Implementation cited as biggest obstacle to personnel reforms

The largest barrier to governmentwide personnel reform is likely to be the implementation, rather than the design, of new policies, some observers say.

The Homeland Security and Defense departments are revamping their personnel systems to tie pay to performance and streamline their labor-management relations processes, and the Bush administration has circulated draft legislation that would extend those changes governmentwide. But even supporters of the proposed reforms agree that extensive changes will prove difficult to implement.

In a hearing last week before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization, Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service-which supports much of the governmentwide draft legislation dubbed the Working for America Act-emphasized that there are opportunities for improvement under current policies.

"It is imperative that we not wait until this act is implemented to begin creating the performance-based workplace that is so needed," Stier said. "Indeed, there is much that can be done under existing flexibilities to promote these goals."

Witnesses at the hearing touted the Education Department's Federal Student Aid agency as having done just that.

"It can and does work," said Theresa Shaw, chief operating officer of FSA. Shaw said her agency managed to decrease the student loan default rate from 22.4 percent in 1990 to 4.5 percent in 2005.

The Office of Personnel Management granted FSA a number of personnel flexibilities that helped it succeed, Shaw said. Those included the ability to bypass the standard competitive process for some hires and to offer some senior managers additional performance-based compensation.

FSA was able to boost performance even without the added flexibilities, according to Shaw. For instance, the agency improved its standards and feedback mechanisms, she said.

Observers say that with many flexibilities already available yet largely unused, implementation will be key to the success of any newly legislated flexibilities. One of those observers is W. Scott Gould, a vice president of IBM's Business Consulting Services and co-author of a forthcoming book on federal personnel.

Agencies haven't fully implemented existing policies on handling poor performers, Gould said. For instance, alternative dispute mechanisms would help managers deal with poor performers in a less confrontational way, but are underutilized, he said.

Gould also noted that agencies are allowed to test reforms by initiating as many as 10 demonstration projects covering up to 5,000 employees. But very few agencies do, he said.

For the proposed governmentwide personnel reforms to have a real effect, agencies must undertake intensive training and education for managers, Gould said. Funding and time are also critical, he said.

"You can't have a bunch of folks sit down and write out a new policy or a law and turn a light switch on and have a new system in place," Gould said in an interview Wednesday. "We'll have to teach literally hundreds of thousands of people."

David M. Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office and a strong proponent of personnel reforms, agreed that, before accepting new legislation, steps could be taken to implement past policy changes.

"Moving forward with human capital reform, in the short term, Congress should consider selected and targeted actions to continue to accelerate the momentum to make strategic human capital management the centerpiece of the government's overall transformation effort," Walker said in written testimony.

Walker pointed to the Human Capital Performance Fund--created in 2003 to reward agencies' highest-performing employees, but never fully implemented due to a lack of funding--as one tool that could be used immediately to help personnel reform.

There is a reason, however, why reforms could take hold this time around, Gould said: a momentum for change created by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and even a potential outbreak of the avian bird flu.

"There have been a series of crises in government that have enabled this change," Gould said. "My belief is those crises have made it possible to make changes in the system that prior to [the crises were] not politically feasible."

Advocates of the Working for America Act also say the legislation might work because it requires each agency to develop an implementation scheme. OPM would evaluate the plans before granting agencies access to additional funds.

"I think that the WFA act has it right in the way that it's organized," Stier said in an interview Tuesday. "The horse is before the cart. The agencies need to demonstrate that they are capable of using the flexibilities before they're given additional [support]."

Bush administration officials and members of Congress have characterized the legislation as a work in progress. No lawmakers have agreed to sponsor the bill in its current form.