Federal Human Resource Management Issue Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1996-98
(Letter Report, 07/01/95, GAO/IAP-95-19).

GAO presented its Federal Human Resource Management issue area plan for
fiscal years 1996 to 1998.

GAO plans to: (1) identify and assess alternatives for decentralizing
and streamlining federal human resources management; (2) analyze
alternative strategies for fundamentally reshaping the public service;
(3) determine whether to privatize the services and functions that
federal employees currently perform; (4) evaluate the alternatives for
more systematic preparation and training of career managers and
supervisors; (5) assess the recent development of the Senior Executive
Service; (6) identify cost-effective ways to downsize the federal
workforce; (7) help reform the federal job classification system; (8)
identify policies to accommodate older workers and to better compete
with other employers for the best job candidates; (9) assess the role of
affirmative action; (10) examine the role of training in developing a
higher performing workforce; (11) identify ways to encourage team
management and employee cooperation; (12) identify alternatives to the
current employee performance management system; (13) identify
opportunities for improving the administrative redress system and
federal equal employment opportunity complaint processing; (14) help
redefine the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; (15)
identify approaches for addressing sexual harassment and employee
misconduct in the federal government; and (16) identify ways to improve
the integrity and efficiency of federal retirement, benefits, and
compensation programs.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-95-19
     TITLE:  Federal Human Resource Management Issue Area Plan--Fiscal 
             Years 1996-98
      DATE:  07/01/95
   SUBJECT:  Privatization
             Federal downsizing
             Federal employees
             Personnel evaluation systems
             Job classification
             Policy evaluation
             Strategic planning
             Hiring policies
             Compensation
             Federal agency reorganization
             Sexual harassment
IDENTIFIER:  Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


General Government Division

July 1995

FEDERAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
ISSUE AREA PLAN

FISCAL YEARS 1996-98 - FEDERAL
MANAGEMENT AND WORKFORCE ISSUES
AREA

GAO/IAP-95-19



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office (GAO) is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; provide information to help Congress target budget
reductions; improve accountability by assessing financial and
information management; and alert Congress to developing trends that
may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In fulfilling
its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and makes use of
hundreds of databases, including creating its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

Federal Management and Workforce Issues (FMWI) is one of GAO's issue
areas.  The human resources component of this issue area focuses on
the analysis and evaluation of issues relating to the federal
civilian workforce--from cross-cutting issues such as central
oversight of the civil service to more narrowly defined issues such
as human resource management (HRM) practices at specific agencies. 
Through consultation with key congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts, FMWI has developed this
strategic plan to ensure that its resources are directed toward the
most important federal HRM issues facing Congress. 

The civil service is undergoing significant reexamination and change. 
The necessity to create a smaller yet higher performing federal
workforce is leading to a major rethinking of civil service
principles and practices.  Congress will soon face critical decisions
that may redefine the future of the civil service.  On the pages that
follow, we outline the issue area's most significant planned work on
the following pivotal civil service issues: 

  -- examining systemwide fundamentals for the civil service and
     establishing mechanisms to ensure that agencies' HRM practices
     conform with these principles;

  -- acquiring and developing leadership for the future;

  -- rightsizing the federal workforce while maintaining quality
     through recruiting, hiring, and using the best candidates
     available;

  -- managing for performance--that is, focusing on results rather
     than on processes--and holding employees accountable for their
     work;

  -- promoting fair treatment for all federal employees and
     maintaining high standards of ethics and conduct; and

  -- designing cost-effective benefit programs to attract and retain
     the best employees. 

Because events may significantly affect even the best of plans and
because periodic measurement of success against any plan is
essential, our planning process allows for updating the plan and
responding quickly to emerging issues.  If you have any questions or
suggestions about this plan, please call me at (202) 512-8676, or
Timothy Bowling, Associate Director, at (202) 512-3511. 

L.  Nye Stevens
Director
Federal Management and Workforce Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

10


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

11


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                         Significance
----------------------------  --------------------------------------------------
ESTABLISHING SYSTEMWIDE       An orderly and effective transformation of the
FUNDAMENTALS AND AGENCY       civil service will require reexamining the
ACCOUNTABILITY                rationales that underlie the current system;
                              determining the areas in which the system is
Are the principles that       outdated or ineffective; examining alternative
guide the federal             models; helping decide key principles to guide
government's Human Resource   federal HRM in the future; and organizing the
Management (HRM) systems      civil service system to balance the need to
appropriate, and if so, how   institutionalize these principles with the need to
can Congress ensure that      give agencies the flexibility to fashion systems
federal agencies, regardless  that meet their specific requirements. Downsizing
of the flexibility afforded   and decentralization have already gathered
them, act in accordance with  momentum in the past 2 years. The role of the
these principles?             Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as it
                              involves direction and oversight is still in flux;
                              even the abolishment of OPM is under
                              consideration. Congress is considering the
                              administration's reinvention proposals and
                              preparing its own legislative initiatives.








