GovLoop GuideJUNE 2012

government - tech - customer service - leadership - opengov - gov2.0

The

To

Workforce Planning in the Public Sector In partnership with:

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About GovLoop3 About the GovLoop Guide Series

Foreword5 With Steve Beard: Oracle

Be Strategic - Know Where You’re Going and How to Get There7 In Focus: OPM 5 Step Model

8 Strategic Planning

Be Prepared - Know Your Workforce9 Multi-Sector Workforce and Planning

10 Analyze the Gap Between Current and Projected

Workforce Needs

11 In Focus: North Carolina Office of State

Personnel - Conduct a Workforce Analysis

Be Proactive - Develop a Workforce Plan12 In Focus: North Carolina Office of Personnel -

Create a Workforce Action Plan

12 Solution Strategies

Recruitment

Training and Leadership Development

Programs

WELCOME/ CONTENTS Retention and Succession Planning

16 Keep Employees Motivated

In Focus: Seven Simple Steps to

Maintain Morale

Be Committed - Implement Your Workforce Plan18 In Focus: North Carolina Office of State

Be Reflective - Evaluate and Revise Plan as Needed19 In Focus: North Carolina Office of State

Personnel

Performance Management20 Interview with GovLoop and Oracle

Final Overview22 GovLoop Workforce Planning Toolkit

GovLoop Resources23 Blogs, Discussions and Groups on GovLoop

Acknowledgements25 GovLoop Authors

We aim to inspire and educate public

sector professionals as the knowledge network for government. Gov-Loop serves more than 55,000 members, help-ing them to foster col-laboration, solve prob-lems and advance their government careers.

GovLoop members rep-resent the full spectrum of the public sector, in-cluding federal, state,

and local public ser-vants, industry experts and academic research-ers. GovLoop is widely recognized as the lead-ing site for addressing public sector issues.

GovLoop boasts an ex-tremely engaged mem-bership that creates and comments on near-ly 1,000 new blog posts and discussion forums every month.

GovLoop works with top industry partners to provide resources and tools, such as guides, infographics, online training and educational events -- all with the goal of helping public sec-tor professionals to do their jobs better.

GovLoop also promotes public service success stories in popular news sources like the Wash-ington Post, Huffington

Post, Government Tech-nology, and other indus-try publications.

This GovLoop Guide to Workforce Planning in the Public Sector is un-derwritten by Oracle.

About GovLoopand the GovLoop Guide Series

Govloop Team:STEVE RESSLER - Founder and CEO

DOUG MASHKURI - Director of Busi-ness Development

PAT FIORENZA - Research Analyst

JEFF RIBEIRA - Creative Director

ANDY KRZMARZICK - Community Manager

Created & Developed by:

In Partnership with:

Location:GovLoop is headquartered in Washington D.C with a team of dedicated professionals who share a commitment to connect and improve government.

GovLoop734 15th St NW, Suite 500Washington, DC 20005Phone: (202) 407-7421Fax: (202) 407-7501

Tweet: @GovLoop

Meet the team/Acknowledgements

GovLoop’s mission is simple: to connect government to improve government.

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ForewordDirecting organizational Human Resources is no small feat today. There is a plethora of issues, from talent shortages to learning styles, from pending retire-ments to internal politics that can complicate and exasperate both the process-es and the outcomes. Just as with any business challenge, however, a thought-ful and well-constructed workforce plan can serve as a strategic guide to help the HR leader navigate through the storm. The workforce plan also provides the means and measurements to accurately assess performance along the way.

I have had the unique opportunity in my career to not only create and man-age the execution of Human Resource workforce plans, but I have also enjoyed watching customers do the same across the Public Sector in both the United States and Canada for 19 years. From my experience as both executor and ob-server, I have learned that all HR leaders want to accomplish the same three things: 1) we want to do HR cheaper; 2) we want to do HR more efficiently; 3) we want to do HR better. A workforce plan is an essential ingredient to recognizing those objectives.

Oracle is a technology company. We design, develop, manufacture, and deliver to Public Sector HR organizations, the tools they need to administer and analyze all things HR. Oracle has a comprehensive Human Capital Management solu-tion, from integrated talent management to workforce service delivery, from workforce management to HR analytics. Our HCM solution can be deployed in the cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid model – you decide. More government workers around the world touch Oracle HR applications than any other HR ap-plication on the planet.

Notwithstanding Oracle’s impressive array of HCM solutions, at the end of the day, they are just tools. No set of tools can replace the ingenuity, creativity, and work ethic of the person using them – and that is you. And so I commend you for your interest in workforce planning and, on behalf of Oracle, wish you a high degree of success in your endeavor.

Oracle is proud to team with GovLoop to produce the Guide to Workforce Plan-ning in the Public Sector which serves as a resource to help you build a com-prehensive workforce plan to achieve your HR goals and align HR strategy with your organization’s mission.

Steve Beard, SPHRStrategic Program DirectorFusion Cloud Applications

Oracle Public Sector

Workforce planning has become increasingly important to agencies, especially as the Baby Boomers start to retire and new generations of young professionals are poised to become leaders in government. By crafting a well-de-fined workforce plan, agencies will be able to anticipate changes to the workforce, identify trends, anticipate needs, and navigate the of-ten changing demands of the public sector.

