Improving the Recruitment, Retention, and Utilization of Federal Scientists and Engineers (1993) / Chapter Skim
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5 NEXT STEPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5 NEXT STEPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Pages 69-90
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From page 69... ...
, and the lessons of a series of personnel demonstration projects employing experimental policies and procedures for attracting and keeping skilled technical personnel (Chapter 3~. The report also analyzes the potential impact of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA)
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The pay reform provisions and related flexibilities provided by the Federal Employees
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Although the legislative language governing exceptions to pay increases is more restrictive than that in the 1970 pay comparability act, which presidents used to justify less-thancomparable pay increases from 1978 through 1989, it permits reductions under certain conditions. We believe, however, that presidents should invoke their authority to reduce pay increases only under the direst circumstances of economic distress or national emergency contemplated in the law.
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From page 72... ...
OPM also should expand its capacity to assist the departments and agencies, for example in workforce planning and personnel system design, so they make better use of the flexibilities of FEPCA to meet their strategic needs. At our 1990 workshop with federal officials, the committee heard, on the one hand, from agency S&T program managers and laboratory directors about rigidities and restrictions in the civil service system that hampered their ability to recruit and retain the science and engineering talent they needed ancl, on the other hand, from OPM officials that various flexibilities to deal with those problems had already been delegated to their agencies.
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identify agency goals and develop an appropriate science and engineering staffing plan, and (2) use the authorities provided under FEPCA to improve recruitment, retention, and utilization of scientists and engineers.
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Mode} plans for relating agency goals to agency personnel needs and for using the flexibilities of FEPCA to achieve these goals could be developed in the FCCSET committee proposed in the next recommendation. Interagency Coordination Recommendation 5.
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gives special consideration to interagency policies and programs developed under FCCSET auspices. One major activity of the FCCSET Committee on Federal Science and Engineering Personnel would be annual reports to the President and Congress describing the status and approaches of the agency action plans for implementing FEPCA and related laws recommended above (Recommendation 4)
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FEPCA does not make-desirable changes in other aspects of personnel policies that also affect the recruitment, retention, and motivation of scientists and engineers, for example, simplifying the position classification system to permit more flexible pay banding, making performance appraisal more suitable and effective for research scientists and engineers, and linking pay more closely with performance. OPM, with the advice of the FCCSET interagency committee on federal scientists and engineers, should formulate and propose legislative measures that would address these gaps.
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The President's science advisor, working with the director of OPM, the FCCSET Committee on Federal Science and Engineering Personnel, and OMB statistical staff, should develop better methodologies, data, and criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the science and engineering personnel system. In theory, the most appropriate way to evaluate the science and engineering personnel system would be to compare the characteristics of the existing workforce with those necessary for the effective accomplishment of the federal role in S&T.
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Finally, each agency should collect and analyze data pertinent to its unique science and engineering workforce situation and management issues and provide it to OPM. OPM collects standard data on all federal employees, including scientists and engineers (described in Falk, 19911.
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Special Provisions for Administering the Science and Engineering Workforce A Senior Research and Development Service Recommendation 9. A Senior Research and Development Service should be established with a separate pay system, an appropriate performance review and promotion process, and other features conducive to maintaining a high-performance workforce for senior science and engineering positions directly involved in intellectually significant work in research and development and other activities requiring a high level of technical training and expertise.
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Pay problems could be resolved in many individual cases without establishing a Senior R&D Service by using the bonuses, allowances, and critical position authorities of FEPCA. In addition to accommodating the higher pay that may be needed to recruit and keep certain scientific, engineering, medical, and other critically needed researchers in the federal service, however, a special occupational pay system for senior R&D personnel would enable the federal government to use more appropriate performance review, merit pay, and promotion systems (described in the next recommendation)
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FEPCA authorized the SBRS-with a pay band ranging from the GS-15 level to executive level -and also authorized the establishment of additional special pay systems for occupations not well suited to Title 5 (see Chapter 4~. There are a number of other laboratories in various agencies and departments that might benefit from a special occupational pay system.
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positions also help avoid the rigidities of the position classification system, because it consists of a single pay band ranging from 120 percent of the GS-15 rate to the rate for level IV of the Executive Schedule. Thus pay increases may be more flexibly linked to performance rather than just to longevity.
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More Flexible Position Classification Recommendation Il. OPM should develop legislation to create a simplified position classification system in federal research and development agencies both for the Senior Research and Development Service and for those now at
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The President and Congress should then agree on legislation that would establish such a simplified classification system for R&D agencies, with levels comparable to research appointments in industrial laboratories and academic ranks for college and university faculty. A National Academy of Public Administration committee recently studied this issue for OPM and recommended the establishing 10 occupational families in place of the 441 current occupations, each with three classification levels of the 15 grades currently existing, each with 10 pay steps (NAPA, 1991~.
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FEPCA will go a long way toward introducing flexibility into the system so that it will be better able to accommodate changes in federal priorities and shifts in the competitive position of the federal government with respect to recruitment and retention. However, one of the eternal verities of federal personnel policy is that it has been saddled with a considerable amount of inertia.
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From page 86... ...
In order to attract and retain talented scientists and engineers, and increase their productivity, the federal laboratories must have adequate technical and support personnel and up-to-date equipment and facilities comparable with those available to their professional peers in other research settings. In a time of budget restraint and federal downsizing, it is important to recognize that a laboratory with too many professionals (scientists and 2~.
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Professional Development Recommendation 14. OPM should develop and implement professional development policies and programs that meet the needs of federal scientists and engineers, including continuing professional training and education; retraining for occupational changes; support of participation in professional associations; and support of academic
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positions, it can also pay tuition for employees if it contributes to their performance in their current position. Since continuing education was already a major incentive cited by scientists and engineers for entering and staying in the public service, the new authority to pay expenses leading to a higher degree, not just for specific courses substantively related to the employ ~- ~
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In updating the code of ethical conduct for federal employees, the Office of Government Ethics (O GE) should take special care not to unnecessarily restrict appropriate involvement of federal scientists and engineers and other professionals in professional associations.
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In July 1991, OGE published a draft of updated "Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch," last issued in 1964, that would have prohibited the use of official time by federal employees who are officers of professional associations "to administer the internal affairs of any such organization or to carry out its business" (OGE, 199Ib:3381 I)
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