Human Capital: Observations on Agencies' Implementation of the
Chief Human Capital Officers Act (18-MAY-04, GAO-04-800T).
Congress recognized the critical leadership role the agency Chief
Human Capital Officers (CHCOs) and the CHCO Council must play in
the fundamental changes that need to take place across the
executive branch. A range of 21st century challenges are driving
the need for a fundamental transformation of the federal
government. People strategy must be a key element of this overall
transformation effort. People define an organization's culture,
drive its performance, and embody its knowledge base. Congress
has provided agencies across the executive branch with additional
tools and authorities needed to strategically manage their
workforces. The success of these and related initiatives will
depend in large measure on the existence of high-quality CHCOs
and a strategic and effective CHCO Council. At the request of the
subcommittee, GAO discussed (1) the different approaches agencies
used in selecting CHCOs and creating the CHCO position, (2) the
key responsibilities of the CHCOs, and (3) the initial steps
taken by the CHCO Council and some suggested next steps.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-04-800T
ACCNO: A10114
TITLE: Human Capital: Observations on Agencies' Implementation
of the Chief Human Capital Officers Act
DATE: 05/18/2004
SUBJECT: Performance measures
Federal agencies
Ethical conduct
Emergency preparedness
Financial management
******************************************************************
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GAO-04-800T
United States General Accounting Office
GAO Testimony
Before the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization,
Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives
For Release on Delivery Expected at 2:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 18, 2004
HUMAN CAPITAL
Observations on Agencies' Implementation of the Chief Human Capital Officers Act
Statement of J. Christopher Mihm Managing Director, Strategic Issues
a
GAO-04-800T
Highlights of GAO-04-800T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on Civil
Service and Agency Organization, Committee on Government Reform, House of
Representatives
Congress recognized the critical leadership role the agency Chief Human
Capital Officers (CHCOs) and the CHCO Council must play in the fundamental
changes that need to take place across the executive branch. A range of
21st century challenges are driving the need for a fundamental
transformation of the federal government. People strategy must be a key
element of this overall transformation effort. People define an
organization's culture, drive its performance, and embody its knowledge
base. Congress has provided agencies across the executive branch with
additional tools and authorities needed to strategically manage their
workforces. The success of these and related initiatives will depend in
large measure on the existence of high-quality CHCOs and a strategic and
effective CHCO Council.
At the request of the subcommittee, GAO discussed (1) the different
approaches agencies used in selecting CHCOs and creating the CHCO
position, (2) the key responsibilities of the CHCOs, and (3) the initial
steps taken by the CHCO Council and some suggested next steps.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-800T.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact J. Christopher Mihm at (202)
512-6806 or [email protected].
May 18, 2004
HUMAN CAPITAL
Observations on Agencies' Implementation of the Chief Human Capital Officers Act
The inaugural CHCOs appointed since May 2003 varied in the positions they
were holding prior to their selection by the agency head, the
responsibilities assigned to them when they became CHCOs, whether they
were political appointees or career executives and whether they reported
directly to the agency head.
According to the CHCOs, their efforts are primarily focused on the human
capital efforts needed to address the President's Management Agenda (PMA).
In our discussions with the CHCOs, they cited strategic human capital
management and, to a lesser extent, competitive sourcing as the two
primary PMA initiatives on which they are focusing.
The CHCO Council's activities during its first year have largely revolved
around start-up activities including organizing the council and
establishing subcommittees. For example, the Council created subcommittees
to address and recommend change for five key areas--the hiring process,
performance management, leadership development and succession planning,
employee conduct and poor performers, and emergency preparedness.
At the request of this subcommittee and others in Congress, we have
undertaken a large body of work in recent years that should prove helpful
to the Council and its subcommittees as they develop their initiatives in
the five areas. For example, as we reported in May 2003, there is
widespread recognition that the current federal hiring process does not
meet the needs of agencies in achieving their missions, managers in
filling positions with the right talent, and applicants for a timely,
efficient, transparent, and meritbased process. We made a number of
recommendations to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to address
various parts of the hiring process. In addition, in March 2004, GAO
issued a guide for assessing strategic training and development efforts in
the federal government.
