Ross Gianfortune
This is GovExec Daily, where we bring you the federal stories that really matter.  It's March 24, 2021 . I’m Ross Gianfortune.

Government is often criticized as though it is a monolith, but anyone who works the two million civilian federal employees knows that government is, in fact, made up of people. Managing those people is the job of the Office of Personnel Management, an agency that the general public barely recognizes but plays a critical role in government’s function.

Former president Donald Trump’s administration tried to essentially eliminate OPM and place its functions into GSA and the Executive Office of the President. The plan to cut an entire federal agency was met with great derision, protests and congressional outcry. Eventually, the White House dropped the plan, but Congress commissioned a report from the National Academy of Public Administration that would examine if the OPM-GSA plan would have fulfilled the goals of streamlining government and encouraging efficiency.

Earlier this month, nearly two months after the Trump administration left Washington, the Academy released its report. Titled  “Elevating Human Capital: Reframing the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Leadership Imperative,” the study not only looks at the merger’s potential effects, but also at the broader need to elevate human capital management in the government. With issues like workforce modernization, data management and mission fulfillment at the forefront, the report brings recommendations to elevate OPM’s mission and refocus the role of the agency.

After its publication, Academy CEO Terry Gerton and Panel Chair of the Academy’s OPM report Janet Hale authored a post on site headlined “OPM Modernization is Critical to Building the Federal Workforce the Nation Needs.” It lays out the main points of the report and the needs for an elevated OPM. After a short break, I’ll talk to Hale and Gerton about their post on our site, the Academy report and the future of human capital management in government.

Ross Gianfortune
One year into the global pandemic, the way we work has been completely transformed. Looking ahead, which of these changes will remain permanent and which will fade with time? During the Future of Work virtual summit, Nextgov and Government Executive will dive into not only what the future of work looks like for government, but also how agencies can harness technology, people, and culture to build a workforce resilient to whatever challenges come its way. Learn more at govexec.com/events

Ross Gianfortune

Earlier this month, the National Academy of Public Administration released “Elevating Human Capital: Reframing the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Leadership Imperative,” a report which Congress commissioned when it formally put on hold the Trump administration’s plan to abolish OPM and put its components within GSA and the Executive Office of the President. The report notes the ways OPM can achieve its mission as stated in the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, but it more broadly identifies the issues with human capital management in the government. With me today are two people from the National Academy of Public Administration who co-authored a post on our site to talk about their analysis, the report and future of OPM and human capital management. Terry Gerton is the President and CEO of the National Academy of Public Administration. She served for 12 years in the Senior Executive Service as a career member and as a political appointee, and 20 years as an active duty Army officer. Welcome back to the show.

Terry Gerton
Good to be here.

Ross Gianfortune
Janet Hale served in senior leadership positions in five federal agencies and as CFO of the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the Panel Chair of the Academy’s OPM report and an Academy fellow. Welcome to the show.

Janet Hale
Thanks so much.

Ross Gianfortune
Before we get into solutions, let's kind of identify the problem. A lot of our listeners are Feds, but they may not know the scope of the problem that the report is tackling. So we'll start with you, Janet: How exactly is the workforce failing to meet the needs of the public? And where are the deficits in human capital management in the federal government?

Janet Hale
So if you think about human capital, it really is the backbone to getting the support the frontline mission employees need. And if it's slow to hire, if they're not getting the right skill sets, if in fact, they're not looking to the next human capital issue. them I think the frontline mission can suffer. And that's was I think the important part of our study is that we had to look to the future. And what did the human capital leadership need to do to continue to drive excellence in public service?

Ross Gianfortune
So what is OPM his role in this, you know, the evolution of opms place in government since 1978, is hardly linear. And I've been covering this stuff for over a decade. I've heard about workforce management for a while. So I guess as Terry, I've read to you what makes OPM reframing so critical right now,

Terry Gerton
I think, you know, Janet just laid out some of the critical issues that the public workforce is facing, but you really think, you know, with the new administration and a new Congress that the time is right, to rethink the role of OPM for the future work of government, and to think about human resources the way a business does as a critical asset. That requires strategic management, not just as a compliance process. I think, you know, having lived through the last year with all of its challenges, you know, really the public is, is starting to demand better government and better government service. And the Biden Harris administration certainly has an ambitious agenda across multiple policy areas where successful demand creative solutions, better use of data and program evaluation and better service to the citizens. So, really, the time is right. If there's ever been a time to reframe OPM, it's

Ross Gianfortune
so you mentioned the change administration, the previous administration, as report as sort of the jumping off point for the report, the previous administration tried to merge OPM and GSA was kind of scuttled. You know, as one of the authors of the report, Janet, can you kind of expand how it would have solved or not solved any of the problems that it aimed to resolve and, you know, more broadly, where did it go wrong?

Janet Hale
So, again, I think we spent as much time looking to the future. And it was, can we find human capital, can we redirect The current leader in human capital, to have them have a strategic seat at the table, really qualified, filled OPM leadership role and looking to as Terry laid out a mission focused human capital process, not compliance oriented. So really did a reorganization accomplish those purposes, probably not. And let's spend time fixing, or having OPM do some internal changes to actually make this a more effective and efficient human capital system across the OPM role.

