 |
The President's Management Agenda Items |
 |
|
|
|
|
Quick Links |
|
|
|
|
"We are using President Bush's guidance
— Implementing Government Reform — as a blueprint for DOL."
-Secretary of Labor Elaine L.
Chao
The Department of Labor (DOL) continues to heed the call of President George W. Bush that "Government should be results-oriented — guided not by process but guided by performance." The President's Management Agenda is an aggressive strategy for improving the management of the Federal government. It focuses on five government-wide areas of management weakness where the greatest improvements can be made: Strategic Management of Human Capital; Commercial Services Management; Improved Financial Performance; Expanded E-Government; and Performance Improvement Initiative. DOL is also among selected Cabinet agencies with Agenda responsibilities related to Faith-based and Community-based initiatives, Federal Real Property Asset Management, and Eliminating Improper Payments. As highlighted in each of the summaries below, the Department of Labor continues to make solid progress in implementing the President's Management Agenda.
OMB assesses agency status and progress on a case by case basis against the deliverables and time lines established for the five initiatives as follows:
Green: Implementation is proceeding according to plans agreed upon with the agencies;
Yellow: Some slippage or other issues requiring adjustment by the agency in order to achieve the initiative objectives on a timely basis; and
Red: Initiative in serious jeopardy. Unlikely to realize objectives absent significant management intervention.
 |
To review Executive Branch management scorecards and learn more about the President's Management Agenda, visit
results.gov. |
Quick Facts:
- DOL currently maintains a Green rating for all five government-wide PMA initiatives and the three agency-specific initiatives.
- The Department has received four President's Quality Awards in recognition for its outstanding achievements in implementing the President's Management Agenda:
- Strategic Management of Human Capital (FY 2004)
- Budget and Performance Integration (FY 2004)
- Overall Management (FY 2005)
- E-Government (FY 2006)
The Federal government can secure greater services at lower cost through electronic government (E-government), and can meet high public demand for E-government services. President Bush's goal is to champion citizen-centered electronic government.
Quick Facts: DOL accomplishments related to Expanded Electronic Government include:
- Working with OMB, the Department established the federal government's first centralized IT Crosscut Fund beginning in FY 2001. This fund provides a coordinated investment strategy and results in a sound, DOL-wide approach to the management of information technology resources.
- DOL was the first Federal agency to fully integrate its own recruitment system with USAJOBS. DOORS — the DOL Online Opportunities Recruitment System — streamlined business processes by converting a paper-based process to an electronic system and reducing the percentage of jobs using ranking panels and application processing costs.
- DOL implemented the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) component of the e-Clearance initiative in August, 2006. This system allows new employees to complete the previously paper-based OPM Questionnaires SF-86, SF-85, and SF-85P online — significantly reducing processing times.
- E-Procurment provides DOL employees with modern, integrated procurement automation tools and streamlined processes. This system lowers the cost of goods and services; reduces transaction costs and cycle times of procurement actions; and provides accurate, real-time procurement-related information that management can use to make strategic decisions in sourcing activities.
- DOL is among the front-runners across the Federal government in the implementation of HSPD-12 policy for a common identification standard for Federal employees and contractors. This mandate provides a uniform, secure and reliable form of identification and related standards across the Federal government.
Under the President's Management Agenda, agencies are instructed to pursue several goals related to the management of human capital. These include: recruiting talented and imaginative people to public service, establishing a meaningful system to measure performance, creating awards for employees who surpass expectations and tying pay increases to results. The Department of Labor is implementing this system of rewards and accountability to promote a culture of achievement.
Quick Facts: DOL accomplishments related to the Strategic Management of Human Capital include:
- Established the Office of Workforce Planning and Diversity to provide a central clearinghouse for President's Management Agenda Initiatives on human capital.
- Revised performance management system for executives, managers, and supervisors to operate under a more results oriented performance plan.