In addition to the important areas already receiving priority attention by
the Council, our work suggests that the Council should ensure that as it
moves forward, its efforts address agencies' need for guidance,
assistance, knowledge, and leading practices in several other key
crosscutting areas such as:
o developing the capabilities required for successful implementation of
human capital reform,
o strategic human capital planning, and
o transforming the human capital office and its processes to more fully
contribute to key agency decisions.
We believe that our work should prove helpful to the Council as they
address these and other areas.
Chairwoman Davis, Mr. Davis, and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the actions taken to implement
the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Act of 2002 and our preliminary
observations on the role of both the agency CHCOs and the CHCO Council, as
we approach the completion of the first year in which these senior agency
leadership positions and this council were created. As you know, Congress
created the CHCO position in 24 agencies to advise and assist the head of
the agency and other agency officials in their strategic human capital
management efforts; the CHCO Council was created to advise and coordinate
the activities among the agencies.
Congress recognized the critical leadership role the agency CHCOs and the
CHCO Council must play in the fundamental changes that need to take place
across the executive branch. The nation's large and growing longterm
fiscal imbalance and a range of other 21st century challenges are driving
a fundamental transformation of the federal government. This
transformation requires a comprehensive reexamination of what the
government does, how it does business, and in some cases, who does its
business. Ultimately, to successfully transform, the federal government
must change its culture to become more results-oriented, customerfocused,
and collaborative in nature.
People strategy must be a key element of this overall transformation
effort. People define an organization's culture, drive its performance,
and embody its knowledge base. Over the past couple of years, Congress has
sought to modernize federal human capital policies by allowing certain
agencies, most notably the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security,
to adopt more flexible approaches to their human capital management. At
the same time, Congress has provided agencies across the executive branch
with additional tools and authorities needed to strategically manage their
workforces. The success of these and related initiatives will depend in
large measure on the existence of high-quality CHCOs and a strategic and
effective CHCO Council.
My statement today will describe first, the different approaches agencies
used in selecting CHCOs and creating the CHCO position, second, the key
responsibilities of the CHCO's, and third, the initial steps taken by the
CHCO Council and some suggested next steps.
My comments today are based on our interviews with each of the agency
CHCOs and the Executive Director of the CHCO Council; available
documents on the start-up efforts of the CHCO Council such as the agenda
and plans for its initial meetings; our experiences in evaluating the
implementation of other major management reforms, such as the Chief
Financial Officers (CFO) Act, the Government Performance and Results Act
of 1993, and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996; and our broad body of work and
resultant knowledge of human capital management issues.
CHCOs Vary in Their Prior Role, Designated Duties, Employment Status, and
Reporting Relationships
The 24 agency CHCOs appointed since May 2003 varied in the position they
were holding prior to their selection by the agency head, the
responsibilities assigned to them when they became CHCOs, whether they
were political appointees or career executives, and whether they reported
directly to the agency head:
o The inaugural CHCOs at most federal agencies were executives who were
already in positions leading their agency's human capital management. Of
the 21 agency CHCOs selected from within the agency, 14 have been the
human capital director for their agency and 7 have been the executive to
whom the agency's human capital director reported. OPM selected its CHCO
from within the agency, but the individual has been a senior policy
advisor, not an internal OPM human capital manager. Two of the 24
agencies-the Departments of Homeland Security and Treasury-selected CHCOs
from outside their agencies.
o The 24 CHCOs positions were evenly split between those whose designated
duties focus solely on human capital management and those who have
significant additional responsibilities. For example, the Departments of
Commerce, Interior, and Veterans Affairs have vested CHCO and CFO
responsibilities in one person. The CHCOs at the Departments of Education,
Housing and Urban Development, and Labor are also the Chief Information
Officer (CIO) for those agencies. The additional responsibilities of
various other CHCOs include administrative services, facilities
management, and procurement.
