Recruitment, Retention, and Utilization of Federal Scientists and Engineers (1990) / Chapter Skim
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2 FINDINGS
2 FINDINGS
Pages 7-28
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From page 7... ...
. OPM will have the opportunity for innovative planning for the future needs of the Federal work force, executive and employee development, and pilot projects to test the efficacy of various administration practices.2 According to OPM director Constance Berry Newman, The Office of Personnel Management has been charged with devising an overall human resource system for the federal government that specifically addresses our recruitment and retention problems.
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From page 8... ...
One question of concern to the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government was whether any agency of the federal government maintains data on federal scientists and engineers that would indicate the degree to which their retention and utilization is effective. The Committee learned that data on each federal employee, not just scientists and engineers, are compiled in OPM's Central Personnel Data File (CPDF)
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From page 9... ...
in order to have a generic approach that facilitates automation and accelerates the hiring process.5 Nonetheless, many federal scientists and engineers and their supervisors seem unaware of these recent revisions, perhaps because of the difficulties in communication between scientists and engineers and federal personnel specialists. Similarly, many federal managers of scientists and engineers believing that OPM equates the field of one's academic degree with his or her occupational classification-felt that misclassification occurred frequently.
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From page 10... ...
work force have been unable to agree on what constitutes accurate measures of the quality of that work force. Some CPDF data can be used as proxies to input measures of quality such as the highest academic degree conferred on an employee.
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From page 11... ...
(MSPB and OPM, 1989) As a result, a joint OPM-MSPB Advisory Committee on Federal Workforce Quality Assessment, created in early 1990, will review projects designed to assess the quality of the federal work force, assist in data interpretation and analysis, and offer advice on "strategies in response to workforce quality assessment research" (OPM, 1990)
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From page 12... ...
The effects of this excessive control can often be delays in facility and equipment procurement that, in turn delay R&D projects, some of which are critical to urgent national security requirements; excessive personnel processing time that exacerbates the laboratory's difficulties in recruiting high-quality scientists and engineers; and inflexible financial management mechanisms. These bureaucratic constraints can threaten work quality and employee morale to the point where a high-quality researcher decides that the bureaucracy of a company or a university may look more inviting.42 Reinforcing that procedural delays also hinder recruitment, another federal manager added, It is unrealistic to expect a highly qualified scientist or engineer at the GS/GM-14/15 equivalent level to wait 4 or 5 months after a job interview takes place before a firm job offer is made.
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From page 13... ...
. OPM Initiatives The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gave OPM primal responsibility for managing the federal government's S&E work force including the effectiveness of both the relevant data systems and the administrative systems, which deal with the recruitment, utilization, and promotions of federal scientists and engineers.
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From page 14... ...
For most engineers, special rates are authorized worldwide; petroleum and mining engineers have nationwide special rates. However, some managers of federal scientists and engineers believe that even "the special salary rates for engineers and scientists are not competitive with the private sector, particularly on the East Coast and in large metropolitan areas,"'8 citing pay differences of 20 percent at the entry level and 10-15 percent for midcareer scientists and engineers.
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From page 15... ...
, with local rates.2, Key provisions of the pay reform proposal may enhance the federal government's ability to recruit and retain scientists and engineers: Geographic differentials of up to ~ percent for employees in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; Pay banding of GS-16-18 positions into one senior pay range: rates will range from 120 percent of the NS-20 (current GS-15) rate to the rate for Executive Schedule, Level V; there are no steps, and progression through the rate range is based on performance; Staffing differentials (of up to 60 percent of basic pay)
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From page 16... ...
Agencies are attempting to reach more potential employees by increasing the number and types of college campuses visited, no longer concentrating their efforts at the major research universities but pursuing candidates at other institutions such as the historically black colleges and un~versities.23 Polled informally by the Cormnittee, college placement officers revealed that 220 percent of their graduating seniors are interviewed by federal agency representatives, but most placement officers expressed sentiments similar to the following: 23 The Committee was told that this is done at high costs to the agencies in terms of training staff to be recruiters, time spent by recruiters away from their "regular" assignment, and providing displays as attractive as those used by industrial recruiters.
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From page 17... ...
For instance, Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) has concentrated its recent efforts in this area on a cooperative education program, as have the Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL)
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From page 18... ...
