Chertoff repeats call for swift personnel reform

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Monday renewed his calls for a speedy switch to a pay-for-performance personnel system.

Quick implementation of rules designed to move Homeland Security employees off the General Schedule and into a pay-for-performance system will lessen anxiety over the changes, Chertoff said at the Excellence in Government conference, a three-day event co-sponsored by Government Executive.

At the same time, the department will need to secure adequate financial support before it can successfully implement the system, Chertoff said. Supervisors will need to be "properly educated and trained in what it means to evaluate performance, because it will be an important role," he said. Department officials will need to assure employees that there will be a chance for feedback, and that the evaluation process will be fair and transparent, he added.

"One of the things we've requested of Congress in the appropriations process is to make sure that we are getting the full measure of what the president has requested in the budget for [the personnel changes], so we can continue to move forward and . . . actually be able to inaugurate this process in a way that is efficient and actually alleviates anxiety among the workforce," Chertoff said.

Implementation of the personnel rules already has been moved from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15. A federal judge requested the delay so that she would have time to make a final decision on union charges that the system would violate employees' collective bargaining rights.

Chertoff also defended his decision to leave the department's management chiefs-the chief financial officer, information officer, procurement officer, human capital officer and administrative officer-reporting to Undersecretary for Management Janet Hale. She is one of two undersecretaries whose jobs are not slated to be eliminated or changed substantially as part of his recently announced departmental reorganization.

A number of observers have argued that the current reporting arrangement leaves the business chiefs lacking the authority to fully integrate management processes and systems across the department. But Chertoff noted that he already has about 29 direct reports, though the number could go down slightly after the reorganization is complete.

"It seemed to me that simply creating more direct reports creates the illusion of coordination without necessarily the reality of coordination," Chertoff said. "So in order to make sure that we do operate on these very important management functions in a coordinated way, I think it was our determination . . . that we ought to keep these functions as part of the undersecretary for management's authority."

But Chertoff emphasized that he and Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson meet regularly with many of the management chiefs, including the CFO, CIO and head of procurement, and will continue to do so. The existing structure allows an appropriate balance between such hands-on leadership involvement and the number of direct reports, he said.

Personnel reform and the management directorate were two items left largely unaffected by Chertoff's plan to reorganize the department, announced two weeks ago.

That reorganization will follow the "guiding principles" of making the department more "nimble" and results-oriented, improving partnerships with the private sector and state and local governments, and setting priorities based on risk, Chertoff said. Four specific changes-the introduction of a chief intelligence officer to coordinate information gathering across the department, the establishment of a central policy shop, the introduction of a "unified operations structure that can translate our intelligence into action," and the consolidation of emergency preparedness activities in one directorate-will help achieve those objectives, he said.