U.S. Office of Personnel Management FY 2000 Budget Justification/Performance Plan

Challenges and Priorities for the Year 2000

The world of work has changed significantly in the last 20 years, for both the private and the public sectors. The increased availability and need for information has changed every worker into a knowledge worker. Workers require new skills and competencies to succeed in new organizational structures, like teams, and to adapt to rapidly changing directions and technology, while still delivering good customer service.

• The Federal workforce has become more diverse and representative of the entire spectrum of the American population. Although significantly smaller in size, it has retained its improved diversity, and is also better educated, and thus better able to handle the technical complexities of the modern work environment.

• The Federal workforce is much more focused on its customer -- the American public. Results from a recent Governmentwide survey administered by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) show a dramatic increase in customer orientation.

• The growth of partnership between management and employees has allowed cooperative relationships to flourish and has helped this smaller workforce to maintain and improve its service to the public.

OPM’s challenge for FY 2000 and beyond is to provide HRM systems that not only continue to respond so effectively to the dramatic changes of the past 20 years, but also will adapt readily to the workplace of the future -- as it changes in ways and at speeds we cannot begin to imagine.

We will meet this challenge through a series of initiatives that include human resources management accountability, performance-oriented compensation, staffing flexibilities, the key role of executive leadership and more. Best practice and benchmarking reviews make it plain that "one size fits all" approaches in areas like compensation and staffing do not effectively serve agencies and their differing strategic objectives. We will work to provide agencies with system flexibilities to more strongly link pay and performance for Federal employees and help agencies recruit and retain the high-quality, diverse workforce they need to meet their mission and respond to increasing customer and workplace demands. At the same time, we recognize that the creation of additional personnel flexibilities increases the need for OPM to ensure that the Government’s HRM systems are designed and operated under merit principles.

OPM is committed to getting all agencies and all segments of the workforce the flexibilities necessary to meet their strategic goals more effectively. In addition, we will work to get the HRM profession full recognition as a strategic partner in accomplishing the business of agencies.

OPM’s Top Priorities for FY 2000

OPM’s top seven priorities for FY 2000 will help to meet these challenges. Our priorities are:

1. Improve linkage between pay and performance.

OPM will continue to develop programs that support the idea that compensation should be linked to performance and results. In FY 2000, OPM will introduce short-term changes (based on work begun in FY 1999) to improve Federal pay and performance management systems, and will continue to promote improved employee performance by maintaining a flexible framework for performance management which encourages and rewards good performance and strengthens the link between performance and pay. OPM will also continue its longer term effort to develop a performance-oriented total compensation system suitable for the variety of missions, structures, labor markets, and technologies that will characterize the Federal workplace of the 21st century. We have established the Total Compensation Policy Center to conduct research and outreach to our stakeholders to find out what the Government needs to change in order to compete in the next century. In addition, through our new Center for Benefits Design and Delivery, we will position ourselves to move forward with enhancements to the Federal employee earned benefits programs. These enhancements include new life insurance products and the Administration’s proposal to offer long-term care for Federal employees and annuitants.

2. Provide flexibilities and tools for recruitment and hiring.

After a long period of restructuring and downsizing, agencies are facing immediate needs for hiring in several mission-critical occupations, such as information technology and law enforcement, and are facing potential needs from baby boom demographics and the increase in retirements that will result. Both the immediate and long-term needs require improved recruitment tools and additional hiring flexibilities. Agencies need model recruitment plans which target the new skills and diverse backgrounds required to accomplish their missions; quick hiring programs which enable them to compete in a tight job market; special hiring programs such as the Presidential Management Intern and new entry level intern programs that attract high quality, diverse future managers to the Federal workforce; and executive succession planning. Priority will be given to improving Federal employment opportunities for adults with disabilities and Hispanic Americans, and to initiatives to recruit, develop, and retain computer security professionals. And, because the workforce of the future will need new competencies and skills, we will provide information and tools to identify and assess these competencies. We will also continue to support the highly automated, accessible USAJOBS competitive job information system, which supports merit principles by providing fair and open access to all candidates, and which saves the Government millions of dollars each year because agencies have no need to create redundant and expensive systems of their own. We will also work with agencies to develop workforce planning and analysis tools to assist them in assessing and projecting their internal skill and workforce composition needs, identifying recruitment sources, and conducting meaningful succession planning.

3. Strengthen oversight.

OPM’s essential ability to oversee the merit system is a continuing priority. Human resources management authorities increasingly have been made more flexible, and delegated to line managers. Many agencies have been exempted from key provisions of the civil service laws in title 5, United States Code, but they still must observe merit system principles. Also many agencies have cut their human resources support staffs by half. This, coupled with increased flexibility and delegations in personnel authority, has significantly increased the potential for abuse of the merit system in agency personnel actions. We will strengthen our activities to support compliance with the merit principles through oversight visits, to provide assistance to agency delegated examining units, and to work with agencies to develop new internal accountability systems.

4. Refocus attention on learning.

OPM will be leading the Federal Government’s initiative to reinvigorate training and development programs in order to promote lifelong learning and to ensure that our workforce, at all levels, is prepared to meet the demands of the 21st century. In FY 2000, the President’s Task Force on Federal Training Technology, chaired by OPM’s Director, will finalize recommendations for a policy to provide for the most effective use of today’s technology in order to provide the best and most accessible training possible for Federal employees. OPM will work closely with other agencies and the private sector to eliminate the barriers to effective training programs and to recommend changes to procurement laws, identify opportunities for cross-agency training, and recommend standards for training software purchases by Federal agencies.

