U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

2007 Presidential Award for Management Excellence

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Strategic Management of Human Capital
Governmentwide Management Initiative

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a public health regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), protects consumers by ensuring meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, wholesome, and accurately labeled.  FSIS performs its mission by administering and enforcing the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA), and the regulations that implement these laws. 

FSIS exhibited outstanding leadership and excellence in advancing the President's Management Agenda in the area of Strategic Management of Human Capital.  FSIS's dedication and hard work resulted in an innovative design of a new Public Health Human Resources System (PHHRS), with flexibilities and enhancements that were precedent-setting for the Agency and USDA.  The PHHRS has increased agency human capital and mission effectiveness while saving money. 

To help address the agency's under-representation human capital needs, FSIS revitalized its recruiter training program, selecting 100 current employees to perform recruitment on a collateral duty basis.  The agency's recruitment program now includes visits to 51 colleges and universities, including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions.  The team has succeeded in establishing the first four formal recruitment partnerships with such institutions. 

Another highlight of FSIS was their telework and alternative work schedules success.  By changing its strategy from permitting telework to encouraging telework, FSIS was successful in increasing telework participation from 340 employees to more than 600 in less than 1 year.  FSIS also has increased the use of alternative work schedules in the last year, implementing the Maxiflex Work Schedule option in 5 program offices.

FSIS took the initiative to seek USDA approval to test its new performance management model.  As a result, FSIS was the first USDA agency, and one of the first Federal agencies, to achieve the U.S. Office of Personnel Management approval for having a validated and credible performance management program.  The FSIS performance management system now serves as a model for other USDA agencies.  Finally, FSIS designed a human resources system with pay-for-performance flexibilities and enhancements that are precedent-setting not only for FSIS but also for the Department of Agriculture.

As a result of the enhancements made to the performance management system, FSIS has the support to move forward towards a pay for performance demonstration project.