Ross Gianfortune
Your report specifically says that the OPM director should have a seat at the table. President Biden's OPM nominee is not anything I said hearing ship but she's certainly not in place. I guess let's let's examine then. What is the current role of the OPM chief? And and more importantly, what does it need to look like to execute this better? So I guess, Terry, do administration's take human capital seriously enough, with the knowledge that the seat at the table that the OPM chief currently has?

Terry Gerton 
I think it's a really important issue. And it's a very important finding in the report. And it's kind of hard to know what the role of the current OPM chief is, because there hasn't been anyone sit in the seat long enough to even keep it warm, much less. Take it on, you know, from a strategic management perspective. I think this report really makes it clear that the leader of OPM should be the President's primary advisor on strategic human capital for the government, they have to work in close partnership with the Office of Management budget, and with the Deputy Director for management, but they should not be dual headed, they should be the preeminent expert. And the report goes so far as to suggest that Congress might want to establish professional qualifications for this person. So that you do have someone that's very deeply experienced in personnel management, lead the government's Chief Human talent manager office, it also talks about, you know, really elevating the role and the prominence of OPM so that they have oversight over all the different systems of federal civil service. It's not just title five, but overall, the title and to provide strategic guidance and direction that has a whole lot of implications for what OPM would pursue on a daily basis that are different from what it does now. But clearly, we think that the head of OPM needs to be elevated to that senior human capital, talent manager and advisor position. 

Ross Gianfortune
That sort of leads to my next question is not just the OPM director, but what does empowered, full Office of Personnel Management look like? You know, what functions does it perform? Janet, I'll ask you, and how does that reshape the way that agencies perform human capital operations?

Janet Hale
So it really OPM and their leadership need to get into strategic human capital issues. What's the next problem that the government's gonna solve? Or what are the current ones that still need it? Was it cyber? Or was it workforce hiring, they really have to turn to be more strategic. So getting out of the compliance base processes that issues so much and really turn to what's the next. How can we help agencies, small, medium, and large, get their frontline mission people the tools and resources they need in a timely manner? And I do love what you asked Ross about it, not just being OPM, it's got to be across the human capital organizations and government. And I would say up on Capitol Hill, as well.

Terry Gerton 
And, Ross, if I could just follow up on what what Janet is talking about. When we say strategic management of human talent. I think the report gets very specific. And if you're going to say you shouldn't be so compliance oriented, the follow up question is what should you do? And the report is very clear about moving OPM to a risk management approach to making sure that the agencies are doing what, what the rules require them to do, but to get to risk management, which is, you know, a big step in itself. We really need OPM to add a lot of capacity when it comes data, data sharing data analytics, really using the personnel data that they have. But it is just so fast and expect them to be able to pull that together to have a comprehensive view of the Federal workforce, to be able to share that with agencies and then to be thinking strategically about what that means for future recruitment, training, retention, all of the different pieces of talent management, and to do it from a risk management perspective versus a checklist and compliance

Unknown Speaker  10:31  
perspective, the data notions that you bring up really do bring true I know, we've talked to a lot of people who OPM is not alone in this when it comes to agencies. But when I note about workforce modernization, and my having covered it for as long as I've been working in COVID sec, it's always a reminder that the federal government is often behind on these things, whether it's VA, or the defense Health Agency, or, you know, any any large agency that data.gov. And those kinds of things are steps in the right direction, hardly a silver bullet. So I guess we'll end on on recommendations, you know, the report has a number of them to solve the problems that are identified in that report. What are kind of the broad strokes of the solutions? And do you think the administration and Congress are open and sort of ready to bring these out? And I'll, I'll leave this one open, you can either you can get an answer first.

Unknown Speaker  11:37  
So it's important to be a strategic leader is I think both Terry and I have said, We need OPM director to be a strategic seat at the table have a strategic table, we need them to have a culture shift, get out of the, as we've said, mission oriented value added not compliance driven. And I think that really does take up the level of of OPM, its leadership across the government making some big cultural changes.

Terry Gerton
Now, the culture change, Janet, because it's not just within OPM, that we that we advocate for cultural change. In order to make this work, the administration, the OPM organization itself, and Congress has got to become partners in advancing federal human capital, it can't be defensive, they can't be agonistic, if they don't work together, to make sure that OPM has the authorities that it needs, that it has the resources that it needs, that they are a team in terms of advancing human capital and talent management, then we're gonna wind up kind of back in separate camps, as we said for a while. So it's a culture change within the organization. That's a huge list with a new OPM director, but a cultural change across critical organizations, that's going to be important as well.  

Ross Gianfortune  
I think that it's one of those things that people who may not be knowledgeable about all the machinations of this stuff, think they think there is a new administration and therefore, almost like, immediately, it shifts like a scene change and a player. And that's the analogy of the turning the aircraft carriers is apt I think, particularly in these systems, because there's a lot of people involved a lot of stuff a lot, but I think the reports a great, certainly jumping off point for a lot of these changes and hopefully they will be heated. And Terry, thanks so much for being on the program with us.

Janet Hale 
Thanks for having us.

Ross Gianfortune
Thanks for listening to GovExec Daily. Our show was produced by Adam Butler and hosted by me, Ross Gianfortune. We want to thank National Academy of Public Administration’s Janet Hale and Terry Gerton for joining the program. Our music is the song “Signals” by Catfish Dancing. Be sure to rate, review and subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You can email us any feedback at podcast @ govexec.com or hit us on Twitter @ Govexec.  
 
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