From 2006 through 2014, government-wide engagement levels--as measured by the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Employee Engagement Index (EEI)--increased to an estimated high of 67 percent in 2011 and then declined to an estimated 63 percent in 2014. This decline is attributable to several large agencies--including the Department of Defense--bringing down the government-wide average. The go

In brief, we reported that studies provide varying indicators of the magnitude of poor performance in the federal workforce. For example, while a 1999 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) survey of supervisors estimated that poor performers constituted about 3.7 percent of the federal workforce, OPM's Central Personnel Data File data indicate that of those employees rated in fiscal year 2003, 0.3

The demonstration projects took a variety of approaches to designing and implementing their pay for performance systems to meet the unique needs of their cultures and organizational structures. GAO strongly supports the need to expand pay for performance in the federal government. How it is done, when it is done, and the basis on which it is done can make all the difference in whether such effort

The proposed human capital system is designed to be aligned with the department's mission requirements and is intended to protect the civil service rights of DHS employees. Many of the basic principles underlying the DHS regulations are consistent with proven approaches to strategic human capital management, including several approaches pioneered by GAO, and deserve serious consideration. However

Strategic workforce planning addresses two critical needs: (1) aligning an organization's human capital program with its current and emerging mission and programmatic goals and (2) developing long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals. While agencies' approaches to workforce planning will vary, GAO identified five key principles that strategi

Public sector organizations both in the United States and abroad have implemented a selected, generally consistent set of key practices for effective performance management that collectively create a clear linkage--"line of sight"--between individual performance and organizational success. These key practices include the following. (1) Align individual performance expectations with organizational

The agencies GAO reviewed developed an initial set of balanced expectations for senior executives to address in their individual performance plans. GAO found that these agencies are in the early stages of using a set of balanced expectations to appraise senior executive performance and there are significant opportunities to strengthen their efforts as they move forward in holding executives accou

GAO noted that: (1) although all six pilot projects GAO reviewed included specific efforts to align their employee performance management systems with organizational missions and goals, their approaches varied in significant ways; (2) one way was in the kinds or groups of employees on whom they focused; (3) four of the pilot projects focused on managers rather than on staff at other levels; (4) t

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed allegations concerning retaliation against a complainant who reported the unauthorized disclosure of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confidential informant to the appropriate Department of Justice (DOJ) officials. GAO noted that: (1) it could not substantiate that any DOJ employee had disclosed the informant's identity or had acted imprope

GAO discussed labor-management relations at the U.S. Postal Service. GAO noted that: (1) poor labor-management relations at Postal Service facilities are longstanding and result from the type of work involved, an autocratic management style, adversarial employee and union attitudes, and inadequate performance management systems; (2) postal managers, unions, and management associations need to imp