News Articles

Following are brief excerpts from newspaper and magazine articles quoting Transition Matters® Principal, Vilma Colón. Please contact or email Transition Matters®, should you wish copy of entire article.

---

"Vilma Colón is president of Transition Matters, Inc. She offers five main points of advice to EWG members considering a transition out of government - whether it's moving to a corporation, a nonprofit, starting your own business, or simply retiring. (Vilma is a former government employee who took an early retirement from General Services Administration. She now contracts with government agencies and private enterprise, utilizing the expertise she developed from setting up a transition center for OPM.)

1. Stop and look at long-term life goals, not just career goals
   "Ask yourself, 'What is it I want for me?'."
2. Look at finances
   "Most people get scared here. But your government retirement paycheck without Medicare and other deductions is going to be bigger than you might think. If you're starting another career, figure out how much you'd have to make on top of your retirement check to live at your current standard."
3. What kind of skills do you take with you?
   "If you want to be doing something completely different, now is the time to prepare yourself. One of my friends always wanted to be an interior designer so she took a course."
4. Make sure you have support at home
   "If you have a spouse or children, make sure they're 'on board'."
5. Write out your plan
   "That doesn't mean you can't change it, but it really does help to write it down."

---

"HR is being challenged to transform in order to:

• Visibly demonstrate the value added to the accomplishment of the organization mission
• Provide flexible alternatives to previously restrictive HR processes
• Become more strategic and efficient in delivering HR services
• Be aligned with the organizational mission
• Develop performance consultants to improve individual and organizational productivity
• Provide change management strategies for moving the organization forward
• Partner with operational units to achieve goals and measurable success

So, how do you meet these challenges? How can you live up to the expectations of doing business differently? What is the secret formula? In working with various organizations, we have found four critical areas that must be addressed in the transformation process."

View Full Article

---

"What is it? How does it work? What are the competencies and how do they differ from the knowledge, skills and abilities currently used? How can I use this model to transform my HR department? These are just some of the questions participants attending the six days of competency model training, offered during the 1998 IPMA International Training Conference in Orlando, Florida, asked and explored. Under the direction of facilitators, Vilma Colón and Lynda Poll, the training was presented as six interactive, full-day workshops that focused on the overall model and roles within each model.

---

"Has your HR office shifted its competencies to meet the needs of the 21st century workforce? Vilma Colón, an HR consultant with Transition Matters, said that to push change through the organization, you must transform yourself into a change agent - a leader who helps people in organizations switch from old ways of doing business to new ones. An effective HR change agent is one who works with management to meet the changing needs of the organization's customers. Think of your new roles as a consultant, she told a group of HR professionals at a workshop sponsored by the International Personnel Management Association. You want to provide options to help get managers to where they want to get."

"Lynda Poll, HR consultant from Transition Matters, said agencies need to break their pardigms if they expect to initiate change across the organization. It's the role of the HR professional to act as the change agent and motivate employees to start thinking "out of the box."

---

"Would be federal managers and executives are finding it isn't easy to advance in their careers, in a downsized government...I think before it was possible in government to just move up through the ranks without having to compete that heavily or put your best foot forward...Now would-be federal managers and executives are finding that if they want to get ahead-either in government or by jumping to the private sector-they need to take charge of their own careers. If you present yourself well and work hard-all the same thing you do in the private sector, such as show a willingness to take on new challenges-you will succeed, Colón says."

---

"On the other end of the spectrum is the federal government, where a multitude of qualified workers try to funnel into a handful of openings. There've been known to be 100 to 200 applications for one position, said Vilma Colón, a human resources firm that advises government workers on how to manage their careers. A lot of people are going to want a promotion in the same office. "

---

"There are different ways of rewarding individuals in the government, said Vilma Colón, who was a division director at the General Services Administration until July and now runs Transition Matters, a human resources firm that advises government workers how to manage their careers."

---

"The driving force behind the Virginia office is its director, Vilma Colón, who believes her job is to persuade, prod and cajole traumatized former federal workers into viewing their plight as an opportunity rather than as a career ending disaster."