o The CHCOs were evenly split between career executives and political
appointees. Of the 24 CHCOs, 12 were career senior executives and 12 were
political appointees. Since the inaugural CHCO appointments, two
agencies--the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human
Services--have changed their CHCO designation from the incumbent career
executive to a higher-level political appointee. Most of the career
executives (8 of the 12) focus solely on human capital management, while
the political appointees generally had additional responsibilities.
o More than half (15 of 24) of the inaugural CHCOs reported directly to
the agency head. While some CHCOs who report directly to the agency head
told us this gives them an important "seat at the table" where key
decisions are made, some CHCOs who do not report to their agency head said
having all or most of the agency chief management positions do so may
impede efficient management coordination within the agency. Most of the
political appointees (9 of 12) report directly to the agency head, while
half of the career executives (6 of 12) report to another agency official.
Agencies' appointments of CHCOs represent an important achievement
considering the challenges agencies faced in filling the CFO and the CIO
positions. For example, 5 years after the enactment of the law creating
the agency CFO position, we found that some agencies had yet to fill the
position or the Deputy CFO position.1
The diversity of approaches that agencies are taking suggests that it is
unlikely that there will be a single model for the CHCO position that will
fit all agencies. Several CHCOs told us that agency size, available
leadership talent and the agency's existing executive leadership structure
were all considered in designating the CHCO position and determining the
qualifications of those who should fill it. However, ensuring that the
CHCO can provide the leadership necessary to do the job well in those
situations where they also have additional direct management
responsibilities should be closely monitored in the coming years. We have
also raised similar concerns regarding the CFOs and CIOs who have direct
leadership
1U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Management: Momentum Must Be
Sustained To Achieve the Reform Goals of the Chief Officers Act,
GAO/T-AIMD-95-204 (Washington, D.C.: July 25, 1995).
responsibilities for a variety of management areas. 2 While some CHCOs
with key responsibilities in multiple areas have said they believe this
enables them to achieve quicker decision-making on strategic human capital
issues, other CHCOs said they prefer devoting all their attention to human
capital issues.
More generally, we have suggested that Congress consider establishing
Chief Operating Officer (COO) or equivalent positions in selected agencies
as one element of an overall strategy to address certain systemic federal
governance and management challenges. These COOs would be part of a
broader effort to elevate attention to management and transformation
issues, integrate various key management and transformation efforts, and
institutionalize accountability for addressing management issues leading a
transformation.3 By their very nature, the problems and challenges facing
agencies are crosscutting and thus require coordinated and integrated
solutions. However, the risk is that management responsibilities
(including, but not limited to information technology, financial
management, and human capital) will be "stovepiped" and thus will not be
implemented in a comprehensive, ongoing, and integrated manner. While
officials with management responsibilities often have successfully worked
together, there needs to be a single point within agencies with the
perspective and responsibilities-as well as the authority-to ensure
successful implementation of functional management initiatives and, if
appropriate, transformation efforts.
2U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Management: CFO Act Is
Achieving Meaningful Progress, GAO/T-AIMD-94-149 (Washington, D.C.: June
21, 1994), and Chief Information Officers: Ensuring Strong Leadership and
an Effective Council, GAO/T-AIMD-98-22 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 27, 1997).
3For additional information on the COO concept and how it might apply to
federal agencies, see U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO
Roundtable: The Chief Operating Officer Concept: A Potential Strategy to
Address Federal Governance Challenges, GAO-03192SP (Washington D.C.:
October 2002).
CHCOs Are Giving Priority Attention to the Strategic Human Capital Initiative
of the President's Management Agenda
According to the CHCOs, their efforts are primarily focused on the human
capital efforts needed to address the President's Management Agenda (PMA).
