Agencies lack a collective method for training and developing their Senior Executive Service members, according to a new report from the Merit Systems Protection Board.

“Our review of current practices indicates that the ‘systematic development’ envisioned by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA) is more vision than reality,” Susan Tsui Grundmann, MSPB chairwoman, wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The CSRA, which ultimately established MSPB as one of three agencies overseeing federal personnel practices, says agencies should “provide for the initial and continuing systematic development of highly competent senior executives.”

MSPB sent questionnaires to 25 agencies about their training practices for the SES, and 22 responded. It also sent the questionnaire to the Small Agency Council Training Committee, where one agency responded. MSPB analyzed results from the Office of Personnel Management’s 2011 SES Survey and interviewed the Federal Executive Institute.

Seven out of 23 agencies told MSPB that their SES employees get the training activities as outlined in their executive development plans (EDPs). More than half — 12 out of 23 agencies — say they couldn’t determine how often their SES members receive these training opportunities. About half of agencies have completed an EDP, according to OPM’s data.

“Either there’s no follow up, or there’s no documentation,” said Tanya Page, senior research psychologist at MSPB and project manager for the agency’s report. “So either way, there’s not a record of what has happened, what the training needs are and the training that they received.”

Agencies manage SES training through a variety of different methods, Page said. They use several different assessments, from 360-degree feedback to self and supervisor evaluations, to determine whether their SES training programs are working.

“In some agencies, [training] is centrally managed, in some agencies it’s locally managed,” she said. “In other agencies, it’s a combination of the two of central and locally managed training. So there doesn’t seem to be one place where things are necessarily recorded.”

Yet less than half, or 48 percent, of SES say their developmental needs are being assessed, according OPM data.

MSPB acknowledged that having multiple methods to evaluate training programs is wise in some situations. But it pointed to the 30 percent of SES who told OPM that their developmental needs were not being met.

There is also some discrepancy between the skills, or Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) federal employees need to enter the SES, and the skills agencies say their career executives actually need.

“The original expectation of the Senior Executives was that they would be a governmentwide leadership resource to be deployed wherever they were needed throughout government,” Page said. “The practice is that in addition to leadership competencies, many of the senior executive positions require technical ability.”

In 2014, 80 percent of career executive vacancies advertised on USAJobs asked applicants to describe their competencies in at least one technical skill, she said.

“If there are fundamental differences between the vision of how the SES was to function and how the SES actually function, it may be time to examine what the executives’ roles, duties and responsibilities should be to meet present and future challenges,” the report said.

The report comes on the heels of a new executive order on SES reforms, which President Obama signed Dec. 15. Improving professional development opportunities for senior executives is one of several initiatives that OPM will help agencies tackle.

Page said MSPB’s report could also help agencies develop a strategy for meeting some of the goals outlined in the President’s order. But she emphasized that evaluating whether training and development programs are working will be key.

“We don’t want to get into a situation where training is given as a check-the-box type exercise, but it actually addresses the needs of that particular executive. … Evaluating a training event actually helps with transferring what was learned in the training event to application on the job. There’s some speculation that this occurs because what gets measured, gets done.”

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