With the Baby Boomer generation nearing and reaching retirement age, many have called the looming gap that will be left by retirees a hu-man capital crisis in the public sector. Although Boomers leaving the workforce contribute to the potential human capital crisis, there are oth-er compounding factors. Factors such as fewer new hires entering into the federal government, growing competition from the private and non-profit sectors, and decreasing interest in public service by the emerging workforce. All of these factors have affected human capital in the public sector. The current workforce requires a strate-gic investment and management to address tal-ent shifts, shrinking budgets and increasing de-mands on agencies across levels of government.

This guide should serve as a desktop refer-ence to human resources professionals and as a basis while crafting a workforce plan-ning strategy. A well-crafted strategic plan will often develop stages and there will be metrics implemented to measure success. As President Eisenhower once said, “Plans mean nothing, planning is everything.” In other words, sometimes the process used to cre-ate a plan is just as valuable as the plan itself.

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Human Resources is one of the most critical areas of government. As govern-ment budgets shrink and financial uncertainty continues to plague the public sector, HR professionals are tasked with keeping their organizations streamlined and moving towards their objectives.

Workforce PlanningPublic Sectorin the

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Across all areas of government, one of the most important concepts is mapping an agency’s

goals to mission critical objectives. Many federal government agencies have published their strate-gic plans online and nearly every department and sub-agency has shared the agency’s mission on-line.

Agencies need to start the process of developing a workforce plan by being strategic. While develop-ing a plan, input will be required from a variety of different leaders across the agency. In developing the plan, one of the keys is that the entire organi-zation will need to buy into both the plan and the process. By bringing in leaders who cross multiple functional areas of the agency, like budgeting, hu-man resources, program managers, and communi-cations officials, the organization will have a more holistic view and develop a stronger strategic plan that addresses the needs of each department.

In some cases, an organization/agency will include just a handful of people, working to address a small area of the entire organization’s mission. Regard-less of an organization’s size, it is important to in-clude all key stakeholders to gain buy in and sup-port. Without this, a strategic plan will not go very far.

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is defined many different ways, but the basic premise is aligning resources and assets to match organizational objectives. With-in government, a well-crafted strategic plan can help anticipate events, assess programs, and align priorities to the most critical mission objectives.

Some key points to remember about strategic planning for government agencies is that there is no single solution, no exact process to follow, and only guidelines. The hard work comes from agency leaders committing to a process and investing in their organization, which is an extremely valuable process.

A strategic plan brings to light any limitations or impediments meeting organizational objectives. Through assessing needs and planning accord-ingly, agencies can be prepared for the future and manage complex problems it may face.

Be StrategicKnow Where You’re Going and How to Get There

In Focus: OPM 5 Step Model

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides a fairly straightforward, five-step Workforce Planning Model. This model is a great addition to the GovLoop guide, and provides the basis of what a workforce-plan-ning model should incorporate.

Step 1: Set Strategic DirectionStep 2: Analyze Workforce, Identify Skill Gaps, and Conduct Workforce AnalysisStep 3: Develop Action PlanStep 4: Implement Action PlanStep 5: Monitor, Evaluate, and Revise

The OPM model is not limited to the federal government. At all levels of government, agencies will be faced with a changing workforce and must begin to plan to anticipate changes and recruit talent into the public sector. Without a well-defined workforce planning strategy and with in-creasing fiscal pressures, government will struggle to pro-vide services to their dynamic and complex constituency.

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As government at all levels is tasked to do “more with less,” knowing the staffing requirements, and the human capital needs is essential to planning and maintaining operational efficiency.

With tightening budgets and increasing demands from citizens for improved services, strategic plan-ning allows government agencies to be proactive towards addressing needs. For governments to continue to meet the demands of citizens, they will need to become increasingly proactive, and avoid reacting only during a crisis or emergencies. A well-defined strategic plan related to workforce plan-ning and recruitment will help agencies anticipate staffing needs, anticipate staffing changes and re-cruit talented individuals into their agencies.

In Focus: North Carolina Office of State Personnel

– Phase I of Workforce Planning

The North Carolina Office of State Personnel has a fantastic site for human resources personnel look-ing to improve their workforce planning strategy. The site lays out best practices and strategies for developing a performance culture, strategic plan-ning, workforce planning, staffing motivation and development initiatives, retention, and metrics. These are all critical elements of a human resources strategy, and North Carolina Office of State Person-nel lays it out clearly.

The site highlights four phases of workforce plan-ning. Phase I is identified as “Define Strategic Busi-ness Goal.” During this phase, The North Carolina Office of State Personnel advises human resources professionals to ask critical questions about “the human capital implications of your strategic goals.” They note that workforce planning usually comes after strategic planning, and there is often a direct link between the two.

“If your agency has not com-pleted a strategic plan, you may wish to consider that step before continuing this process. At a minimum, you will need to have an in-depth discussion with your organi-zational leadership to obtain information regarding your agency’s business direction in order to understand the human capital requirements for the future. There should be a clear understanding of organizational objectives and the link to workforce planning.”

