Personnel chief calls for better attitude toward civil servants

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry called for a dramatic shift in attitude toward federal workers during a conference in Washington on Monday, saying it was "a matter of necessity" in order to attract the necessary resources and personnel to government.

"The broadsides of the last 30 years have not only hurt morale, recruitment and, I believe, retention; ultimately, they've inhibited our ability to deliver the best service to the American people," Berry said in a speech at the Excellence in Government conference sponsored by Government Executive.

Berry cited the civilian federal employees who made possible the moon landing 40 years ago today, found a way to indict Al Capone for tax evasion, and won Nobel Prizes for scientific research. Between 1995 and 2007, 2,085 civil servants died on the job, facing risks similar to their counterparts in the military, he said.

Verbal attacks on federal employees are particularly unfair, given how much their workload has increased, Berry said. In 1970, 4 percent of working Americans were employed by federal agencies, he noted. That has decreased to 2 percent today. In specific agencies, Berry said, the challenge is particularly dramatic. The number of workers who administer Medicare and Medicaid has fallen 7 percent, from 4,900 in 1980 to 4,600 in 2009, while the number of participants in those programs has risen 64 percent during that same time, from 50 million to 81 million enrollees.

Negative attitudes among politicians and the public are not the only problem civil servants face, Berry said.

"We have, by and large, the best workers in the world, but we do not have the systems or policies we need to support them," he said. "We need comprehensive reform, from recruitment and hiring to pay and training. And, we must expect the best from every employee and fairly appraise their performance to guarantee to the public that America is getting what she deserves -- the best."

Berry mounted a defense for the policies he has adopted during his first months in office, including early efforts to create a governmentwide performance management system, calling the package of programs "a complete refresh of the federal government's people policy." He emphasized he was reaching out to academic experts; managers; and employee groups, some of which expressed skepticism about his efforts earlier in the day. Berry added that he planned to modernize position descriptions, something American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage listed as a priority.

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Berry said he thought OPM had the authority to make many changes unilaterally on issues such as hiring reform, saying, "my hope is we're going to be able to move faster and quicker" than Congress. But he said he was working to build a strong relationship with members of Congress for reforms that would require legislation.

He also said his relationship with Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag would be critical to OPM's ability to enforce its mandates by tying requirements such as hiring reform to budget requests.

"I recognize OPM is a small agency," Berry said. "We are a flea in this town. How a flea survives is to attach themselves to a very big dog. I've found that the best big dog is the one that has the checkbook….I can't pretend this flea steers the dog, but we have a good relationship with our dog."