PODCAST: Big Changes Mean Big Challenges for Shared Services and Government HR with Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot and OPM's Rebecca Ayers Season 2 · Ep 39
0:00
1529
PODCAST: Big Changes Mean Big Challenges for Shared Services and Government HR with Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot and OPM's Rebecca Ayers Season 2 · Ep 39
Podcast
James-Christian Blockwood discusses U.S. Office of Personnel Management's modernization of federal HR and retirement IT systems with OPM’s Rebecca Ayers and Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot. Building on a 2021 academy report urging congressional funding to modernize OPM systems, they describe the administration’s goal to build a merit-based workforce and modernize people management through the Federal HR 2.0 initiative. Key elements include moving agencies onto a mandatory single cor...
Now Playing
James-Christian Blockwood discusses U.S. Office of Personnel Management's modernization of federal HR and retirement IT systems with OPM’s Rebecca Ayers and Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot.
Building on a 2021 academy report urging congressional funding to modernize OPM systems, they describe the administration’s goal to build a merit-based workforce and modernize people management through the Federal HR 2.0 initiative.
Key elements include moving agencies onto a mandatory single core HCM platform to replace over 100 systems, improve data, speed retirement processing, enable employee self-service, and generate an estimated nearly $1 billion in savings, alongside a voluntary OPM Shared Service Center offering standardized operational services and strategic consulting. They highlight historical swings between decentralization and centralization, the change-management challenges of standardization, feedback loops, and long-term commitment, and note upcoming milestones such as announcing the new core HCM system and additional agencies opting into shared services.
00:50 Modernization Stakes
02:34 Federal HR 2.0 Vision
04:58 Shared Services Context
07:41 Centralize Versus Decentralize
10:34 Change Management Hurdles
12:51 Mandatory Versus Voluntary
16:19 Why Now
17:17 Public Impact
21:09 Leader Playbook
22:37 Next Milestones
Management Matters is a presentation of the National Academy of Public Administration produced by Lizzie Alwan and Matt Hampton and edited by Matt Hampton.
Support the Podcast Today at: donate@napawash.org or 202-347-3190
Episode music: Hope by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Follow us on YouTube for clips and more: @NAPAWASH_YT
Episode Details
Listen On
Listen Now
Opens in your podcast app
Keep Listening
May 4, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood talks with Academy Fellow and McGeorge School of Law Professor Clark Kelso and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Adam White about why public agencies struggle and what the executive branch does in response. They discuss how checks and balances slow action and make errors hard to undo, while polarization and congressional dysfunction push presidents toward unilateral action, creating separation-of-powers conflicts and court intervention. The conve...
April 20, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood interviews Teri Gullo, former CBO Director of Budget Analysis, and Karl Maschino, former GAO Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, about why federal budget work matters amid scrutiny of spending, workforce cuts, and “DOGE”-style reforms. They outline the normal OMB-agency-Congress budget timeline, emphasize GAO/CBO’s nonpartisan transparency and need to explain “the story behind the numbers,” discuss polarization blocking fiscal solutions as ne...
April 6, 2026
Acting Comptroller General of the United States and Head of the US Government Accountability Office Orice Williams Brown joined us in conversation at the Academy offices last month to talk about a hugely important document to everyone in the federal government: the GAO High Risk List. For more than three decades, the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List has identified programs vulnerable to waste, mismanagement, and operational weakness. But beyond oversight, the High-Risk L...