Nurturing Leaders in a Diverse and Engaged Workforce The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

2The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Executive Summary ............................................ 2

Additional Contributors ..................................... 3

Key Findings ......................................................... 4

RESEARCH FINDINGS

The imperative to identify and develop new talent ............................ 5

Bringing the Millennial generation into the workforce ................ 7

Investing in programs that make a di!erence .................................... 10

Rewarding current and future performance .................................13

Key Recommendations ....................................15

Appendices ........................................................ 16

Appendix A: Methodology ...................... 16

Appendix B: Demographic Information ............................................... 16

HCMG................................................................... 17

Cornerstone OnDemand ................................. 17

WBR Digital ......................................................... 17

Table of Contents With the election year upon us, government human capital managers are in the midst of defining their own transitions. The Boomer generation continues to exit the workforce in a wave of retirements referred to as the “silver tsunami,” and the rush to identify new leadership to inherit critical roles continues to accelerate. Since last year, agencies have increasingly implemented Millennial outreach strategies and rolled out leadership development initiatives, yet the majority are still reporting a need for new leaders and a need to build engagement with younger members of the workforce.

Where agencies have seen success, they have leveraged the high levels of dedication of government employees and adopted an approach that recognizes outstanding performance, while encouraging inter-employee recognition. By promoting a culture where management is involved in the development of the workforce on a consistent level, as well as giving employees tools to recognize each other’s hard work, the best traits of the workforce can be mobilized for lasting improvement. In particular, utilizing mentorship techniques to accelerate the development of leadership candidates is another strategy that relies on a personalized, consistent approach to employee development, which has created results for human capital leaders.

Tapping into the power of social media and digital channels are among the avenues being explored by agencies looking to grow their footprint and compete with private industry for hires, while more traditional forms of outreach such as internal referrals, internships and career fairs still play a major role in bringing new talent into the agency funnel. The path forward for government HR is reflective of this dichotomy; the key to the future lies in building a synergy between the lessons and leadership abilities of the most senior, and the appetite for advancement and opportunity present in the newest generations of employees.

Executive Summary

3The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

In addition to HCMG benchmark data, several government HR executives gave their insight on the trends covered in this report through interviews. Selected quotes appear in this report alongside numerical data to paint a more vivid picture of the state of government human capital in 2016, addressing both the challenges and opportunities the year will hold. Below are contributor names and titles, as well as the names of the agencies that they work for.

Ralph Charlip Deputy Assistant Secretary, Operations and Management, Veterans’ Employment and Training Service Department of Labor

Reginald Mebane Director, O!ice of Equal Employment Opportunity Senior Executive Service

Sue Engelhardt Director of Human Resources, Headquarters U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Dr. Reginald Wells Chief Human Capital O!icer Social Security Administration

Dr. Karlease Kelly Deputy Chief Human Capital O!icer U.S. Department of Agriculture O!ice of Human Resources Management

Additional Contributors

Dan Riordan Human Capital O!icer Internal Revenue Service

4The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Recruitment, development and retention are the greatest challenges facing government HR managers.

In a trend that has been in motion over the past several years, agencies are increasingly committed to bringing fresh talent into their ranks, then identifying and training those with the highest potential. As key leadership personnel ages out of the workforce, it’s more necessary than ever to accelerate the intake of workers who can succeed high-ranking roles.

“I think you have to work with individuals to find out what their interests are so that you can see where the gaps in their knowledge exist and then work around those, and if you don’t have the expertise to help fill it out, and I certainly didn’t have it for everything, you begin to tap into other resources in the organization who know more about these topics than you do to begin to help them. You also begin to expose these individuals to working groups, committees and senior sta! meetings. For example, bringing them to meetings with the Secretary or the Deputy Secretary, so they begin to see how the culture works and how the organization functions at that level. I think those kinds of opportunities, where they may not be recurring every week or every month, really gives talent a chance to see how the organizational leadership interacts.” - Ralph Charlip

Employee dedication to their roles continues to be strong, even in the midst of a charged election year.

One of the most resilient aspects of the government workforce is their level of dedication to their roles, with public responsibility driving a culture of excellence in the majority of agencies. This holds true, even as the nation prepares for a highly dynamic election cycle.

