Statement
of the Honorable Clay Johnson III
Deputy Director for Management
Office of Management and Budget
before the
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management,
the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
of the
Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
July
20, 2004
The Federal
government is focused on results and so are its employees. The American
people expect it of us. We ask ourselves if were accomplishing
the desired goal, at an acceptable cost, and if the answer is no
or we dont know, we do something about it.
The Federal
government is adopting human capital practices that ensure a focus on
results. With the help of the Presidents Management Agenda, and
the Strategic Management of Human Capital initiative in particular, agencies
are deploying key tools to ensure we have the right person, in the right
job, at the right time, performing well. Of the agencies rated on the
Executive Branch Management Scorecard, which represent almost 97 percent
of the Federal civilian workforce:
- Ninety-two
percent of agencies have strategies for ensuring that they are developing
future leaders.
- Ninety-six
percent have identified skills gaps in critical occupations and 77 percent
are working to reduce or eliminate them.
- Sixty-five
percent of agencies have performance evaluation systems that more clearly
define whats expected of each employee and how they are performing
relative to those expectations.
Its
most important that agencies are increasingly clarifying whats
expected and holding employees accountable for meeting those expectations.
In focus groups Ive moderated in ten different agencies, managers
tell me that they welcome the improved evaluation processes, in that:
- Our employees
deserve to have greater clarity regarding how they are serving the public,
which is primarily what they are here for.
- Most
employees want to do a good job, but need to know what a good
job is.
- Goals
are energizing.
Of course,
there are human capital challenges we can not overcome just by managing
better or being more results oriented. When the President thought it was
critical to have additional tools to overcome those challenges, he asked
Congress for them. With regard to the Departments of Defense and Homeland
Security, the Administration requested and Congress granted significant
flexibility in hiring processes, compensation systems and practices, and
performance management so that these Departments could recruit, retain,
and develop the workforce they needed to accomplish their critical missions
in the 21st century. The new personnel systems being designed and adopted
by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security will work. We will
make sure they do; their success is too important to our pursuit of a
21st Century workforce.
I am proud
of the progress we have made in Federal human capital management in the
last several years. We are left, in my opinion, with two big questions
to deal with.
The first
question is how personnel flexibilities should be expanded to the rest
of the Federal Government. Should it be piecemeal, with confusing differences
in the personnel management practices at agencies across government? Or
will it be more thoughtfully extended to all agencies at once?
Clearly,
I would recommend that we consider making available to the governments
remaining agencies the flexibilities necessary to improve hiring processes,
compensation systems and practices, and performance management so that
they can recruit, retain, and develop the workforce they need to accomplish
their missions. If not provided in a uniform way, it is difficult to guard
against imbalances that are created when competition exists between agencies
for limited talent. One thing I know for sure: its not a question
of whether these flexibilities will be granted more broadly to agencies,
but when.
The second
question we must confront is when to most responsibly pay employees of
the Federal Government. Today, we have targeted, not widespread, recruitment
and retention problems in our civilian workforce, and pay surveys reveal
that we are currently overpaying employees in some occupational groups
in some locations. We will eventually give agencies the tools they need
to target salary increases where they need them to address specific recruitment
or retention needs. If we are to achieve the 21st Century workforce that
the American people deserve and expect, we certainly should not grant
all civilian employees the same increase no matter what the need because
that wouldnt be focusing on the desired result: that would be providing
too small an increase where we do have recruitment and retention problems,
and too large an increase where we do not have a problem. We should be
spending money where we need to, and not where we dont. We will
eventually do this; we just need to decide when and in what series of
steps.
If we answer
these questions correctly and continue the progress of the last several
years, we have the potential to achieve the 21st Century workforce we
desire, not in decades, but in a handful of years. I think this enhanced
focus on results will bring about the most dramatic improvement in government
operations ever. Thats what the American people deserve.
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