and the second step is to calculate the annuity by prorating the annuity to reflect the employee's part-time service as described under § 8415(f)(1)(B).

The Board went on to say that availability pay is not automatically part of the "annual rate of basic pay that would be payable for full-time service in the position" under § 8415(f)(1)(A). The purpose of availability pay "is to provide premium pay to criminal investigators to ensure the availability of criminal investigators for unscheduled duty in excess of a 40 hour week based on the needs of the employing agency." Moreover, the statute requires an annual certification to the head of the agency by the employee and a supervising officer that the employee has - and will - satisfy the availability pay eligibility requirements.

Here, that the appellant admitted that she could not receive eligibility pay during her last three years of part-time service. Thus, the Board stated that "basic pay" only includes availability pay that was actually received by a criminal investigator in a given year. Accordingly, OPM correctly computed the appellant's retirement annuity when it did not include availability pay in that calculation, the Board concluded.

The case is Denney v. OPM, 2012 MSPB 9, January 27, 2012.

Young Government Leaders (YGL) is growing in stature, size, and breadth, and to accommodate this growth, the organization is unveiling a new webpage (www.younggov.org). Let's take a look behind the scenes at what the new website will be offering YGL board members, general members, interested parties and the browsing public.

The website is built on Wordpress, an open source tool and content management system (CMS). Wordpress is adored by bloggers and leisure groups due to the fact that it is extremely user-friendly, which helps those who are not tech-savvy, but still want to share their thoughts and ideas on a large scale with the world. The platform allows users to easily switch between themes to best represent their information and keep their look and feel fresh, without having to redo all their content. For YGL, the accessibility of this system will allow us to keep the website up-to-date and current with areas like text boxes for blogging and RSS feeds.

For YGL's surging membership, the new system will allow us to register, manage and secure profile information about our members. If we would like to reach out, through messages or even texts, to a specific group of members, the platform will allow us to sift through profiles to target members who are GS 7-11 level, or those members who live in the west coast region, for example. Likewise, it allows members to choose what they subscribe to and the methods through which they prefer to maintain in contact with YGL. Members can subscribe to topics which interest them, and even have the ability to follow YGL on multiple platforms, such as: Twitter, YouTube and Flikr.

As a growing organization, YGL is interested in tracking which kinds of people are attracted to the organization so that we know where we are strong and where we should focus on recruiting. The new platform will provide reports for YGL board members to review regarding membership concentration in such fields as location, profession, age, and other demographics.

In the twenty-first century, a website serves as a gateway and face of an organization. YGL recognizes the importance of creating a website which both makes a good first impression through a visually appealing format, and also informs and engages users through clear and well-organized content. YGL's new website will be unveiled February 2012. Come take a tour of our new site and let us know what you would like to see featured, if the new format is helpful to you and any other changes you are interested in seeing.

February's YGL article was written by Public Relations Director Lynnie Martin

This week on FEDtalk, host Debra Roth will host a roundtable discussion on federal resume writing and federal employment "train the trainer" programs in the D.C. area with several experts who specialize in federal job searches.

Kathryn Troutman, founder and president of The Resume Place and creator of the Certified Federal Job Search Trainer program, and Ronald Flowers and Frank Skinner from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will talk about programs that help potential federal employees find jobs, as well as the top issues from 2011 that affected federal job searches and employment.

The radio show airs this Friday, Feb. 10, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time. Click here on Friday to listen or tune in to 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C. area.

Join the conversation! Email your questions or call in during the show by dialing 1-877-936-9333 (toll free).

FEDtalk® is a live radio talk show produced by Shaw Bransford & Roth P.C. Bringing you the insider's perspective from leaders in the federal community since 1993.

The Funniest Fed column series features interviews with current and former participants in the Funniest Fed Competition, a comedy competition where federal employees and members of the military perform original standup routines in front of a live, voting audience in an effort to nab the title of "D.C.'s Funniest Federal Employee."

This week we meet Sean Whitfield, a Fed for the last four and a half years at the Department of Defense and a two-time Funniest Fed competitor.

How and why did you get into comedy?

It goes back to high school. I never did straight-up, standup comedy, but I was on the student council so I was constantly giving speeches. I would use humor to 1) get elected and 2) get people to listen to what I was saying.

Then I realized the only part I liked was the actual speaking part. I got into the D.C. Improv's Funniest College Competition, made it to the finals pretty much every year. It was just something that I off and on like to do, not regularly like some of the other people up there.

Could you tell us about your experience with the Funniest Fed competition?

The Funniest Fed competition has been an awesome experience to be a part of. I've watched people get on stage for the first time ever, and, in the same show, see some of the funniest people in the area perform. And they all happen to work for the government! It's an interesting theme for a competition since government workers are typical seen as boring bureaucrats and here are a whole bunch of them cracking up an audience of people. Everyone has always been welcome, no matter the level of experience and everyone has come away with a cool story to tell.

Can you give us an example of one of your "clean" jokes?

