U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Attachment to CPM 2007-15

Instructions for Completing the 2007 Report On Use Of Recruitment,
Relocation, And Retention Incentives

Section 101(c) of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-411, October 30, 2004), requires OPM to submit an annual report to Congress on agencies' use of the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities in 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754 during calendar years 2005-2009. Agency reports on the use of recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives in calendar year 2007 must be submitted to OPM by March 31, 2008. Each report must cover an entire department or independent agency. Therefore, departments must consolidate information from components or bureaus before forwarding a report to OPM. We encourage you to forward these instructions to any office that is providing data for your agency's report.

What should be included?

Positive Reports

If your agency made use of the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities during calendar year 2007, your report must include two components - a data portion and a prose portion.

Data

• The total number and total dollar amount of each category of incentive (recruitment, relocation, and retention) paid during calendar year 2007 by pay plan; occupational series; occupational series title; and grade, pay or work level, or other pay classification.

Prose

• A description of how each authority (i.e., recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives) was used by the agency during calendar year 2007, including information on whether (and, if so, how) your agency's use of these authorities improved your recruitment and retention efforts.

In addition, you may wish to comment on any barriers your agency is facing in using the recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities as human capital management flexibilities.

Negative Reports

If your agency has not made use of the recruitment, relocation, or retention incentive authorities during calendar year 2007, please submit a report indicating this.

New Retention Incentive Flexibility

On November 16, 2007, OPM issued final regulations (72 FR 64523) that permit an agency to pay a retention incentive to an employee who would be likely to leave for a different position in the Federal service before the closure or relocation of the employee's office, facility, activity, or organization. The regulations became effective on December 17, 2007. If your agency paid a retention incentive under this new authority in calendar year 2007, please contact Tom Bustard of OPM's Pay Administration Group at (202) 606-2858 for special reporting procedures.

What should not be included?

Agency reports should only contain information on recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives authorized under 5 U.S.C. 5753 and 5754 and 5 CFR part 575, subparts A, B, and C. (Some agencies have separate authorities for making recruitment, relocation, or retention payments, and they should not include data on payments authorized under their own authorities in their reports to OPM.)

What format should be used?

Each agency report must:

• Provide, for each category of incentive, the total number and total dollar amount paid during calendar year 2007 by pay plan; occupational series; occupational series title; and grade, pay or work level, or other pay classification;
• Consolidate, for each category of incentive, the total number and dollar amounts paid to employees in the same pay plan, occupational series, and grade or work level; and
• Provide grand totals showing the total number of incentives and the total amount paid for each separate category of incentive (recruitment, relocation, and retention).

The following table shows the format which should be used for the data elements of the report:

Please provide the data portion of your report in an Excel spreadsheet if at all possible. To make it easier to complete this report, we have created an Excel spreadsheet that is pre-formatted to accept the data we are requesting. The Excel spreadsheet can be transmitted only by e-mail. You may request a copy of the Excel spreadsheet by sending an e-mail to
pay-performance-policy@opm.gov addressed to the attention of Tom Bustard.

What incentive amounts should be included?

Agency reports should provide data on the total amounts that were paid for each category of incentive during calendar year 2007, not data on the total amounts that were authorized in 2007. The current recruitment, relocation, and retention incentive authorities allow incentives to be paid in a variety of ways - e.g., an incentive may be authorized in one calendar year, but not fully paid until a subsequent calendar year. Agencies should verify that their reports provide data on the total amounts paid in calendar year 2007.

The following table shows how the amount reported for an incentive in an agency's 2007 report might differ depending on the method of payment and the date or dates of payment:

Consider an agency that has authorized a recruitment incentive for a new hire. The recruitment incentive amount is set at $5,000, and the service agreement length is 1 year (26 pay periods). The incentive was approved on August 31, 2007, and the employee was brought on board on September 17, 2007.