-North Carolina Office of StatePersonnel on Strategic Planning

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To craft a well-defined workforce strategy, agen-cies must identify who is currently in their

workforce and how the workforce will change. To understand what the current workforce looks like, agencies need to pinpoint the proper data. Col-lecting the proper data is critical to the success of any plan. The data is especially important, as it will help to identify current workforce needs, and allow agencies to anticipate future workforce changes.

Some basic starting points for data collection are to collect the following information:

Previous strategic plansMission and vision statementsBudget reports and financial statements Organizational long/short term goalsAny previous organizational studiesOrganizational chartsStaffing plansRetirement dataEmployees eligible for retirement

In larger organizations and agencies, it will be criti-cal to identify the scope of the data and needs for the agency. For most agencies, once the key infor-mation has been identified, agencies can start to move into collecting new critical data to under-stand their workforce.

Multi-Sector Work Force and Planning

Across government, public sector employees and private sector corporations enter into partnerships to help provide services for government. A chal-

lenge for government is to understand the role of each player in the workforce, and how to best an-ticipate changes to keep the agency operating effi-ciently. In many respects, the challenge for govern-ment is to not only address the skill set within the agency, but also the skills and resources that are provided by various partnerships with the private sector. The goal is to find the optimal mix of public and private resources to deliver the highest level of service to citizens.

A memo by Peter Orszag, former Director of the Of-fice of Budget and Management stated:

“Contractors provide vital expertise to the govern-ment and agencies must continue to strengthen their acquisition practices so they can take efficient and effective advantage of the marketplace to meet taxpayer needs. At the same time, agencies must be alert to situations in which excessive reli-ance on contractors undermines the ability of the federal government to accomplish its missions.”

Orszag continues by explaining that an overreli-ance on contractors can potentially negatively impact the federal workforce. “Overreliance on contractors can lead to the erosion of the in-house capacity that is essential to effective government performance,” stated Orszag.

“Such overreliance has been encouraged by one-sided management priorities that have publicly rewarded agencies for becoming experts in identi-fying functions to outsource and have ignored the costs stemming from loss of institutional knowl-edge and capability and from inadequate manage-ment of contracted activities. Too often agencies neglect the investments in human capital plan-

Be PreparedKnow Your Workforce

ning, recruitment, hiring, and training that are nec-essary for building strong internal capacity – and then are forced to rely excessively on contractors because internal capacity is lacking. In many cas-es, agencies lack the information that would allow managers to understand how contractor employ-ees are deployed throughout their organization and integrated with federal employees. The full potential of our total workforce -- both contracted and federal -- often goes unrealized due to insuf-ficient or ineffective management attention. These management shortcomings work against effective government performance and must be corrected.”

These are important observations, and should not be taken lightly. Although Orszag is addressing a federal audience, the implications are true at all levels of government. As more and more public-private partnerships begin to take root, govern-ment needs to acknowledge the public sector is increasingly multi-sector and plan the workforce accordingly.

Analyze the gap between current and projected workforce needs

Once your agency has identified future needs of the organization and compared them to the pro-jected workforce, you can then begin to prioritize needs and prepare your future workforce. In some cases, you may have a projected need of lower level employees, but a high level expert within the agency may be ready for retirement. Prioritizing which gaps to fill are considerations that must be made while planning your agency’s workforce.

The North Carolina Office of State Personnel pro-vides som good questions to start with:

What skills are currently vital to accomplish-ing the agency’s goals and objectives?

What are the functions outlined in current employees’ job descriptions? Are they accu-rate? How much time does it take them to

perform each task? Can the tasks be stream-lined or eliminated?

How do you keep knowledge of how to ac-complish these tasks from being lost?

How is the agency addressing skill imbalanc-es due to attrition, including retirement over the next five years?

Should we explore training, retraining, relo-cation, or recruiting options for filling compe-tency gaps?

What retention strategies are in place and what are the associated costs?

Can skills be obtained through sharing of re-sources?

Would it be cost-effective to use contractors, outsource or use volunteers?

Could we implement career development programs.?

In Focus: North Carolina Office of State Personnel

–Conduct a Workforce Analysis

“Workforce analysis is the process of aligning your workforce planning efforts with current and future business requirements and forecasting staffing needs based on assumptions of retirement and turnover. This phase involves gathering and analyz-ing specific information about staffing levels, skill sets and competencies needed in your workforce. The analysis process consists of three steps: supply, demand and gap analysis. It is the process of look-ing at your current talent supply, projecting de-mands for the future, and realizing potential gaps and surpluses in order to enable action planning to eliminate the gaps,” The North Carolina Office of State Personnel.

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North Carolina Office of State Personnel offers a va-riety of strategies on how to collect data, and what kind of data to collect. Below are some quick tips for you to start to address your workforce:

Conduct informal interviews/focus groups with managers

Analyze which jobs exist and are available within your agency

Understand the essential functions of each job

What are the talent issues or concerns that need attention in your area?

Is it an immediate, critical issue or do you have time to plan?

