When I first met with our prospective employees, they really beat me up. I thought I was saving their jobs, they thought I was the devil. However, after many bruising meetings with OPM investigative staff, employees gradually came to accept what was happening. No one understood what an ESOP was, for example. Once people began to get educated, they realized that it could actually work out better for them in the long run.
Early returns are encouraging.
We've also reduced our turnaround time by three days. They're doing well from an employee perspective as well. Most importantly they all have their jobs. No one was involuntarily separated - the other 10 percent either stayed as part of OPM's oversight staff, transferred to another agency or retired. Other benefits, such as health insurance appear to be comparable with federal benefits.