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John Palguta spent 34 years in the federal government, before retiring as a member of the Senior Executive Service and director of policy at the Merit Systems Protection Board. For the last 16 years, he as been vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service. He talked to Federal Drive with Tom Temin about his last day on the job.
Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at the Partnership for Public Service, tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin, career federal managers can still make a difference no matter when the next election is scheduled.
A new report on customer service details gap between agencies' and citizens' perceptions, and challenges to improvement.
A court ruling says OPM acting Director Beth Cobert shouldn't be allowed to serve in her role. The administration continues to stand by its nomination. Political pundits say the legal disagreement is the least of the worries when it comes to the political appointee process.
A report from the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Services found that data, governance, communication and engagement, and workforce management are the biggest challenges for government agencies trying to improve customer service.
Charles Dickens might have described federal customer service as the best and worst. When it's good it ranks up with the best in the private sector. But too often, federal customer service is terrible. Now the Partnership for Public Service and Accenture Federal Services team up to help. They polled agencies with high transaction volumes to discover whether agency managers consider themselves on board with a customer centered approach. Kathy Conrad, director of Digital Government at Accenture, joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin with more detail.
It may be another 9 months until the football season returns, but federal managers have another team sport they can play in the meantime. It's called innovation. Yes, innovation is not a contact but a contract sport at least according to the Partnership for Public Service. Ron Sanders, principal author of the new study on how agencies can team up with industry and academia, joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share how you can play without getting hurt.
Achieving senior executive status in the federal government can be a two-edged blade. The pay is better and you get a lot of authority. But too often, it means getting stuck in one place for too long. That can make you stale and deprive other agencies of your expertise. The Partnership for Public Service, in conjunction with McKinsey and Company, has taken a deep look at mobility in the Senior Executive Service. Joining Federal Drive with Tom Temin with some of the findings, Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at the Partnership.
The government is big, with 2 million people in the civilian workforce. It's also middle-aged. Only 7 percent are under 30. Now the Office of Personnel Managment has come out with something called the Pathways Toolkit to help agencies hire greater numbers of younger people. Tim McManus, the vice president of education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service, told Federal Drive with Temin how it's helping OPM develop the new tools.
Your mother always told you it was good to share. For federal agencies, shared services are a route to greater efficiency, less wasted effort and maybe even better performance. So why aren't more agencies doing it? Now the Partnership for Public Service, teaming with Deloitte, has come up with a list of recommendations for agencies to get into shared services for human resources and acquisition. Mallory Barg Bulman, research director at the Partnership, joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin with more detail.
With one year left until Inauguration Day, the Partnership for Public Service's new Center for Presidential Transition is encouraging candidates and federal employees to begin preparing now for the next administration. Career feds should be prepared to tell incoming new leaders what their agencies do and how they can help.
Maybe it's the size of the budget. Maybe it's the growing number of agencies and policies. But presidential transitions seem to demand greater and greater attention with each turnover. A couple of Washington groups have already formed transition efforts focused on getting the next President, whoever it is, up to speed in a hurry. Now the Partnership for Public Service has formed the Center for Presidential Transition. David Eagles, the partnership's director for this effort, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with all the details.
Federal managers might be feeling as they're in limbo in 2016. Political appointees are scarce. And in his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama didn't have much to say to the federal workforce itself or his desire for any sort of federal reform. Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin with his reflections on the speech and year ahead.
Each year the Partnership for Public Services honors the best in career civil service. The Service to America Medals, or Sammies, provide a way for agency leadership to recognize people who might be working in obscurity but are nevertheless having a big impact. You've still got a week to nominate someone. And, as Jim Seymour, director of programs and events at the Partnership tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin, 2016 is a red-letter year.