Are you having difficulty recruiting for a par-ticular position or positions?

Are you having difficulty retaining employ-ees in a particular area?

Are you anticipating retirements in a num-ber of key positions?

Do your employees have the knowledge, skills and abilities to do their job well?

Are your employees engaged?

Are there obstacles and barriers that get in the way of employees doing their jobs?

Are there areas of work where process im-provement would enhance productivity?

Once those general questions are understood, agencies should start to analyze data they have collected over the years. The North Carolina Office of State Personnel identifies that agencies are col-lecting a lot of data, and using trend data is critical to a workforce planning strategy. The North Caroli-na Office of State Personnel identifies the following as potential trend data:

Hiring patterns (time required to fill vacan-cies, average number of vacancies in a year, etc.)

Retirement patterns

Employee turnover

Average years of service

Quality of new hires

Transfers

Promotions

Projected workforce based on expected at-trition

Retirement eligibility

Resignation (based on previous turnover data)

Challenges in Closing the Gap

Many agencies are faced with the challenge of clos-ing organizational gaps left by retirees or changing operational needs. There are dozens of strategies that can be implemented by agencies, but three common initiatives are recruitment, training and leadership programs, and retention/succession planning.

With competition increasing from other sectors, re-cruitment to the public sector is critical. A recent study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) shows a decrease in inter-est in working for the federal government from col-lege graduates. The survey found that only 2.3% of respondents planned to work for the federal gov-ernment after graduation. 18% of respondents are seeking employment in the non-profit sector, and 30% are looking for employment in the private sec-tor. The remaining respondents desired to attend graduate school or explore other options.

One important statistic that stood out was that 18% of former federal interns plan on working for the federal government. The NACE study cites that the number of students planning to enter into public service has been in decline over the last two years. The report cites that in 2008, 8.4% of respondents desired to work in government at the local, state or federal level. The number was at 12% in 2009, 7.4% in 2010, 6% in 2011.

In Focus: North Carolina Office of State Personnel

- Create a Workforce Action Plan

The following section is adopted from the North

Carolina Office of Personnel.

Solution Strategies

Organizations create their workforce action plans based on the results of the gap analysis and from information gathered from workforce planning discussions. This information serves as the basis for developing an action plan. This process serves as a great way to identify workforce needs throughout the agency, and then carefully plan strategies to fill gaps in the workforce. As you begin to identify strategies for your workforce development initia-tive, consider the following questions:

What should we do to prepare for our chang-ing needs and changing workforce?

What strategies should we employ?

What are some possible solutions to work-force shortages and changes?

Are we communicating it consistently to po-tential employees?

What more can we do to engage employees as advocates?

Are there workforce process improvements that can be implemented?

Do solutions require legislative or policy change?

What are the constraints against implement-ing strategies?

What are some possible solutions to those constraints?

Be ProactiveDevelop a Workforce Plan

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A variety of solutions and strategies are available for consideration. Once the proper information is identified, and your agency understands what gaps to close, your agency can take the right steps to re-main a highly optimize and efficient workforce.

Recruitment

“Well-planned and measurable recruitment strat-egies are the cornerstones of an organization’s achievement and service. Better quality applicants build the foundation for success. Great recruiters build great organizations. Successful recruitment efforts are timely, intelligent, innovative, competi-tive, assertive and targeted.” – North Carolina Office of State Personnel

Recruitment is a critical challenge facing govern-ment employees. In order to recruit the most inno-vative and talented workers into the public sector, government at all levels is going to need to im-prove recruitment strategies.

In Focus: IRS Recruitment Office

One of the Federal agencies leading the charge with recruitment is the IRS. The IRS has a great page for prospective employees. The IRS uses dozens of social channels to help recruit employees into the federal government.

The IRS has three different Twitter accounts used to help in recruitment. The accounts discuss IRS op-portunities and the benefits of working at the IRS. They also have a Facebook page that is used for career questions, provides updates and as a way to connect with prospective employees. YouTube is another social channel that the IRS is using for recruitment. The IRS uses videos to help showcase how an employee can build a career at the IRS, share agency profiles, and develops recruitment profiles. This is a terrific way to help recruit employ-ees to the IRS. The IRS also uses LinkedIn as a way to help people see what it is actually like to work at the IRS. The IRS also uses GovLoop, to help show-

case the inside story of the IRS.

Recruitment 411: Big Risk = Big RewardRecruitment 411: Making More than MoneyRecruitment 411: Lessons of Leadership Part 1 - There’s Always Room for ImprovementIRS Job: Senior Economist

A final innovative way that the IRS is connecting with employees is by the use of Second Life. IRS Recruiter Julie posted a terrific blog on GovLoop explaining how the IRS is using Second Life. The post was a guest blog post by Frank Stipe.

In the post Frank states, “When the IRS Recruitment Office interacts with the residents of Second Life, we count on our message being handed off both “in-world” (among Second Life users) and in other social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and

Well-planned and measurable recruit-ment strategies are the cornerstones of

an organization’s achievement and ser-

vice.

