Better Use Can Be Made of Federal Professional Staff

A survey was conducted of staffing problems which effect the use of skilled professionals in the federal government. The increasing complexity of the work of the government makes it imperative that government makes the best use of the special talents of its professional staff. Private industry has shown the benefits of employing professionals in tasks which require their highest skill use and the opportunities that are thus afforded support personnel through position upgrading and job restructuring. The objective of the GAO study was to determine how much time professional employees were spending on tasks which should be delegated, and to assess the impact of the time spent doing work that could be done by support staff.