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By: FEDweek StaffThe changing nature of work “is creating a rapidly changing landscape” for federal management and the workforce and will require basic changes by both, according to a report from the National Academy of Public Administration.
“We need to understand how technology will change the jobs of the future, but the problem goes even deeper. That future has already arrived, and the federal government needs to run fast to catch up—and run even faster to prepare for the future that is inevitably on the way,” it says.
Changes in technology will require that the government have a workforce who can harness that technology, it says. However, it adds, that will be difficult within the current body of federal employment laws whose pay structure dates to World War II and whose other fundamentals haven’t been thoroughly revised for 40 years.
“With each passing year, the system has fallen further out of sync with what it takes to manage programs well. Moreover, with each passing year, the system has become increasingly encrusted with regulations, like barnacles on a ship,” it says. “That has created a culture of compliance, where meeting the requirements of the rules has become more important than delivering value to taxpayers … Too often, we accept performance far below what the public deserves because finding, training, rewarding, and promoting the right people has simply become too cumbersome.”
What is needed, it argues, is a shift from a culture of compliance to one focused on performance. To do that, the government “will need to accomplish its work through flexible teams, not rigid structures, and building competencies around employees, not positions, will build the foundation for a high-performing workforce … Pilot projects to test new flexibilities should be part of how every agency does business.”
