Transition can make staff performance a priority
Key Points:
- Update transition teams on current priorities
- Careerists’ expertise can prevent agencies from dropping the ball
- New program goals will impact individual performance plans
Feds: Use transition to make case for staff, performance
By Melissa Turley, cyberFEDS® Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Many federal employees are engaged in projects spearheaded by Bush administration leaders.
But that does not mean civil servants can drag their feet over the next few months as President-elect Barack Obama gets his team in place and forms his policy agenda.
“We work for the president,” Jon Desenberg, senior policy director for the Performance Institute and a former General Services Administration policy analyst, told cyberFEDS®. “But our customer is the American people. That’s how you stay engaged in work.”
Now that the transition period is in full swing, government workers — and the HR shops that support them — can use the opportunity to show incoming leaders what they’ve been up to for the last eight years, and what resources they need for the next four.
Looking to inauguration
Paul Light, a New York University at Goddard professor, recommends HR prepare their cases for more staff.
“There’s an openness on the Obama team to the argument that the government is understaffed,” he said, “and an awareness that we need more federal employees to accomplish the mission of government.”
HR’s main focus during the pre-inaugural period is ensuring conversions from noncareer and Schedule C appointments to career appointments are consistent with merit principles, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
The agency, which issued guidance on the transition in June, agrees with many government management observers that the expertise of careerists is the key to a successful transition.
“The incoming administration can consider detailing careerists to key roles during the transition, or if the individual is interested, converting the careerist to a political appointment after inauguration,” OPM said.
Desenberg also said that HR and line management must take a hard look at performance management.
“HR should revisit how it’s measuring employees,” he said. “Are you using SMART criteria? That is, criteria that is specific, measurable, accountable, results-oriented and time-bound?”
Agencies that have not already done so must also ensure individual performance plans tie into broader organization goals. This raises the question: If an employee is measured for a government program that may cease to exist or have different targets under an Obama administration, how should individual employee performance be measured?
For example, the Environmental Protection Agency will likely have to hit more aggressive targets under an Obama administration. So Desenberg predicts new agency leadership will likely beef up individual measures.
“As you raise the bar, you do new things,” Desenberg said. “What you tell people is to start with the end goal in mind. If the target changes, work backwards to change strategies and individual measures that start that goal.”
Where to expect cuts
Obama has also pledged to thin the federal management ranks.
Light predicts that the Obama administration could cut the civil service, similar to what the Clinton administration did.
“What’s funny is when you look at the big picture, you see Democratic presidents tend to be the ones who end up cutting parts of the federal workforce,” he said. “We saw almost no cutting in the Bush administration. Mainly Democratic presidents get away with it because they have the support [of the unions].”
However, OPM cautioned against haste. In a statement, it pointed out that political appointees can’t make changes affecting senior executives’ job assignments within their first 120 days at the agency.
“Depending on the priorities and objectives of the incoming administration, changes can be made to agencies’ organizational structure. However, in practice, most incoming appointees delay such initiatives until they have an in-depth understanding of the organization,” OPM said.
Unlike the Clinton administration, Obama will probably focus on cutting contractors, Light said. Still managers should be in the mind-set of “justifying their positions.”
“I think Obama was quite serious about mandating some kind of reduction in numbers,” he said. “There’s certainly not going to be a wholesale reduction, but an effort by the Obama team to reduce the number of layers as opposed to management layers.”
November 11, 2008
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