The federal human resources office was directed to build a talent function that didn't yet exist: no charter, no governance model, no milestone schedule, no team.

The Situation

An executive order arrives as policy direction. It arrives without a charter, governance model, milestone schedule, or team.



A federal agency's human resources office was charged with operationalizing a Presidential Executive Order and building the agency's first Talent Team from the ground up. The work required more than assembling people: the new team's objectives had to be validated against both the executive order and the agency's overarching annual strategic goals, and its priorities had to be defensible to leadership across multiple directorates.

Three structural gaps stood in the way. The initiative lacked a standardized project management architecture, a work breakdown structure, milestone tracking, and a mechanism to capture lessons as they emerged. The organizational picture for 140 filled and vacant positions was not visually documented, leaving workforce planning conversations without a shared reference point. And the employee experience programs that support a newly forming organization, onboarding materials and recognition mechanisms, had not yet been built.

Policy tells you what to achieve. It doesn't tell you how to build the team that achieves it.

The Solve

BeckThom served as senior project manager and project lead for the inaugural Talent Team, working under the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, the Director of Human Capital Strategic Planning, and the Director of Policy and Programs.

• PMO architecture and governance. We developed the Talent Team's first project charter and project plan, grounded in program analysis that identified priorities, tested strategies, and validated human capital goals against both the executive order and the agency's annual strategic goals. We then implemented a programmatic project management methodology, a work breakdown structure, and a Gantt chart to manage, track, and monitor approved milestones, deliverables, and tasks through completion.
  
  
• Stakeholder engagement and buy-in. We developed and delivered the Talent Team overview presentation to senior leadership and stakeholders to secure buy-in for the project management occupational series. We recommended a SWOT-based analytical approach that became the team's first lessons-learned register, and chaired weekly meetings of senior leadership and the talent teams.
  
  
• Process improvement and qualification standards. We developed a process improvement map for the office's new education qualification framework, adapted from Department of Defense standards.
  
  
• Executive communications. We authored weekly high-level briefings and written materials, and reviewed and edited white papers, keeping executive leadership up to date on project workflows.
  
  
• Employee experience and organizational visibility. We created and implemented new-hire welcome letters for orientation and established a quarterly recognition award program for individuals and teams. We developed the organizational chart covering 140 current and vacant positions, and planned and coordinated training so the team could build and maintain organizational charts by department and division independently.
  

The Impact

• Inaugural Talent Team infrastructure. An operational charter, governance model, and PMO tracking tools supporting executive order implementation.
  
  
• Standardized qualification frameworks. A process improvement approach for the new education qualification standard, with leadership alignment secured on the project management series.
  
  
• Visual organizational architecture. Division-level organizational models covering 140 positions, plus the internal capability to maintain them.
  
  
• Employee engagement programs. New-hire orientation materials and an operating quarterly recognition program.
  
  
• An executive reporting cadence. Weekly briefings and a lessons-learned register giving leadership continuous visibility into progress and risk.