ACQUIRING AND DEVELOPING      As the emphasis moves toward a smaller and more
LEADERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE     results-oriented government, the demand will grow
                              for a diverse cadre of leaders who can
In the coming years, how can  successfully manage change and institute
the government be more        management and accountability reforms such as the
effective in finding and      Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 (CFO) and the
developing a cadre of         Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
diverse, forward-looking      (GPRA). Civil service reform will undoubtedly
leaders and managers needed   include HRM approaches that will be new to the
to transform the civil        federal bureaucracy; for reform to work, managers
service?                      and supervisors will need to be adept at handling
                              change and applying these HRM approaches
                              effectively. Further, both the Senate and House
                              Republican budget reduction proposals have called
                              for reductions in the number of political
                              appointees. Such reductions may well affect the
                              overall career/political leadership relationship
                              and roles.







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                Focus of work
----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------
--Identify and assess alternatives for    --Determine how OPM and agency
decentralizing and streamlining federal   oversight could be accomplished in a
HRM.                                      more decentralized environment.
                                          --Assess methods and measurements that
--Analyze alternative strategies for      could be used to ensure agency
fundamentally reshaping the public        accountability.
service.                                  --Assess agency capacity to accept
                                          additional HRM responsibility along
--Evaluate the pros, cons, and            the lines envisioned by the National
impediments to privatizing and/or         Performance Review (NPR).
contracting out services and functions    --Work with sources in government,
that federal employees currently          industry, and academia to explore
perform.                                  alternatives to the current civil
                                          service system.
                                          --Assess applicability of private-
                                          sector HRM models to the civil
                                          service.
                                          --Assess the issues related to
                                          determining the proper public/private
                                          sector mix in providing federal
                                          services to the public and the best
                                          way to manage the performance of these
                                          services to ensure the public gets the
                                          most for its tax dollar.


--Evaluate the alternatives for more      --Examine the impediments to
systematic preparation and training of    developing effective political/career
career managers and supervisors.          leadership.
                                          --Examine the role, responsibilities,
--Examine the development of the Senior   and numbers of political appointees
Executive Service (SES) since passage of  and career executives in a downsized
the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) and   workforce.
identify areas for improvement.           --Assess the SES against the criteria
                                          under which it was originally
--Assess ways to strengthen the           established.
political/career leadership
relationship.








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue                         Significance
----------------------------  --------------------------------------------------
RIGHTSIZING AND MAINTAINING   A government sized to meet its mission will move
A HIGH-QUALITY WORKFORCE      strategic workforce planning to the forefront of
                              civil service issues. The current pressure to
Is the government             downsize must be dealt with in ways that
determining and achieving     accomplish administration and congressional full-
the most appropriate size     time equivalent staffing goals--defined by the
and makeup of its workforce   Workforce Restructuring Act--while being as fair
and ensuring that future      as possible to federal employees, minimizing
vacancies are filled by the   disruption and expense to the agencies, and
most qualified candidates?    handling issues of a diverse workforce. Even if
                              these goals are met, a smaller government will
                              require high-quality workers if performance goals
                              are also to be accomplished--which means
                              recruiting, hiring, and using the best candidates
                              available. The nation's civilian labor force is
                              experiencing enormous change, growing older and
                              becoming increasingly diverse; women, for example,
                              now make up half of the workforce. In this regard,
                              the government's challenge as an employer is to
                              include every sector of America in its search for
                              the most promising talent.











MANAGING FOR PERFORMANCE AND  Several forces have coincided to make performance
ENSURING INDIVIDUAL           management one of the most potentially fruitful
ACCOUNTABILITY                areas for reform of the civil service. GPRA, with
                              its emphasis on planning, measuring, and
Is the management of federal  reporting; the NPR, with its goal of a government
workers focused on results    that works better and costs less; and the new
rather than process and does  Congress, with its emphasis on cost savings and
it hold workers accountable   efficiency--all make it imperative that the
for their job performance?    workforce be managed for results. In this regard,
                              the government may be following the lead of the
                              private sector, where competitive necessities have
                              led to extensive downsizing, streamlining,
                              reengineering, and quality management. Moreover,
                              in the private sector, a recognition of the
                              potential contribution of each employee, whether
                              working alone or as part of a team, and of the
                              necessity to hold each employee and/or team
                              accountable for performance, has become a hallmark
                              among HRM leaders.