- Negotiated new labor agreement with the National Council of Field Labor Locals and Local 12.
- Obtained voluntary early retirement authority from the Office of Personnel Management for Departmental employees.
- Launched Secretary Chao's MBA Fellows Program initiative in 2002, which seeks potential leaders who demonstrate competency in the areas of strategic thinking, quantitative analysis, program management, and marketing.
- Developed linkages with 350 business schools to publicize the MBA Outreach Program and conducted on-site recruitment activities at schools that support the MBA Outreach Program.
Financial accountability is a cornerstone of the President's Management Agenda. Government must set an example by keeping its books in order.
Quick Facts:
- The Department of Labor earned its eleventh consecutive "clean" audit opinion on its FY 2007 consolidated financial statements. Receipt of a clean opinion on the financial audit of an agency's accounting books is a hallmark of strong fiscal controls.
- In addition, the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) awarded the Department with the prestigious Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting (CEAR) for the eighth year in a row.
The overriding theme of this program is that the Federal government should not compete with the competitive private sector for the provision of commercial goods and services needed by the American public.
Quick Facts: DOL accomplishments related to Commercial Services Management include:
- In the area of commercial services management, the Department utilized business process reengineering and other approaches to achieve performance improvement and increased efficiencies in nearly 30 functional areas from FY 2004 through FY 2007 resulting in $67 million in cost savings/cost avoidance.
When the PMA's Budget and Performance Integration (BPI) initiative was launched in the summer of 2001, it reinforced the need to meet the requirement of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) — which called for integration of performance information and budget formulation and documentation. Over the next five years, BPI led to the establishment of structures and mechanisms to achieve this goal — but more importantly, it led to a cultural shift in how government agencies informed the budget through robust performance analysis and improvement strategies.
Having accomplished much of the mechanics for BPI, in 2007, the initiative was renamed the Performance Improvement Initiative to advance program performance outcomes resulting from the improved budget decision-making process.
Quick Facts:
- DOL's Performance and Accountability Report (PAR) has been ranked #1 or #2 in each of the last six years by the George Mason University Mercatus Center, including four consecutive #1 rankings for DOL's 2002 — 2005 reports. Mercatus rated DOL's 2007 PAR Highlights Report as the best in government.
- For the FY 2007 ratings, Mercatus singled out DOL for the quality of our Highlights document, "the best of all in our view... is clearly written and exceptionally concise given the amount of substantive content it conveys." These accolades are a testament to the Department's reporting quality in providing transparency in our disclosure of successes and failures; documenting the tangible public benefits, and demonstrating leadership in using our annual performance information to devise strategies for improvement.
The goal of DOL's implementation of the Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) is to tap into the unique work of local faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) to help more Americans overcome barriers to employment, find jobs, and stay employed. Over the past seven years, DOL has removed barriers to foster collaboration between effective FBCOs and the public workforce system.
Quick Facts:
- Since 2006, CFBCI, in partnership with ETA, has implemented the President's Prisoner Reentry Initiative — enrolling more than 12,890 participants, helping 8,082 ex-prisoners find work, and lowering the participant recidivism rate to 15 percent, which is less than half the Justice Department's national benchmark.
- From 2002 to 2007, ETA and CFBCI developed the Grassroots Grants program, dedicating $10.9 million Federal dollars to 247 grassroots FBCOs in 42 states to serve more than 37,700 hard-to-serve individuals, including placing 15,376 of those individuals in jobs.
- Since 2001, the Veterans' Employment Training Service's Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program has awarded grants to FBCOs in 32 states. Those FBCO grant sites have enrolled 81,000 homeless veterans in services, placed 48,408 in transitional or permanent housing, and placed 52,660 in jobs.
- Since 2001, efforts supported by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, have withdrawn or prevented more than one million children around the world from exploitive child labor, largely through the work of international and nonprofit organizations, including indigenous community and faith-based groups.
| |
|
