Government’s next big job: Fixing the federal workforce

Because inefficiency and complexity have become unfortunate hallmarks of today’s federal hiring process, President Obama directed his Cabinet and agency heads to “overhaul the way they recruit and hire our civilian workforce.” Revamping the system in order to attract and retain top talent will be an enormous undertaking. In Closing the Gap: Seven Obstacles to a First-Class Federal Workforce, Grant Thornton and the Partnership for Public Service report on the results of in-depth interviews with chief human capital officers (CHCOs) and other key human resources personnel in the federal government in order to gauge what’s wrong with the current system and how it can be fixed. CHCOs and other HR leaders overwhelmingly believe that long-standing and dysfunctional practices are major barriers in building a high-quality workforce.

First on the list of obstacles is the arcane federal hiring system. Although efforts are underway to modernize the system and make it more applicant-friendly, many CHCOs have doubts that current HR staffs are up to these tasks — forty-six percent of respondents do not believe their HR staffs have the competencies or capacities necessary to succeed in the future. Outdated pay and classification systems and tense labor relations also inhibit the federal workforce. There is a strong sentiment that future pay practices should “level the playing field” to discourage unfair competition for talent among agencies and that the dispute resolution process be streamlined. Find out what other obstacles stand in the way of a better federal workforce and how CHCOs plan to improve the system > >