The President's Management Agenda identified five crosscutting management
initiatives: the strategic management of human capital, competitive
sourcing, improved financial performance, expanded electronic government,
and budget and performance integration. We collaborated with OMB and OPM
regarding the broad standards of success for the strategic human capital
management PMA initiative. The resulting standards are consistent with the
need for agencies to address the challenges they face in four key areas
outlined in our report on strategic human capital management as a
government-wide high risk area:
o leadership, continuity and succession planning;
o strategic human capital planning and organizational alignment;
o acquiring and developing staffs whose size, skills and deployment meet
agency needs; and
o creating results-oriented organizational cultures.4
We have noted that the PMA initiatives are intended to be mutually
reinforcing and must be addressed in an integrated way to ensure that
there is the needed management capacity to drive a broader transformation
of the cultures of federal agencies.5 In our discussions with the CHCOs,
they have cited strategic human capital management and, to a lesser
extent, competitive sourcing as the two primary PMA initiatives where they
are focusing their efforts.
As such, work on the PMA provides an early opportunity for the CHCOs to
play an active integrating role with other key agency leaders. For
example, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) CHCO told us EPA is
in the midst of phased implementation of a workforce planning methodology
that EPA believes will enable EPA's line managers to make decisions on
4U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263
(Washington, D.C.: January 2001).
5U.S. General Accounting Office, Management Reform: Continuing Progress in
Implementing Initiatives in the President's Management Agenda, GAO-03-556T
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 26, 2003).
deploying employees with mission-critical skills and competencies both
programmatically and geographically to fulfill EPA's mission. Similarly,
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) CHCO told us
NASA is refining an agencywide competency management system that will be
used to identify, manage, and report workforce competencies, which NASA
believes will be capable of capturing competencies for every employee,
every position, and every budgeted program or project.
In the area of performance management, according to the Department of
Justice's CHCO, the agency contracted with consultants to identify
problems, issues, and barriers and suggest ways to transform the existing
"paperwork exercise" performance management program into a resultsoriented
performance culture. In the area of aligning the human capital office for
improved strategic contribution, the Department of Energy's (DOE) CHCO
told us that the agency's Office of Human Resources Management completed a
study of the organization resulting in a recommendation to transform it
into "One HR,"-a more unified approach to developing and aligning HR
activities, programs, services and staff with the strategic direction of
DOE.
While we have not assessed these specific actions, they illustrate the
kinds of agency human capital initiatives that position the agencies to
move forward in the coming years. However, as our experience with major
management reform efforts has demonstrated, achieving the goals of major
reform requires a long-term sustained effort. We have noted that major
reforms can take at least 5 to 7 years until such initiatives are fully
implemented and the related cultures are transformed in a sustainable
6
manner.
CHCO Council Taking The CHCO Act calls for the establishment of a CHCO
Council consisting of
the Director of OPM as Chair, the Deputy Director for Management of
OMBInitial Steps to Improve as Vice Chair, and the CHCOs of executive
departments and any other Human Capital members who are designated by the
Director of OPM. An effective and Management strategic CHCO Council is
vital to meeting the goals of the CHCO Act as
well as addressing the federal government's crosscutting strategic human
6U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and
Transformation: Lessons Learned for a Department of Homeland Security and
Other Federal Agencies, GAO-03-293SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 14, 2002).
For a specific discussion of this point in relation to financial
management, see GAO/T-AIMD-95-204.
capital challenges. We have reported that interagency councils, such as
the CFO and CIO councils, have emerged as important leadership strategies
in both developing policies that are sensitive to implementation concerns
and gaining consensus and consistent follow-through within the executive
branch.7 For example, the CFO Council has played a lead role in creating
goals for improving federal financial management practices, providing
sound advice to OMB on revisions to executive branch guidance and policy,
and building a professional community of governmentwide financial
management expertise.
