This text file was formatted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to be accessible to users with visual impairments, as part of a longer term project to improve GAO products' accessibility. Every attempt has been made to maintain the structural and data integrity of the original printed product. Accessibility features, such as alternative text descriptions for graphic images, are provided but may not exactly duplicate the presentation or format of the printed version. The portable document format (PDF) file is an exact electronic replica of the printed version. We welcome your feedback. Please E-mail your comments regarding the contents or accessibility features of this document to Webmaster@gao.gov. Strategic Objective: Become the Professional Services Employer of Choice. Issue: To be a model organization, GAO hopes to build and maintain a diverse work environment that is conducive to performance excellence; encourages full participation by the workforce; and supports personal, professional, and organizational growth. GAO wants to be regarded as an employer of choice; one that recruits and retains excellent employees, and is considered one of the best places to work. The agency is committed to treating all employees fairly, respecting their diversity, and valuing their contributions. GAO's human capital initiatives should enable employees to develop and use their full potential, as aligned with agency objectives. Performance Goals: To become the professional services employer of choice, GAO will: * maintain an environment that is fair, unbiased, family-friendly, and promotes and values opportunity and inclusiveness; * improve compensation and performance management systems; * develop and implement a training and professional development strategy targeted toward competencies; and * provide GAO's people with tools, technology, and a working environment that is world-class. Employer of Choice: Maintain an Environment that Is Fair, Unbiased, Family-Friendly, and Promotes and Values Opportunity and Inclusiveness. Key Efforts: * Develop, implement, and evaluate a strategy to recruit a broad spectrum of candidates for employment so as to maximize GAO's ability to attract the highest quality workforce, * Develop a strategy to identify and eliminate artificial barriers to a full contribution by all GAO employees to the mission of the agency, * Monitor and recommend changes, as appropriate, to the compensation and performance management systems to ensure they are fair and unbiased and promote workplace excellence, * Establish an effective system for early and efficient resolution of employee concerns and complaints, * Assess GAO's human capital policies to ensure the inclusion of family- friendly practices and identify opportunities for improvement, * Assess how different workforce management tools and inclusiveness programs can be used to maximize results and incorporate those tools in GAO, where appropriate. Significance: GAO's goal is to provide a workplace climate in which staff believe they are valued and contributing to the organization's mission. GAO recognizes the importance of creating an environment in which diversity is valued and family-friendly policies exist to provide staff with flexibility in managing their work and personal demands. GAO's primary objective is to sustain an environment that is fair, unbiased, family- friendly, and that promotes and values opportunity and inclusiveness for all staff. GAO believes that continuous improvement in this area will enable the agency to recruit and retain a highly skilled, diverse, and capable staff. Potential Outcomes: Improved work environment that recognizes and appreciates diversity and is free of bias, Improved family-friendly policies that help staff balance work and family lives, A more productive workforce, Ability to recruit and retain a highly skilled, diverse, and capable staff maintained. Employer of Choice: Improve Compensation and Performance Management Systems. Key Efforts: * Finalize and implement a competency-based performance management system for analyst and analyst-related staff that will improve individual and team performance in support of the agency's core values, strategic plan, and performance goals, * Develop a new performance management system for attorneys and mission support staff modeled after the new analyst system, * Provide meaningful performance incentives, including recognition and reward programs, to support the agency's performance management systems, * Research and implement a comparable pay for performance system for mission support staff. Significance: GAO has recognized the need to upgrade and enhance its performance management systems to provide more honest and accurate assessments of staff performance. The agency has decided on a competency-based appraisal system linked closely to GAO's core values that will be fair, consistently applied, and transparent to staff. To this end, GAO has developed a competency-based appraisal system for GAO's analyst and analyst-related staff that will be implemented in fiscal year 2002. GAO's senior management will be making a decision on how to employ the appraisal system in making compensation decisions. The agency is beginning work to develop and implement similar systems for GAO's mission support and attorney populations. In addition, GAO is currently exploring alternative pay and compensation systems for its mission support staff. Further work is planned to review and assess the incentives reward program to better align the results with GAO's vision. Potential Outcomes: Enhanced appraisal system that is perceived as fair, consistently applied, and transparent, Better alignment of employees' performance to agency competencies, Productive employees who are fairly compensated for their work. Employer of Choice: Develop and Implement a Training and Professional Development Strategy Targeted toward Competencies. Key Efforts: * Redesign GAO's training and learning curriculum based on the 12 GAO- defined performance competencies for analyst and analyst-related positions, * Train GAO staff on the new competency-based performance management systems, * Refocus GAO's training strategy to identify and deliver commercially available training related to the competencies and limit internally developed learning opportunities to activities that are unique to GAO, * Institute a centrally funded external training program to develop select managers' and executives' competencies, * Determine the feasibility of and develop requirements for a Web-based learning management system to support competency-based, self-directed learning, including individual development plans and more e-learning options, * Identify best practices and new approaches to performance and learning and begin to restructure the training and learning function to more efficiently and effectively support those approaches. Significance: GAO aspires to be a learning organization that continuously develops its staff. The agency needs to equip its staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their work at the highest level of competency. GAO is currently at a pivotal point in determining the direction of staff training and development. In support of the agency's new competency-based appraisal system, it plans to focus its training and development initiatives in those core competency areas. Potential Outcomes: More effective and efficient methods for training and developing staff, A staff more fully trained and developed in support of GAO's competencies, A staff better equipped to perform the agency's work in serving the Congress. Employer of Choice: Provide Our People with Tools, Technology, and a Working Environment that Is World-Class. Key Efforts: * Provide reliable and modern technology, tools, and systems that balance wants, needs, and affordability and support a mobile flexible work environment, * Evaluate and realign space in the GAO headquarters to facilitate working relationships among staff, to provide a supportive physical environment, and to efficiently and effectively use space, * Complete the mission and mission support physical relocations in a way that minimizes disruption of work and maximizes quality of life, * Develop and implement, as appropriate, energy use strategies in the GAO headquarters to better control costs through strategic energy purchasing, efficient use, and implementation of current and emerging technologies, * Reengineer the property control process to improve control and decrease reconciliation requirements. Significance: GAO recognizes the importance of providing the best work environment, technology, and tools so that staff can effectively and efficiently perform their work. GAO recently underwent a major restructuring, whereby many staff were reassigned to new work units. To facilitate the best work environment, GAO needs to realign office space to better colocate work teams during the upcoming year. GAO also recognizes the need to upgrade and provide technical equipment and software that supports a mobile workforce. All of these efforts are directed at providing the tools and a comfortable work environment to help employees more effectively and efficiently accomplish their work, while maximizing the utilization of available workspace. Potential Outcomes: More efficient operation of the GAO headquarters, Improved working relationships among staff, Improved technology that supports a mobile workforce, A more productive workforce.