The administration and Congress need to fix the Senior Executive Service and help boost recruitment, retention, a number of former federal officials said.
The former officials gathered with current agency heads at the Brookings Institution’s Office of Executive Education symposium Nov. 19 to discuss the future of the SES and how to keep it strong for future generations of federal employees.
Former Defense Department Comptroller Bob Hale said in a conference call with reports after the symposium that he was concerned about the overall health of the SES in the midst of criticism from both Congress and the public. Too much criticism and pressure could drive away potential SES employees.
“What we ought to be losing some sleep over is that many of our most talented GS 14s and GS 15s may not aspire to be members of the SES. If that’s the case it’s not the very best and brightest who aspire then folks who just want to get promoted,” Hale said.
He said while Congress might not take up the issue soon it is important to highlight the issues with the SES for when the administration and lawmakers take up reform.
“They need to hear the message a number of times,” Hale said. I am not naive enough to think we are on the verge of major reform but persistence is key.”
Danny Werfel, former controller at the Office of Management and Budget and temporary head of the IRS, said there is a growing recognition of the critical importance of the problem that lawmakers and the administration must start addressing.
“We have a compelling need in the government to fix some structure and integral problems we have to our human capital, he said. “The SES needs to change how it pays and recruits its workers, and how those employees are guided into leadership positions, he added.
He said recent congressional action on items such as IT management and agency records management show there is some appetite in Congress to making small reforms.
Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe said the SES is an invaluable collective of extraordinary talent that rarely gets the kind of focus and attention it deserves. Instead there is now real concern about the constant attacks on the SES.
“It has become very fashionable to critique the quality of public service and those who provide public services, but when the criticism outweighs the good there are fewer and fewer people who want to step up to those kinds of challenges,” he said.
O’Keefe said during the end of a presidency and the beginning of another there is wide talk of government reforms, and current and former federal officials need to frame the benefit in a constructive way. If knowledgeable people don’t suggest solid ideas on how to improve the SES then it will just devolve into partisan bickering, he added.
“You can either have it be a productive debate or it can become another opportunity to flog the issue of the day,” O’Keefe said.
Former DoD management chief Elizabeth McGrath said the SES needs to be able to handle newer generations of federal employees moving into and then out of federal service, instead of staying in one position for an entire career.
She said the focus should be on better training for SES members and developing potential reform frameworks to help guide any reform discussion that emerges over the next few years.
“If we don’t shape the dialogue to be constructive and productive it will likely turn into a more negative conversation,” McGrath said.