“It’s my view that one of the beauties of public sector workforces is that they go into their work understanding that our democracy

actually depends on these changes periodically every four years and that there’s going to be a transition we have to manage. I think most public sector employees, whether they are federal, state or local, really want to serve whomever the people elect to be our political leadership. I don’t think it being an election year is really going to have any e!ect on morale. I think at the individual level, quite frankly, there maybe individuals who are more partisan than others and can’t keep their emotions out of it, but I think most of us want good government, and want to serve whomever the people identified as our leaders for that period of time.” – Dr. Reginald Wells

The challenge that faces human capital managers is how to leverage the dedication of the government workforce to create an engaging environment that promotes leaders.

Easier said than done on tight budgets and with competition from the private sector, the sense of purpose and commitment to excellence within the government is the X-factor that must be woven into their retention and recruitment strategies.

“The challenges we face are similar to those facing other Federal agencies. We have a large, geographically dispersed workforce, there is always some uncertainty in our environment, and our resources are limited. But, we have a very compelling mission that is attractive and motivating to our employees. We have made a lot of progress with employee engagement at USDA in the face of these and other challenges. Over the past two years, we have improved in the Best Places to Work Rankings by 5 places – from 16th to 11th place out of 19 large agencies. Although we do not have a measure that specifically relates to morale, we know from the results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, that the morale of our workforce is high. We want to build on our progress and the positive momentum we have achieved to continue our successes by emphasizing performance management, work life balance, employee development and communication.” - Dr. Karlease Kelly

Key Findings

5The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Research Analysis

Human capital managers within the government have two clear standout priorities going into 2016; recruiting, then identifying and training the next generation of leadership within their agencies.This year, bringing new talent into organizations that are experiencing a wave of retirements is the most pressing challenge, with 55% of human capital managers placing it as their number one priority. Compared to last year’s top priority, leadership development, it seems that the majority of government human capital managers are now moving to develop their recruitment strategies with a growing sense of urgency. Next, identifying and closing skill gaps is the top priority of 51%, and the second of another 30%. The most common secondary priority is training and development for all sta!, which 45% of human capital mangers are emphasizing in the coming year. While the most common third priority is succession planning, identifying and retaining top performers is the runner up as both a secondary and tertiary goal. Agencies need talent now in order to build a pipeline to fill leadership positions, and while attracting this talent is still the number one priority in the majority of cases, applying training and development in order to retain them and make them e!ective is a close secondary goal.

“With an average age of 49, the USACE workforce possesses a significant amount of organizational knowledge that is critical for the day-to-day functioning of the Corps and the achievement of long-term goals. We have several programs in place to address e!ective knowledge transfer. The Rehired Annuitant Cadre Program requires rehired annuitants to mentor permanent employees to facilitate knowledge transfer and retention. Mentoring plays a critical role in our employees’ overall development, so incorporating mentoring in all of our professional development programs (Leadership Development, Emerging Leaders Program) allows junior employees to have the opportunity to work with senior leaders. The Leadership Development Programs include a mentoring aspect where participants are assigned a mentor throughout the entire program. The Emerging Leaders are assigned a Senior Leader sponsor during a senior-leader governance meeting and they shadow the 2 tier SES or 2 Star General throughout the governance meeting.” - Sue Engelhardt

The imperative to identify and develop new talent

2% 2% 6% 17% 2% 3%

4% 4%2%

9%

2%

8%4% 2%

8%

13%

4%

0%

23%30%

13% 26% 45%

36%

12%11%

54%

18%

31%

42%

55% 51% 17% 17% 16% 11%

Recruiting

People with the

Right Skills

Identifying/

Closing Skills

Gaps

Succession

Planning

Annual

Performance

Reviews

Training and

Development

for All Sta!

Identifying/

Retaining Top

Performers

1 3 2 4 5 6

What are your organization’s top three talent management priorities for 2016?

6The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Forty-two percent of human capital managers place leadership development as the greatest need for internal development within their organizations. Succession planning and continuous learning and development together account for a combined 44%, indicating just how important replacing leaders leaving the workforce has become. Lastly, 14% place emphasis on training their workforce in the use of new technology. Replacing systems to make the workplace more secure and e!icient can create gaps in e!iciency, but ultimately without strong leadership, productivity will su!er in even the most advanced working environment.