The CHCO Council can play another similarly useful role. As stated in its
charter, the Council's purposes include (1) advising OPM, OMB, and agency
leaders on human capital strategies and policies, as well as on the
assessment of human capital management in federal agencies, (2) informing
and coordinating the activities of its member agencies on such matters as
modernization of human resources systems, and (3) providing leadership in
identifying and addressing the needs of the government's human capital
community.
The Council's activities during its first year have largely revolved
around three major areas: organizing the council, creating a CHCO Academy,
and establishing subcommittees.
Council organization The Council meets periodically, currently averaging
a meeting every other month, with the meetings attended by the CHCOs as
well as by the Council's Chair, Vice Chair, Executive Director, and
representatives of other organizations that may be invited or approved by
the Chair. The Council has formed an executive committee consisting of the
Chair, Vice Chair, and seven Council members. When votes are taken, each
Council member has one vote, and members must be present to vote.
The Council does not yet have a strategic plan to help guide its work and
serve as a benchmark for measuring progress, although according to the
Council's Executive Director, the Chair is reviewing the Council's draft
strategic plan for FY 2004, which then has to be approved by the executive
committee and by the full Council. The Executive Director told us the
strategic plan would have some details on the priority items and target
7U.S. General Accounting Office, Government Management: Observations on
OMB's Management Leadership Efforts, GAO/T-GGD/AIMD-99-65 (Washington,
D.C.: Feb. 4, 1999).
dates on which the Council is working this year. As we saw in the case of
the CFO Council, achieving accomplishments that have strategic impact
requires well-defined goals and measures.8 The timely completion of the
CHCO Council's plan is therefore important to help provide a sense of
direction for the Council as well as to communicate to Congress and other
stakeholders the role the Council will play and how it will meet its
responsibilities. The shared understandings that can be developed as part
of the planning process are particularly important to councils since they
play vital leadership and coordination roles. As just one illustration of
the importance of their leadership and coordination role, OPM agreed with
our May 2003 recommendation to work with and through the Council to more
thoroughly research, compile, and analyze information on the effective and
innovative use of human capital flexibilities and more fully serve as a
clearinghouse in sharing and distributing information about when, where,
and how the broad range of flexibilities are being used, and should be
used, to help agencies meet their human capital management needs.9
CHCO Academy OPM has created the Chief Human Capital Officers Academy as
part of the CHCO Council. OPM created the academy as an outreach vehicle
to educate CHCOs about current human capital management issues and
available human resources flexibilities, with an emphasis on how they fit
within an overall merit-based civil-service system. The academy has
scheduled one-day monthly training and discussion sessions with CHCOs
throughout 2004. Past sessions have focused on topics such as Title 5 and
outsourcing human resources services.
Subcommittees The Council created subcommittees to address and recommend
changes for five key areas identified by the Council's leadership as
critical to the success of the strategic management of the human capital
initiative outlined in the PMA: the hiring process, performance
management, leadership development and succession planning, employee
conduct and poor performers, and emergency preparedness. The five
subcommittees are examining their issues and developing recommendations
for review by the executive committee and, subsequently, the Council. We
understand
8GAO/T-AIMD-98-22.
9U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: OPM Can Better Assist
Agencies in Using Personnel Flexibilities, GAO-03-428 (Washington, D.C.:
May 9, 2003).
that three of the five subcommittees-hiring process, leadership
development and succession planning, and employee conduct and poor
performers-have submitted their first reports for review by the executive
committee. However, these reports have not been released.
The executive committee is expected to review these reports at its May
meeting and, depending on that review, the full Council could review these
reports at its scheduled July meeting.
