Report calls compromise cornerstone to hiring reform

A report on an October 2009 meeting of high-level officials and other leaders about the future of federal personnel policy calls for compromise and caution against viewing technology or regulatory change as a cure-all for the government's hiring and recruiting challenges.

"Idealism and weakened private sector prospects are combining to drive a surge of interest in public service," said the report by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, which organized and facilitated last fall's summit along with the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and the Office of Personnel Management. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reinforce the federal government with more of America's best. It is critical to make sure that the opportunity isn't wasted."

The October forum, held in Washington, featured federal agency leaders, including OPM Director John Berry; Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients; and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; the heads of major federal employee unions and the Senior Executives Association; and industry representatives. Berry said at the time he hoped the sessions would help him craft a package of hiring reforms to send to President Obama before the end of the year. OMB currently is reviewing a series of legislative and regulatory changes that OPM has proposed.

The forum's sessions were closed to the press and the public, so the report provides a sense of the discussion among participants.

Though the focus was on hiring rather than pay, the report noted, "few people think the federal government should match private sector compensation for top talent, and nobody thinks it will. This raises the stakes for getting everything else right in replacing today's federal workers with people of the same high caliber."

The report said participants agreed that while technological fixes, such as making applications easier to fill out and submit, were important, they did not represent a comprehensive solution. And leaders from the private and nonprofit sectors said the time and energy that top executives have spent on recruiting and evaluating candidates were the most important factors in a successful hiring process.

"Senior people are a critical element, and the best recruiters are rarely people who do nothing else," forum participants from outside government emphasized, according to the report. "In government, it often feels like hiring is all about process. By contrast, the private sector participants reported how they focus on the result -- getting the right people -- and adjust the process to fit that goal."

Participants noted the existence of some regulatory obstacles "that nobody defends," like the rule of three, which requires managers to select hires from among the top three candidates and is intended to prevent favoritism. Such rules are not always evaluated to see if they are effective, or still relevant, participants said.

But they also emphasized some agencies have mastered elements of hiring, including forecasting workloads and predicting workforce needs, or building strong career brands, suggesting success could be simply a matter of focus.

"Many of the obstacles are not legislative and some are not even regulatory. Really focusing on hiring can make a considerable difference," the report said. "It's possible to radically speed up hiring without formally revamping personnel policy."