42% Leadership Development

22% Continuous Learning and Development

22% Succession Planning

14% Use of Technology and Applications

Where do you see the greatest need for sta! development within your organization?

42%

22%

22%

14%

“There are several things that we do in our organization to build employee engagement, which are not necessarily limited to us, but I found have worked for me over the years. I have an all-hands meeting with all of the employees in our organization once a quarter. These include steps I happened to pick up when I came to the CDC back in 2005, and they are practiced throughout the CDC. Doing this type of a meeting, you get all the employees together and you give them a directive from the top leadership. I find it works because it gives me an opportunity as a senior leader to talk directly to employees, for them to interact, and ask me questions directly. Every time I come to a new organization, I’ll also have what I call

“skip-level meetings.” That means you skip levels down into the organization. I might be the director but I also meet with frontline employees. I did that the first two years I was here and met with every employee on a rotating basis throughout the organization during that first two years, to really hear from them their stories and to find out what’s important so that I can make critical decisions and be informed. I also have monthly mentoring meetings that I o!er to all the employees here in the organization, as well as employees across CDC. I call them mentoring circles and that is where once a month, I get together with employees within my organization and outside of the organization and I bring in guest speakers, sometimes I’m the guest speaker.”- Reginald Mebane

A combined 44% of managers prioritize succession planning and continuous learning and development

7The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

As Millennials come into their own in the workforce, they are the generation that will come to make up the largest share within the next decade. With the so-called “silver tsunami” of Boomer retirees as the backdrop, most agencies have woken to the need to create strategies that are tailored to the very di!erent mediums and habits with which these potential hires communicate. Growing 3% over last year, currently 27% of agencies are actively engaged in Millennial outreach, with another 29% actively involved in rolling out a strategy that can position their agencies in front of qualified talent.

Bringing the Millennial generation into the workforce

44% No, not at this time

29% Not implemented yet, but we are working on this

27% Yes, strategy(s) is being implemented

Do you have a strategy in place geared toward Millennial recruitment?

44%

29%

27%

“The Millennials represent a key focus for us. Diversity and inclusion is very important to us, as well. So one thing we do is reach out to the land grant institutions where they are teaching courses of study that are important to our mission, including the Historically Black Colleges and the Tribal Colleges and Universities for our outreach and recruitment. We conduct recruiting events in conjunction with strategic student conferences. We conduct summer boot camps that expose high school and middle school students to our work and our mission. We also offer a variety of ways for students to gain work experience as part of our recruiting, including the summer employment program for high school students, the Pathways Program that leads to a permanent position at USDA, fellowship programs, and volunteer opportunities. We also have positions that are available to recent graduates to give them a path into Federal service at USDA. For the interns that are on board with us, we conduct listening sessions to gather input from them about how we can improve the workplace, and let them know their ideas and opinions are important.”

- Dr. Karlease Kelly

3% more agencies are actively recruiting Millennials since 2015

8The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Among agencies that are actively engaging in Millennial outreach, the most prevalent channel they are using is social media, which plays a part in 76% of outreach programs, up from 60% in 2015. Perhaps the defining trait of the Millennial generation, the integration of social media and mobile devices into their daily routines allows agencies to reach candidates on a one-to-one level. Currently, 62% of agencies use internships to bring interested Millennials into the workforce, one of the strongest ways to not only capture the attention and interest of Millennial talent, but to actively train them and demonstrate a trajectory that can lead them into a career in government service. Another 60% are beginning to implement more sophisticated targeted marketing techniques in order to get the word out, including on-campus outreach as well as mobile messaging. More traditional career fairs still play a role for just over half (51%) of agencies, allowing them to actively educate potential hires and interns on the role of their agencies. Forty-one percent of agencies use internal referrals as a means to fill their pipelines, an important tactic in any business, with particular utility in agency scenarios where the nature of the work demands specific skillsets.

