How OPM Can Save the Federal Workforce

Federal employees have received a lot of negative attention lately, from lawmakers trying to crack down on bad apples at the Veterans Affairs Department and other scandal-ridden agencies, and from presidential candidates looking to show voters they can streamline the bureaucracy.

Improving the federal workforce's image has long been a challenge for rank-and-file employees, supervisors, human resources professionals and federal workforce advocates. According to some who have studied the issue, the key could lie with the Office of Personnel Management.

Linda Springer, who headed OPM for three years between 2005 and 2008, said in an interview with Government Executive the agency should bring its message directly to the federal government’s board of directors: members of Congress.

Lawmakers’ rhetoric toward the federal workforce has turned vitriolic in recent years, from the use of “bureaucrat” as a four-letter word to calling employees “desk jockeys.” Committees have held hearings to highlight scandals and discuss ways to ease the firing of poor performers, but there has been little in the way of recognizing feds who do their jobs well. To change that narrative, Springer said, OPM should lead the charge in providing data to individual members of Congress that show feds in a positive light.

That information should highlight work federal employees are doing in each member’s district.

“OPM is in a position to provide data to members of Congress about activities or federal workers in their districts that would help them to get a better understanding of what the workforce is doing, and how their district is better served by the federal workforce,” Springer said.

In addition to specific actions and projects undertaken by feds, OPM can glean data by promoting an environment in which managers more consistently engage with and provide feedback to their employees. Performance management should not be considered a “once a year activity,” said Robert Goldenkoff, director of strategic issues at the Government Accountability Office.

OPM has a role to play in promoting best practices, Goldenkoff said, as well as developing better core competencies for supervisors.

“It’s kind of this age old problem where supervisors and managers are there because they’re good at their technical job and not necessarily because they’re good with people,” Goldenkoff said. OPM can demonstrate which indicators lead to good managers, he added, and cultivate better assessment tools specific to supervisors.

Many 2016 contenders have joined lawmakers in vowing to rid the federal government of its worst employees -- or its general excess -- by removing some or all of the due process protections they currently enjoy. Springer -- who was praised during her tenure for her promotion of the federal workforce, including through a first-of-its-kind nationwide primetime television campaign -- said that tone is detrimental to the missions of federal agencies. Congress and administrations need to set high standards for what is expected of executive branch workers, she said, but threats of wholesale removals do nothing to help reach those goals.

“The idea of a quota system without regard to the nature of the mission is demoralizing,” Springer said, “because it lacks the insight and the knowledge of the good work that people are doing.”

Springer and Goldenkoff agreed most of the changes needed to address poor performers in government require strong leadership rather than legislation. Goldenkoff added there is a nonconstructive tendency to focus on the negative, rather than rewarding top performers or better engaging the vast majority in the middle.

He also said a focus on federal firing rates, which consistently lag behind those of the private sector, does not tell the whole story of how managers deal with their worst employees. In many cases, workers are moved to another part of an organization that better suits their skills or given performance improvement plans that lead to better outcomes.

The phrase “leaders must lead” has echoed around the halls of federal agencies for years, and effective management alone will not cure all that ails federal government. However, through both advocacy and improved governmentwide performance standards, Springer and Goldenkoff said, OPM is uniquely positioned to at least move the conversation surrounding federal employees in a more positive direction. 

(Image via Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com)