'Human Capital Initiatives' Poorly Defined, Monitored

The Government Accounting Office has just released a new, 75-page report of its findings, concerning the FAA's newest human resources plan. During the Clinton years, the FAA had asked Congress for exemptions from parts of Title V of the US Code; and Congress had granted them. Now, a few key Congressmen are finding out if the exemptions were necessary; and, if so, what are the overall effects of the FAA's changes. The GAO report was specifically adressed to US Representatives John L. Mica (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Thomas M. Davis III (R-VA), Chairman, Committee on Government Reform; and David Weldon, M.D. (R-FL).

The FAA started on this journey of reconstruction, apparently without knowing just what they were trying to improve, in the first place. As the report says, "FAA had little data with which to assess the effects of its reform effort." That lack of a baseline didn't stop the HR honchos from jumping in, and starting the changes anyway. The FAA's bigwigs "declared victory," without having any way to gage progress; and HR wonks have differing opinions from those who were actually affected by the changes: "While FAA human capital officials cited positive effects of FAA’s reform effort, the views of managers and employees GAO interviewed were generally less positive." In other words, the HR weenies liked it, so the rest of the agency had to suffer; and the HR folks said it was good.

The program wasn't set up right n the first place, according to the GAO: "FAA’s lack of empirical data on the effects of its human capital initiatives is one indication that it has not fully incorporated elements that are important to effective human capital management into its overall reform effort. These elements include data collection and analysis, performance goals and measures, and linkage of reform goals to program goals."

Since the agency rushed ahead, without knowing the pre-change state of effectiveness, improvement, if any, was hard to track -- perhaps by design. The report continued, "FAA human resource management officials said that the agency should have spent more time to develop baseline data and performance measures before implementing the broad range of reforms but that establishing these elements was a complex and difficult task. FAA has also not gone far enough in establishing linkage between reform goals and overall program goals of the organization."

If you think the FAA ignores you, you're not alone.

One of the most-heard complaints we get about the FAA is that the agency ignores people. Apparently that's hot limited to airmen and mechanics; even "important" people, like the GAO employees, get ignored. "GAO found that the lack of these elements has been pointed out repeatedly in evaluations of FAA’s human capital reform effort, but FAA has not developed specific steps and time frames by which these elements will be established and used for evaluation. Incorporation of these elements could also help FAA build accountability into its human capital management approach." [Accountability, though, would lead to someone's being accountable; that could lead to the downfall of bureaucracy, as we know it -- and not just in the FAA!]

It's going to take a long time to implement, apparently.

In keeping with the glacial progress of federal agencies in general, and not out of character in the FAA, the GAO reported, "In the area of compensation and performance management, FAA’s new compensation system has not yet been implemented for about one-quarter of the agency’s workforce whose unions have not reached a new pay agreement with FAA. FAA’s new performance management system had been implemented for about 20 percent of the total workforce (15 percent nonunion employees and 5 percent union employees) at the time of our review."

Six years and change have passed, and 1/20 of the unionized workforce has been incorporated into the new program. At that rate, all union employees will be incorporated by, let's see... the year 2117. After that, we suppose, the FAA will start to monitor results, to see if they match expectations.

Interesting reading, especially for those who still think we have 'government for the people.'

FMI: www.gao.gov/new.items/d03156.pdf