What are the most pressing workforce issues at your agency? MSPB wants to know

Management

What are the most pressing workforce issues at your agency? MSPB wants to know

The Merit Systems Protection Board is updating its research agenda and wants your help in identifying federal workforce issues and policies to study. The agency...

Jack Moore

March 21, 2014 12:19 pm

2 min read

What are the most pressing federal workforce issues facing your agency?

The Merit Systems Protection Board — the watchdog agency responsible for ensuring fair federal workplace policies — wants to know.

MSPB, which in addition to investigating allegations of prohibited personnel practices also studies management best practices, is updating its research agenda and wants your help.

The agency says it wants to hear from federal employees, supervisors, unions and other groups on the issues they would like to see MSPB address in its research.

Recent MSPB reports have uncovered overreliance by agency hiring managers on cursory assessments of applicants’ training and experience, increasing numbers of federal employees who feel favoritism is a problem at their agencies and dramatic increases in whisteblower retaliation.

To share a research idea, email MSPB at research.agenda@mspb.gov or contact John Ford at (202) 254-4499.

MSPB, through its Office of Policy and Evaluation, conducts research on federal workforce policies.

However, that part of the agency’s mission has been hampered over the last year or so because of the steep sequestration-related budget cuts at the agency.

Budget cuts and resource constraints limited the number of reports the agency was able to produce last year and hindered efforts to launch a Web-based survey platform to conduct workforce studies, according to MSPB’s annual performance report released earlier this year.

When thousands of employees across the federal government were furloughed last year thanks to those same budget cuts, more than 32,000 employees filed appeals with MSPB, a caseload that has stretched the agency “beyond capacity,” Chairman Susan Tsui Grundmann told Federal News Radio recently.

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MSPB eyes gaps in employee motivation

Want to appeal a furlough with the MSPB? Get in line