by Meredith Camp

Scott Eblin’s recent blog post on assessing a candidate’s leadership potential brought up some great points and got me thinking about what qualities make for the best leaders. While it is easy to notice that there are major differences between great leaders and wholly ineffective ones, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what characteristics separate the two. Many leadership skills are innate or impalpable; they are often easier to spot in action—or in absence—than they are to put into words. 

Federal worksite managers are grappling with growing workloads and workforces, while simultaneously dealing with tighter budgets. In response to these tough times, Chief Performance Officer of the Department of Treasury Dan Tangherlini gave up his large office in favor of a smaller workspace. Tangherlini hoped to convey to others that as budgets become compact and workloads increase, everybody has to make sacrifices.

In light of the after effects of the financial crisis, the workforce of the Department of Treasury has increased by an estimate of 18 percent within the past one and a half years. As a result, the average space employees occupied has shrunk from 191 square feet to 167. “There is a word for that,” says Tangherlini. “Tightsizing.”

Deputy Inspector General for Tax Administration Joseph Hungate says that the employees have been positive about the changes taking place with regards to the tightsizing and believe that the measure will lead to reduction in costs and continue to protect the mission of the Treasury.

Has your agency implemented any tightsizing of its own? If so, how? Has it been effective?

A recent New York Times article revealed that while the national unemployment rate is still dismal, job-posting numbers have gone up.

Job search engine site Simply Hired reported postings rose more than 50 percent last year over 2009; they increased almost 70 percent in December of last year over December 2009.

While these numbers are hopeful, job postings don’t always guarantee there is a job to be filled—a company posting a job can always decide not to hire someone after all or not find someone with the skills they need among the applicants.

Experts disagree on whether the latest hiring news is good or not; almost half of unemployed workers have been out of work for six months or more. Others point out that while workers in more rural areas may be out of luck, those in metropolitan cities have more options available to them. Residents in cities such as Washington, D.C.,West Palm Beach, Baltimore, Boston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Oklahoma City, and the San Francisco Bay Area have a much better chance of landing work with more job-postings present in their area.

What do you think? Is the rise in job-postings a good sign for the unemployed? Or does it mean little when compared to current unemployment numbers?

In light of the federal government’s two-year civilian pay freeze, agencies have begun to fear the loss of key talent within their organizations.

A November 2010 report from the Partnership for Public Service revealed that the federal attrition rate is down, with nearly a quarter of government hires from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2008 leaving their jobs within two years.

The report also cited the need for improved hiring and onboarding strategies, as well as additional training and advancement opportunities within the federal workplace. High attrition rates have been proven to leave federal employees demoralized, and can cost agencies anywhere from 50 percent to 200 percent of an employee’s salary to fill a single position.

While pay raises to reward outstanding remaining employees are not allowed for the next several years, bonuses are still permissible, and promotions are also viable options.

PPS’ study asserts that career development, meaningful feedback and work-life programs are great ways to retain top talent in lieu of pay raises.

Has your agency’s attrition rate already dipped following the “no pay raise” rule? Is management doing anything to address the issue or keep it from happening at all? What strategies are—or could—work for retaining top federal talent?

The rapidly growing pay of federal workers has caught the attention of the fiscally conservative Republicans, who won the majority of last week’s elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.

A study performed by USA Today has found that the average federal salary has risen significantly over the last several years. The number of federal employees earning $150,000 and more has doubled, and salaries have increased tenfold since Obama moved into the Oval Office.

The USA Today analysis also revealed that the raises were prevalent government-wide, but thatlong-time workers have benefited most from pay increases. The salaries of federal employees working since 2005 have climbed 25 percent, in comparison to a nine percent inflation rate for short-term workers. Physicians within the federal workforce have also been rewarded. Medical professionals at veteran prisons and hospitals now earn an average of $179,500, as compared to $111,000 in 2005.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, heads the panel which will analyze federal pay. Chaffetz says he wants a pay freeze and a 10 percent pay cut across the federal workforce.

“It’s stunning when you see what’s happened to federal compensation,” says Chaffetz. “Every metric show we’re heading in the wrong direction.”

Do you agree with Chaffetz? How is it that some people feel government workers are grossly overpaid, while other studies reveal them to be underpaid for their performance?

Monday, November 1, was a momentous day in Washington, D.C.—particularly if you are a federal employee, or aspire to be. The date marked the end of government-wide use of Knowledge, Skills and Abilities tests.

