Human Resource Management

Reinventing Human Resource Management Issue Summary

In government, our most important resources for achieving results are
people. Without qualified, motivated people, managed properly, all the
computers and advanced technology that money can buy are worthless.  Yet
the system we've used in the past, to manage human resources, has not
been results oriented. Today the federal government employs some 40,000
personnel workers who are attempting to administer a multi-layered
system bogged down by outdated and conflicting regulations. In many
agencies, the personnel office is a foreign land where effort is focused
on paperwork rather than people. There, indecipherable customs and
rituals take place that have absolutely no relevance to line managers
who are concerned with accomplishing results.

While following the principles of merit, equity, and equal opportunity,
the NPR has based its Human Resources recommendations on
decentralization, deregulation, simplicity, flexibility, and substantial
delegation of authority to managers.  Our primary goal is to shift
accountability for personnel actions from personnel administrators to
agency executives and managers who are directly responsible for
achieving results. Wherever possible, we believe decision-making
authority should be in the hands of line managers and self-managed
workteams operating closest to where the work gets done. Under this new
accountability structure, the role of the personnel office is beginning
to shift from reactive paper processor to proactive consultant and
advisor to managers, workers, and organized labor representatives.

Over the past year, working together, we have made progress.  The
President set the stage by establishing a National Partnership Council
to foster federal labor-management cooperation. Agencies have responded
by signing 32 partnership agreements and forming local councils. The
President also directed agencies to create and support family-friendly
work arrangements. Both OPM and GSA have responded by reviewing and
revising workplace regulations to help this initiative. OPM has also
phased out the Federal Personnel Manual a year ahead of schedule,
abolished the SF-171, and has started the process of eliminating
time-in-grade requirements for promotion. This year, the administration
began drafting a major HR management reform bill to give agencies more
latitude in improving their individual systems. These and many other
dramatic changes in approach will require a new ethic of cooperation and
support.

Your participation in this Electronic Open Meeting will go a long way
toward energizing, refining, and implementing NPR Recommendations and
Actions affecting Human Resource Management.  During the next two weeks
you'll be able to connect, engage, and network with participants across
the federal workforce. By sharing experiences and ideas on government
reinvention, this Electronic Open Meeting will help forge the
enterprising and pragmatic solutions needed to create a government that
works better and costs less.