Actually most of my jokes are fairly clean; I have to be able to say them in front of my mom. She will come to these events and she is very, very conservative.

How do you calm your nerves before going on stage?

Usually I listen to music; I have my headphones and zone out, not really talk to anyone.

Sometimes I listen to the other comedians. It's just good to hear everyone in that laughing mood. Listening to jokes, sometimes that's just enough to get loosened up.

Do you have any other hobbies or interests?

Well, I am one of the biggest nerds I've ever known. So, anything that's considered nerdy I find myself getting interested in, whether it's comic books, movies, Harry Potter.

And Star Wars. Definitely Star Wars.

What was your favorite childhood costume?

When I was a kid I was a ninja turtle three years in a row. But this past year I went as Zombie Colonel Sanders. The year before that I was Zombie Santa.

There's a theme, obviously.

Do you think there is a fashion trend that should be brought back - or one that should be killed now?

Well that's actually one of my jokes that I have. When I was in high school I weighed about 110 pounds and the trend was to wear pants as baggy as possible. Now I'm 220 pounds and the trend is to wear pants as tight as possible. So I'm pretty sure fashion hates me.

You can see Sean compete live at the 2012 Funniest Fed competition.

2012 Funniest Fed® Competition Dates:

Funniest Fed® is still accepting applications for the 2012 competition but slots fill up quickly. To apply, please visit the Funniest Fed website.

Auditions will take place the first two weekends in March at the Riot Act Comedy Club in D.C., located at 801 E St. N.W., Washington, D.C.

May 9, 2012: Round 1 at the Riot Act
May 16, 2012: Round 2 at the Riot Act
May 30, 2012: Round 3 at the Riot Act
June 13, 2012: Semifinals at the Riot Act
June 22, 2012: Finals (Location TBD) in D.C.

The Funniest Fed® is brought to you by GEICO. But there is nothing funny about our federal discount. Tell GEICO you are a federal employee and see how much you could save on auto insurance.

Most people don't realize that social network has been around since long before Facebook was created. Even in our early years, we were pre-disposed to using social networking. Who doesn't remember passing notes around in class when they were younger? When you think about it, that was a form of social networking. Particularly once the teacher saw you pass the note and took it from you or made you read it to the entire class. Not so private anymore, right? However, that note was long forgotten within days. Not like today, where something posted on a social media site is around forever.

Another form of social networking started once computers came into the picture, before email. On mainframes, it was typical to chat with each other online instead of calling or walking down the hall to see them. And once PCs came into being, it was the bulletin boards and email with community sites.

However, there is one big difference between those examples and social media of today, and that is, what gets posted on the Internet stays on the Internet. You can't delete it even if you try. Actually, deleting likely makes it worse with the way things go these days.

According to Wikipedia, a 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social network. So, the big question is, where are they when they are using it? Well, everywhere. Isn't that the purpose, access your data any time, from anywhere, using any device? And I suspect that most of these folks are the younger generation, those coming out of college, the people that agencies and organizations are trying to attract and keep as employees.

So how do you deal with social media at work? Blocking access seems futile since you don't need to be using a computer to post anymore. And if you block access, you likely are going to have trouble attracting and keeping good help coming out of college, since they have come to rely on social media, more so than email or the telephone, for that matter.

And not surprisingly, more and more companies are using social media for marketing and information sharing. Someone told me recently that web sites are soon to be a thing of the past, and that social media sites like Facebook were going to be taking the place of them. So blocking access to these sites is not only going to have a negative impact on an agency's ability to keep good people, it's likely going to have an impact on how well they do their work.

So here's the Tech tip for February. Like it or not, social media is here to stay. And worse yet, it's becoming part of our DNA. In the end, the question is not whether an agency or organization provides access to social media, it will be how and when. I believe that access to social media is going to be something that everyone expects to have, so it will come down to policy.

From a policy perspective, you need to be very specific. Give examples of what is acceptable, and more importantly, what is not. The kids these days don't realize that what they post on the Internet is out there forever, so any policy should include mandatory education that would include best practices as well as security implications. The policy should also include duration on networking sites for those that don't need it for their work. And this is one area where I believe a zero tolerance policy is acceptable. If you break the rules, there is no second chance. In my opinion, that is the only way to minimize the abuse of the policy.

Of course, making sure that the policy is being followed is a whole other story, and we don't have time to cover that this month. Stay tuned.

Tech Tips is brought to you by Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate, and collaborate. The Cisco Government practice, which assists governments in creating a vision of the future, has been instrumental in providing advanced solutions through innovations in technology in areas such as urban innovation, education, public safety, data center buildout and more. For more information about the Cisco Government Practice, please visit www.cisco.com/go/government.

John Carney, author of Tech Tips, is a senior manager at Cisco and has 25 years of experience in information technology and currently focuses on government and security worldwide. John has authored several white papers and blogs frequently on Cisco's Government blog site at blogs.cisco.com/government and frequently Tweets using the @CiscoGovt twitter handle.