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1    >> CAROL HARVEY:  Good morning.  As people are coming
2    back, we will do some introductions.  In your package, you
3    have bios on each of our speakers.  But I would like to
4    say a word about this panel.  In the president's state of
5    the union address, he said:  We want to be a nation that
6    serves goals larger than self.  We have been offered a
7    unique opportunity and we must not let this moment pass,
8    referring to the change in the nation since September
9    11th.  And we thought it would be good to have a panel
10    talking about or giving us some advice on if there are
11    things we should be doing differently, if we think the
12    nation is listening to us now.
13    We have a wonderful moderator for that panel.  Many of you
14    may see Tim Clark's product.  He is curious to know how
15    many of you read Government Executive Magazine.
16    (Showing of hands.)
17    Okay.  Tim is the president.  He is the editor of
18    Government Executive.  It has a circulation of 63,000 high
19    ranking civilian and military executives.  And they
20    sponsor their own conference, such as the Excellence in
21    Government conference, which I strongly encourage you to
22    attend every year.  Please join me in welcoming Tim Clark
23    from Government Executive Magazine.
24    (Applause.)
25    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you very much, Carol.  And I'm
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1    delighted to be here.  As many of you probably know, we
2    have been helping with this conference actually over the
3    year, back when it was at the Nature Center.  I
4    participated virtually every year and we cosponsored at
5    least one year.  And I think it's a terrific idea to bring
6    the people who communicate across the government together
7    to learn about the media and to meet each other and to
8    communicate among each other.
9    This is government.  I cannot resist telling you a little
10    story I heard last night.  I was at a Republican dinner,
11    not a fundraiser, but one celebrating Republican
12    moderates.  The name John Chaffe, the former late Senator
13    from Rhode Island, and Pat Roberts, who is a Senator from
14    Kansas and a very funny guy, were talking about how they
15    think about the executive branch and military in
16    particular in Congress.  And Olympia Snow was there, the
17    Senator from Maine, a maritime state.  And she, it was
18    said, during the course of deliberations and the complex
19    things that the committee has to approve, they adopted
20    during the course of debate and discussion what is now
21    known as Snow's law about submarines, and it is the
22    following, this is a submarine safety law:  If you're
23    running a submarine, count the number of dives and then
24    count the number of times you surfaced, divide by 2.  And
25    if anything is left over, don't open the hatch.
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1    (Laughter.)
2    So I thought that was one of a number of hilarious stories
3    told by Pat Roberts.  Carol asked me to come here and I
4    was delighted to do it, in part because it would give me
5    an opportunity just to say a few words about, before we
6    get going on the panel here, about a new awards program
7    that we're doing in cooperation with Max Stier here and
8    his group, the Partnership for Public Service.  The
9    Government Executive sponsored a number of awards programs
10    over the years.  Some of them go back ten years.  The
11    oldest one is the government technology leadership awards.
12    And we also sponsored, with the Council for Excellence in
13    Government, one having to do with acquisitions. We do
14    another one having to do with travel management.  We have
15    experimented over the years, we at Government Executive,
16    with some award programs aimed at individuals, and we hand
17    out one award every year in cooperation with ASCLA for
18    distinguished career in federal service.  We were allied
19    for a time with George Washington University and their
20    Flemming awards program.  But we never have been terribly
21    comfortable with the idea of individual awards in the
22    federal context, because so much of the work in the
23    federal government is done by teams of people.  And we
24    were more comfortable recognizing projects and teams and
25    so on.
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1    But still we have been tempted over the years to do it.
2    And in part because a magazine that is really our
3    counterpart on the state and local government side of the
4    House, Governing Magazine, published by Congressional
5    Quarterly, for 7 or 8 years has done a very successful
6    awards program called Public Officials of the Year.  And
7    they hold a very nice dinner here in town.  They honor our
8    Governor and Mayor and various other local government
9    officials, about 10 in all.  It's sponsored by corporate
10    donors, and it's a terrific event.  They publish a special
11    issue of the magazine that celebrates the achievements of
12    these public officials of the year.  And so we have been
13    eyeing that.  And, in effect, that's the way we're moving
14    now, and two things converged to make it possible, I
15    thought.  One was the rise in concern about the human
16    capital crisis in the federal government.  Now, all of you
17    know that this is not a new crisis.  This is something
18    that has been developing over the years, and we have been
19    writing about it for a dozen or more years.
20    I think back to the time of what is now the first the
21    National Commission on the Public Service, which in 1989
22    reported that there was a quiet crisis in the Civil
23    Service.  Well, now it has gotten louder.  This research
24    by Brookings and others has highlighted disturbing trends
25    in the federal workforce.  David Walker, the controller
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1    general, has been talking about the human capital problem.
