Conference to highlight defense workforce issues.

• Author: Owens, Heather
• Position: NDIA News

Women In Defense's second annual conference will focus on federal outsourcing and human capital management, said the organization's event planner, Fritzi Serafin of the Jefferson Consulting Group.

The conference will be held on Feb. 24, 2005, at the Hyatt Regency Reston, in Reston, Va. The theme for the event will be: "Is Federal Outsourcing for You: Assessing the challenges and identifying future opportunities."

Human capital management "is clearly an important issue," Serafin said. "Not only is it about recruiting and maintaining a talented, diverse workforce, but it also is about ensuring that human capital management ties in with all other department-wide programs, such as budgeting, organizational effectiveness and savings."

In addition, the conference will address the backlog in the security clearance process, the aging workforce and issues surrounding A-76 competition. The A-76 process is an effort to identify those federal jobs now being performed by government workers that could be done by private-sector employees and set up a competition to determine which group should get the work.

Mary E. Lacey, program executive officer of the Defense Department's National Security Personnel System, will be the keynote speaker. Lacey, who was named to her post in May, will address how the new personnel system will change the department's work rules for civilian personnel, in such fields as labor-management relations and employee appeals systems.

The conference will include other representatives from the...