Claims that job competitions in the federal government have
a negative impact are largely unfounded, according to a new
report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government
looking at nearly 1,200 A-76 competitions conducted by
the Department of Defense from 1994 through the first
quarter of 2004.
It said that since 1999, competitions have increasingly
been won in-house, up to twice as many in 2003, and that
just five percent of civilian positions studied since 1995
were eliminated by involuntary separation, and estimated
savings of 44 percent of baseline costs, or $11.2 billion
— mostly derived through the elimination of 24,852 positions.
Taking into consideration the small numbers of involuntary
separations revealed in their data — which did not support
“claims of low employee morale” due to competitions — the
authors said agency managers should continue to pursue
competitive sourcing to reap performance gains and cost
savings.
NASA was able to implement an effective outsourcing plan
without any reductions in force by “reassigning affected
employees to more core-level tasks, avoiding involuntary
separations and improving performance,” according to the
report.
It said that when a workforce has to be reduced, managers
could offer buyout plans to employees, as well as early
retirement and transfers to other government positions.
The Office of Personnel Management should compile and
analyze data stemming from DoD
