Opinion: Feds click on Google and Facebook for hiring tips
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President Obama has used online social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to rally voters for his election and supporters since, to get the word out about government programs, and to debunk myths on healthcare reform.
Next step: Use Facebook to fill out the federal workforce. Assuming you think it needs enlarging. (Relax, there’s always turnover too.)
John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, met with employees at Google’s and Facebook’s headquarters in San Francisco last week. At Facebook, he began discussing plans to use Facebook to target potential employees. That program is on target to launch in November or December.
Berry also gathered tips on how to boost recruiting for federal jobs and improve the quality of the work environments. In many polls, Google ranks among the top places to work, and Facebook, too, is one of ‘the country’s leading employers,’ Berry said. ‘I want to make the federal government, as the president does, the model employer.’
‘The president asked that I make the federal government service ‘cool’ again,’ Berry said.
‘To meet the president’s request....
... I’ve got to go where ‘cool’ is.’
Great, so does that mean they’re going to sink taxpayer money into recreational volleyball courts, like the one at the Googleplex?
Well, no -- because they already have one in Washington. ‘I’m looking at it right outside my window,’ Berry said about the volleyball court located on the small federal park. ‘We share it with three other agencies.’
In between volleyball practices, Berry plans to implement some of the more realistic observations from the work environments at those California hot tech companies. Government workers may start seeing exercise equipment in the buildings, organic food in the cafeteria and the ability to choose what type of furniture is stationed at their desks (or tables, if they so choose).
Facebook suggested that Berry’s organization implement the company’s small-team, big-impact philosophy. ‘People can’t hide in the organization,’ said Lori Coler, Facebook’s vice president of human resources. ‘You feel some ownership in the project that you’re working on.’
Coler also mentioned some of Facebook’s cushy perks. The tech company’s employees get on-site dry cleaning and may have access to a Facebook car wash in the future, she said.
‘I don’t think the dry cleaning is going to work for the federal government,’ Berry said. ‘One of them mentioned that sometimes they served lobsters on special days. I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll get away with doing that.’ ‘
-- Mark Milian
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