Government reform groups unveil transition plan

The next president cannot solve major policy problems without reforming the human capital process and investing in managers, said a coalition of good-government groups on Wednesday.

"The starting point is to understand that the success of the next president and the next administration rests on the talent of the workforce that he inherits," said Jonathan Breul, executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government and one of the co-signers of a proposed federal management framework for the president-elect. "These are the people who are going to have to do the work and get the job done."

The framework, devised by the Partnership for Public Service, was endorsed by several nonprofit groups -- the Council for Excellence in Government, the National Academy of Public Administration, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and the Coalition for Effective Change -- along with the consulting firm Public Strategies Group.

Max Stier, president of the Partnership, said work on the proposal began more than a year ago, and the final document evolved out of conversations among the organizations that signed it and visits to Federal Executive Boards for perspectives from federal employees outside Washington.

The framework identifies three major challenges the next president will face: finding the right talent, engaging new hires and providing strong leadership. The plan calls for reforming the recruiting and hiring process and the federal pay system; strengthening strategic human capital planning, and improving training and job development programs. The groups said agencies should invest in leadership training programs and use term appointments to provide job security and continuity.

The next administration must address the issue of performance management to meet those three challenges, according to the proposal, through stronger oversight of human capital, credible metrics to support a pay-for-performance system, and leadership accountability.

But Stier said the next administration should not make changes just for the sake of change. Its leaders should build on useful resources like the Program Assessment Rating Tool, implemented to evaluate the efficacy of federal programs, he said.

The groups' work on helping to smooth the next presidential transition includes other projects. Alethea Long-Green, director for human capital programs at the National Academy of Public Administration, said her organization was working with the Senior Executives Association to survey top career managers for suggestions on what information and training would have improved their experiences during previous transitions. The Council for Excellence in Government is partnering with the Homeland Security Department on a number of transition projects.

Stier said it was important for the presidential candidates to recognize the link between management and their agendas.

"There will be tremendous pressure to deal with these issues [like Iraq and the economy] in the first 100 days," he said. "But they'll have to move very quickly on these management issues if they expect to get any of this done….We live in an increasingly scary and complicated world. We are going to need government to step up its game."