Holding Federal Employees Accountable

by Ev Chasen

On July 16, USA Today reporter Dennis Cauchon wrote a story that cited government statistics showing that workers in many Federal agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than to get laid off or fired.  (You can read the article here.) 

In Fiscal Year 2010, according to the article, the Federal government fired 0.55% of its workers—compared to the private sector’s 3% average annual firing rate.  The government also laid off 385 people in reorganizations that year—a 0.02% rate, or one in every 6,000 employees.  USA Today was unable to find a comparable private sector layoff rate.  (They did not count seasonal workers in the Federal rate.)

Two of the agencies studied, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, laid off or fired no one.  Overwhelmingly, those who were laid off or fired were “blue-collar” workers: federal employees earning more than $100,000 per year had a 99.82% job security rate.

I do not believe many people with significant experience as a Federal Government manager would agree with Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesperson Jerry Brown, who told Mr. Cauchon that HUD’s low dismissal rate demonstrates the skills and commitment of the Department’s workforce.  Rather, I think, most would agree with Associate Gary Rossio’s June 2 blog post, which stated that “too often in the past, I have felt that senior HR employees believed their role was to “protect” their directors and other supervisors from unions and lawsuits and difficult situations—leading to inaction by supervisors and management.”

Gary’s post stated that good HR departments should be able to provide sound advice, technical support, and the ability to spot, hire, and help retrain good employees.  Exceptional leadership in HR would certainly help managers make the tough decisions needed to fire poor performers, but there is another factor involved.

Creating a committed organizational workforce also depends on managers themselves applying management systems in a fair and equitable manner “so everyone recognizes that high performers will be consistently rewarded and poor employees will be consistently dealt with in an appropriate manner.”

In order to recognize top performers in a fair and equitable manner, managers should initially explain to employees what is expected of them—not only what minimum performance expectations are, but also what employees need to do to receive awards.   They should also give them frequent feedback so employees know how they are doing. Those who meet the standards needed to excel must be rewarded, and, conversely, action must be taken if employees do not meet the performance or conduct standards of their position.  

The overwhelming majority of government employees do not want to work hard and then see others who are not pulling their weight slide by.  Managers must deal with problem employees, so that everyone gets the message—and they should not be afraid to lose an occasional case. 

Federal managers should not have to shy away from disciplining problem employees because they fear the difficulties of the removal process.  If the bottom 10% of federal employees do not improve their performance, they must be removed.  The status quo, for them, is not acceptable.  Neither is the state of affairs USA Today described: federal government managers simply must develop a culture of performance, not tolerance, or they will never be able meet the expectations other Americans have for them.

How to Conduct Successful Negotiations

by Seth Sinclair, Member
Right now, much of our nation's senior leadership is fully engaged in serious, drawn-out negotiations on extending America's debt limit. While no one who is not there fully understands what's going on, the news media is full of stories about heated debate, participants walking out, and the progress or lack of same that's being made. Sinclair Advisory Group teaches negotiations as part of our Leadership curriculum, and since every organization and leader participates in high-stakes negotiations (even if the stakes are not as high as the credit of the United States,) this is a good opportunity to review some basic negotiation rules that will help ensure you and your organization gets the best possible deal.

First, preparation is absolutely essential. Before you enter a negotiation, consider such logistical details as timing and location. Seek a time and place that enhances (or at least does not diminish) your negotiating position.

Next, prepare your negotiation strategy. What is your ideal outcome? What is your bottom line in a minimally acceptable deal? Do you understand your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), which defines your course of action should an agreement not be reached? What tone and tactics will you use in the negotiation session?

While preparing your own position is essential, it is just as important to anticipate the needs and actions of your counterpart. Research their priorities, separating their needs from their wants as much as possible. What tactics do you think they will use? How will you react? Try to visualize several possible scenarios and solutions that will result in an acceptable deal for both parties.

One negotiation begins, there are many techniques you can use to facilitate a successful and agreeable outcome. One is to never make clear to the other side that there's something you cannot live without. If you do, there's no doubt they'll find a way to take advantage of your need. "I can take it or leave it," is the right attitude to display-even if you really can't walk away. President Obama has made it clear in the current negotiations that we simply must have a budget deal by August 2, or the economy of the United States is at risk. Whether they actually believe it or not, Republicans have injected some ambiguity into that deadline: maybe the sky really won't fall, they say, if there isn't a final deal by that time.