Significant investments have been made in Millennial engagement through groups like the Young Professionals Network. YPN is CDC’s only employee organization solely focused on the needs of early career professionals. The mission of CDC’s Young Professionals Network is to unite CDC’s young professionals through professional and personal development opportunities. We also utilize social media outreach channels like Yammer, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram to feed their interest in public health opportunities at CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. One great example of this is the revamped http://jobs.cdc.gov/ website. In our key pipeline program, Public Health Associate Program, we amped up communication so our high potential candidates remain engaged throughout the long recruitment and onboarding process. Even before they are selected and hired, we let them know

provide multiple opportunities to touch base with program managers, mentoring/talk-back circles, and created a portal where they can hear stories from their peers and their projects. – Reginald Mebane

76% of agencies currently recruit through social media

If you do have a Millennial recruitment strategy, which of these strategies are you implementing?

76%

62%

51%

30%

60%

41%

24%

76% Social Media

62% Internships

51% Career Fairs

30% Alumni Mentoring

60% Targeted Marketing (i.e. on campus, mobile)

41% Internal Referrals

24% Onsite Event

9The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Once Millennials are brought into the workforce, integrating them into new environments and developing their skills is critical in order to build their e!ectiveness, as well as retain them. While over half (53%) of agencies don’t have any programs in place specifically geared to develop the Millennials in their ranks, 30% are in the process of actively creating development programs that can help smooth their integration into the workforce. Seventeen percent of agencies on the leading edge have already created strategies to develop the youngest generation in the workforce. Given Millennials’ desire to feel like they are making a di!erence, craving advancement opportunity, and interested in jobs that they can feel passionate about, actively encouraging and guiding their development can bring out the highest potential in these new workers.

“From an IRS perspective, we have had and continue to have constraints in terms of being able to hire sta! that we need to continue to fulfill our mission to all of our tax payers. I really think that even though our situation here may be a little bit more acute than in some other agencies, I do think that there’s a huge concern about making sure that we have the talent in place and making sure that we have the critical skillsets in place to do that work several years out as our maturing workforce continues to exit from federal government. I think that’s one of the key challenges that we face, specifically. We’re able to do a lot in terms of leadership and management succession planning. At the IRS, we have maintained a steadfast commitment to continue to train all of our managers, whether they are aspiring or whether they’re at the frontline or further up in terms of executive development. We’ve continued to manage the care and feeding of those key programs. We have a robust succession-planning database for management. I think we’re in fairly good shape from a bench-strength perspective but, again, it’s been something that we’ve continued to work on over the last several years. However, when you cannot hire externally, really what you’re doing to fulfill higher level positions is hire from within, which is great because our workforce is able to continue to have some access to other opportunities in the organization but at the same time, it starts to get thin in some of the real critical frontline positions.” – Dan Riordan

17% of agencies are actively engaged in Millennial development

53% No, not at this time

30% Not implemented yet, but we are working on this

17% Yes, strategy(s) is being implemented

Do you have a strategy in place geared toward Millennial development?

53%30%

17%

10The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

While many agencies have been operating on a limited budget for the past several years, this year has seen modest increases for many, as well as an earlier approval of working budgets allowing leaders more time and resources to cra" strategic plans. Investments are being made that conform to the triple emphasis on building a recruitment pipeline, training hires, and then promoting the best-in-class to leadership positions where they can aggregate organizational knowledge which might otherwise be lost. Sixty-eight percent of human capital managers are investing in training and development for all of their sta!, 66% are putting resources into recruitment, and 58% have placed an emphasis on the retention of the brightest stars in their workforce. This is a slight realignment from last year, with training and development for all sta! and recruitment exchanging first and second place. However, retention, which was not in the top three last year, has risen as a priority to complement successful recruitment e!orts. Adding to these e!orts, 30% of managers are considering the addition of annual performance reviews, with another 29% prioritizing continuous feedback. These programs serve to cement the progress made through job skill and leadership trainings, and create a culture of engagement within the agency where work is recognized and rewarded.

“We’re doing so much around culture right now. We actually set out last year specifically to focus on engagement and organizational improvement, and taking our lead from our Commissioner, we are looking at this as a marathon. It’s not a sprint, so we really have begun to foster at all levels of the organization a much greater awareness of the direction that we want to move in and the themes around that. Our number one priority is to listen to our employees, hear their ideas, and do everything we can to increase communication throughout the organization both up and down. We’re going to continue to develop our employees. Last year, we delivered about 4.5 million hours of training to our workforce. We’re on target to deliver a similar number of hours of training this year. We want to take care of the workforce that we have. We want to continue to prepare them for all of the complexities that are inherent in tax administration. We’re going to also lead. We have been developing a focus on leadership, and if you look at our Employee Viewpoint Survey results, even though there was general overall decline last year, we saw some real positive signs because of the investment we continue to make in our leadership programs.”

