The chair of the Senate federal workforce committee has introduced a bill to require agencies to provide all managers with regular, ongoing training on management skills, prohibited personnel practices, employee rights, and general leadership.
Introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Federal Supervisor Training Act of 2009 would require new supervisors to receive training in their first 12 months, and get new training every three years on the job on how to work with employees to develop performance expectations and evaluate employees.
Under the bill current managers would have three years to obtain their initial training, and new supervisors would have to receive mentoring and training on how to coach employees.
The Merit Systems Protection Board has established through successive merit principles surveys that employees often feel their supervisors meet technical requirements for their positions but lack management skills.
The bill would also require training on the laws governing and the procedures for enforcing whistleblower, collective bargaining, and anti-discrimination rights, and set standards for supervisors in managing employees and assessing managers’ ability to meet those standards.