- North Carolina Office of State Personnel

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“

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LinkedIn. It is not uncommon for users of these more mainstream social networking sites to come into second Life to interact with one of our recruit-ers. Often, they’re not just looking for career advice for themselves - they’re also looking for informa-tion they can share with friends and family.

The IRS Careers Island in Second Life opened to the public in February 2009 after nearly a year in devel-opment and testing. Our recruiters host a variety of events on the island including dances, costume parties and job fairs. The island also features sev-eral career centers, an art gallery that showcases employee art, a shopping mall, a conference center and a dance club.”

Follow IRScareersFollow IRSrecruiter59Follow RecruitmentIRSFriend IRS Careers on FacebookSubscribe to the IRS Careers YouTube ChannelVisit us on LinkedInJulie IRS Recruiter GovLoop BlogVisit the IRS Career Island

Training and Leadership Development Programs

“Training and Development is one of the most criti-cal contributors to the success of an organization and its workforce. Providing training for employees not only helps them develop their skills and knowl-edge, but it is also a motivational tool as well as a building block to organizational success.” – Gov-Loop Member Henry Brown

Leadership programs, like training initiatives, are important to retain employees, develop talented employees, and keep morale high within agencies. GovLoop offers dozens of free trainings through-out the year for public sector professionals. These trainings are typically only an hour long and are great ways to help employees grow professionally.

There are dozens of programs of success stories about training and leadership programs across government. The Presidential Management Fel-lows Program is one of the success stories in gov-ernment, and also, one of the most competitive programs. Those admitted to the program rotate among agencies for two years with accelerated promotion potential.

OPM has a great list of government agencies lead-ership programs. One program to highlight is the Foundations in Leadership: Administrative and Business Skills, which is available for Department of Interior employees GS - - through GS – 12.

Retention and Succession Planning

No workforce program would be complete without a plan to retain an organization’s very best employ-ees. Monetary incentives are only part of the equa-tion. Although equal compensation to colleagues in the private is critical to retaining talent, many employees desire more than just incremental bo-nuses. Finding value and meaning with the work performed is critical to retaining talent in govern-ment. To keep talent, agencies will have to identify strategies to cultivate and grow the agencies fu-ture leaders.

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10 Strategies on How to Manage Tal-ent In Federal Agencies

One key area of human capital is cultivating talent, which is a critical part of retaining the most innova-tive and talented employees within government. Talent management involves a thorough analysis of the agency’s workforce. With competition com-ing from the private and non-profit sector, manag-ing talent is no easy task for agencies. By develop-ing a smart human capital plan, agencies can keep their most talented individuals around and not see a brain drain to seemingly greener pastures. Below are ten strategies that will aide agencies in their tal-ent management strategies.

Provide Trainings and Professional Develop-ment ResourcesProvide Work that Impacts Professional GrowthAssign High Level and Engaging ProjectsConnect People, Allowing them to Grow their NetworkOffer a Challenging and Stimulating Envi-ronmentProvide Access to MentorsProvide Opportunities for Quick Leadership GrowthEnsure That Employees are the Right Cultural FitRemain Sympathetic to Work/Life BalanceEncourage Open and Honest Two-Way Com-munication

There are a lot of different ways to approach talent management, but it is critical to remember that tal-ent management is a two-way street. The employee needs to be willing to grow and learn, even when things are not perfect and work is tough. Everyone needs to attach themselves to the organization and the agency’s mission, and make a commitment to the team. In the end, by making a commitment to the agency, all professional, personal and orga-nizational goals can be met.

Mentoring Programs

Mentors often provide valuable insights and in-stitutional knowledge about an organization to a younger workforce. By working with a mentor, new employees are given new perspectives on organi-zational issues and are provided the opportunity to grow professionally and learn from their mentor’s experiences.

There are also countless examples of fantastic men-toring programs in which people opt into a men-torship agreement - these programs are largely successful because those opting in are passionate about taking a mentee, and those seeking a men-tor are equally motivated to make the relationship successful. GovLoop has had enormous success with the government-wide GovLoop mentorship program.

GovLoop Perspective: Why Not? Men-toring with MojitosBy Steve Ressler and Corey McCarren, written for FedSmith

Last week, we looked into a new potential retire-ment option for federal workers: mentoring into retirement. The program, currently under con-sideration by Congress, would allow participants nearing retirement to draw upon partial annuity while mentoring up to 20% of their work schedule. When crowdsourcing opinions on the program, we found that GovLoop.com users had some concerns of their own, including who should participate, whether the amount of time allotted to mentoring was sufficient or too much, and whether the men-tors would succeed in easing turnover.

A FedSmith poll conducted last week showed in-terest in phase retirement and the mentoring pro-gram. Over 75% of respondents said they were at least partially interested in a phased retirement program. When specifically asked about partici-pating in mentoring as part of a phased retirement, 70% said they’d be glad to share experiences in a mentoring program as part of a phased retirement.

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Regarding mentoring specifically, FedSmith read-ers had three main concerns with the program:

Favoritism - or starters, there was concern of fa-voritism, noting that often federal retiree ‘favor-ites’ come back as contractors who may be of little benefit to the organization. The same could hap-pen with a mentors program, where the best men-tors aren’t the ones being chosen.

