Hiring chill
USMA job-related initiatives stopped

By Irene Brown
Editor

The U.S. Military Academy will not be filling any vacancies -- at least not right now.

That’s the latest information from the academy’s civilian personnel director, Michael Heller, who’s still waiting for some solid guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.

“We haven’t been given any official guidance, other than some e-mail that has been conflicting,” Heller said.

The hiring dilemma stems from a memo issued Jan. 20 by presidential assistant, Andrew H. Card Jr. The memo instructed each agency to institute immediate hiring controls. “No decision relating to hiring shall be made unless and until such decision is reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed by the President after noon on January 20, 2001,” the memo stated.

OMB released a memo two days later instructing agencies that the “hiring controls” apply to “all hiring decisions (e.g., appointment, promotion or reassignment), at all grade levels, from all sources.” But the memo also stated “these controls do not apply to agencies where the department or agency head has already been appointed or confirmed.” Since the new secretary of Defense has already been sworn in, many employees are wondering why West Point should be impacted at all.

“There’s no clear guidance on what agency head has to be in place for the controls to be lifted,” Heller said. “The head of the defense department may be sufficient; we just haven’t received word.”

Until that word arrives, however, virtually all employment actions at USMA are frozen.

“For now the academy cannot hire new employees, and current employees cannot move laterally into another position or be promoted,” Heller said. “However we have been authorized to extend temporary appointments through the end of Feburary, at which time we hope to have some clear guidance on the program.”

The hiring controls do not apply for “career ladder positions,” he added. Career ladder positions are ones which allow employees to move to the next grade or two after demonstrating they have mastered their new skills and have met the specific “time in grade” requirement. Heller said previous commitments are also not affected.

“We will honor commitments made before January 20,” he explained. “We have a few commitments that we made after January 20 but before we received the guidance, and we do not yet know if we will be able to honor those.”

Because the custodial workforce isn’t expected to transition to their most efficient organization until late July, Heller doesn’t see these controls causing a problem with the academy’s strategic sourcing.

“Fortunately, the MEO doesn’t go into effect until July 28 and we have time to sort everything out,” he said. “We simply don’t have the guidance yet on what, if any, exceptions -- like emergency personnel and MEO requirements -- will be added to any long-term hiring controls.”