Another is: don't make concessions without getting something in return. Unilateral concessions are often made in hopes of getting a quicker deal-and are just as often regarded with suspicion by the other side. I think both sides in the budget dispute are aware of this rule, and are driving hard bargains for every change in position they are willing to consider.

Yet another, which neither side appears willing to consider, is don't fight over the small stuff. If you've reached agreement on what you consider important in a negotiation, don't haggle too much over the nagging details that always accompany any large-scale process. In any negotiation, time is the enemy. The longer a negotiation takes, the better the chance the other side reconsiders their position, finds another company to negotiate with, or just plain decides they don't like you and don't want to work with you. When you've got what you really want (and I don't think that stage has been reached in the budget discussions), be very flexible about everything else.

There are many other useful techniques we can discuss further in our future blog entries. However, preparation is more important than any single tactic. Get ready by understanding what you want, knowing your counterpart, and entering with a plan. If you need help, seek support from an experienced negotiator and find opportunities to train and practice. This will put you in the best possible decision to reach a desirable outcome.

Defining the Customer Experience

by Chris Domergue, Director of Client Services

On May 26^th, I wrote a blog post entitled ‘Four Steps to Improving Customer Service.’ It’s a subject of particular importance to Federal agencies, especially since President Obama has required all of them to improve their customer service strategies in the next six months.  You can read it here.

In my previous post, I listed what I believe to be the four key principles of successful customer service: define the customer experience; focus on consistent information; leverage today’s technology and data; and make customer experience one of your core functions.  Today, I’d like to discuss the first of those principles in more detail – how to effectively define the customer experience.

There are three fundamentals in defining the customer experience.  You need to identify your “customer”, know how and why they interact with your organization, and understand how your employees deliver services to them.  A well-run organization’s goal should be to exceed their customers’ expectations in every interaction they have.

First and foremost, a “customer” is not just a person that buys a product from a company.  Customers can use any one of an organization’s services, leverage their facilities, check out their social media presence, support the organization, or simply just want some information.  The way in which customers perceive their interactions with an organization is critical to the success or failure of that organization regardless of whether it is a commercial corporation or a government agency. 

Customers don’t care how your organization is structured, and they shouldn’t have to jump through hoops because separate groups manage your website, supervise your field offices, and run your contact centers.  When you discuss improvements to your customers’ experiences, talk about their needs, their terms, and their expectations – not your personal preferences. 

As an example, I once worked with a large government client who was very adamant on what the ideal customer experience should be, based on the agency’s own biases.  However, when I conducted a focus group of 100 customers that would be leveraging this agency’s services, not one of them used the same terminology to describe what they wanted, nor did they feel the agency’s idea of the ‘ideal’ customer experience would even meet their needs.  If our design had been based on this agency’s internal bias instead of the customers’ feedback, the solution would have failed.

So, how do you get started?  How can you understand where your customer’s have problems dealing with your organization and figure out how you can optimize their experience?  Simple – by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes. 

Airline executives learn a great deal about their customers’ experiences by getting on their planes.  By doing this, they understand the boarding pass experience, the time waiting in the terminal, the flight experience, and even getting a bag from baggage claim.  For your organization, apply for a benefit, look for a fact on a web-site, or stand on a line for a service.  You’ll get a much better idea of what’s really going on in the field, as opposed to what you THINK is going on--and you’ll get great ideas for improvement and powerful arguments to support your ideas.  Another important set of tools at your disposal are focus groups and surveys.  Find out firsthand what your customers think about your services – what they like and don’t like, where they’ve struggled, and where they’ve been delighted.   

The second major fundamental (and perhaps the most important) is to know how, when and why your customers interact with your agency or organization.  In the commercial sector, this mantra has determined where the strong have survived and the weak have failed.  This competition has now set the bar, one that government agencies must meet as well.  The college student who calls Apple for customer support about their laptop expects the same level of service when asking a question about their federal school loan. 

A blogger named Bruce Temkin, who describes his job as being a ‘Customer Experience Transformist,’ articulates a key insight I think is worth elaborating on.  His point is that every interaction creates a personal reaction, and that therefore experiences need to be tailored for individuals and customer feedback needs to be the key measure of success.  By understanding your contact types, channels, and timing through data and soliciting the appropriate customer feedback, you can easily put together a holistic picture of how customers prefer to deal with your organization.  This will be the foundation for defining the optimal experience.

