Following is the summary of a new MSPB report citing the need for agencies to improve in the areas of employee training, retention and dealing with poor performance.
The merit system principles (MSPs), in conjunction with the prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), provide a framework for managing public employees in the public interest. Much has changed since the Pendleton Act of 1883, which established a merit system in the Federal Government, and the subsequent Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which codified the basic values of the Federal civil service as the merit system principles. The Federal workforce has become a knowledge-based workforce and the majority of Federal employees perform complex work in fast-changing fields. Predictable, routinized work is now the exception, not the norm. Personnel systems have proliferated and standardized entrance examinations and salary schedules have been replaced by a staggering variety of ways to hire and pay Federal employees. Yet the MSPs endure, covering nearly all employees, agencies, and personnel systems. The MSPs endure because they remain relevant: they embody the Nation’s fundamental values and set standards for leadership, management, and conduct in the Federal Government that have stood the test of time.
Over the years, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), in its Merit Principles Survey (MPS), has asked employees about their experiences and opinions on a variety of topics related to the civil service, including the nine MSPs. In 1996, the MPS asked 15 questions related to agency adherence to the MSPs. We reported the results in our 1997 report, Adherence to the Merit Principles in the Workplace: Federal Employees’ Views. In our 2010 Merit Principles Survey (MPS 2010), we asked a different and larger set of questions to explore the MSPs in greater depth and to emphasize agencies’ affirmative responsibilities for leading and managing Federal employees.
We categorized the 2010 questions into three groups: (1) fairness; (2) stewardship; and (3) protection. The areas of fairness and protection have been the subject of several recent reports and the 2010 results regarding the MSPs reinforced our findings in those reports. We are currently at work on additional reports in these areas. However, the 2010 survey results indicated perceptions that stewardship is the area where organizations need to improve the most. Accordingly, this report focuses primarily on that theme.
In the current budgetary environment, agencies may find it more necessary to show Congress and the President that they are good stewards of the resources entrusted to them – including human capital. This is particularly true for the areas of: (1) eliminating unnecessary functions and positions; (2) effectively addressing poor performance; (3) retaining the best employees; and (4) providing necessary training.
Success in the first two areas is particularly important for Federal agencies to demonstrate to Congress, the President, and the American people that they have done as much as possible with as few resources as possible. These are also the areas where Federal employees perceived the greatest need for improvement.
Other areas of stewardship have more nuanced issues. Retaining the best employees is an area of perceived weakness. The extent to which it is a problem if people leave an organization depends on who is going, how many are going, how quickly they leave, where they are going, and why they are going. Some movement within the civil service that results in better skills matches, greater opportunities for talented employees to contribute, or employees acquiring broader skills and perspectives may be in the interest of the Government. However, excessive turnover or losing good performers who may be disillusioned by public service harms the civil service.
In the area of training, a majority of employees agree that they have received the training necessary to do the job today, but, given the knowledge-based duties of much of the workforce, more employees should believe that they have the necessary training to do the job as well as the training to do their jobs more efficiently.
This report includes the following recommendations:
Educate managers at all levels, from appointed executives to first line supervisors, on their responsibilities related to Federal employees and the Federal workforce under the merit system principles. As stated in our previous report on MSPs in the workplace: “If managers are to be held responsible for applying the merit principles to their HRM decisions, they need more than a passing acquaintance with these principles. They need practical guidance that’s relevant to their own situations and that makes clear the consequences – for their work units and their agencies – of disregarding the merit principles in taking personnel actions.”1
Be prepared to make the tough calls on which important programs may need to be trimmed or eliminated in order to provide even more crucial priorities with the necessary resources. Involve the workforce in efforts to locate potential methods to improve efficiencies and keep employees informed about what is being done and why it is being done.
Identify and make appropriate investments in employee training and career development. The Federal workforce has become a knowledge workforce, with a majority of workers employed in complex, fast-changing fields such as information technology, medicine, security and law enforcement, and engineering. Unfortunately, many employees indicate that they have not received adequate training for their current jobs, let alone opportunities for growth and development.
The Federal Government must spend public dollars judiciously, consistent with the merit principles requiring concern for the public interest and efficient and effective use of the workforce. Yet agencies and managers must also be wary of pursuing short-term savings (such as reductions in training budgets or time allotted for training and education) at the expense of long-term organizational capability and performance. Accordingly, agencies should take steps to accurately determine competency requirements and developmental needs, to assure that training activities are linked to (and can fulfill) those needs, to emphasize to managers and employees the importance of continued education and development, and to provide supporting resources and mechanisms.
Monitor trends, patterns, and factors in employee retention and employee engagement. In recent years, much of the Federal workforce has been characterized by high levels of retention and tenure, enabling many Federal agencies and Federal managers to pay limited attention to retention. Yet complacency is unwarranted. First, survey responses indicate that Federal agencies could improve at both keeping high performers and remediating or separating poor performers. Second, anticipated changes in workforce demographics, evolving employee expectations, and potential changes to Federal pay and benefits suggest that the future will be much less accommodating of passive approaches to turnover and retention. There have long been concerns that Federal agencies retain too many employees who do not perform acceptably. Federal executives and managers should take steps to ensure that this concern is not justified, particularly in this era of fiscal austerity.
