The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) team serves the critical role of providing the public with access to government information. The team serves citizens by providing access to government documents and serves U.S. leaders by preserving and distributing essential information to Congress and Federal agencies.
Established in 1861, the agency has a longstanding history of impact in the United States. GPO was the department responsible for disseminating Abraham Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Today, the agency continues to play an important role in recording and disseminating Federal documents and information to citizens—including new laws, new interpretations of existing laws, and statements made on the congressional floor.
In the last few years, the agency’s work became ever more critical throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Though GPO has been putting government information online since 1994, the agency’s digitization efforts became more important than ever as American citizens began living in quarantine and working from home. Since first putting government information online, GPO has garnered 9 billion retrievals of government information.
A Leader in Post-Pandemic Work Policy
As one of the first Federal government agencies to implement a new telework and remote work policy in the wake of the pandemic, GPO needed a digital learning tool that could support its remote teams during the pandemic. Training and development are some of the agency’s highest values, as GPO realized it is essential for attracting employees and encouraging employee engagement and retention. The organization’s training serves a variety of workers in unique roles, from high-level administrative leaders to employees who work in technical and hands-on roles such as manufacturing. To support its multifaceted staff, GPO needed a solution that was adaptable.
“Transparency is our top priority,” said Chief Human Capital Officer Dan Mielke. “Human Capital has tried to create an open system making every single HC action as transparent to employees as possible. For example, an employee’s supervisor uses the online system to process and track a within grade increase (WIGI) for their employee, and an employee can track their SF-52 through the entire process.”
In July 2021, GPO implemented 100 percent telework and remote work options for eligible teammates. The new policy came after the agency saw major success from maximum teleworking during to the pandemic. Teammates who were eligible for telework worked with their supervisors to choose the best option that ensured continued productivity for GPO. With supervisor approval, the policy also allows teammates to work remotely from a geographic area outside of the Washington, D.C., metro area. The agency began completing all its Human Capital functions—from onboarding to training to offboarding—virtually. Thus, GPO implemented virtual work systems and training systems for teammates.
In addition to wanting to support its new hybrid work policy, GPO also needed a digital learning management system (LMS) to support the launch of its new apprenticeship program. This program is set to become a core tenet of GPO’s strategy to attract, hire, train, and retain new employees.
Challenges Faced
GPO’s unique challenges included:
- Digital onboarding transformation: With a completely in-person workforce transitioning to working remotely, GPO needed an agile, digital, cloud-based, enterprise LMS platform. And it needed to make the transition quickly to meet the needs of its hybrid and remote workforce without slowing down productivity.
- A diverse population of learners: The organization’s 1,600 teammates operate in a variety of roles and backgrounds, from blue-collar to white-collar roles, and each role requires training that caters to the teammate’s specific needs.
- Rigorous compliance standards: The standards set forth by GPO have specific compliance requirements. The organization must provide training that covers more than 13 training topics. Additionally, these topics must be reviewed by more than 250 supervisors.
- A need to attract and train the next generation of workers: With 60 percent of the workforce eligible to retire within the next five years, digital tools must play a part in attracting, training, and retaining the next generation of teammates.
As a result of a formal request for proposal (RFP) process, GPO selected ExpertusONE. The vendor’s comprehensive LMS platform was a match for GPO on a variety of measures. The platform has the ability to serve a variety of learners and maintain rigorous compliance requirements. Additionally, the platform is designed to serve both the learner and leadership. The modular functionality of the platform enables administrators to easily configure the platform to serve each unique user with a set of personalized course recommendations based on their role and job description.
Platform Benefits
- An Engaging Platform for a Hybrid Workforce: ExpertusONE’s digital LMS platform offers an engaging, interactive learning platform that helped the agency provide training in a remote work environment.
- Support for Rapid Implementation: The platform’s 24/7 tech team helped support the agency’s need for rapid digitalization at the onset of the pandemic.
- Flexible Design: The platform’s design was easily configurable to the agency’s unique needs so GPO could optimize courses for each learner type, both at the managerial and administrative levels, and for employees who work in technical roles such as factory operations.
- Compliance and Reporting Capabilities: Reporting features such as ExpertusONE’s Insights and Observation Checklist helped the agency generate required monthly reports.
Remaining Operational
GPO’s transformation to a modern LMS system helped keep the agency operational during unprecedented times. GPO recently was named to the list of Forbes’ Best Employers 2022. One of the criteria that landed GPO on the list was its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. ExpertusONE was able to support GPO’s unique training needs with a digital LMS software that catered to a variety of learners and provided detailed insights into compliance results. All of this was managed in a remote and hybrid environment.
The agency was able to manage and maintain compliance regulations even in a digital environment. In fact, with the implementation of the cloud-based, next-generation LMS technology platform, the agency witnessed increased productivity among its teammates and management. Previously, more than 250 leaders would have to review compliance topics on a regular basis—now, they can do all of that online, thereby improving efficiency and transparency among training managers and governing agencies to access the information they need when, where, and how they need it.
ExpertusONE checked all the boxes for the agency in satisfying requirements set forth by the OPM on 26 different reporting requirements, addressing their needs for telework, safety, compliance, and technical, supervisory, and leadership project management training needed to maintain a skilled, safe, and productive workforce.