The third and final fundamental is to focus on your employees.  Keep in mind that employees are at the heart of defining any customer’s experience.  By nature, employees will react to what is measured, incented, and celebrated.  Reward them when they do the right thing, make sure they know what leadership expects, and empower them to accommodate the needs of the customer whenever possible.  Even if this seems to be a particularly difficult task within a government agency, which must also ensure that every customer is treated fairly and impartially, it can be achieved with the right strategy. 

As part of this employee focus, make sure to allocate the appropriate time and funding to training – changing the rules without making sure your employees know what they are supposed to do is ineffective.  If the proper customer service behavior is understood and rewarded across the organization, then you will create a positive culture throughout your organization which will permeate through to your customers and finally your bottom line.

Accurately and adequately defining the customer experience is a difficult task—if customer experience isn’t a top priority, the effort is likely to fail.  President Obama’s executive order, however, and the increased pressure to perform both parties, and both houses of Congress, are putting on federal agencies to improve their levels of customer service, means that government leaders don’t have the option of failing anymore.  If you need some help in your efforts, however, we’re here at SAG!

As a side note… let’s all hope that some of those Airline executives are over 6’ tall like I am so that we all get a little extra leg room.

Three Lessons For HR Practitioners

by Terry Hannigan, Associate

During the past several years, SAG has undertaken a variety of HR challenges for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers across the country.  This has included HR organizational assessment and redesign and preparation for outside reviews as well as post-review analysis and recommendations.  Some of the reviews were conducted by a single consultant while others required a team of experienced practitioners.

I’ve learned a variety of lessons, but I want to focus on three:

First, act quickly when you find a significant problem. In one case, hospital leadership knew that they had a serious issue on their hands as soon as they uncovered a potential problem—and, although they did not know the extent of that problem, they correctly assumed that the situation was not going to improve with time.  Some managers might have swept the issue under the rug, but the facility’s leadership recognized the importance of protecting the integrity of their organization.  The longer they allowed the problem to go on, the more difficult it was going to be to find an acceptable solution. 

Second, there is no substitute for experience.  Here again hospital leadership is critical: it is essential to recognize that some problems call for the involvement of others who are more expert than they. It’s like calling a plumber: if you leave a leak untouched, water will eventually start gushing out until the break is fixed.  Better to get a professional to solve the problem immediately than to ineffectively fix it yourself, and watch as the floor, your furniture and other items are irretrievably ruined.

And third, while HR experience is critically important, it’s vital for a consultant to also have a senior leadership perspective in mind when making recommendations to clients.  It’s easy to get caught up in HR’s rules and regulations, and to see things in the black-and-white world of do’s and don’ts those regulations create.   However, it’s also important to evaluate your proposed actions in ways leadership would: how will they affect the organization’s productivity, morale, and ability to accomplish its mission.  Before recommending an action, we look at the big picture from management’s viewpoint, which, I believe, makes our eventual recommendations more useful and more effective for our client.

SAG can provide a variety of HR advice and services, including:

·      enabling your organization to assess its current situation;

·      evaluating policies, procedures and processes;

·      reviewing HR operations from an overall picture to focused reviews in specific areas including assessing whether HR is prepared for outside reviews (especially the VA Oversight and Effectiveness review process) and assisting in responding to the results of those outside reviews;

·      mentoring new HR Chiefs and functional area supervisors;

·      conducting HR Record reviews (both eOPF and hard copy) focusing on topics such as pay, recruitment, awards, employee and labor relations, and

·      looking at healthcare professional credentialing. 

Our consultants include highly experienced leaders; HR Managers; and functional experts from both field and headquarters backgrounds.  Our expertise runs the gamut of every HR function as well as oversight of the function from an executive perspective.

Human Resources is a complex system both from the HR practitioner’s approach and, more importantly, from the Executive perspective.  Competent strategic HR advice is essential to efficient and effective leadership of any organization.  Failures in HR can lead to a variety of adverse consequences.  So if you’ve got an HR problem you’d like to have looked at, don’t wait for it to get worse.  Take action as quickly as possible.