In his December 2014 address to Federal Senior Executives, President Obama said, “[W]e need the best and brightest of the coming generations to serve. [T]hose of us who believe government can and must be a force for good…we’ve got to work hard to make sure that government works.” Through the Management Agenda’s focus on People and Culture, the Administration is committed to undertaking executive actions that will attract and retain the best talent to the Federal workforce and foster a culture of excellence. The Budget supports efforts to reform the Senior Executive Service (SES) and improve employee engagement in order to fully capitalize on the talents in today’s Federal workforce at all levels, and recruit and develop the talent needed to continue moving the Federal Government forward in the 21st Century.
3.4.1
Leading America’s Workforce
More than half of the Government’s SES leaders are currently eligible to retire, and that number will rise to 64 percent by 2016. The impending SES “retirement wave” provides a unique opportunity to train the next generation of leaders. Agencies are piloting a number of reforms to transform the SES in preparation for 21st Century service. For example, the current hiring process for SES can now take almost a year to complete, so one pilot currently underway looks at accelerating hiring speeds. Another pilot focuses on new performance management measures and onboarding procedures to better prepare SES for their new positions and support top performers. In addition, agencies are improving their recruitment techniques to ensure the SES cadre better reflects the diversity of the workforce they lead and the American people they serve. To achieve these goals, the Budget proposes new funding for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to strengthen SES hiring and accountability.
The Administration has launched two new efforts that will start in 2015 and continue into 2016 to support SES reform:
White House Advisory Group. In order for SES reform to be successful, it cannot happen in a vacuum. Regular, high-quality feedback is needed from senior executives, the people who are both charged with implementing the reforms and best positioned to evaluate their impact on the ground. The White House Advisory Group on SES Reform was established to provide that direct feedback and advice on the core components of the Administration’s efforts to improve the SES corps. The Advisory Group members were selected by their agency leadership as examples of highly effective SES, Senior Level, and Senior Technical professionals, as well as some aspiring SES, and will provide a broad set of advice on the current and future state of the senior career leadership. They will be charged with helping improve the way the Government recruits, hires, develops, and retains senior career leaders. They will also advise on effective performance management and accountability mechanisms for the SES. The breadth of experience of this group, as well as its close connections to SES in the field, will ensure we are getting the best ideas directly from the front lines.
White House Leadership Development Program. As part of the President’s continued commitment to training and developing the Government’s high performers and strengthening the next generation of SES, the Administration is launching the White House Leadership Development Program. Through this program, top civil servants and SES candidates will participate in rotational assignments to drive progress on Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals and lead change across Departments and programs. Participants in the program will gain valuable experience by playing a key role in addressing critical management challenges facing the Federal Government and will gain valuable experience to bring back to their agencies.
3.4.2
Employee Engagement
In both the private and public sector, an employee’s investment in the mission of their organization is closely related to the organization’s overall performance. Engaged employees display greater dedication, persistence, and effort in their work, and better serve their customers — whether they are consumers or taxpayers. This makes employee engagement a critical performance measurement for Federal agencies. Overall, employee engagement levels in Government are at 63 percent, below the private sector average. Further, wide variation exists across and within agencies, including among organizations that perform similar functions. The Administration is committed to strengthening employee engagement, and aims to increase engagement levels to 67 percent by 2016. However, there is no single solution that will guarantee positive results. Rather, it takes actions at all levels of an organization to achieve these targets. Recent Budgets have invested in OPM to enhance its ability to measure employee engagement, most notably by making the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (EVS) an annual survey. From the EVS, OPM derives the Employee Engagement Index, which measures employees’ attitudes toward office leadership, their supervisors, and their workplace experience. This allows agency and administration leadership to closely follow changes in employee engagement Government-wide and within particular organizations. In 2014, OPM released UnlockTalent. gov, a dashboard providing managers with deep insight into the data from the EVS results of 21,000 organizations. These data help managers see in minute detail their employees’ attitudes toward issues such as leadership, training, and promotion, allowing agency leaders to tailor strategic plans that specifically address employee needs. The Budget funds tools to enhance the value of the EVS through UnlockTalent.gov and other mechanisms that communicate this critical information about the Federal workforce to a wider audience.
In December 2014, the Directors of OMB, OPM, and the White House Presidential Personnel Office jointly issued a memorandum laying out the annual cycle for strengthening employee engagement and linking employee engagement to mission outcome. Moving forward, agency Chief Human Capital Officers and other senior officials will facilitate and ensure distribution of EVS results to all executives, supervisors/managers, and employees at the component and office level, within three months of the survey completion date. The Administration has also clarified the roles and responsibilities of agency heads, Deputy Secretaries, component heads, Chief Human Capital Officers, Performance Improvement Officers, SES, and others in advancing employee engagement. For example, component heads will review progress on workforce improvement efforts at least quarterly, and SES will begin to have some aspects of employee feedback incorporated into their performance plans.
3.4.3
Encouraging an Agile Workforce
Part of successfully engaging with employees is ensuring an agile Federal workforce that can put its large store of talent to the best possible use, whether that is within their own office or agency, or to address critical problems at other agencies. To support this and encourage an engaged and flexible workforce, the Administration is building innovative tools to share talent across agencies. For example, the GovConnect workforce agility program allows managers to find employees outside their agencies that have the necessary skills to manage special projects. With GovConnect, managers can assemble virtual teams to work on new projects, or manage in the face of crisis. This project is being piloted throughout 2014 and 2015, and agencies will begin adapting successful pilot models for their own mission needs in 2016.
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