TOPICS
TOPICS
Panelists say workforce issues will gain momentum under next president
The creation of the chief human capital officer role at federal agencies demonstrates the importance of personnel issues, an area that will continue to gain momentum in the next administration, panelists said Tuesday at a breakfast sponsored by Government Executive.
"The [chief financial officer] legislation was passed many years ago because someone said money was important; and the [chief information officer] passed because IT was important," said Gail Lovelace, CHCO at the General Services Administration. "Well, the passing of the CHCO legislation showed that human capital -- the people of an organization -- is important."
While workforce issues are a higher priority these days, panelists said, overall there are fewer employees to perform more complicated tasks in the face of shrinking budgets.
Lovelace said a steep decline in the number of GSA employees -- down to 12,000 from 40,000 when she first came to the agency in 1979 - has prompted the agency to revise its workforce strategy. "The truth is not having enough people or [resources] forces us to rethink how we get our work done," she said. "It forces us to think about new technology solutions, and it forces us to think about not trying to do the work the way we've always done it."
Reginald Wells, chief human capital officer at the Social Security Administration, said his agency has been limited by an increase in retirements, a wave that is not likely to slow as currently 60 percent of SSA's workforce is eligible to retire. "We're down to 61,000 employees, down from 85,000 at one point," he said.
Meanwhile, Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer said three groups -- the CHCO Council, OPM and Congress -- play an important role in ensuring human capital issues are managed with the same intensity in the next administration. The CHCO Council, she said, is largely represented by career officials, whether in the top job or deputy CHCO roles, who are advocates of human capital in their agencies. In addition, she said, OPM career officials in particular feel a responsibility for continuing an initiative like the President's Management Agenda, of which human capital is likely to be a major focus.
"I don't think anyone would say that either of these [presidential] candidates would turn their back on people," she said.
Springer also said Congress has leaders, including Sens. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, who "have reinforced the need for attention to human capital."
The 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey will be administered starting Aug. 1, with results being released in January. Springer said the timing of the survey's release will bring workforce issues to the attention of the next president and new agency leadership.
"In January, the new political leadership coming in will have the benefit of fresh data from the federal workforce," she said. "The 2008 survey data of the federal workforce will be able to create a basis on which not only the CHCOs, but all agency leaders will know where to focus."
Pay for performance and telework are not going away, said panelists. CHCOs at all agencies are committed to rolling out pay reforms, according to Springer, whether they're large programs at the Defense Department or within the intelligence community, or small-scale demonstration projects targeting a portion of an agency's workforce.
"Who can argue against paying our employees for the performance they bring to the organization every day?" Lovelace said. "We are watching and learning from [other agencies] to see how we can best bring pay for performance into our organization. But performance management is our key, and that's where we are now."
Lovelace also touted GSA as the government's "policy guru" on telework, noting that more improvements in technology and privacy safeguards coupled with rising gas prices will help telework to "absolutely live and grow."
COMMENTS
- Well no degree needed to understand the old addage: Why hire YOU when I can hire 5 of the others for half the price. Gotta love NAFTA. I am concerned about the security of the US when we depend on and import products from other countries. Seems like the dollar speaks the loudest these days. I keep hearing about the baby boomers" retiring which will leave a huge gap in the employee pool-as mentioned above. Un fortunately you have shrinking budgets too. Hmm, what will happen? One of the drawbacks of staying healthy and growing old, you have to live through things like this. kevin carpenter Posted September 20, 2008 10:23 PM
- There is something fundamentally wrong with the way companies go about hiring the people resources they say they need and can not find. I have a doctorate in electrical engineering and graduated with honors and several years of technical experience. In the past, I have applied for numerous positions requiring someone with a strong technical background. Most of the companies, I never hear from even though the ads they post on electronic job boards like careerbuilders and monter indicate they have needs for some one with my exact level of experience and skills. I think the problem is that companies are wanting to cash-in on cheap foreign labor and not really wanting to hire the more expensive (although very skilled) U.S. job seeker. Corporations seem to be more focused on how many millions of dollars and perks they can give their CEOs, how much profit they generate for their shareholders... rather than pay a higher wage to the highly skilled U.S. worker. I don't have a problem with the profits parts as long as it is not at the expense of the everyday common U.S. citizen that is statistically known to be among the hardest working, globally speaking. Just to observe what many U.S. workers are experiencing in getting hired in these supposedly "hard to fill positions", I would propose that the U.S. goverenment create a pool of resumes from qualified american workers with the skills and experience levels these companies claim they need. Then have those companies submit there job reqs to the government pool of technically skilled U.S. workers for matching. When matches are determine, the government would simply notify these companies that an individual with necessary skills has been identified and should be hired. Our government would see first hand there is not a lack of qualified workers to fill the positions companies say they can't fill. They would also see how many qualified U.S. workers get ignore for positions that companies claim there are not enough U.S. workers to fill. In short, I keep hearing there is a shortage of highly skilled U.S. workers... however, I don't personally see this reality when most companies seem to pass over american citizens for foreign or illegal workers instead. Can anyone explain this? C. Shavers Posted August 13, 2008 5:50 AM
- I personally hope the next administration will let the NSPS die; it has been bad from the start. Once it is completely in force it will take another Administration to fix the problem, not to mention the cost. Just look at the comments of the people already under NSPS; do the workers like the system, is the NSPS an improvement over the General Schedule Pay Scale; has the workforce improved, do you get rewarded for doing more work, is the grading system fair and equal, are the workers happy? NO, to all. Who is listening? It sure isn’t Congress. The NSPS has pushed many civilians to retire or seek employment elsewhere, with them went corporate knowledge. With a new President and an Administration change, where will that leave the US? Vulnerable? We are a great country, but who would have thought we would have a 9/11 attack on homeland soil? Do you think we are invulnerable even now? Put Congress under the same system: they cannot even get a Budget approved and because it is an election year there could be a Continuing Resolution for 6-12 months. The FY09 Budget starts 1 October 2009 and the elections are not until November, Congress wants to delay the Budget until January 2009 or later. Get real! By early February the FY11 Budget must be completed and submitted by all Agencies and Departments. We need to shorten the Naturalization process and offer the illegal aliens the opportunity to become an US citizen without a 10-15 year wait. ABSOLUTELY NO AMNESTY, this would be an insult to all legal immigrants & citizens. The Naturalization process would acquire huge amounts of tax revenue for the US and gain hard working citizens who want to improve their life and the lives of their family. With the world market as it is today to much revenue is leaving the country which the US has no control over. This needs to stop. A person should not be arrested and fined because they do not speak English! Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! All these things should be considered but most important in every American’s mind is the huge NATIONAL DEBT. This must reduced and fixed. We must become a self sufficient nation without the dependency on foreign countries and there needs to be a limit set on the property, industry, and businesses owned by foreign countries in the United States. Civilian Worker Posted July 29, 2008 12:37 PM
