Human Capital: Aligning Senior Executives' Performance with Organizational Results Is an Important Step Toward Governmentwide Transformation
Abstract
The government's senior executives need to lead the way in transforming their agencies cultures. Credible performance management systems those that align individual, team, and unit performance with organizational results can help manage and direct this process. In past work, GAO found that the performance management systems for senior executives fell short in this regard. In November 2003, recognizing that reforms were needed, Congress authorized a new performance based pay system that ended the practice of giving annual pay adjustments to senior executives. Instead, agencies are to consider such factors as individual results and contributions to agency performance. If the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) certifies an agency's new performance system and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concurs, the agency has the flexibility to raise the pay of its highest performing senior executives above certain pay caps. This testimony addresses (1) the performance management systems regulatory structure, (2) OPMs certification process and agencies views of it, and (3) OPMs role in monitoring the system, and the number of agencies that have been certified to date. This statement is based on GAOs issued work, which included interviews with senior OPM officials, agency Chief Human Capital Officers and Human Resource officers, and reviews of agency documents.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 26, 2006
- Accession Number
- AD1179775
Entities
People
- Brenda S. Farrell
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office