Federal agencies are extremely large and complex organizations with critical missions that range from safeguarding our borders to protecting us from disease. Managing these organizations effectively and ensuring that they achieve their goals is no easy task, and it is the responsibility of the chief operating officer (COO).
What role do COOs play in agencies? What are their top priorities and challenges? What is the state of management in federal agencies? Those are the questions the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton set out to understand in the inaugural report, “Bridging Mission and Management: A Survey of Government Chief Operating Officers.”
In the report, “Building the Enterprise: A New Civil Service Framework,” the Partnership for Public Service calls for major reforms to the federal government’s decades-old civil service system and lays out a plan to modernize areas that include the outdated pay and hiring policies.
“Our nation’s civil service system is a relic of a bygone era,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “Our nation’s leadership must make it a priority to create a civil service system that our public servants deserve and that will produce the results our country needs.”
Produced in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, the comprehensive report calls the federal personnel system, the foundation for effective government, obsolete and in crisis, and an obstacle rather than an aid in attracting, hiring, retaining and developing top talent.
“Good government starts with good people, and our nation is fortunate to count some of the brightest, most dedicated professionals among its ranks. But they too often succeed in spite of the current system, not because of it,” Stier said.
The report calls for overhauling the entire civil service system, including pay, performance management, hiring, job classification, accountability and workplace justice, and the Senior Executive Service, the nation’s career leadership corps.
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On March 31, 2014, Partnership President and CEO Max Stier testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the management challenges facing our federal government.
In his testimony, Stier applauded the work that OMB is doing to improve government management and offered several ways in which Congress could augment these efforts. Specifically, Stier urged Congress to reduce the number of vacancies in critical management positions, focus on oversight of policy and programs before there is a problem, hold agency leaders accountable for managing people well and reform the civil service system. Stier also talked about the importance of treating government as a single enterprise and developing and managing career executives who serve as enterprise-wide assets.
On December 12, 2013, Partnership President and CEO Max Stier testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on employee morale at the Department of Homeland Security.
The Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton released “Building the Enterprise: Nine Strategies for a More Integrated, Effective Government,” a report designed to assist the Obama administration’s efforts to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government. “Building the Enterprise” calls on the administration to take a more coordinated, multiagency approach to tackling today’s critical challenges. From reducing homelessness and safeguarding food to securing cyberspace and reducing joblessness, the report lays out the case for our government to build on current efforts by acting as a single, integrated enterprise.
By implementing these nine strategies, the report argues our government can begin to eliminate program duplication and overlap, and align scarce resources toward defined goals to better serve the needs of the American people.
This calendar provide detailed information regarding the day to day activities of Secretary Lew during his first few months in office. Consistent with the Freedom of Information Act, certain limited aspects of the secretary’s calendar are not released publicly.
Every four years, just after the presidential election, the United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, commonly known as the Plum Book, is published, alternately, by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
As of June 30, 2012, this publication contains over 8,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment (e.g., positions such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, policy executives and advisors and aides who report to these officials). The duties of many such positions may involve advocacy of administration policies and programs and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency head or other key officials.
This charter outlines the purpose of the landing team, as well as a schedule of the team’s activities and deliverables. The charter details the activities of the team between the election and the inauguration.
Report with recommendations for streamlining paperwork for executive nominations. It was sent to the president and the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Committe on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.
Slide deck prepared by Harvard professor, Roger Porter explaining different models for organizing the White House and evaluating the merits of each approach for a potential Romney administration.