Helping the workplace

Partnership for Public Service

With budgets and staffing stretched thin throughout government, observers warn that federal agencies do not have time to develop new ways to manage employees.

But that is about to change with a new tool designed to give federal agencies a resource to help their sagging workplaces become high-performing ones.

The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group dedicated to revitalizing the federal civil service, last month unveiled a Web site called the Solutions Center to help federal agencies share solutions to transform their workplaces.

The site is an online database with case studies of innovative practices in leadership, recruitment, performance management and human resources strategies.

"At a time when our country needs the very best from our government, investing the time and resources to develop a system that rewards high-performing federal employees makes good business sense," said David Walker, U.S comptroller general.

The database includes success stories from the General Accounting Office, the Internal Revenue Service, NASA, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Highway Administration.

The goal is for federal agencies to share their success stories and help organize resources for other users, said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service.

For example, he said, the IRS has a statistical model that shows that its leadership program produces better performance management officials, a goal that has eluded many other agencies.

"Ultimately, we need to see all federal agencies grappling with these kinds of problems in a sophisticated fashion," Stier said.