NAPA Releases Independent OPM Assessment
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) released a study report addressing the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) responsibilities toward the federal workforce and effectiveness in executing those responsibilities. As the previous administration attempted to merge OPM with other executive personnel offices, Congress directed OPM to contract with NAPA to conduct a comprehensive and independent study of the office’s functions.
To conduct the study, NAPA assembled a panel of five Academy Fellows to review a variety of documents relating to OPM’s mission, functions, and procedures as well as documents from Congress, executive policy, and literature on human capital management best practices. The panelists also interviewed stakeholders and agency human resource leaders.
Ultimately, the NAPA panelists conducting the study did not find that collapsing OPM into other executive offices would rectify the central personnel office’s problems. Instead, the NAPA report provided other recommendations for clarifying the scope of OPM’s responsibilities and improving the office’s functioning.
The recommendations fall into three distinct areas focused on (1) OPM’s role, leadership, and mission; (2) OPM’s core mission functions and programs; and (3) supporting functions enabling mission execution.
In the first area, NAPA noted that OPM’s mission has lacked clarity over time. With constant turnover at the top and varied levels of Congressional interest in human capital management, OPM has struggled to find its footing. Additionally, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has encroached on OPM’s mission over time. NAPA stressed the importance of an independent OPM free of the political influence other executive offices are subject to.
“OPM was created in statute as an “independent establishment;” however, a common, government-wide definition of independent establishment or independent agency does not exist… While stakeholders the study team spoke with had varying opinions on the shape and form of the agency, they affirmed the need for a central, independent human resource management agency, with merit system principles as the cornerstone of the federal civil service system,” NAPA reports.
In the second area, the NAPA report noted how OPM can strengthen the federal human capital management system through a more refined policy development approach, improved oversight programs that shift away from a compliance-oriented approached, promotion of strategic human capital management, and encouragement of innovation in the human capital space.
Finally, NAPA highlighted the ways in which OPM struggles to leverage data and technology to support agencies and employees.
“For OPM to succeed in achieving a reframed mission and transform its approach to human capital management from a strictly compliance orientation to one more value-added, data-driven, and focused on innovation and the sharing of best practices, it will require strong, effective, and efficient support functions and systems. Attention to those supporting functions is essential—they are critical foundational elements for mission execution,” the report explains.
NAPA offers recommendations from enabling and realizing the untapped potential of federal human capital data and data analytics to transforming human capital technology platforms to enhance customer and employee experience. NAPA also recommends Congress provide more strategic and sustainable funding to support OPM in executing its mission.
Stakeholders have praised the report as a more data-centric roadmap for improving OPM than the merger proposal.
Senior Executives Association (SEA) Interim President Bob Corsi said in a statement, “Nearly all good government leaders across the political spectrum agree on one thing: the Office of Personnel Management needs immediate Congressional and Administration intervention and focus, now. Unfortunately, determining how to fix our federal government’s central human capital agency has been a topic of considerable controversy. With this report from the National Academy of Public Administration, Congress and Executive Branch leaders finally have a comprehensive and data driven path for improvement.”
