Re: Max Stier and Working for America Act

by
Max Stier
at 04:30PM (EDT) on Oct 20, 2005

I’m glad to see that my testimony has given
people in the blogosphere something to talk about other than the CIA
leak investigation and Harriet Miers. Although I must now come clean
and confess that my comments were not nearly as provocative as some
people have taken them to be.

Some have taken my assertion that the federal pay system is “no
longer good enough to attract and retain the best and the brightest”
and extrapolated that to suggest that I’m saying that all federal
employees hired under the current system must be the dumb and the
dullest. Not true – by a long shot.

The point I was making is that without the ability to reward
high-performers financially for a job well done, the federal government
is competing for talent with one hand tied behind its back.

How do I know that most federal workers are turned off by the
current pay system, putting federal agencies at a competitive
disadvantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent? Because
that’s what they have told us.

My team at the Partnership for Public Service works with American
University to analyze OPM’s human capital survey to come up with a
product we call our Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings.
To develop our rankings, we look at 10 different workplace environment
factors like “Effective Leadership” and “Mission Match.” One of the
areas where agencies scored worst was “Performance Based Rewards and
Advancement.” At 23 or 30 major agencies, the majority of workers are
dissatisfied with performance based rewards and advancement, and only
43% of federal workers across government were satisfied. We also
compared these workplace dimension scores to private sector ratings,
and the largest gaps with top performing companies are found in
rewarding workers for providing high quality services (25 points lower
in government).

There’s a scene in The Untouchables, when Sean Connery delivers one of
the all-time great movie lines: “They pull out a knife. You pull out a
gun. They put one of your men in the hospital. You put one of theirs in
the morgue. That’s the Chicago way. And that’s how you get Capone.” The
way I see it, when it comes to performance based rewards and
advancement, the private sector has pulled out a bazooka, and
government has pulled out a nail file. That’s the government way, and
that’s one reason why we are missing out on top workers who might be
willing to work for their country.

Obviously, government will never be able to compete toe-to-toe with the
private sector on this score, but, in my view, the status quo will no
longer suffice.

While I believe a shift toward performance-based pay is a step in
the right direction, I also believe that it’s going to take a lot of
hard work to implement these reforms the right way, not a way that will
alienate current or prospective civil servants. I’ve probably gone on
too long already, but if anyone is curious to know what I’ve got in
mind, they should feel free to check out my recent testimony before the House Subcommittee on Government Management.