Other Concerns Voiced

By: fedweek

In the survey, many of the personnel chiefs said that while hiring time is speeding up, it is still too difficult to recruit, hire and retain employees, complaining that many special authorities have too many strings attached. Most also “expressed concern about the state of management and leadership skills, both in the government as a whole and in the human resources community” and suggested more training and leadership development programs for managers. Similarly, they expressed concern that agency human resources staffs have not kept up with automation and other developments and most said those departments are underfunded. They also expressed concern that the government has too many retirement-eligible senior managers on one end and inexperienced new hires, with too few in the middle ranks brought on by hiring freezes and reductions in force in the 1990s.