At the request of this subcommittee and others in Congress, we have
undertaken a large body of work in recent years that should prove helpful
to the Council and its subcommittee as they develop their initiatives. For
example:
Hiring Process As we reported in May 2003, there is widespread
recognition that the current federal hiring process does not meet the
needs of agencies in achieving their missions, of managers in filling
positions with the right talent, and of applicants for a timely,
efficient, transparent, and merit-based process.10 We made a number of
recommendations to OPM to address various parts of the hiring process
including:
o studying how to simplify, streamline, and reform the classification
process;
o assisting agencies in automating their hiring processes;
o continuing to assist agencies in making job announcements and Web
postings more user-friendly and effective;
o helping agencies develop improved hiring assessment tools; and
o reviewing the effectiveness of the Outstanding Scholar and
Bilingual/Bicultural Luevano Consent Decree hiring authorities.
At the request of this subcommittee we are assessing actions taken to
improve the hiring process and plan to issue a report early next month.
Agencies and OPM need to work together to improve the hiring process,
10U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve
Executive Agencies' Hiring Processes, GAO-03-450 (Washington, D.C.: May
30, 2003).
and the CHCO Council should be a key vehicle for this needed
collaboration.
Performance Management There is little question that modernizing agency
performance management systems and creating a clear linkage between
individual performance and organizational success is a governmentwide
strategic human capital challenge. Even though an explicit alignment of
individuals' daily activities with broader results is one of the defining
features of effective performance management, it is still a work in
progress at the federal level. For example, in three governmentwide
surveys we conducted in 1997, 2000, and 2003, an increasing but still less
than 50 percent of federal managers reported that employees in their
agencies received positive recognition to a great or very great extent for
helping agencies accomplish their strategic goals.11
High performing organizations have found that an effective performance
management system can be a strategic tool to drive internal change and
achieve desired results. These systems are not merely used for a once or
twice-yearly individual expectation setting and rating process but are
tools to help the organization manage on a day-to-day basis and to
facilitate twoway communication throughout the year so that discussions
about individual and organizational performance are integrated and
ongoing.
In that regard, we have reported extensively on public sector
organizations in the United States and abroad that have implemented a
selected, and generally consistent set of key practices as part of their
performance management systems that in turn help create the line of sight
between individual performance and organizational success.12 These
practices should be helpful to the CHCO Council's performance management
subcommittee as it develops recommendations and strategies to assist
agencies implementing effective performance management systems.
11U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Government: GPRA Has
Established a Solid Foundation for Achieving Greater Results, GAO-04-38
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 10, 2004).
12U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Creating a
Clear Linkage between Individual Performance and Organizational Success,
GAO-03-488 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 14, 2003).
Leadership Development and Succession Planning
In March 2004, GAO issued a guide for assessing strategic training and
development efforts in the federal government.13 This guide introduced a
framework, consisting of a set of principles and key questions that
agencies can use to ensure that training and development investments are
targeted strategically and not wasted on efforts that are irrelevant,
duplicative, or ineffective. Using the principles in this framework, we
reported on some agencies' experiences and lessons learned related to a)
assessing agency skill requirements and identifying training needs, b)
developing strategies and solutions, and c) determining evaluation
methods.14 Some of the experiences and lessons learned that the agencies
identified were from their leadership development programs. For example,
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) interviewed top agency leaders and
benchmarked with leading practices in the public and private sector to
develop its leadership competency model. This model forms the basis for
IRS' leadership development efforts, as well as how IRS selects,
evaluates, and recognizes its leaders. IRS also analyzed data from
360-degree feedback instruments and used this information in customizing
its programs to build employees' strengths in areas that IRS has
identified as key to providing effective leadership within its
organizational culture and operating environment.
More generally, we have also reported that leading organizations engage in
broad, integrated succession planning and management efforts that focus on
strengthening both current and future organizational capacity. As part of
this approach, these organizations identify, develop, and select their
people to ensure that successors are the right people, with the right
skills, at the right time for leadership and other positions. Based on our
review of leading practices in selected public sector organizations in
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, we identified a
set of succession planning and management practices that should prove
helpful to the Council and individual agencies in their efforts to protect
and
13U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing
Strategic Training and Development Efforts in the Federal Government,
GAO-04-546G (Washington, D.C.: March 2004).
