The Reformation

As the Defense and Homeland Security departments overhaul their personnel systems and scrap the decades-old General Schedule system, employees at other federal agencies are looking over their shoulders and wondering when they will be affected.

"It has been a hit and miss operation," Leon Panetta, an Office of Management and Budget chief during the Clinton administration, told Government Executive. "I think that really creates a problem with morale in civil service when that happens. Some agencies are pushing for reforms, others are not; nobody knows who is next."

An array of experts and public service advocates have said that personnel officials across the government need more flexibility with their human capital management, and they have advocated reforms in all agencies. Observers also have warned that security needs and an impending wave of retirements in the federal workforce make widespread personnel reform an urgent issue.

"The status quo is not acceptable," said Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service.

"You can't let things move at their own pace … but that said, you want to get it right. It shouldn't be change for change's sake," Stier said. He added that officials must "make sure that we also don't create a government that is split between the haves and have nots."

The 2004 Defense Authorization Act gave the Pentagon approval to set up a National Security Personnel System to replace the GS system. The law allows the department to limit bargaining and implement a pay-for-performance system. When DHS was established, it was given similar personnel powers.

While personnel officials have hinted that pay-for-performance is the future for all agencies, they were quiet on the issue this week. The Office of Personnel Management was not able to comment on the issue. White House spokesman Alan Abney said he was unable to find any information on the Bush administration's position on governmentwide personnel reform.

Other branches of government, however, are focused closely on the issue. In late April, Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, called on the Government Accountability Office to identify "principles, criteria and processes" that would be used in a governmentwide reform.

"The flexibilities [at the Defense and Homeland Security departments] were enacted in part based upon recognition that the current federal personnel system is antiquated," Collins said in her letter to GAO. "We must strive for a consistent, governmentwide approach to civil service reform."

GAO is taking the issue seriously, according to Chris Mihm, the agency's managing director of strategic issues. He said every agency does not need the exact same flexibilities, but he said there should be a guiding hand from OPM.

"The goal of all this is to have a decentralized federal personnel system, but not a disaggregate one," Mihm said.

But many observers believe the goal of governmentwide reform-with common themes molded to individual agencies-already may be a lost cause. As the Defense and Homeland Security departments move forward with reforms, a large percentage of the federal workforce is moving with them.

"There's no question that the biggest horses have left the barn," Panetta said. "It's a little tough to think that somehow other agencies are going to be able to have the same clout in doing it. We are now left with a very mixed bag, some reforms having been implemented, while [other agencies] are basically outside of that process."