- Dan Riordan

Investing in programs that make a di!erence

Training and

development for

all sta!

Recruiting people

with the right skills

for the job

Identifying/

retaining top

performers

Delivering

Developmental

Programs for

High Potential

Employess

Identifying/

Closing skills gapContinuous

feedback

Annual

performance

reviews

Yes-working on it now Maybe-considering in

next 24 months

Yes-but reducing current investment

No-not at this time

Is your agency currently investing in projects related to any of the initiatives below?

68% 66% 58% 45% 45% 40% 40%

11%10%

15%

18%23%

29% 30%

10% 14% 21% 30% 21% 25% 23%

10%11%

4%

4%11% 5%

5%

11The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Currently, the most successful initiatives in place within government agencies are those pertaining to the training and development of all sta!, where 15% report excellent performance, and another 36% feel they are currently successful. This reflects that within many agencies, there is a strong culture of dedication and will to get the job done. Employees in functions of critical importance to the government take their roles seriously, and for this reason training has always been essential. Though 15% of human capital managers feel that they are very successful at identifying and retaining their top performers, 34% are lukewarm in their e!orts, with a further 29% who are either unsuccessful or performing under par. Continuous feedback stands out as an area where the majority of agencies are performing with only modest success. Thirty-six percent are somewhat successful, with another 33% who are not very successful, and lastly 14% reported that they were unsuccessful, the highest share of any initiative. These results are similar to last year, where 15% were unsuccessful and 35% not very successful, indicating that progress in this area is slow. Given the high importance on bringing new talent into the organization and training skills that are essential for operational continuity, creating a framework of feedback can quickly become a tertiary priority. However, it’s still critical to ensure that positive e!orts are noticed, and provide a venue to identify and motivate leadership candidates.

“I think the way to identify leaders di!ers by organization. You have to appreciate organizational culture first and foremost. My experiences in four federal agencies, civilian agencies, plus my active duty time while I was in the Air Force, taught me the value of culture and the fact that you might be very successful as a leader in one culture, while another culture is completely di!erent and you’re not going to be successful. For example, I worked in healthcare, and healthcare is a pretty dynamic team-oriented environment; people’s lives are at stake, continuous learning is very important both on a personal as well as on an organizational level. Continuous improvement is essential because you always want to have the best ways to treat patients and save lives, and there’s a speed about that, it’s a high-risk, high-paced, high-speed, kind of thing. Then I went to work for the Department of Interior at one point, and Interior is about land, and land doesn’t change in your lifetime other than volcanoes, earthquakes and hurricanes. It’s very slow, and the people in Interior want to study things, and they want to take their time and be very deliberate and review things, through peer review and other sorts of processes. If you are a high-paced executive or high-paced individual, coming from the DOD environment, for example, or a healthcare environment, and you come into a much slower-paced, much more collaborative, much more deliberate sort of environment, then culture can be a real shock for you and the people around you.”

- Ralph Charlip

Identifying/

retaining top

performers

Training and

development

for all sta!

Recruiting people

with the right

skills for the job

Continous

feedback

Identifying/

Closing skills gaps

Annual

performance

reviews

Very Successful Successful Somewhat Successful

Not Very Successful Unsuccessful

How do you feel your current agency performance ranks on the following initiatives?