Following the Excellence in Government conference held in the Ronald Reagan Building, Miss DC 2009 Jen Corey joined Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry and Center for Human Capital Innovation President Allen Zeman in a reception to “Hail” the new use of cover letters and resumes in the federal hiring process and bid “Farewell” to the much-maligned KSAs.

Director Berry announced that OPM is100 percent compliant with President Obama’s May memorandum mandating the abolition of KSAs. Berry is optimistic that all agencies can meet the requirements that the President laid out in his call for reform.

Berry concluded the toast by saying he looks forward to receiving the results of other agencies hiring reform attempts later this month.

Has your agency made any progress in regards to hiring reform? Why or why not? What do you think the mid-November progress reports will look like?

HR 1722, or the Telework Enhancement Act, recently passed by Congress, aims to dramatically increase the amount of federal employees who participate in telework programs. Rather than mandating a specific number of federal workers that must telework, however, the bill simply requires agencies to determine within six months which employees are eligible to telework, to notify them, and to set a policy for them to do so.

Managers and employees are expected to work together to outline what will be expected of everyone in the new environment. Officials hope that the new legislation will cast telework in a better light and encourage more people to work remotely.

In 2008, just 102,900—less than nine percent of the 1.2 million employees eligible to telework that year—did so. This number is down from the 110,600 who teleworked in 2006.

In addition to work-life balance benefits, telework is proven to drastically reduce costs: The Patent and Trademark Office said it has saved $11 million in office space over the 13 years its employees have teleworked.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks.

How do you feel about this bill? Do you—or anyone within your agency—telework?

According to the National Council on Federal Labor Management Relations, agency managers are exerting too little effort to engage their employees and union representatives before entering decision-making processes that effect daily work.

At a recent council meeting, Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that pre-decisional involvement, or gathering input from employees, needs to be performed more.

Executive Order 13522 mandates that agencies must include pre-decisional involvement “in all workplace matters to the fullest extent practicable.”

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, voiced his dissatisfaction towards the council’s chairman, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, saying, “A lot of people are getting soured, John, because the process is not happening.  Let’s get pre-decisional [involvement] moving.”

Does your organization practice pre-decisional involvement? How so?

A key component of the hiring reform initiative finds its future existence in doubt, as few federal agencies expressed an interest in using it, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The program in question is the Office’s centralized hiring register. In April of this year, OPM established the register for 13 of the most common jobs in the federal government, into which open positions like contracting specialists, accountants and secretaries could be placed.

The system sounds easy enough to use: When a hiring manager is required to fill a job opening, he can inform OPM via its register about the kind of skills he is looking for, and in turn, OPM would evaluate the applicants and rank them accordingly before handing over a list of suitable candidates to the aforementioned hiring manager.

Despite its user-friendly attributes, Ted Cuneo, chief of staff for Angela Bailey, OPM’s deputy associate director for recruitment and diversity, stated that during the first seven months of the hiring register program only 71 of 106,000 qualified job candidates were hired by the government. Cuneo further said that “OPM has been paying for [the registers] out of pocket. This was a freebie, and it’s not used much…we can’t continue doing this forever.”

OPM Director John Berry seems to disagree with Cuneo, however. In response to whether he thinks the register should be cut, Berry reiterated what he said earlier this year in a statement before a House subcommittee on hiring reform that the system is a huge time-saver, estimating that it saves federal agencies three weeks in the hiring process. He has no current intention to do away with the program.

Are you a federal hiring manager that has used the register? If not, do you plan to use it in the future? Why or why not?

Findings from the largest survey ever of the federal workforce, and the first to be conducted by the Obama administration, were released Monday morning. The results demonstrate that while employees are mostly satisfied with their jobs, they remain unconvinced that career advancement in the government is based on merit.

Of the 500,000 workers who received copies of the survey in February and March, a little more than half returned their responses.

Over half of the respondents—56 percent— said they have a high level of respect for agency leadership, with 8 in 10 enjoying the work they do and more than 90 percent believing that their job is important.

In light of all the headlines conveying the public’s poor perception of Obama and the U.S. government in general, these statistics are good news.  It would be interesting to note, however, how the numbers would change (if at all) had every worker, and not just half, filled out their survey form. Would the results remain as positive or would there be more of a balance between the satisfied and unsatisfied employees?

Rather than conducting the review every other year, as they have done since 2002, the Office of Personnel Management will now perform the survey annually. The Partnership for Public Service will use OPM’s data for its annual “Best Places to Work” review, due in September.