AGA Today
A Government
Document Without the Governmentese: OPM Plan Sets Clear Goals
By
Stephen Barr
Friday, March 10, 2006; Page D04
The
Office of Personnel Management announced a "to do" list yesterday.
It
released a new five-year strategic and operational plan that is
strikingly clear and simple. Past OPM plans have been filled with dense
text, making it difficult to figure out what the agency's goals were, or
featured glossy photos and mostly rhetorical fluff. The new plan is
neither.
It is
a 35-page booklet, not a tome. It lists 170 objectives -- what the
agency's director, Linda M. Springer , called "to do items" --
each with a deadline. The description of each objective begins with a
verb -- issue, develop, set up, complete -- "an actual action we are
taking," Springer said.
"It
is not a political plan. It is not a director's plan," she told
reporters yesterday.
That
may be the case, because Springer stressed that a 50-member task force
put the plan together. But it reflects the no-nonsense, down-to-earth
style that Springer has brought to OPM since her confirmation last
summer. She had previously served as controller at the Office of
Management and Budget and has spent more than 25 years in the life
insurance and financial services industries.
Springer's plan is focused on the federal workforce -- how to improve
hiring, speed up background investigations, get pension payments out the
door faster to retirees and roll out new benefits, such as dental and
vision packages this fall.
"We
didn't set ivory tower goals," she said. "They are realistic."
OPM's
plan touches on personnel operations across government. The plan calls
on federal agencies to:
· Cut
the time it takes to make a hiring decision -- a months-long process in
some parts of the government -- to 45 days. A first-stage goal requires
agencies to meet the 45-day deadline for 50 percent of their hires by
Sept. 30.
·
Develop centers of excellence at 18 major agencies, focused on how to
reward and manage the performance of employees. By Oct. 1.
·
Identify "career patterns" for the future, on the assumption that the
era of the 30-year government career is fading and that agencies will
need to be able to accommodate people who come and go from government;
who prefer to work irregular schedules, share jobs or telecommute; who
sign up for brief periods as project managers; or who come out of
retirement to provide institutional knowledge. By June 1.
·
Develop pilot programs so agencies can more quickly pull together
personnel folders for employees who retire and get the information to
OPM for a speedier computation of their final pension benefit. By April
1.
Springer acknowledged that some goals may be difficult for OPM to
achieve. As a central management agency, OPM can advise, cajole and
audit federal agencies, but it cannot boss around Cabinet secretaries
and agency heads. Still, she said, OPM intends to hold itself
responsible for government-wide improvements in personnel practices, and
she hinted that OPM executives and managers could see their
accomplishments, and failures, reflected in their annual pay increases
and bonuses.
Federal unions won't welcome all of the goals, such as the Bush
administration's proposal to overhaul workplace rules. One goal
stipulates that agencies will "expand and publicize" the "business case
for introduction of reform legislation," a reference to a draft bill
that would replace the decades-old General Schedule pay system with
performance-based pay systems and would scale back union rights.
OPM's
plan, of course, lays out many objectives for internal change. In her
briefing yesterday, Springer hinted that she wanted to shake off
perceptions that OPM is insular, saying that the agency will be reaching
out to professional organizations and other groups as part of a larger
effort to serve as a role model for the executive branch.
The
public knows about the work of the Social Security Administration, NASA
and the Internal Revenue Service, she said. In the case of OPM, she
said, "we need to be better known."