Bad Practices - Another concern is that the feds chosen for mentoring may pass on bad practices and work habits. The workplace is quickly evolv-ing due largely to new Internet platforms, and it may not be worth the time and effort to have em-ployees learn the old way of doing things.

Is it Coaching or Mentoring? - It was also noted that some agencies already have coaches whose goal is to train new employees. It’s hard to deter-mine what the line would be between coaching and mentoring. And, unlike coaches, mentors don’t plan on staying with the organization, so they have little incentive to be productive in their mentoring.

Despite the concerns, there is apparently strong interest in a mentoring program if done correctly. The statistics show that while there is skepticism of the program, it is likely still worth a trial because of the myriad potential benefits for soon-to-be retir-ees and new hires alike. Maybe a little mentoring with that mojito isn’t such a bad idea.

If you’re interested in participating in a mentors program, be sure to check out the government-wide GovLoop Mentors program.

Keep Employees Motivated

Change is always difficult to introduce within an organization. In any workforce planning initia-tive, employees will experience heightened levels of stress due to the anxiety that comes with an

analysis of their roles and functions. That is why it is important to gauge employee responsiveness and engage employees in activities that build em-ployee morale, organizational changes might ulti-mately occur.

Julie Jenkins, recruiter at the IRS shared seven sim-ple steps on how to help maintain morale. Julie provides some great insights and provides some valuable information for managers to help manag-ers keep employees engaged and motivated.

In Focus: Seven Simple Steps to Maintain Morale

The other day I was reading the Ragan Communications newsletter and came across an article titled 10 in-expensive ways to boost employee morale. I was immediately interested, not because my office is in need of a mood change - quite the opposite – the IRS Recruitment Office is overflowing with enthusiastic, energetic, people. I was intrigued by the article because I wanted to see just how many of the 10 things we put into prac-tice in our office; here are seven of my favorites.

Recognize individual employees. In the two years I’ve been with the recruitment office, not a single staff meeting or team phone call has gone by without someone getting a shout out from a co-worker for their help on a project. It’s so simple it almost sounds silly, just say ‘thank you.’

Give employees responsibility. My manager runs a results-only work environment. This kind of atmosphere places a lot responsibility on the employees, but with responsibility comes trust. As an employee, nothing makes me happier or motivates me more than knowing my manger trusts me.

Treat employees like people. We all get caught up in crossing things of our to-do list and trying to make it to every meeting on our schedule. However, we are encouraged to leave work at work. The only thing my manager believes in more than a results-only work environment is work-life balance.

Offer Training. Every member of our staff has a career development plan. We are encouraged and expected to own that plan and take advantage of opportunities that are in line with our career goals.

Give small perks with big personal impact. It really is the little things that matter most. I remember we had 100 percent participation in an employee survey. As a token of her appreciation, our manager gave us 30 minutes of admin leave. It may not seem like much, but getting home to your family a little earlier, or taking a longer lunch to catch up with a friend – what’s better than that?

Be transparent, and keep staff in the loop. Information sharing is a good thing; it makes employees feel valued and cuts down on anxiety. As decisions are made and changes occur, our manger makes sure the information trickles down so we’re all well-informed.

Make the office fun. A fun office and happy employees go hand-in-hand. Walk into our DC office and it’s instantly evident that we have a good time at work. There’s a temporary hopscotch board on the floor, placed there by a visiting co-worker. It’s highly possible that you’ll hear one or more of my co-workers singing, and someone is always laughing – usually at the person singing but that’s another story.

Blog Post from GovLoop, Recruitment 411: Seven Simple Steps to Maintain MoraleBy Julie Jenkins, IRS Recruiter

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Assess the organization’s business requirements.

Identify key measurement areas.

Collect raw data in high-impact areas.

Generate metrics that inform the organization.

Identify associated HR metrics.

Consolidate operational and HR metrics.

Evaluate periodically.

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Be Committed

A workforce and recruitment strategy will require a commitment to the plan from all levels of the

agency. It is up to senior level officials to align the plan to the organizations objectives and lead the implementation phase.

A recent report from the Department of the Interior states, “Workforce planning offers a means of sys-tematically aligning organizational and program priorities with budgetary and human resources needs. By beginning the planning process with identified strategic objectives, managers and their organizations can develop workforce plans that will help them accomplish those objectives. At the same time, workforce plans provide a sound basis for justifying budget and staffing requests, since there is a clear connection between objectives, the

budget, and the human resources needed to ac-complish them. ”

One option is to consider hiring a consultant to help with the workforce planning initiative. In some instances, a contractor will work well since they are not as ingrained in the organizational cul-ture, and may provide insights and experience that are not available within the agency. Likewise, there are significant costs to hiring a consultant, and the consultant may not fully understand limitations within the agency and how the agency operates internally. By working with other agencies and col-laborating, agencies may learn new insights and lessons from similar agencies.

