Nontraditional work arrangements underutilized, report says

Greater managerial flexibility might be possible by beefing up the number of part-time, seasonal, contract and on-call jobs available in the federal government, according to a new report on nonstandard work arrangements.

Commenting on the tide of personnel overhauls now under way in the federal government, two professors at the University of Illinois-Chicago say the government should take a closer look at implementing a "blended workforce."

The Office of Personnel Management reports that more than 90 percent of federal workers are in full-time, permanent jobs. That number, according to the report's authors, James R. Thompson and Sharon H. Mastracci, could be lowered substantially. Nonstandard workers create more flexibility for managers to alter their workforce, especially during budget cuts or times of high-demand, the two wrote in the report.

The report argues that temporary staff can serve as a ready-made "farm team" of trained and vetted workers when permanent jobs become available. The aim of getting a full-time job also could lead to a highly motivated and productive temporary workforce.

The report was published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government. It promotes a core-ring model that consists of a core of full-time permanent staff supplemented by a ring of workers in alternative arrangements.

These positions can also offer family-friendly alternatives for workers with children who are in school or who are getting older.

The authors' ideas were welcomed by Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a Washington-based nonprofit advocacy group.

"I think in general the federal work environment needs to move into the 21st century and that means both providing greater resources for the development of the existing workforce and drawing more widely from the various talent pools that exist outside of government," Stier said. "One of the challenges the federal workforce is that it is only a career model and not a career-builder model."

Yvonne Williams, director of human resources at the Office of Naval Research, said a variety of student and intern programs, one of many options suggested in the report, diversify her workforce, among other perks. "It's a tremendous help as far as having these talented young people who are computer savvy … In every way, racial, cultural, ethnic, gender-everything-it just brings in a wonderful balance."

Colleen Kelley, President of The National Treasury Employees Union, says she finds some of the report's recommendations "troubling." Kelley said that "in working toward what the authors claim would be a flexible federal workforce, their recommendations would instead work toward the creation of second-class federal employees. These employees would be hired as less than full-time career employees who possibly would have less than the full range of health, retirement, and other benefits."

In a letter from OPM to lawmakers, agency officials wrote that the pending legislation "would provide unprecedented flexibility to meet temporary and continuing mission needs by permitting a streamlined hiring process, consolidating categories of employees into two groups -- career and time limited -- and allowing for those on time-limited appointments to convert to career status under certain conditions."

A few government agencies already use such nonstandard work arrangements. For example, the Internal Revenue Service hires approximately 9,200 of its 100,000 employees as seasonal workers, mostly during tax season. The U.S. Postal Service employs casual and part-time flexible workers during the holiday mail rush and the summer months, when full-time employees typically vacation.

According to Thompson, workers like these nonstandard arrangements as well. These employees, he says, "like being able to shift assignments. They're not consigned for life to one job or even one particular agency. Their pay is roughly equivalent, maybe even better, and their benefits are roughly comparable."