PRESIDENT OBAMA AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A MERIT SYSTEM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?

Stephen E. Condrey, Ph.D.

University of Georgia

RECENT U.S. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM HISTORY: 1976 TO PRESENT

PRESIDENT CARTER Ran against the “bureaucracy”

Beginning of main-stream anti-government sentiment in the U.S.

Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 Office of Personnel

Management (OPM)

Merit Systems Protection

Board (MPSB)

Merit Pay for Managers

HR Pilot Projects Senior Executive Service (SES)

PRESIDENT CLINTON

National Performance Review Fewer rules and

regulations Further

decentralization or “disaggregation” of federal human resource management

Improved Labor/Management Relations

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

First MBA President

Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO)

National Security Personnel System (NSPS) Merit Pay Fewer Employee Rights

Chilled relations with Labor Unions

PRESIDENT OBAMA

PRESIDENT OBAMA

Appoints John Berry as Director of OPM

Berry is most visible OPM Director in 30 years

Obama potentially poised to make major HR reforms

Obama harkens back to President Kennedy and a call to public service

American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) – HRM Policy Committee

“I believe this is an historic opportunity for comprehensive reform of our civil service system. The stars are aligned in a way that occurs only once in a generation. We have a President who deeply values service and wants to restore the dignity and respect for our civil service to what it was during Kennedy’s stirring call. We have a Congress that is willing to help and a public that increasingly recognizes that our current approaches to hiring, rewarding, appraising and training our employees are inadequate.”

John Berry, OPM Director

December 2009

“Let’s make government cool again.”President ObamaFebruary 2009

“The very procedures that were supposed to ensure job applicants are evaluated based on merit are discouraging applicants from completing the arduous quest of actually getting a civil service job.”

John Berry, OPM DirectorFebruary 2010

PRIMARY REFORM FOCUS: SIX AREAS Recruitment

Pay System Reform

Performance Management

Training and Development

Improved Labor/Management Relations

In-Sourcing

RECRUITMENT

Increased focus on recruitment

Recruitment process has become disjointed and elusive

1.9 million federal employees; hire 300,000 per year

Overhaul of USA Jobs site – unveiled in January 2010

PAY SYSTEM REFORM Possible introduction of pay-for-performance

Possible consolidation of pay systems and overhaul of the Federal General Schedule (GS)

Possible favoring career ladders and career bands over the traditional GS system Apprentice Journey-level Expert

Rank-in-person vs. rank-in-grade

Federal employees and unions will resist major pay system reform

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Possible unified performance management system

More closely tied to overall training and career progression

Three level proposed: In-good standing Outstanding Not-in-good standing

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Increased emphasis on training and development

Specific funds set aside for training and development

Encouraging a cultural shift that values and rewards training

Closer ties between training and development and career progression

IMPROVED LABOR/MANAGEMENT RELATIONS All agencies must have

labor/management councils and collaboration plans by March 2010

Reversal of Bush administration policies

Unions want decision-makers at the table

Increases scrutiny of “metrics” such as grievances as a measure of success

“If there’s a management team that’s HR and labor relations, we’re not going to play.”

John Gage, PresidentAmerican Federation of Government EmployeesFebruary 2010

PRIVATIZATION In-sourcing and a

reduction in privatization

Experience with Iraq and Afghanistan has influenced public opinion of outsourcing

However, privatization is the “new spoils” for modern governments – no longer – tightly associated with individual jobs

CONCLUSION Possible Policy Window

Some possibility of bi-partisan support

Working to gain union buy-in

Reforms may now be more modest than originally anticipated

Overall trend is for a recentralization of federal human resource management and increased union cooperation