15% 15% 14% 7% 7% 5%

22% 36% 26%11%

18% 26%

34%

30%

48%

36%48%

36%

19%

10%10%

33%

19%23%

10% 7% 3% 14% 8% 10%

12The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Job satisfaction, employee engagement and the creation of a results-based performance culture are the metrics around which government agencies are experiencing the strongest performance, in continuation of a year-over-year trend. Engagement in particular boasts both the highest percentage of very successful agencies (10%), as well as among the lowest of those who are either not very successful (12%) or unsuccessful (5%). The lowest performers in the category have been reduced by roughly half since 2015, when 10% were unsuccessful and 30% were not very successful. Both job satisfaction and results-based culture are successful initiatives within 36% of agencies as well, reflecting the fact that government employees are commonly very dedicated to their roles, with an understanding that they are serving the public adding to the strength of their commitments. These results reflect the strongest performers from 2015, which were a results-oriented culture, job satisfaction, and leadership and knowledge management, in that order, with improving engagement metrics having now pushed into the top three. Conversely, change management, recruitment of Millennials, and succession planning are the worst performing metrics, with the bulk of agencies characterizing their levels of success as somewhat successful or below. Particularly alarming, 12% of agencies characterized their succession planning as unsuccessful, just a 6% reduction from last year, highlighting an area that le" unaddressed can have dire consequences when key leadership positions are vacated.

We put a lot of emphasis on leadership development as I think you’ll see in a lot of literature and in our testimonials. We believe it’s important to develop people’s emotional intelligence as they are leading and moving up the leadership ladder: it isn’t that old question of whether leaders are born or made. We believe it’s a bit of both. I think, and probably, if I were giving an edge to one or the other, it would be toward making leaders because you really have to go through certain experiences in order to know how to lead well under various situations. You have to have the latest training, and now we even have neuroscience on how employees experience their workplace and those in it. We’re drawing a lot of information from what’s being discovered and promoted through neuroscience research. It really is a work in progress, I think, and we try to put a lot of attention on developing our pipeline of leaders and identifying those folks as early in their careers as possible to think about and perhaps commit to leadership as a career path.” – Dr. Reginald Wells

Change

Management

Succession

Planning

Results-Oriented

Performance

Culture

Recruitment of

Millenials

Leadership and

Knowledge

Management

Job Satisfaction

Employee

Engagement

Very Successful

Successful

Somewhat Successful

Not Very Successful

Unsuccessful

How do you feel your agency ranks on the following metrics?

While it’s clear that developing talent and bringing new candidates into the organization are challenges for federal agencies, budget constraints mean that increasing investments in programs is not always an option, and this is reflected in the 65% of agencies that are keeping the same level of investment going from 2015 into 2016. However, 27% are now increasing the investments they are making in their programs, reacting to the increasing pressure created by the retirement of the Boomer generation, as well as the need for talent on all levels of organizations to internalize the knowledge and mentorship of their counterparts.

65% Same Investment in 2015-2016

27% Yes, we are increasing our investment

8% No, we’re reducing our investment

Are you planning on increasing your investment in talent management programs and procedures initiatives in 2015-2016 relative to 2014-2015?

65%27%

8%

4% 5% 5% 6% 6% 7% 10%

15% 14% 36% 22% 32% 36%27%

44% 38%

34%

33%

35%43%

45%

26%30%

18%

31%

19%

11% 12%

11% 12% 7% 8% 8% 3% 5%

13The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Within the government, the average human capital program is functional, yet not operating at an optimal level. Fi"y-four percent of human capital managers feel their overall performance is falling short of where they should be by a reasonable margin. Those who are on par, as well as those who are underperforming take almost equal shares of the response. Twenty-one percent of human capital managers are in line with expectations, while 22% are drastically behind what is acceptable in the management of their programs. Lastly, just 3% of agencies have exceeded the performance levels they require, operating in an environment that outperforms against expectations.

“The Corps has placed significant emphasis on employee engagement in the last few years. Our Commanding General has made this a top priority; identifying USACE entering the Top 100 Best Places to Work (BPTW) rankings by 2016 as an organizational goal. The results of this organizational focus have translated into clear results – an increase to #111 in the 2015 BPTW rankings (increase of 38 spots over 2014 and 68 spots since 2012) and achievement of the President’s goal to reach a 67% employee engagement score on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. However, this success presents the unique challenge of how to build upon these early achievements. To combat organizational feelings of employee engagement ‘fatigue’ and ‘mission accomplished,’ senior leaders continue to cement employee engagement as part of USACE culture. Emerging leader-led focus groups, brown-bag lunches, innovation groups and town-hall meetings are but a few of the ongoing initiatives to engage employees in two-way communications with senior leaders.

