Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James recently issued a memo to Chief Human Capital Officers notifying them of the National Association of Hispanic Federal Executive's (NAHFE) Thirteenth Annual Executive Development and Diversity Training and Recruiting Conference on October 13 - 15, 2004, in Washington, D.C. at which Dan G. Blair, OPM Deputy Director and senior OPM officials are expected to speak.

"The NAHFE Conference represents yet another opportunity for Federal executives and recruiters to continue their focus on strategic outreach initiatives. Mr. Manny Oliverez has demonstrated a sincere desire to partner with Federal agencies, and NAHFE has been a committed force aiding Federal efforts to identify the best and brightest. The opportunities for the Federal team to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce have never been better. Aggressive recruiting is a key tool in fulfilling one of President Bush's top priorities: building a federal workforce that is results oriented, citizen centered, market based, highly qualified, and diverse," James said. "At OPM, we take the President's charge seriously and encourage all Federal agencies to seek out forums to deliver the recruitment message."

This year, OPM issued the FY2003 Statistical Information on Hispanic Employment in Federal Agencies, a report given to President Bush to provide an accounting of the outreach efforts of each Cabinet-level department and major agency. The data showed Hispanic representation in the federal workforce has increased overall, with increases in management and Senior Executive Service levels.

• Overall, the number of Hispanic new hires increased in FY2003 in the mid-management and senior management grade levels;
• Hispanics in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and other senior pay levels rose from 504 in FY2002 to 524 in FY2003, a 4% increase;
• Hispanics represented 9.7% of the permanent new hires to the Federal government in FY2003.

"Progress is being made, and clearly more needs to be done," James said. "We are employing strategies in keeping with President Bush's determination to expand access to the opportunities available in the federal government to all sectors of America," James said. "In order to compete with the private sector, the Federal government offers incentives, tremendous health and retirement benefits, training opportunities and channels for career advancement."

OPM continues to lead the way by providing support and guidance to agencies seeking to broadly recruit the most talented individuals to the federal government. Under the direction of Director James, the agency has hosted symposiums; provided first class training at senior levels on recruiting a diverse cadre of leadership; successfully revamped the USAJOBS website to make opportunities available to everyone; and continues to make key partnerships through outreaches and recruitment fairs.

OPM has carried the recruitment message to other important conferences over the past several months, including: the Minority Access, Inc. Fifth National Role Models Conference; League of United Latin American Citizens Annual Conference; Annual National Image Training Conference, National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives Conference; HACA Summit on Diversity; and the LATINA Style Magazine's 2004 Best Practice on Diversity Conference.