Within the next few years, employees at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) could show up for work at 3 a.m. and receive year-end bonuses based on how well the agency is performing, under a series of reforms being considered by top management.
Last year, PTO won authority from Congress to become a performance-based organization, which means the agency's executives are given broad exemptions from federal procurement and personnel rules in exchange for tough performance standards. PTO has had strict performance, quality and service standards in place for years. Now the agency is looking to mirror large private sector corporations in terms of employee compensation, recruitment and retention.
Under the new approach, PTO's first goal is to use pay as an incentive to focus the entire organization around corporate performance, said Clarence Crawford, the agency's chief financial officer and chief administrative officer. "If we achieve goals, everyone would share equally," he said.
Under a gain-sharing program the agency is developing, all employees would receive year-end bonuses if the agency's annual performance goals are met. The goals must be stringent, carefully scrutinized and publicly identifiable in order for the gain-sharing concept to work, Crawford said.
PTO is now refining its performance standards and measures for fiscal year 2001 to form a simple set of measures that everyone in the organization will understand. If all goes well and the plan is approved, a portion of the gain-sharing concept could be in place as early as 2001, Crawford said.
"This is what a lot of organizations are doing-people still would be able to receive bonuses based on individual performance, but they may get a larger percentage based on corporate goals. It would cover everyone from secretaries to the Senior Executive Service," he said.
PTO is also planning to allow highly skilled engineers, scientists and attorneys on the trademark side of the agency to work much more flexible hours, both in their offices and from home. Trademark attorneys are already testing a pilot work-at-home project. By 2004, Crawford envisions an agency where working at home can mean anywhere in the country, and a day at the office can mean any block of time in a 24-hour period.
"In our environment, there is a production goal that can be met. Time will be important, but production will become a more important metric for paying people. Why couldn't someone who wants to come in at 1 a.m. to work [be allowed to do so]?," Crawford said.
Crawford conceded that a 'round-the-clock operation would place a considerable burden on PTO leadership. Managers and executives have expressed concerns about overseeing employees they might only see once a month, for example. But "we believe it may have a positive effect on our ability to recruit and retain a high-performance work force," he said.
In order to get managers ready for the transition, the agency plans to roll it out over a long period and implement managerial training programs.
Similar changes could follow for the patent side of PTO, but there are privacy issues and more technical difficulties involved with the kind of work patent examiners do, Crawford said. Still, "down the road this could affect patent people as well as our administrative staff," he said.
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