Human Capital Information Model (HCIM) v5.3 

Community Review (CR)Office Hours Q&A

February 22, 2024

Please Note:The following documentation of questions and answers from the Office Hours session on February 

22, 2024, have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity while making every effort to preserve the underlying 

substance of each exchange.

1. Question:What happened to the DEIA functions that used to appear within the Human Capital Business 

Reference Model (HCBRM)?

a. Answer: Functions related to DEIA have been removed from the HCBRM, because DEIA, like 

Human Capital, is soon becoming its own area within the BSC. In other words, just like how the 

HRLOB is responsible for developing and maintaining the business and data standards related to 

Federal Human Capital management, the DEIA standards lead will be responsible for doing the 

same with DEIA business and data standards. In short, because of this, the HRLOB no longer 

“owns” these standards.

b. Follow-up comment: Questioner noted that the DEIA data is still HR data that is necessary in 

many HR functions and there is a concern about how siloing the creation of the standards from 

their use could lead to complications.

c. Follow-up answer: HRLOB indicated that DEIA data would still be included within the HCIM 

Registry. It would just be re-mapped to different HCRBM functions.

d. Follow-up question:Has there been any consideration to showing the connections to 

the other areas, such as Financial (for payroll) or DEIA? It would be great to link these 

models together. DEIA will have a lot of crossover with their data and business 

processes.

e. Follow-up answer:There is not a particular indicator or note that an element is 

connected to another area. But we have had discussions with some of those other 

areas about these connections. There is room to make those links and perhaps to take 

the HCBRM further to show the connection points.

f. Follow-up comment: That's exciting! Sometimes it's the common data elements where 

you get into how they are referred to differently across the different areas (financial, 

HC, etc.)

g. Follow-up answer:Also review the systems and forms mapping, where you will see 

connections to some other areas, such as TSP.

2. Question: Can you provide a high-level overview of the HCIM? What are its goals? How long has it been 

around?

a. Answer: HRLOB indicated that they would be providing a brief presentation to cover this 

information during the office hours session.

b. Follow-up question: Is the intention to replace agency standards?

c. Follow-up answer:The intention is to augment agency standards with a government-wide 

perspective. The HCIM standards are meant to be government-wide, and they are developed 

with the understanding that they will not cover all agency-specific functions, just those that are 

broadly applicable to all. In addition to the adoption of data standards found within it, the HCIM 
promotes interoperability through The Systems and Forms Mapping product, which can help 

link data elements on various Federal human capital systems and forms via common mappings 

to data elements within the HCIM.

3. Question:Will version 5.0 of the HCBRM be coming any time soon?

a. Answer:The short answer is no. This is because the most recent version of the HCBRM, version 

4.0, was just released in January 2024. Though the HCBRM and HCIM are both products of the 

HRLOB, their release versions are updated (and numbered) independently from oneanother. So, 

while the latest version of the HCIM is the v5.3 Community Review, the latest version of the 

HCBRM is v4.0.

b. Follow-up question:Is OPM going to take a role with access controls with shared 

services?

c. Follow-up answer:That is something the HRQSMO would consider.

4. Question:In some cases, it is necessary for us to maintain agency-specific naming conventions for data 

elements to facilitate joins between systems. Where can we find translations for data elements? 

(Specifically, cited data elements related to sex and gender).

a. Answer:Translations between data elements—as they appear on various Federal human capital 

systems and forms—and the HCIM can be found within the Systems and Forms Mapping 

product. Please note, though, that with respect to sex and gender, some of the recent updates 

are reflective of policy that is in development, but not yet finalized.

5. Question:(Following up on an email sent to HRLOB@opm.gov) We have developed a framework for the 

SF-50, but need to identify the form owner so that it can be reviewed by them. Can you point us in the 

right direction?

a. Answer:HRLOB confirmed that the OPM Forms Manager Mailbox was the correct address for 

her inquiry and would follow up if they could identify a specific POC.

6. Question:We are trying to track emerging skill sets within our data, both in terms of the positions that 

require them and the people who have them. Some of the latest skills are cross-cutting, which makes 

them hard to analyze because they require you to look at thewhole workforce. Do you have any 

suggestions for us on how we might go about this?

a. Answer:With respect to the HCIM, you can filter the ‘BRM Reference’ column in the Registry for 

the applicable functional areas to find the key data elements related to this (ex: Position 

Classification, Workforce Planning, etc.), but we acknowledge that there are gaps within the 

HCIM.

b. Follow-up comment: Emerging skill sets and the establishment of data architecture to support 

the analysis of them is a common challenge. We would love to have a follow-up conversation 

with you on this.

c. Follow-up action: The HRLOB will take the action item to coordinate a follow-up meeting on 

this.

7. Question:Has OPM mapped skills across the TA occupational categories outside the competencies? 

There are many skills; we often make a distinction between skills and competencies. With AI, we have 

skills ontologies, which are static and not necessarily dynamic.

a. Answer:We will have to have a follow-up conversation on this. We may need to work with the 

USA Staffing and USA Learning teams on this.
b. Follow-up action:The HRLOB will take the action item to coordinate a follow-up meeting on 

this.

8. Question:Can you help me understand a strange occurrence within the ‘Last Mapped Date’ field of the 

Systems and Forms Mapping product?

a. Answer:Based on the description of the issue provided, HRLOB determined that this was likely a 

Macintosh formatting issue.