Help Wanted: Personnel Managers for Personnel Managers

From the physician-heal-thyself department:

The Office of Personnel Management needs help managing its personnel.

It is seeking an outside contractor to provide personnel services at its headquarters.

"The Talent Service Group is responsible for providing high quality human resource services and products that help recruit and retain the best talent for the Office of Personnel Management," says the "solicitation for commercial services." "Due to a recent increase in workload and staff turnover [that] has created a manpower shortage, the Talent Service Group needs to obtain contractor human resources support services."

This comes at a time when the White House is trying to rein in spending for outside contractors, and OPM Director John Berry and Congress are pushing for reform of the government's hiring process. The OPM developed a streamlined hiring plan during the Bush administration, but agencies largely ignored it. Now, the Office of Management and Budget is riding shotgun with the OPM, and together the two White House offices are making hiring reform a priority.

But that job apparently is so big, the OPM needs help doing it.

Companies were told to submit their bids by 10 a.m. last Thursday. The list of services to be provided is so extensive that it makes you wonder what will be left for OPM employees to do. According to the solicitation, the contractor will be required to:

-- "Provide comprehensive staffing and placement services covering a variety of occupations/series/grade levels . . . in both the competitive and excepted services."

-- "Provide staffing case work and management advisory services . . . from recruitment through the final selection and closing out the case file."