Guarding the nation’s money

As the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Engraving’s (BEP) chief of security for the past four years, Will Levy, III has been right on the money.

In this role, Levy manages a team of nearly 200 employees who work round-the-clock to safeguard the production facilities in Washington, D.C. and Forth Worth, Tex., that each day print tens of millions of dollars in U.S. currency.

Known as the “fix it guy,” Levy has changed the agency’s approach to how it makes decisions about security needs, moving from a “bank-vault mentality” to one that is more customer-focused.

“One of the big things that Will brought to us was a completely different way of looking at security. The tendency in the security office was to go to the most strict security policies possible, which many times are not the most employee-friendly,” said Scott Wilson, BEP’s associate director for management.

“Will pitched us a risk-based security approach to making decisions rather than automatically defaulting to the harshest approach,” he said.

To help transform the culture of security at BEP, Levy has rewritten all of the agency’s security policies and plans, built an emergency operations center, implemented measures that significantly decrease the time it takes to complete background investigation reports for prospective employees, and decreased inefficiencies in different areas of the security work.

Levy said his approach involves “creating a clear vision of where we need to be” and then “developing and communicating a roadmap and timeline to realize the vision.”

“I hold myself and others accountable to complete the necessary work to bring about change,” he said.

Timothy Gerald, who manages the BEP’s Product and Physical Security Division in the Office of Security, believes Levy’s changes have energized the organization.

“The biggest contribution that Will has made to the agency is that he has come in with a fresh set of eyes to show the organization and leadership a new way of doing things,” said Gerald. “His enthusiasm is contagious. He gets everyone around him fired up about it.”

The BEP is responsible for the design, engraving and printing of all U.S. currency as well as the design and production of security documents for other U.S. government agencies. In addition to safeguarding these assets, Levy is responsible for the safety of the agency’s employees and the 320,000 individuals who annually tour the two facilities.

Levy also has led the BEP’s efforts to improve the working conditions and employee morale at the agency. Ranked near the bottom of Best Places to Work in the Federal Government list of agency subcomponents in 2010, the BEP made a dedicated effort to deal with its workplace problems and improve employee job satisfaction.

To do so, Levy and his team held employee focus groups and meetings with union leaders to better understand the reasons behind the low employee ratings, and to get feedback of what should be done to change the status quo. The team held nearly 20 employee “road shows” to communicate with BEP employees and hear their concerns. They learned the number one concern was lack of communication, which resulted in development of an action plan to let employees know what was happening in the organization and why decisions were being made.

This included establishing mechanisms to get feedback, to act on problems and to let employees know that they were being heard. BEP also has undertaken skill assessments for many of its workers, increased internal training programs to address skill gaps and helped workers adapt to new technologies being introduced into the printing process.

The efforts by Levy and his team resulted in BEP, part of the Department of the Treasury, being the third most improved agency subcomponent in the 2011 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings produced by the Partnership for Public Service. The BEP moved from 219 in 2010 to 174 in the 2011 rankings among agency subcomponents.

“Will wants to have a broader impact in the agency than just in his office. He was willing to roll up his sleeves and take on this challenge. Our improvement would not have happened without his leadership,” said Wilson.

This article was jointly prepared by the Partnership for Public Service, a group seeking to enhance the performance of the federal government, and washingtonpost.com. Go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fed-player to read about other federal workers who are making a difference.