5. Modernize HR Information Technology.

OPM is working to modernize its internal systems and processes to improve the utility and accessibility of information for merit system oversight reviews, for retirement processing, and for planning and budgeting by external users such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the White House, Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO), other Federal agencies, the media, and the public. These ongoing modernization efforts complement the broader, Governmentwide vision of a "Virtual Federal Human Resources Data Repository" (VHRDR) currently being analyzed by the interagency Human Resources Technology Council (HRTC). The VHRDR will enable the electronic transfer of HR data across Government, streamline and improve Governmentwide reporting, and eventually allow for the elimination of cumbersome and costly paper personnel records.

A critical component of this priority is Retirement Systems Modernization (RSM). Based on business processes that are reengineered in consultation with OPM’s strategic business partners, the initiative is critical to our ability to continue improving the delivery of retirement program services to both annuitants and employees. For example, without modernized systems we will not be able to reduce Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) processing times, as we have successfully done for Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuitants.

Another critical component is the modernization of the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF) to improve communication with those agencies submitting CPDF data, to make the information more readily accessible, and to integrate this effort into the VHRDR initiative.

6. Support the family friendly workplace.

OPM will continue to encourage the Federal Government to be the model employer for family friendly programs, by providing and promoting affordable child care options, alternative work schedules, family and medical leave, telecommuting, part-time employment and job-sharing opportunities, and employee assistance programs. These programs are essential to help our workforce better balance the ever increasing demands of work and home responsibilities. In addition, the most competitive companies in the private sector find that programs like these help them attract and retain the best and brightest employees. OPM’s Family Friendly Workplace Advocacy Office will become fully operational by FY 2000, and will serve as a central point of contact for Federal workers who need information on family friendly initiatives as well as those who wish to raise concerns about the operation of these programs within their organizations.

7. Improve financial management.

OPM is committed to continuous improvement in all of its financial management operations, systems, policies and procedures as well as improving the quality of service to all customers. Over the past few years, internal and external reviews and audits have identified internal and management control weaknesses in our financial administrative and trust funds areas. We have categorized those that are most vital to mission success and which involve long-term fixes and those that can be strengthened in the near term. We have made significant progress in addressing and correcting these. OPM will continue to use Quality Improvement Teams (QITs) comprised of cross-functional representatives including the Office of the Inspector General to address these areas.

Measuring Our Success

In September 1997, OPM delivered its first Strategic Plan to the Congress, covering 1997 - 2002. The Plan includes five major goals -- four external and one internal -- which are all focused on the overarching outcome of achieving a high-quality, diverse Federal workforce, within the principles of a merit-based system. The five strategic goals define outcomes for policy leadership, oversight, technical assistance, and direct service delivery (external goals), and operating as a model employer (internal goal), to be reached by the end of FY 2002. The FY 2000 Annual Plan sets incremental targets for progress toward the strategic goals.

Both the Strategic Plan and the Annual Plan use the process of multi-measurement to assess our success in meeting the overarching goal of a high-quality, diverse workforce. Assessment of the quality of any workforce -- Federal or otherwise -- has been recognized as a significant measurement challenge. Consequently, OPM is using a measurement approach which depends on a balanced set of intermediate indicators from multiple available data sources. Two key indicators are direct surveys to assess the perceptions of Federal employees about workforce quality and the fairness and equity of HRM processes, and user surveys -- from both public and internal customers -- to assess customer satisfaction with the content, process and outcomes of policies and services.

The primary employee surveys used are the OPM Merit System Principles Questionnaire and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) Survey. The primary customer surveys used are OPM agency customer surveys (HR Directors and HR specialists) and surveys of job-seekers, annuitants, and health insurance users. Other direct measures include data on the diversity of the Federal workforce, timeliness and quality of operations, and usage data (such as web site visitors).

Other key indicators are qualitative in nature, rather than quantitative. These are the results of externally conducted program evaluations, conducted by such entities as the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the GAO, and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). Each of these organizations conducts periodic studies of Federal HRM practices and outcomes, and their findings are an important measure of program success.

Finally, in some instances OPM relies on indirect, or surrogate, measures as indicators. One surrogate measure is the use of competency-based selection tools to hire and promote workers. The assumption underlying this measure is that recent research has identified the wide range of competencies needed by employees in today’s changing workplace, and the use of tools which are based on a full evaluation of these competencies will translate to a more highly-qualified workforce.

The section of this Annual Plan under the tab "Verification and Validation of Data" provides a complete discussion of the complexities associated with these and other measures used in our Plan and the steps planned or taken by OPM to ensure that the data are valid and verifiable.

How OPM's Annual Plan Addresses Our Priorities

As it was for FY 1999, our FY 2000 Annual Plan is completely integrated with our Congressional Budget Justification. Because it is linked to the budget, the details of the Annual Plan are organized by program area and funding source.

To assist with understanding the linkages between the overall OPM priorities and the individual performance plans for each program area, we have included two reference tools: 1) a complete listing of all of the program goals that relate to each Strategic Plan goal, under the tab labeled "Crosswalk to Strategic Plan"; and 2) a table of resources linked to each strategic goal under the tab labeled "Resource Summary by Goal."

Our goal in preparing this performance plan has been to ensure that the reader has a clear sense of not only what OPM plans to accomplish, but the particular strategies and tactics to be employed, and the measures of success that will be used. Each program plan is presented in the same format, and includes the following sections: