Monica,
I observed what you are referring to. I did see that STAFF OBS is available in those portlets. Resources are aligned to STAFF OBS by first aligning their ROLES with a "Booking OBS". Booking OBS is a tab that is visible when you open a Resource from the Resource/Role List page. Then, when you add a Resource to a project team, you can see Staff OBS as a Team member property.
This may be more hassle than you would want to deal with, but it is one out-of-box method you might try.