Agencies Have Answers on HR

Federal Times

September 6, 2004

We read with great interest your editorial "Measuring hiring success" [Aug. 2 issue], in which you correctly pointed to the dismal record of the federal government in the timely hiring of new workers. However, whether the current system is truly broken or merely process-bound is a different matter.

It should be of interest to you that many agencies are making great inroads in recruiting top-of-the-line talent while greatly reducing hiring cycle times.

How? Agencies with the best track records in government, that beat the Office of Personnel Management's 45-day mandate by 35 days and more, are measuring the process, taking 80 percent or more of the hiring process into a totally digital zone, and eliminating inefficiencies by holding participants accountable for keeping the process moving.

You don't achieve success by finger-pointing and complaining -- you get there with technology-based tracking systems, solid metrics analysis, and effective business process management. This is where we agree with Federal Times' analysis. However, we urge you not to adopt the pervasive paradigm that, somehow, oversight agencies or congressional committees will fix the problem by foisting a single solution, increased oversight, or new regulations on an already heavily burdened administrative process.

Successful agencies are out there, but tend to stay well below the radar of publicity. These agencies don't dare openly criticize OPM's commercial activities or differ with its "broken system" myth for fear of regulatory reprisal.

To really fix the system, we need to deregulate, disintermediate and delegate. In other words, all these oversight organizations need to step aside and let the best-of-class chief human capital officers lead the way.

Linda Brooks Rix and James Miller, Co-chief executive officers, Avue Technologies Washington