The Headquarters Personnel Office has realigned classification and 
staffing servicing responsibilities effective immediately.  After many 
years of providing personnel services with functional specialists and 
separate classification and staffing organizations, the office will shift 
to personnel generalists who will perform both functions.

The primary reason for the move to a generalist organization is to satisfy 
customer expectations.  Over the past months, several different surveys 
and studies indicated a customer preference for streamlined HR processes 
and services, including a reduction in the number of contacts within the 
personnel office required to complete a personnel action. Customers also 
indicated that a consistent approach to personnel services across the 
regions was preferred.  Under the new alignment, each personnel specialist 
will be responsible for the classification, staffing and final processing 
of a personnel action.

Other considerations for the change included a need for new competencies 
within the Personnel Office to stay aligned with the strategic directions 
of the USGS.  The generalist concept is a first step toward developing 
broader-based HR competencies and skills.  The change to generalists will 
improve the servicing flexibility for the Personnel Office.  Generalists 
will be assigned to headquarters and regional teams that will provide 
greater cross-servicing capabilities to the customer.

Finally, this is an opportunistic time for the headquarters personnel 
office to initiate these changes.  The implementation of OARS and 
FastClass, the USGS web-based staffing and classification systems, will 
generate new program and customer service requirements. The generalist 
approach to personnel services will enhance the performance and support of 
these new systems. 

The headquarters personnel office will retain responsibility for 
bureau-level policy development and guidance.  Rich Williams will continue 
to serve as the principal contact for staffing policy and Bill Fordyce 
will serve in a similar role for classification.  The employee relations, 
employee development and leadership, and ethic programs are not impacted 
by these changes.

The new HR Teams are listed with a  detailed description of each 
personnel generalist’s servicing assignments. Questions or comments may 
be directed to Rich Williams (rwilliams@usgs.gov) at 703-648-4401 or Bill 
Fordyce (wfordyce@usgs.gov) at 703-648-7443.

For more information on any Human Resources issue, please visit and 
bookmark the USGS Employment and Information Center at 
http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/, or email your questions to 
ask_hro@usgs.gov.