Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Linda M. Springer today announced OPM has met all of its goals for the month of January 2007 contained within the agency's Strategic and Operational Plan.

"These goals are designed to help us maximize the quality of services we can provide both Federal civilian workers and the nation as a whole," Director Springer said. "We will continue to meet these and other goals in a target fashion in an effort to ensure OPM can provide the best possible support to our 1.8 million strong Federal workforce."

One of the top goals achieved in January was the development of a plan designed to meet President Bush's executive order requiring agencies to work towards encouraging more volunteerism. Reporting to the USA Freedom Corps on January 24, OPM outlined a comprehensive strategy for encouraging and recognizing volunteerism, including publishing personal stories of volunteer activity in the agency newsletter.

In addition, on January 30, OPM met the goal of documenting the data elements required for processing retirement claims. This agency-wide initiative brought together the best thinking about the data elements necessary to build a fully developed employee record. The data element list will enable Federal agencies and shared service centers to provide the necessary electronic data to effectively and efficently process retirement applications electronically.

OPM has also met the goal of educating OPM program groups on new Federal rules regarding e-Discovery, the process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a criminal or civil case.

Finally, OPM has produced an addendum to the Strategic and Operational Plan to be announced shortly.

For a complete copy of OPM's Strategic and Operational Plan, please visit http://www.opm.gov/strategicplan/index.asp.

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.