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                Focus of work
----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------
--Identify fair and cost-effective        --Identify opportunities for
alternatives for downsizing the federal   downsizing through improving
workforce.                                productivity.
                                          --Review OPM's point factor evaluation
--Contribute to reform of the federal     system and agencies' broadbanding
job classification system.                systems.
                                          --Study the use of productivity
--Identify policies that would make more  measurement for establishing staff
effective use of older workers,           levels.
including emphasis on hiring,             --Examine outreach and education
accommodating their special needs, and    efforts for informing the public and
providing incentives for extending their  prospective employees about the
careers.                                  challenges and importance of an
                                          effective federal service.
--Identify employment policies that       --Analyze innovative hiring
would better enable the government to     procedures.
compete with other major employers for    --Identify alternative approaches to
the "best and brightest" job              fulfilling hiring needs given a
candidates.                               downsizing environment.
                                          --Review federal sector representation
--Assess alternatives for improving the   of women, minorities, and the
federal hiring system.                    disabled.
                                          --Evaluate the Equal Employment
--Identify ways for central and           Opportunity Commission's future
individual agency management to improve   mission if merged with the Department
efforts to achieve a representative       of Education and the Department of
workforce in the federal government.      Labor.

--Contribute to the discussion/debate on
the role of affirmative action.





--Examine the role of training in         --Benchmark and evaluate the
developing a higher-performing            effectiveness of government training
workforce.                                programs.
                                          --Identify changes to enhance the
--Evaluate performance management         successful use of teams in the federal
systems that focus on team performance.   government.
                                          --Periodically measure federal
--Identify workplace innovations that     employees' attitudes about working for
encourage employee cooperation and        the government, their morale, and
improve performance.                      workplace innovations they believe
                                          would make better use of their
--Identify alternatives to the federal    skills.
government's performance management       --Examine different ways in which
system.                                   employees could be assigned, managed,
                                          and rewarded.
--Assess the applicability to the civil   --Assess the effectiveness of current
service of private-sector incentive and   mechanisms for dealing with poor
reward systems.                           performers.
                                          --Identify successful public and
--Examine the means available for         private sector strategies for dealing
dealing with poor performers and assess   with poor performers.
alternatives to the current system.       --Analyze strategies for successful
                                          productivity improvement.
--Contribute to productivity              --Evaluate pay reform methodology,
improvements in federal agencies.         demonstration projects, and separate
                                          authorities.
--Contribute to appropriate               --Evaluate ways of improving the level
implementation of pay reform.             of service to the public.

--Evaluate new approaches to improving
customer service.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue                         Significance
----------------------------  --------------------------------------------------
PROMOTING FAIR TREATMENT AND  Private-sector HRM leaders point out that
PERSONAL INTEGRITY IN THE     diversity goes beyond race, gender, and culture to
WORKPLACE                     include personality types and individual styles.
                              Managing an increasingly diverse workforce will be
Is the federal workplace an   important to the future of the civil service for
environment in which all      two main reasons: agency performance and
employees are ensured         individual fairness. Equality of opportunity
respect and equitable         regarding professional development and advancement
treatment and are held to     is in the best interests of both the government
high standards of ethics and  and its employees. So is the maintenance of a
conduct?                      workplace in which discrimination and sexual
                              harassment are not countenanced. Respect and
                              equitable treatment must be grounded in high
                              ethical standards and conduct. In addition, both
                              NPR and congressional staff have expressed an
                              interest in addressing the extensive and highly
                              complex administrative redress system for federal
                              employees, with various streamlining or
                              restructuring proposals either already on the
                              table or imminent.













DESIGNING COST-EFFECTIVE      As budget pressures mount, federal employee
BENEFIT PROGRAMS TO ATTRACT   benefit programs--particularly retirement--are
AND RETAIN THE BEST           being considered for cost-cutting. Legislation
EMPLOYEES                     increasing retirement pay-ins and altering benefit
                              formulas has passed the House. To maintain a
What employee benefit         quality workforce and compete for talent with
programs will best serve the  private-sector employers, the civil service will
changing needs of the modern  need to examine its benefits package as a whole
workforce, and help the       and balance the costs with the benefits. One
federal government attract    potentially fertile area is work/family programs.
and retain the best           As private-sector organizations have learned,
employees?                    employees measure the quality of their worklife
                              not just by the level of pay and other financial
                              benefits but by the success with which their
                              employers can accommodate the demands of life
                              outside the workplace. Thus, work/family programs,
                              which require not so much new funding as a change
                              of management philosophy, are receiving growing
                              attention, as demonstrated by the Federal Leave
                              Sharing Act and the heightened congressional and
                              administration support for alternative work
                              schedule programs.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                                Focus of Work
----------------------------------------  --------------------------------------
--Identify opportunities for increasing   --Identify options for streamlining
equity and efficiency in the              the administrative redress process.
administrative redress system.            --Evaluate performance and role of the
                                          Equal Employment Opportunity
--Identify ways to improve federal equal  Commission in EEO complaint
employment opportunity (EEO) complaint    processing.
processing.                               --Assess progress and problems in
                                          dealing with sexual harassment in the
--Contribute to redefining the role of    federal workplace.
the Equal Employment Opportunity          --Finish assessment of opportunities
Commission.                               to improve public financial disclosure
                                          systems and initiate work on
--Identify approaches to improve          confidential systems.
programs for addressing sexual            --Increase awareness of GAO's past and
harassment in the federal government.     current work as it relates to
                                          legislative proposals to revise ethics
--Assist Congress to determine the need   restrictions.
for additional legislation to identify,
prevent, and deal with misconduct and
conflicts of interest of federal
personnel.