Implement Your Workforce Plan

Metrics Planning

Measuring outcomes of any program is impor-tant, as time and budgets are tight for govern-

ment, every program should be looked at with a critical eye. Outcomes for the program should be clearly known, so proper adjustments can be made to meet the needs of the organization.

There are many ways to measure success of a pro-gram. One way is to look at all the data that you previous collected, and update the data to periodi-cally measure against past success. Once that data is collected, an organization can look at programs and policies that impacted the data, and what the outcomes were and what needs to be modified.

In Focus: North Carolina Office of Personnel

Successful workforce planning is an active and continuous process. On-going evaluation and plan adjustments are the keys to continuous improve-ment and to achieving your targeted goals. You must continue to monitor and refine approaches to meet the demands of your workforce. North Car-olina Office of Personnel identifies the following questions as great starting points for you to evalu-ate your workforce:

Did the action plan accomplish what the or-ganization needed?

Do adequate staffing levels exist?

Has turnover been reduced?

Are the skills of employees being developed quickly enough to become effective?

Are you able to recruit for the talent needed?

Has the hiring process improved?

Has the selection process improved?

Do new hires possess needed competencies and skills?

Has overall organizational performance in-creased?

Are you able to appropriately plan for suc-cession replacements for retirements?

Are you able to successfully transfer knowl-edge?

Are you able to build internal leadership ca-pabilities?

Are employees more engaged in their work?

Have employee barriers and obstacles been removed?

Have internal processes been streamlined to be more effective and timely?

Be ReflectiveEvaluate and Revise as Needed

19.GOVLOOPGUIDE

20.GOVLOOPGUIDE

Performance Management

Why is performance management so important to workforce planning?

Performance Management is critical to Workforce Planning. It is not only the process that allows managers and employees to communicate ex-pectations and outcomes, but more importantly, it yields essential data points HR leaders need to determine; such as, how well organizational talent is aligned to organizational goals and objectives, and where deficiencies exist. Without those data points, HR leaders will be less able to predict out-comes and take proactive and corrective action through other talent-related processes like recruit-ing, training and development.

Do you have an example of an agency that has a well-run performance management initiative? What makes this agency unique?

There is a great State government story that I would like to share. Here is what makes them unique, they aligned HR resources to organizational strategy and they determined practical ways they could support the Governor’s vision of becoming the best-run State. They were also willing to do the work and in-vest the time. The State evaluated 3500 jobs and reduced them to 750, defining key competencies that were aligned to organizational strategy, and then assigning those competencies to each job, and defining, implementing and rolling out a new performance management system – none of this was easy and each step required a significant in-vestment in time and resources. Finally, they didn’t

quit until they accomplished what they started.

How will a performance management initiative im-pact an agency’s ability to improve decision-making and increase performance of the agency?

First, through a performance management initia-tive, an agency can reassess and clarify both vision and purpose. They can determine the competency-model that best lends itself to contributing to over-all organizational strategy. It provides the chance to realign what may have become a broken pro-cess to the ideal model. Like the State government example I cited above, they can audit existing in-formation and eliminate redundancies and clarify outcomes. Second, through a performance man-agement initiative, an agency can streamline pro-cesses by automating service delivery. The State took a manual, paper-based processed and auto-mated it through self-service and workflow, mak-ing it more efficient for employee and manager alike. Finally, through a performance management initiative, an agency can identify expected out-comes and measure the results. More important-ly, they can report those results to organizational leadership.

What are some lessons learned for agencies while thinking about developing a performance manage-ment initiative?

Besides using the right tool, there are three lessons. First keep it singular. In the State example cited earlier, the Workforce Plan was singular – becom-

Stephen Beard of Oracle sat down with GovLoop to talk through how performance manage-ment impacts workforce planning. As Stephen identifies in the interview below, performance management is a critical component to workforce planning. Stephen shared his expert insights with the GovLoop team.

ing the best-run State. Everything else hinged on that one vision. Second, keep it simple. Too many times, we try to over-complicate the plan. We try to measure too many things. We incorporate too many moving parts. The State kept it simple. Ev-ery competency (and they were limited in number) was selected based on whether or not it was essen-tial to achieving the Governors vision – becoming the best-run State. Third, keep it seamless. What I mean by “seamless” is that all parts need to be in-tegrated and contribute to the whole. Without an integrated Talent Management suite, it is virtually impossible to manage to a Workforce Plan.

Where should an agency start if they want to develop or improve their current performance management initiative?

I would suggest you start by determining where you want to go and why. Answer questions like, “What do we want to measure?” “Why should we measure it?” “How should we measure it?” “How will we determine success?”

What are common challenges or roadblocks agen-cies may be able to expect?

Steve cited three challenges agencies might ex-pect. First, a performance management plan will take longer than you think. Designing and rolling out a proficient performance management system is a significant effort and agencies need to invest the time to establish clear goals and milestones and stay on task. Second, no one will agree and the im-portance to establish clear objectives and establish rules of engagement. Finally, change is hard and to expect resistance. This can be limited through well-administered communication and training

What role can technology play for government agen-cies looking to implement a performance manage-ment plan?