Among the psychic income measures stressed at NRL are "the worId-renown reputation of the Laboratory, challenging R&D work, the freedom and time to pursue good research, unique facilities and equipment, opportunities for advancement, opportunities for continuing education in an area with several excellent academic institutions, a chance to utilize the skills the individual possesses."28 As the salary disparity with the private sector widens, it can become more difficult to offset real income with psychic income, especially at entry levels.
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From page 19... ...
Demonstration projects authorized by OPM and the contracting out of S&E work seem to have provided agencies with the flexibility deemed necessary to overcome some of the difficulties associated with recruitment, retention, and utilization of scientists and engineers. An issue of concern to the scientific community is how to bring the best scientists and engineers to the federal government.
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From page 20... ...
of the Civil Service Reform Act, OPM was authorized to conduct or approve alternative personnel management systems, under which certain civil service restrictions, including the following, could be waived: Qualification requirements; Classification methods; Compensation methods and incentive pay; Methods of assigning, reassigning, promoting, or disciplining employees; 20
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From page 21... ...
OPM has reported that the Navy demonstration project has had several measurable benefits: An increase in quality of people who have been recruited as indicated by managerial perceptions and increases in GPAs; Easier recruitment because of the ability to offer starting salaries reasonably close to the industry average; Adopting pay progression more similar to that employed in the private sector (start higher and advance sIower) ; Pay for performance: high-quality people often are attracted by a system that will reward them differently from people performing less well; Satisfaction with the revised job classification system, which is as accurate as and certainly more expeditious than the old system; Improved attitudes of managers, who fee]
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From page 22... ...
Another important aspect of the demonstration project is having line managers do the classification and the qualification check, with personnel officers authorized to audit the programs. As a result, entry-level problems experienced by the National Bureau of Standards (predecessor to NIST)
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From page 23... ...
When such an individual (e.g., from a smaller school with limited laboratory experience) is hired, within one year these individuals gain a sufficient amount of experience that they may then move to private industry with salary increases of $S,000 to $~0,000.33 ARS expects the demonstration project to be flexible and responsive to local needs in order to "facilitate the attainment of a quality work force reflective of socieW."34 While sharing some of the goals of earlier demonstration projects, this newly approved project also attempts to: Increase the reliability of the decision to grant career tenure; Decentralize the decision to authorize direct hire in shortage categories; Establish an alternative candidate assessment method which uses categorical grouping instead of numeric score; Provide monetary incentives for recruitment purposes; and Reimburse travel and transportation expenses beyond those currently authorized for travel to first post of ~U~.35 M&O Contractor Facilities Based on his examination of 4 of the 67 M&036 facilities owned by the DOE but operated by a variety of contractors private-sector firms, universities, and university consortia37-Clark notes that "each of the operating contracts is negotiated separately with DOE [and]
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From page 24... ...
. tied to the performance appraisal systems." Before their implementation, all salary schedules and benefits programs have to be approved by DOE, however, and "individual approval is required for each salary in excess of $70,000 (but these salaries are not subject to the federal pay cap)
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From page 25... ...
They would prefer to be engaged in actual S&E work and reported that disillusionment sets in among entry-level scientists and engineers when they discover that they won't be doing technical work but, rather, preparing to be contract managers because so much federal work is contracted out. The Committee learned that positions requiring the application of a professional knowledge of engineering or other sciences in the development or evaluation of technical requirements in connection with .
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From page 26... ...
citizens, and several managers of federal scientists and engineers revealed difficulties In hiring women and minonties. CPDF data on the race/et~icity and sex of federal employees, used by agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to monitor a variety of federal affirmative action programs, could also indicate where the federal government nt pursue initiatives to respond to projected shortages of scientists and engineers, tapping groups currently underrepresented ~ the sciences and eng~neenng.
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From page 27... ...
As emphasized by one college placement officer, and seconded by many workshop participants, At a time when so many of the nation's younger scientists are immigrants, and the government congratulates itself on its immigration policy, it is both hypocritical and absurd that the government won't hire them.40 In addition, this limitation skews comparisons of the federal work force With the national work force, because industry and academe generally are not prohibited from hiring foreign and foreign-born scientists and engineers. Trends Regarding Presidential Appointments 8.
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From page 28... ...
However, members of the scientific community believe that recruitment of scientists and engineers to high-level government positions is further hindered by the President's staff establishing various ideological criteria for political appointees. The consequences can include a lengthy political appointments process42 and short tenure of political appointees.
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