– Sue Engelhardt

Rewarding current and future performance

When evaluating your current talent management programs and procedures in place at your organization, how do you feel what you have in place today compares to where you need it to be?

54% Where I currently am is somewhat short of where I need to be

21% Where I currently am is in line with where I need to be

3% Where I currently am is ahead of where I need to be/goes beyond my current needs

22% Where I currently am falls incredibly short of where I need to be

54%21%

3%

22%

14The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

How are agencies creating action in order to raise their performance and engagement? For the majority, the ability to directly influence employee performance and retention through monetary reward has not been a reliable option, with budget constraints creating a reality wherein non-monetary recognition and flexibility are among the most prevalent tools for building positive environments. This is visible in the 88% of agencies that have already implemented teleworking options, and the 80% that are pursing non-monetary recognition programs. Three-quarters of agencies have implemented work-life balance programs, with increased training closely following. What’s become clear is that in environments where time and flexible budgets are not a given, and the nature of the work o"en complex, investing in the employee experience and empowering them with skills are two vital components of creating engagement

“When I’m talking to people, when I’m going out or I’m giving a speech or presentation, when I meet people in the field, I make myself available to become a mentor to them and I’ve done that all my management career, both in the private sector and in the federal government. So, if you look at my calendar, you’d be able to see on a monthly basis, I’m consistently meeting with people, not just people in my organization but people that worked in my organization and sometimes from other federal agencies or organizations. To me, mentoring is a way of life. We have a mentoring circle that I conduct, and the theme is ‘mentoring is a way of life.’ It’s not just something that you do just because you are obligated to do it as a leader. It’s something that you believe in and you do consistently. You don’t even have to think about it. And so, I mentor people and reach out to them and I see those potential candidates and make myself available to them.”

– Reginald Mebane

88% of agencies have implemented teleworking and flexible workplace options

Which of the following has your organization implemented/plans to implement to improve and increase employee engagement and motivation within your organization?

Teleworking/Workplace

Flexibilities

Non-Monetary

Recognition

Work/Life

Programs

Increase training and

employee resources

Salary

Adjustments

Mentorship

Programs

Rotations

Has implemented in the past 12 months

Plans to implement in the next 12 months

13% 20% 25% 30% 39% 39% 48%

88%

80%75%

70%

61% 61%

52%

15The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Don’t underestimate the value of mentorship.Some of the greatest leadership success stories come as a result of direct engagement with promising employees. The extra attention and development of a mentor relationship can help agencies to rapidly build the skillsets of emerging leaders, as well as increase their engagement. Mentoring can be ad-hoc or formalized, but taking the time to individually foster relationships is a powerful technique that can be applied in any agency environment.

Strive for consistency in engagement techniques. While many agencies are reporting success in areas related to training and skill development, they are also admitting a need for improvement around continuous feedback and the development of strategies for areas that include Millennial outreach. Creating recurring events for employee recognition and following up on trainings allow for the value of these exercises to be extended.

When monetary recognition is not an option, explore other work-life balance or recognition-based rewards.Balancing agency budgets can be di!icult, and with the highest priority investments being placed in expanding recruitment pipelines and providing employee training, increased salary is o"en not an option for compensating high-performing employees. For this reason, o!ering options like teleworking or flexible hours are popular solutions. Similarly, recognition-based employee awards are embraced by many agencies as a way to highlight outstanding performance and create engagement with little to no cost to the organization.

Key Recommendations

16The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

Appendix B: Demographic InformationInterviews with guest contributors were conducted a"er HCMG benchmark survey data was compiled, and centered on discussion of HCMG Survey results for 2016.

12% Training & Development

6% Recruitment

33% Human Resources

28% Other

21% Organizational Planning

64% Federal

17% Defense/Military

19% Other (please specify)

Appendix A: MethodologyThe results analyzed in this report were gathered from responses to an on-site benchmarking survey delivered at HCMG 2015. Seventy-seven government executives responded to the survey, with representation by both Federal and Defense agencies. Interviews with sources were conducted a"er survey data was compiled and centered on discussion of HCMG’s benchmark survey results.

What is your primary job function within your organization?

In which sector does your organization belong?

64%17%

19%

33% 21%

12%6%

28%

Appendices

17The 2016 Human Capital Management Report

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