14U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Selected Agencies'
Experiences and Lessons Learned in Designing Training and Development
Programs, GAO-04-291 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2004).
enhance organizational capacity.15 Among these practices we found that
these organizations address specific human capital challenges, such as
diversity, leadership capacity, and retention.
Employee Conduct and Poor OPM and the Merit Systems Protection Broad have
both done employee
Performers surveys and related important work on conduct and poor
performers issues. Our work has focused on the broader issue of mechanisms
and strategies that agencies can use to reduce workplace conflict,
including those associated with conduct and performance issues. For
example, our work has shown that alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
processes are a way of dealing with workplace conflict.16 ADR is a
resource to employees and supervisors alike and, in our view, can help
prevent conflicts manifested as poor conduct or performance from arising
in the first place or can facilitate resolution of problems. In short, we
believe that a key part of the CHOC subcommittee's agenda should be to
explore, validate, and disseminate mechanisms and strategies that can be
used to address problems efficiently, effectively, and fairly, as well as
keep them from occurring in the first place.
Emergency Preparedness As we recently reported, federal continuity
planning guidance has appropriately been given priority to the human
capital considerations associated with the immediate aftermath of a crisis
that is securing the safety of all employees and addressing the needs of
employees who perform essential operations.17 However, we found that
additional human capital considerations, especially those associated with
the majority of an organization's employees who do not perform essential
operations yet would be needed to resume all other agency operations, are
also crucial and have not been well developed in federal guidance. To more
fully address these considerations, we identified two human capital
principles that should guide all continuity efforts-demonstrating
sensitivity to individual employee needs and maximizing the contribution
of all
15U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Insights for U.S.
Agencies from Other Countries' Succession Planning and Management
Initiatives, GAO-03-914 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 15, 2003).
16U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: The Role of Ombudsmen in
Dispute Resolution, GAO-01-466 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 13, 2001) and
Alternative Dispute Resolution: Employers' Experiences With ADR in the
Workplace, GAO/GGD-97-157 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 12, 1997).
17U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve
Federal Continuity Planning Guidance, GAO-04-384 (Washington, D.C.: Apr.
20, 2004).
employees-and six key organizational actions designed to enhance these
efforts:
o Demonstrate top leadership commitment.
o Seek opportunities for synergy.
o Maintain effective communication.
o Target investments in training and development.
o Leverage the flexibility of human capital.
o Build a process to identify and share lessons.
We made recommendations to the Federal Emergency Management Administration
(FEMA) and OPM to more fully address human capital considerations in
emergency preparedness guidance by incorporating the key actions listed
above. We also recommended to OPM that they clearly define the role
Federal Executive Boards play in improving emergency preparedness
coordination in areas outside of Washington, D.C. Both FEMA and OPM need
to work together to improve the federal continuity planning guidance, and
the CHCO Council can be a key vehicle for this needed collaboration.
Council's Important
Role in Other Areas
In addition to these important areas, our work suggests that the Council
should ensure that its efforts address agencies' need for guidance,
assistance, knowledge, and leading practices in several other key
crosscutting areas:
Developing the Capabilities Required for Successful Implementation of
Human Capital Reform: As highlighted previously, the Council can play a
central role in helping agencies build the internal capabilities needed to
effectively use the authorities that Congress has provided. In that
regard, our work has identified a set of capabilities that are central to
the effective use of human capital authorities:18
18U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Effective Use of
Flexibilities Can Assist Agencies in Managing Their Workforces, GAO-03-2
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 6, 2002).
o Plan strategically and make targeted investments.
o Ensure stakeholder input in developing policies and procedures.
o Educate managers and employees on the availability and use of
flexibilities.
o Streamline and improve administrative processes.
o Build transparency and accountability into the system.
o Change the organizational culture.
