Report touts intelligence personnel reforms as a model

The intelligence community's personnel approach could serve as the gold standard for the federal government, according to a new report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government.

The report, written by James Thompson and Rob Seidner of the public administration department at the University of Illinois-Chicago, noted that flexibilities granted in a 2004 intelligence reform law gave spy agencies the opportunity to make innovative changes that balanced their specific personnel needs with those of the broader community's. "The component units have ceded some of their autonomy in the interest of a stronger and more cohesive whole," the report stated.

That model could inform governmentwide personnel reform efforts, the authors said.

The customization of workforce policies the Bush administration encouraged by granting agencies exemptions to civil service law has several disadvantages, the report said. Differences in hiring standards and pay systems make employees less mobile, for instance. The government also ends up paying more for workers with critical skill sets because diverse personnel systems force agencies to compete with one another for job candidates.

"Agencies authorized to create their own personnel rules have shifted away from the [General Schedule] and toward paybanding," the report stated. "In the absence of any governmentwide framework, agencies have devised highly diverse sets of paybanding rules and standards that compromise the objective of internal equity."

The report recommended that agencies be given the flexibility to develop their own personnel systems, but within common parameters set by the Office of Personnel Management. This would ensure buy-in by those charged with implementing human resources programs and foster an atmosphere of trust and cooperation among employees.

"If traditional hierarchical approaches are employed, the balance will inevitably tip in favor of departmental considerations," the report said. "In this model, agencies are full participants in the development of departmental rules."

The report's authors also recommended allowing agencies with similar missions to share a common human resources framework. In the area of food safety, for example, the Food and Drug Administration could lead a cluster of agencies that includes parts of the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments.

In addition, the government could extend the intelligence community's joint-duty requirements to the entire Senior Executive Service, according to the report. "The vast majority of SES members spend their entire careers in a single agency," the report noted. "The purpose [of joint duty] would be to broaden the perspective of those who reach the top levels of the career service and to foster collaboration among agencies in addressing issues that cross agency lines."