On Friday, the Volcker Alliance, a good governance group, released a report targeting “the recent cascade of federal government breakdowns.”
The administration’s event was not designed as an answer to the report, but the afternoon program at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House certainly demonstrated a different way of looking at Uncle Sam’s operation. During the program, administration officials announced President Obama’s executive order “Strengthening the Senior Executive Service” (SES).
Obama’s order focuses on four areas for the top-level civil servants: streamlining the hiring process, increasing job rotations, increasing total funding for performance awards and raising senior leaders’ pay to ensure they earn more than subordinates.
It is stronger than a draft document, first reported by the Federal Diary, with more muscle behind Obama’s call for increased senior-level pay. That pleased the Senior Executives Association (SEA).
One point in the order increases aggregate agency spending caps on agency performance awards to 7.5 percent of senior-level salaries in fiscal year 2017 from the current 4.8 percent. SEA wanted the cap increased to 10 percent, but Tim Dirks, the association’s interim president, was pleased that Obama responded positively to the organization’s recommendations.
“Overall, we think the changes that were made by the administration go in the right direction and make this a stronger executive order,” said Dirks.
The order also makes it clear that senior executives should have “compensation exceeding the rates of pay” of their subordinates. That has not always been the case, a troubling factor that discouraged some high-level General Schedule employees seeking promotion.
“That’s certainly stronger than the previous language and consistent with our recommendation,” Dirks said.
In a blog post released shortly after the program, Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and Office of Personnel Management interim director Beth Cobert reported that more than 60 percent of senior executives will be eligible to retire next year.
“The impending SES ‘retirement wave’ provides a unique opportunity to recruit and develop the next generation of leaders,” they said, hoping the executive order will help with that.
While the order was mentioned during the program, the event’s focus was on honoring federal employees who make things work, not overseeing breakdowns.
But just as celebrating feds is valid, so is the report from the Volcker Alliance, which, by the way, also has praise for government workers.
The list of breakdowns, cited in the report by New York University professor Paul Light, included the failure to anticipate and stop the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That list is significant and can’t be dismissed with a few good news stories. Yet, the accomplishments honored by the administration show the everyday good government works that too often go unnoticed.
So, on the day of the executive order, the administration announced recipients of the inaugural President’s Customer Service Award:
Shawn Lynch, Social Security Administration, “led efforts to drastically reduce appointment wait times, increase registrations, and clear the backlog of applications” at the Dothan, Ala., field office. She helped increase registrations by 488 percent and cut the Supplemental Security Income overpayment files backlog by about 70 percent.
Justin Springer, Veterans Affairs Medical Center in DeBakey, Tex., “systematically identified and implemented 19 different initiatives to improve customer satisfaction. His efforts have led to an almost 10 point increase in overall inpatient satisfaction since FY 2012.”
Global Entry Program “saved over 287,000 working hours of [Customs and Border Protection] officers by expediting clearance of pre-approved, low-risk travelers into the United States. The average wait time for members is 84 percent less than for travelers not enrolled in the program.”
State Department’s consulate in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, used innovative “strategies to deliver direct, off-site services to hundreds of Americans,” eliminating “the need for Americans to travel on dangerous roads to reach the Consulate and saved hundreds of travel hours for its customers.”
BusinessUSA Veteran Entrepreneur Initiative “streamlined a complicated process to provide veterans with easy access to resources on how to start or grow a new business.” No longer must they wade “through multiple government websites that often used different terminology and provided inconsistent advice.”
Donovan and Cobert said “a high-performing, efficient and effective government relies on the skills and talent of a high-performing well-prepared and well-trained workforce.”
With the coming boost in compensation, more of those high-performing senior executives might stick around longer and maybe let Sam avoid another entry on the alliance’s list of breakdowns.