The Office of Workforce Relations (OWR) provides leadership and tools to develop a workplace environment that sustains high performance, enhances quality of work life, and supports learning. The Office combines several programs including the Center for Partnership and Labor-Management Relations, the Employee Relations and Health Services Center, the Work/Life Programs Center, and the Office of Human Resources Development. OWR’s mission includes:

• supporting and promoting effective labor-management partnerships and programs in order to refocus Federal labor relations from its tradition of adversarial litigation to cooperative problem-solving;

• assisting Federal agencies in developing and maintaining employee relations programs that support performance and mission accomplishment;

• promoting programs and flexibilities that enable employees to successfully balance work and family needs; and

• transforming Federal training to support performance improvement and learning.

OWR also provides, on a reimbursable basis, training and management assistance to improve human resources management, and, on a limited basis, employee assistance services.

In order to meet these responsibilities, OWR recruits highly-experienced human resource specialists and managers from other Federal agencies, and the private sector, who have hands-on experience in supervising and operating employee and labor relations, employee assistance programs, human resource development, and work and family programs. As needed, it hires contractors who are applications experts to upgrade or replace automated systems. All existing automated systems are being upgraded to the new agency standards for Y2K-compliant applications, and employees are being trained in-house in the new standards and applications. Major projects are controlled and monitored with an automated project tracking system, and required core competencies for each employee have been identified.

FY 2000 PRIORITIES

OWR has identified three priorities for FY 2000 in support of the overall OPM priorities described in the Executive Summary.

The first is a major initiative designed to ensure that Federal agencies maximize the use of training technologies and effective human resources development programs in order to train and

develop a workforce that can meet the technological challenges of the 21st century. (See OWR Goal #4)

The second is that OWR will enhance its early efforts to develop effective labor-management partnerships that provide better public service and high performing organizations by using the results of an intensive research project conducted in FY 1999 to more widely promote those partnership activities that have been shown to be effective. (See OWR Goal #6)

The third priority is to administer a Family-Friendly Workplace Advocacy Office that will not only respond to the needs of Federal workers but will serve as the catalyst for legislative and regulatory changes to ensure that family responsibilities are understood and supported on the job in the Federal government. (See Goal #10)

Additional Information Available on the Next Page

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Web Page Created 14 May 1999