Strategic Human Capital Planning: Strategic human capital planning is an
essential element of the institutional infrastructure to ensure that an
agency's human capital program optimizes its workforce's strengths and
addresses related challenges in a manner that is clearly linked to
achieving the agency's mission. While each agency needs to tailor the
strategic workforce planning process to the agency's particular needs and
mission, our work has found that there are certain principles that should
be addressed irrespective of the particular planning approach or model
that is used.19
These include:
o Involve top management, employees and other stakeholders in developing,
communicating and implementing the strategic workforce plan.
o Determine the critical skills and competencies that will be needed to
achieve current and future programmatic results.
o Develop strategies that are tailored to address gaps in number,
deployment, and alignment of human capital approaches for enabling and
sustaining the contributions of all critical skills and competencies.
o Build the capability needed to address administrative, educational, and
other requirements important to support workforce strategies.
19U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Key Principles for
Effective Strategic Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec.
11, 2003).
o Monitor and evaluate the agency's progress toward its human capital
goals and the contribution that human capital results have made toward
achieving programmatic goals.
The provisions of the CHCO Act recognize the critical importance of
strategic human capital planning and require each CHCO to prepare the
portion of the agency annual performance plan and describe how the
performance goals and objectives are to be achieved, including the
operation processes, training, skills and technology, and the human,
capital, information, and other resources and strategies required to meet
those performance goals and objectives. In addition, the agency
performance reports are to include a review of the performance goals and
evaluation of the performance plan relative to the agency's strategic
human capital management. These provisions will give additional impetus to
improve agencies' strategic human capital planning.
Transforming the Human Capital Office and Its Processes to More Fully
Contribute to Key Agency Decisions: The need to more closely integrate the
agency human capital approaches with agencies' strategies for
accomplishing organizational missions places responsibility on the CHCO to
develop the human capital office to fulfill enlarged roles, such as,
partner with line managers, human capital expert, leader and change agent
to meet current and future programmatic needs. To shift the resources of
the human capital office from being providers of largely transaction-based
services to better align with its role of integrating human capital
approaches in agency plans and strategies, the CHCO will often be
compelled to restructure its human capital office.
The pressures on human capital professionals to assume new roles present a
significant learning and development challenge for human capital staff
members. For human capital professionals to begin acting in their new
capacities CHCOs must ensure that they develop the competencies through a
systematic investment in training and development20 and gain the
experience to effectively take on the expected roles. The CHCOs' personal
leadership in providing the vision and the systematic approach to engaging
the human capital staff in a positive transition from narrowly-focused
specialists to larger roles, such as partners, human capital experts,
leaders, and change agents, and assure the staff have all the skills
necessary to play an active role in helping to determine the overall
strategic direction of the
20GAO-04-546G.
organization will be a significant long-term challenge. The CFO and CIO
experiences at a similar point in their histories recognized the need to
build their staff's skills and capabilities.
In conclusion, the need to transform the way government does its business
and the long-term fiscal challenges facing the government will only
increase the importance of integrating human capital approaches that are
linked to the agency's plans and strategies. While the initial steps taken
over this first year have shown progress, the coming year is critical to
leveraging that progress to achieve significant accomplishments and
facilitate lasting change. This progress will come from aligning the
agency human capital approach with program goals and integrating the human
capital initiatives and organization as part of a comprehensive systematic
approach to transforming the agency and dramatically improving its
performance.
Madam Chairwoman and Mr. Davis, this completes my statement. I would be
pleased to respond to any questions that you may have.
Contacts and For further information regarding this testimony, please
contact J. Christopher Mihm, Director, Director, Strategic Issues, on
(202) 512-6806 or
Acknowledgments at [email protected]. Individuals making key contributions to
this testimony included William Doherty, Clifton G. Douglas, Tony Lofaro,
Jeffery McDermott, Susan Ragland, Lisa Shames, and Edward H. Stephenson,
Jr.
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