Amid Federal Pay Freeze Talks, OPM's Angela Bailey and Dept. of Energy's Michael Kane discuss Hiring Reform and Retention in Exclusive Interviews

New York, NY (December 13th, 2010) – A few short weeks before President Obama announced a federal pay freeze, Angela Bailey, Deputy Associate Director, Recruitment and Diversity, OPM and Michael Kane, Chief Human Capital Officer, US Department of Energy, told Worldwide Business Research (WBR) that hiring reform and employee retention are still the biggest challenges facing their organizations. These issues, along with how the federal pay freeze will impact them, will be discussed further at the HCMD 2011 conference, produced by WBR, which takes place February 14-17.

According to Angela Bailey, the OPM is progressing steadily with its hiring reform efforts, but is still challenged by the prospect of its message reaching "every nook and cranny" across the states, and ensuring that "it is not just a Washington D.C. initiative," as she says. Coupled with the limits that a pay freeze will place on organizations, the hiring reform initiative will surely become even more challenging to enforce. Hear more from her on the OPM's progress with hiring reform in this podcast:

In a separate interview, Michael Kane similarly states that approaching hiring reform and retention remains difficult, but suggests that success in the federal government will lie in the hiring, training and development of integrated groups. With employees entering the hiring landscape at varying skill levels, becoming more mobile in the workforce and now having to face a pay freeze, retaining them will be an ever-increasing challenge. In this podcast , hear his thoughts about a retention tactic focused on the core job function of teaching:

Discussing the issues of hiring reform and employee retention in the federal government and the Department of Defense is as important as ever, particularly in the wake of the federal pay freeze announcement.

At HCMD, speakers like Juan M. Garcia, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) and Daniel B. Ginsberg, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs will give their perspectives as well as discuss new initiatives they are taking to better manage and retain their staffs.

About HCMD

HCMD is in its 6th year, and has become known in the defense industry as the premier conference for human capital management. This year, the focus will be on human capital management in a time of limited resources. For more information about the 2011 conference, please contact Lisa Ringlen, Program Director at Worldwide Business Research via email: Lisa.Ringlen@wbresearch.com.

About Worldwide Business Research

WBR is the world's biggest large-scale conference company and part of the PLS group, one of the world's leading providers of strategic business intelligence with 16 offices worldwide. Our conference divisions consistently out-perform their industry sector competitors on the quality of the events we produce and the relationships we nurture with both delegates and sponsors. Every year, more than 10,000 senior executives from Fortune 1000 companies attend more than 100 annual conferences – a true "Who's Who" of today's corporate world. From automotive events in Bucharest to logistics conferences in Arizona and finance summits in Hong Kong, WBR is dedicated to exceeding the needs of its customers around the world. www.wbresearch.com