"The 7,000 members of the Senior Executive Service are dedicated, hard-working public servants," said Lachance. "OPMs proposed regulations streamline the systems used to evaluate them and set the stage for rewarding those executives who deliver for the American people."

The proposed regulations would help agencies hold executives accountable by:

• Increasing agency flexibility to tailor performance management systems to their unique missions and organizational climate;
• Reinforcing the link between performance management and strategic planning;
• Requiring agencies to use "balanced measures" in evaluating executive performance.

Balanced measures means an approach to performance measurement that balances organizational results with the perspectives of distinct groups, including customers and employees. Many private and public organizations have found that using balanced measurements creates high-performance organizations.

Said Lachance: "By institutionalizing the use of balanced measures, we acknowledge what our best executives have always known: leading people and building customer coalitions are the foundation of organizational success."

The proposed regulations can be accessed through OPMs web site at http://www.opm.gov. All stakeholders, but particularly SES members, are encouraged to use the 60-day comment period to share their views on the proposal.

Web page created 21 June 2000