Management Reform: Agencies' Initial Efforts to Restructure Personnel Operations
GGD-98-93
Published: Jul 13, 1998. Publicly Released: Jul 13, 1998.
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Highlights
GAO reviewed the effects of reductions in personnel positions at the Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), the Interior (DOI), and Veteran Affairs (VA), focusing on: (1) the activities the agencies have undertaken in restructuring personnel offices and operations; (2) what performance measures are in place to gauge results of the restructuring efforts; and (3) issues agencies may commonly encounter when, in restructuring their personnel operations, they consider outsourcing automated personnel or payroll services to another agency or the private sector.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Office of Management and Budget | The Director, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), should require agencies to develop performance measures for personnel operations. The measures to be developed should assess key areas, such as the costs of personnel processes, customer satisfaction with personnel services, workforce capacity, and process effectiveness. |
Closed – Implemented
OMB's guidance to OPM for its fiscal year 2000 performance plan calls for OPM to give agencies models for measuring their human resources operations. Therefore, OMB expected that OPM's FY 2000 budget submission and performance plan would detail the actions OPM intends to take to provide agencies with model measures. OMB and OPM agreed that this recommended action is important. However, OPM's FY 2000 budget submission and performance plan does not address this recommendation specifically. It does describe OPM's plans to work with the agencies in the year ahead to develop measures covering the broad spectrum of human resources management activities and issues. This work is being conducted by the Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness. The primary purpose is not to reduce staff, but to heighten agency accountability for the efficient and effective use of human resources in support of agency mission accomplishment.
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| Office of Personnel Management | To develop measures that would have widespread application, the Director, OPM, in conjunction with the President's Administrative Management Council, should lead an initiative that helps agencies develop common measures that could be used to make performance and cost comparisons of personnel operations within agencies and across government. |
Closed – Not Implemented
During FY 1999, OPM's Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness completed and published the HRM Accountability System Development Guide, which was the product of an OPM-led interagency task force of human resource management (HRM) goals and measures. This publication includes potential measures of the efficiency and effectiveness of HRM in the federal government, and a framework for grouping and evaluating these measures. But the task force stopped short of identifying common measures against which all agencies should be evaluated, because it came to realize that these measures should always be viewed in their full organizational context and in relationship to each other. OPM found that cost comparisons across agencies are difficult to do accurately and are best used for broad benchmarking purposes rather than evaluation.
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Topics
Federal agency reorganizationStaff utilizationInformation resources managementInteragency relationsOffice automationPayroll systemsPersonnel managementPrivatizationProductivity in governmentPayroll records