Gore to feds: Is reinvention working?

Vice President Al Gore this week is asking 40,000 federal employees whether reinvention is working.

In a survey to thousands of randomly selected civil servants, Gore asks employees to rate their agencies in terms of customer service, leadership, teamwork, employee development, streamlining and job satisfaction. The survey results will be posted on the National Partnership for Reinventing Government Web site later this year. Agencies will use the survey data to improve agency operations, Gore said in a letter to survey participants.

In the survey, employees are asked to rate their agencies on 33 criteria using a five-point scale. Survey statements include the following:

• At the place I work, my opinions seem to count.
• Recognition and rewards are based on merit.
• Employees receive the training they need to perform their jobs.
• My organization has made reinvention an important priority.

The survey also attempts to determine whether specific reinvention initiatives are trickling down through the workforce. For example, one survey question asks whether employees still must record the hours they work on a daily basis. (Gore has told agencies to stop using time sheets.) The survey also asks about the use of charge cards for small purchases, the effectiveness of labor-management partnerships, electronic access to information and efforts to rewrite regulations in plain English.

NPR and experts from the Office of Personnel Management, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Aviation Administration developed the survey, which is designed to take 15 minutes to complete. The President's Management Council and the National Partnership Council, which includes union representatives, approved the survey. The survey data will be entered into OPM's Performance America database and will be used as baseline data to measure future reinvention progress.