Initiative to hire People with Disabilities

White House Urges More Hiring of People with Disabilities; Initiative Attempts to Strengthen Clinton-Era Order Source: federaltimes.com With agencies facing a renewed White House push to hire nearly twice as many employees with disabilities, the Office of Personnel Management is ramping up a campaign to show them how to do that. A training event last week drew about 285 hiring managers and human resources professionals to OPM's auditorium; the agency hopes to host similar events elsewhere in the county where there are large numbers of federal employees, Deputy Director Christine Griffin said. "This was really the kickoff," she said. "This is going to be evaluated: what worked; what didn't." A July executive order issued by President Obama sets a target of adding 100,000 people with disabilities to the federal work force over five years. About 105,000 disabled people are in the work force now. The order requires OPM — in conjunction with the Labor Department, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Management and Budget — to come up with model recruitment and hiring strategies. Under the executive order, those plans were supposed to be completed last month, but were held up in the clearance process at OPM and other agencies, Griffin said. They could be out as early as this week. With the guidance in hand, agencies will have 120 days to come up with their own plans and numerical goals for hiring more disabled people. Each agency will also have to name a senior-level official responsible for meeting those goals. Read More. --