* Build transparency and accountability into the system. Clear and transparent guidelines for using specific flexibilities, and holding managers and supervisors accountable for their fair and effective use, are essential to successfully implementing workforce strategies. Guidelines can be used to (1) provide well-defined and documented decision-making criteria for using flexibilities and help ensure that they are consistently applied and (2) minimize managers' and supervisors' potential reluctance to use flexibilities by addressing their concerns that without guidelines, employees may see them as unfairly applying the flexibilities. An agency can also use a results- oriented performance management system to reinforce managers' accountability for implementing human capital strategies. In October 2000, OPM amended regulations to require agencies to, among other things, appraise executive performance by balancing organizational results with areas such as employee perspective. We reported on selected agencies' implementation of a set of balanced performance expectations for senior executives and identified examples of executives' expectations.[Footnote 23] Examples of these performance expectations were to "help attract and retain well-qualified employees" and "ensure workforce has skills aligned with the agency's objectives." (See fig. 5 for information on GSA Region 3's efforts to build the capacity to support its workforce strategies.)[Footnote 24]
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