Technology provides tools like integrated Talent Management suites, HR Analytics, and a variety of service delivery access models (think Mobile De-

vice accessible). Also, more and more Talent Man-agement suites are incorporating collaborative and social networking features that can be lever-aged in performance management systems and help shape performance management policies and practices.

21.GOVLOOPGUIDE

Final OverviewGovLoop Workforce Planning Toolkit

The team at GovLoop knows how busy everyone can be. As such, we wanted to consolidate the information in this guide to give you a quick overview of the elements of a workforce-plan-ning program. Please take a moment to conduct this exercise and then use the results to help you craft and/or improve your current workforce planning initiative.

Getting Started Assess Current Position Identify previous workforce and strategic plans Review plans and develop metrics to identify current status of any current initiatives Conduct Strategic Planning Collaborate with key leaders and your team to identify the following: Identify the key problem of the workforce you are trying to solve Prepare a vision of your workforce Identify a common vision of your agency Identify goals Develop metrics and ways to evaluate your program Conduct Workforce Analysis Collect data on your workforce Identify most critical skills within agency Match skills to jobs needed Develop Your Workforce Action Plan Recruitment Strategies Training and leadership development programs Develop strategies to manage talent Provide trainings and professional development resources Provide work that impacts professional growth High level and engaging projects Work connects people, allows them to grow their network Working in a challenging and stimulating environment Provide access to mentors Quickly provide opportunities for leadership Pay attention that employees are the right cultural fit Sympathetic to work/life balance Open and honest two-way communicationImplement Workforce Plan Develop Program Leads Institute Program Checkpoints Collect DataEvaluate Workforce Plan Is your program matching your stated goals and metrics that you have designed?

22.GOVLOOPGUIDE

23.GOVLOOPGUIDE

An Alternative to ‘Work-Life Balance’

Are You Planning to Fail Today?

Dealing with Employee Engagement: Today’s Generation Gap in the Workplace

Don’t Bring Doughnuts to Work, Bring JUICE

How to Manage Talent in Federal Agencies

Is Telework a Critical Benefit

Leadership as an Agency’s Outcome

Rant on Productivity

Talent vs. Potential - Where Do You Stand?

The Importance of Preserving Institutional Knowledge in the Public Sector

They’re Tossing out the Baby!

Top 10 Skills for Government Workers in 2012

Used to be a Public Servant, Took an Arrow to the Knee!

What Does Accountability Mean?

Work: A Place -- Or the Things We Do?

Workforce Planning Group

Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP)

Blended Workforce Done Strategically is Right Sizing

How Can I Convince My Colleagues to NOT Leave Their Jobs?

Strategic Workforce Planning Group

GovLoop Resources

About OracleOracle enables organization’s to address workforce planning challenges by offering government a complete and integrated suite of Human Capital solutions – from core HR transactions to workforce service automation and delivery, to complete enterprise talent management to workforce management to HR analytics.

Depending on your organization’s operational requirements and IT environment, Oracle solutions can be deployed in a variety of ways. Whether it be on premise, in the cloud, or something in-between, Oracle provides you with the choice and flexibility to adopt the best deployment approach to meet your organization’s unique requirements.

Industry Leading Workforce Planning Solutions for Government

Your Strategy, Your Choice: Deployment Options for Workforce Planning Solutions

Learn More About Oracle Solutions for Work-force Planning

Workforce Planning Solutions Offer Govern-ment Measurable Results

Join the Oracle HCM Discussion

HCI Research- “The Advantages of Unified Human Capital Software”

HR Analytics: Driving Return on Human Capital Investment

Cloud Solutions for Human Capital Management

ROI of E-Recruiting for Government

Data Sheet- Solutions for Workforce Planning

City of Chicago Innovates Hiring Process

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Powers Talent

Human Capital Management in the Cloud Examples

Chicago Public Schools Prepares for Future Growth

State of Kansas Consolidates HCM Functions

Washington County Enhances Recruiting & Performance

blogs.oracle.com/oraclehcm

twitter.com/igovernment

facebook.com/OraclePublicSector

oracle.com/HCM

govloop.com/group/oracle

Acknowledgements

Pat Fiorenza, GovLoop Research AnalystLead Author of the GovLoop Guide to Workforce Planning in the Public Sector

Pat Fiorenza is currently a Research Analyst at GovLoop. Pat works on the Business De-velopment team and is continually interfacing with the GovLoop community. Through blogs, research reports, guides, in-person and online events, Pat helps to identify and find best practices to share with the GovLoop community. Prior to working at Gov-Loop, Pat worked at Syracuse Habitat for Humanity through the AmeriCorps Program as a Marketing Liaison and was previously a Legislative Intern to Senator Charles E. Schumer. Pat received his Masters of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Thank you to all who assisted in the production of the GovLoop Guide to Workforce Planning in the Public Sector. In particular, thank you to Andrew Krzmarzick, GovLoop Community Manager, who served as a contributing author to various sections of this guide, and also as an editor. Also, thank you to Andy Lowenthal and Terry Hill, who served as editors for this guide. Thank you again to our sponsor, Oracle for supporting this guide. This guide was designed by Jeff Riberia, Content/Community Coordinator, GovLoop.

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