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July 17, 2001
Testimony of Myra Shiplett,
Director, Center for Human Resources Management
National Academy of Public Administration
Before the Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government
Management,
Restructuring and the District of Columbia
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members
of the Committee. The National Academy of Public Administration
appreciates this opportunity to provide information to the
Subcommittee regarding the extension of flexible personnel
systems governmentwide.
The Academy applauds the Subcommittee's
interest in providing additional flexibility to federal agencies.
Approximately 100 independent agencies carry out unique missions
within the United Stated government structure. Their functions
and responsibilities require them to interact in various ways
with private and public institutions and businesses operating
in a wide array of fields of endeavor. In spite of this diversity
they are required to operate within the same personnel system
built upon 19th century principles of centralized policy development,
selection from precisely numbered lists of job candidates,
uniform pay scales, and a "one-size-fits-all" philosophy.
In today's competitive environment for talent such a system
is a detriment to the recruitment and retention of an effective
workforce.
Additional flexibility is needed to accommodate
the rapidly changing nature of work and the corresponding
adjustments needed within organizations. The Academy believes
that the current civil service system needs to be reformed
to allow it to operate in this modern environment. Such reform
will take time to effectively structure and to legislate.
In the meantime, certain flexibilities that are currently
unavailable to most agencies have been tested for years and
have proven to be useful tools in improving agency effectiveness.
In the 1978 civil service reform Congress established a process
for structuring "demonstration projects" to permit
agencies to test new approaches to personnel management. The
concept was to extend successful approaches governmentwide.
The Academy believes that the extension of successful approaches
makes good sense and is in keeping with Congressional intention
in the last civil service reform.
With that in mind, three concepts particularly
recommend themselves for consideration. All three have been
tested for at least 10 years and one for over 20 years. The
first in "length of service" is broadbanding. The
technique was approved in 1980 for use at the Navy's China
Lake and San Diego weapons laboratories. It involves grouping
federal pay grades into several pay bands and permitting greater
flexibility in setting pay, promotion, and reassignment within
the broader pay band. The approach has been extensively monitored
and evaluated by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management,
which has reported in numerous studies over the last two decades
that the laboratories have been able to recruit and retain
quality employees at higher rates than the traditional system.
Overall salary costs have increased by only 3 percent over
that 20-year period. Congress has extended the authority to
nine additional agencies since then including GAO, CIA, FAA,
FDIC, and IRS to name a few. We are not suggesting broadbanding
should be the new single system governmentwide, rather agencies
that would like to use this flexibility should be permitted
to do so.
Earlier this year the Academy was asked
to review the Reduction-in-Force (RIF) system at China Lake
-- at both its Mojave Desert and Point Mugu locations. We
were particularly interested in their approach to structuring
their RIF competitive levels since the paramount criteria
in determining retention credit in their system is performance
rather than career tenure as in the regular federal system.
The installations had conducted 2 RIFs simultaneously--one
for employees in the Demo system and one for those in the
traditional system. The RIFs were conducted at the same time,
by the same management, in the same facilities, using the
same management controls. The results were illuminating. Both
systems used five performance levels ranging from Unsatisfactory
to Outstanding. In the traditional system, of those terminated
or downgraded, 65 percent were in the top 2 performance levels--Outstanding
and Highly Successful. In the Demo system, only 14 percent
of those similarly impacted were Outstanding or Highly Successful.
If our goal is to recruit high quality employees into the
federal service and retain them, broadbanding and the RIF
approach described previously strongly lend themselves for
your consideration.
The third approach has been used by the
Agriculture Department for over 10 years. It is an alternative
to the "rule-of-three" which has been recommended
for elimination many times, including by both the National
Academy of Public Administration and the Merit Systems Protection
Board (MSPB). A demonstration project was structured for the
Forest Service and the Agriculture Research Service in 1990
and authorized by Congress. Rather than requiring job applicants
to be listed in absolute score order and selections made from
the top three (a process that is time consuming, litigious,
and creates a false appearance of valid precision), they were
permitted to place candidates into one of several quality
categories (e.g. highly qualified, qualified, unqualified).
Selecting officials could select anyone from the top group
and then from the next group if there were insufficient candidates.
Veterans were placed at the top of each category and were
selected first. The demonstration project was so successful
that Congress approved it for permanent use for Agriculture
in 1995. Since then several agencies have been authorized
to use the approach.
The National Academy of Public Administration
believes that these three approaches have been extensively
tested and have proven to be effective. They should be made
available as alternative personnel systems, under the overall
structure of Title 5, to all federal agencies. The U.S. Office
of Personnel Management (OPM) can provide guidance on their
appropriate use for those agencies wishing to adopt them as
they did during the initial crafting of the demonstration
projects. Enacting these changes would not alter fundamental
merit principles, leaving an established tenet of the current
system completely intact.
Thank you Mr. Chairman for the opportunity
to testify.
Attachment
National Academy
of Public Administration's Related Publications and Studies
Publications
Modernizing Federal
Classification: An Opportunity for Excellence (1991)
A report suggesting objectives and criteria for a new federal
classification system, offers a model for such a system, and
outlines steps and issues for design and implementation.
Effective Downsizing:
A Compendium of Lessons Learned for Government Organizations
(1995)
A practical resource to help organizations formulate action
plans for downsizing, showcasing best practices for managing
workforce reduction.
Strategies and
Alternatives for Transforming Human Resources Management (1995)
A reference for developing a mission driven value added approach
to managing people.
Modernizing Federal
Classification: Operational Broad Banding System Alternatives
(1995)
A report on broad banding models designed to improve work
and organizational management, classification and pay administration.
Innovations &
Flexibilities: Overcoming HR System Barriers (1997)
A reference to help identify barriers to the implementation
of innovation and system flexibilities.
Entry Level Hiring
and Development for the 21st Century: Professional and Administrative
Positions (1999) This resource outlines a comprehensive
set of changes to entry-level hiring methods to improve the
quality of candidates, increase candidate knowledge of agency
programs, uphold merit principles, improve process timeliness,
reduce complexity and burden, and contribute to the government's
goal of having a diverse workforce.
Studies
Naval Research
Lab (1999): Analyzes Naval Research Lab (NRL) position
management program in the context of NRL's future implementation
of a revised personnel system.
Federal Aviation
Administration(1999): Review of the effectiveness of
FAA new human resources management system reform, including
design and implementation, and gives specific recommendations
as to how the reform objectives can be better achieved.
Peace Corps (1999):
Recruitment and Retention of IT Employees: Identifies approaches
and techniques most relevant to helping the agency compete
in today's rapidly changing IT labor market.
Department of
the Navy (2000): Civilian Workforce 2020: Strategies
for Modernizing Human Resources Management in the Department
of the Navy: Examines both external and internal trends in
employment and makes recommendations on strategies to shape
the future force to meet mission goals.
Department of
the Navy Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (2001):
Review of Demonstration Project Reduction in Force Procedures
implemented in November 1999.
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