--Identify ways the Office of Government
Ethics (OGE) could improve the cost-
effectiveness of financial disclosure
systems.







--Inform Congress of ways to improve the  --Assess benefits/costs of redesigning
efficiency and integrity of federal       retirement and other programs to
retirement programs.                      respond to a changing workforce.
                                          --Finish (a) federal workers'
--Identify ways to improve the integrity  compensation program review, (b)
and efficiency of federal benefits        retirement system audit, and (c)
programs.                                 Federal Employees Health Benefits
                                          Program review.
--Identify ways of modernizing            --Evaluate alternatives to traditional
employment policies to better             working arrangements and benefit
accommodate employees' personal and       programs.
family needs and provide greater
flexibility in working arrangements and
compensation programs.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                      Planned major job starts
-------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------
Systemwide Fundamentals    --Post-symposium report on best practices.
and Agency Accountability  --Decentralization: capacity, oversight, and lessons
                           learned.
                           --Survey of issues that need to be addressed as
                           consideration is given to privatizing and contracting
                           out of services that the government performs.
                           --Assess applicability of private-sector HRM models
                           to the civil service.
                           --Review strategies to align human resource systems
                           with organizational goals and mission
                           accomplishment.
                           --Automating the personnel function (e.g., test OPM's
                           automated job information systems).

Acquiring and Developing   --Executive training and development.
Leadership                 --Examine the experience of the SES since passage of
                           CSRA and identify areas for improvement.

Rightsizing and            --Downsizing: impacts, alternatives, targeting, cost-
Maintaining a High-        effectiveness, and guidance.
Quality Workforce          --Review locality pay methodology.
                           --Review nonfederal experience with broadbanded
                           classification systems.
                           --Survey federal workforce planning practices.
                           --Hiring, managing, and retaining older workers.
                           --Ensuring the appropriate skill mix for the federal
                           workforce.
                           --Attracting a high-quality workforce in a downsizing
                           environment.
                           --Update survey of federal employees' attitudes about
                           working for the government.

Managing for Performance   --Federal agencies' experiences with training
                           programs.
                           --Private sector approaches to performance management
                           for individuals and groups.
                           --Dealing with poor performers.
                           --Managing plateaued workers.

Promoting Fair Treatment   --Assess feasibility of streamlining the
and Personal Integrity     administrative redress process.
                           --Examine the implications on due process of the
                           rising number of settlements at Merit Systems
                           Protection Board (MSPB) and EEOC.
                           --Processing EEO complaints: federal best practices.
                           --Identify policies, procedures, and tools necessary
                           to manage a diverse workforce.
                           --Sexual harassment: how agencies monitor (capping
                           report).
                           --Evaluate cost-effectiveness of alternative
                           approaches to confidential financial disclosure.
                           --Administration of the federal ethics program.
                           --Measuring the progress of women and minorities
                           through the workforce.

Designing Cost-Effective   --Evaluate alternatives to existing federal
Benefit Programs           retirement systems.
                           --Review financing and operations of federal
                           retirement systems.
                           --Review health benefits administration and costs.
                           --Review OPM's disability retirement determinations.
                           --Assess implementation of GAO's health benefit
                           recommendations.
                           --Evaluate agencies' use of part-time employment and
                           job sharing programs.
                           --Evaluate flexible (cafeteria-style) benefits.
                           --Assess employee dependent care needs and the extent
                           to which they are being met.
                           --Evaluate agencies' use of "flexiplace" programs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

L.  Nye Stevens (202) 512-8676


      ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

Timothy P.  Bowling (202) 512-3511


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

Stephen E.  Altman
Richard W.  Caradine
Larry H.  Endy
Steven G.  Hunichen
John A.  Leitch
Xavier R.  Richardson
Robert E.  Shelton
Norman A.  Stubenhofer
Steven J.  Wozny


*** End of document. ***