“This isn't about big government or small government. It's about building a smarter government that focuses on what works."
- President Barack Obama
The 2.8 million civilian employees who work for the federal government
(including the postal service) have the biggest influence on the cost
and effectiveness of government and on our lives. They handle social
security checks, Medicare payments, how quickly and safely new drugs
become available, whether dangerous plants and animals enter our food
chain and how prepared we are for potentially life-threatening diseases
and natural disasters. These people touch each and every person in this
country. With an estimated one-third of that 2.8 million person
workforce expected to retire over the next few years coinciding with an
estimated 240,000 or more additional vacancies created by the stimulus
package as well as the president’s direction to replace thousands of
contractors with feds, we are truly facing a hiring crisis of epic
proportion.
In the midst of one of the most economically challenging times our country has faced in decades, the issue that is both central and critical to building a smarter government is the people we’re going to hire in 2009 and beyond who will make our government smarter and more economically efficient. And our government owes it to today’s public servants and taxpayers to take immediate action to ensure that we can hire them. We’re suggesting that President Obama declare the current hiring situation a national crisis and empower key organizations with the mandate and funding to fix it — in the short term and for the long haul. Why a national crisis?
One third of our civilian federal employees are eligible to retire in the next few years. At the same time, the government needs to hire hundreds of thousands of workers to implement the economic stimulus package; and the President has directed replacement of thousands of contractors with federal employees right now. Meanwhile, media reports cite an estimated two million people have lost their private-sector jobs since 2008. This is an unprecedented opportunity to hire both talented college graduates and experienced, seasoned individuals to fill positions at all levels of government.
To accomplish this, we must brand the federal government as the employer of choice and make civil service something to be proud of again. And the experts at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and agencies not under the OPM umbrella must create stop-gap solutions to fill existing and new vacancies as quickly as possible while tackling long-term hiring. This should include hiring private sector organizations with the resources to support HR programs to assist in processing thousands of applications quickly.
There are hundreds of thousands of public servants who are hard-working, dedicated employees and many of them get to do fascinating and exciting work. While it’s refreshing to see some of those stories on OhMyGov, the general public rarely hears about them. The lack of recognition for the great work that they do further contributes to the well-documented fact that the federal government has a negative brand image and is for millions, considered the employer of last resort.
The economic crisis has resulted in a significant increase in applications at USAjobs.gov, but unless we make working for America something to be proud of again — where “public servant” replaces the negative term “bureaucrat” — we can’t be sure that applicants are choosing the feds out of a desire to serve vs out of sheer necessity. The last thing we want is a transient workforce in the federal government, ready to leave whenever the next good private sector job opens back up. And the increase in applications only adds to the burden of understaffed and overworked HR professionals who, even prior to the economic crash, couldn’t process the applications received in a timely way.
Legislation was introduced by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and George Voinovich (R-Ohioon March 30, 2009 to reform the federal hiring process and OPM Director Berry has said he supports it. While long awaited, this legislation will unlikely be passed and implemented in time to meet the government’s immediate hiring needs.
We urge President Obama to declare this situation a national emergency and do two things: First, in partnership with a qualified marketing and advertising agency, fund a Call to Public Service campaign that will demonstrate to Americans that working for the federal government — being a public servant — is a career of which to be proud; and attract those who share public service values to apply. And second, direct the talented experts at OPM and leadership at other agencies not under OPM’s authority, to do whatever is administratively, technically and legally possible to hire qualified people more quickly — including partnering with private-sector organizations that have the resources to help process hundreds of thousands of applications.
If we don’t take advantage of this historic opportunity, many thousands of qualified Americans will continue to suffer economic hardship when they could be working for America and the whole country will suffer from a government lacking enough employees for many organizations and programs to function properly.
Phyllis Horne is Chief Executive Officer of Horne Creative Group — a woman-owned, full-service marketing, advertising and communications company that employs print, broadcast, display and interactive media to meet federal government agencies’ communication needs. www.calltopublicservice.com
Pamela Foss is a retired FAA Senior Executive and President of Pamela Foss Consulting, a woman-owned industry, state and federal government human resources consulting firm.
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