2    He put the human capital problem on his list of 20 high
3    risk problems in the government.  People like Senator
4    George Voinovich and Kay Coles James in the Office of
5    Personnel Management have been talking it up, too.  And
6    then the second thing, with 9/11, there was a surge of
7    patriotism and reported early on, a surge in interest in
8    working for the government.  Record applicants at the CIA
9    and others.
10    And so I thought given these developments, wouldn't it be
11    great if we could tell a story of interesting federal
12    careers?  And tell them about young people, people in the
13    middle age, people at end of their careers.  Tell us
14    stories in the context of a variety of disciplines,
15    national security, environment, social services and
16    others.  And we thought that the surge of patriotism might
17    make this possible in part because it would excite the
18    interest of or bring sympathy from major corporations who
19    might sponsor a first class awards program, and that is
20    what we are trying to do.  These awards will carry cash
21    awards ranging from $3,000 to $10,000.  We are planning a
22    first class dinner here in Washington.  There will be a
23    special issue of the Government Executive celebrating the
24    winner, 8 to 10 winners.  And I internally have reached
25    out to our sister publications in our organization, our
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1    company, which are the Atlantic Monthly, which I'm proud
2    to say won three national magazine awards yesterday in New
3    York, and National Journal, which is the key policy
4    journal, key policy magazine in Washington.  And they,
5    too, will celebrate these winner, reaching more than a
6    million people directly.
7    I also reached out to our new terrific nonprofit group on
8    the scene, the Partnership for Public Service.  And Max
9    and his staff have been helping us devise this program,
10    which is now called the SAMIs, Service to America Medals.
11    So we have the Oscar, we have the Emmy, we have the
12    GRACIE, which is our technology program, and we have the
13    SAMIs.  Out on the table I put copies of my column in the
14    magazine, and Max has stuff out there, too, that pertains
15    to this awards program.  We hope that you will go back to
16    your agencies and think about nominating people.  We have
17    established -- we have declared a deadline of May 15th.
18    But by fiat I think I'm going to extend it to June 1.  And
19    so there is still a month to nominate people.  And we need
20    -- we really could use your help in finding people who
21    would illustrate the interesting stories that I know exist
22    and you know exist about work in the government.
23    And one other thing.  You can get to the nomination form
24    on our website.  Gov exec.com.  Right off the website on
25    the front page.  So enough on that.  Thank you for
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1    indulging me on that.
2    Now, we have a terrific panel here and the title of the
3    panel is "reaching the public while it's still listening."
4    Briefly, just to introduce the panel, Max Stier, the
5    president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.
6    Martha Johnson now with the Council for Excellence in
7    Government.  Richard A. Whitford of OPM.  Marlis Majerus,
8    news director of FederalNewsRadio.com.  And Eleanor Clift,
9    distributing editor for Newsweek, as you know.  Title of
10    the panel, reaching the public while it's still listening.
11    I'm prepared to ask a couple questions of the panelists
12    and make the rounds, and the first question I'm going to
13    ask is:  What are we learning about whether the public is
14    listening about public attitudes toward government?  And
15    there has been a lot of research; Max's group, OPM does
16    its own research and has its own data.  What are we
17    learning about how people are looking at government
18    service and government in general?  And then the second
19    question I'm going to make another round is what should
20    agencies be doing about that?  I mean, how can we better
21    tell a story of the government?  How can we interest
22    people more in working for the government, finding out
23    about government, participating in political events and so
24    on?
25    I'm going to ask Richard A. Whitford.  He is our only
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1    government employee here, government official, on the
2    stage with us, to start us off and tell us what, from the
3    perspective of the central personnel agency in the
4    government, how are you seeing public attitudes toward
5    government service changing in the wake of 9/11 and over a
6    longer period of time?
7    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  Thanks very much, Tim.  Good
8    morning, everybody.
9    >> ALL:  Good morning.
10    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  It's actually official now,
11    because in my apologies to Eleanor, I'm going to quote
12    from Time Magazine.  But the fact of the matter is Time
13    this week said:  The coming job boom, and they have a
14    section if you haven't read it yet, there is a great line,
15    "Long before September 11 ushered in a new era of respect
16    for government, the fact of the matter is let us hope that
17    we are not in the new era and the respect for government
18    and the new work that federal employees are doing and
19    military around the world, and it continues, and we keep
20    that fire burning by telling great stories about what
21    public employees are doing for the rest of American
22    society.  Here is what we hear.  We hear things like this.
23    We are interested in federal jobs, and here is some of the
24    proof that we are interested in federal jobs.
25    Presidential management program every year gets more and
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1    more applicants, more and more inquiries from agencies on
2    how to use it.  A job fair was concluded this week.  It
3    had lots of attendees, thousands, and agencies did their
4    best to recruit and bring on people to their service in
5    their agencies.
6    The other piece is that we concluded recently our first
7    ever virtual job fair for information technology workers,
8    putting together lots of new technology.  We learned some
9    lessons from that process.  We had over 1.8 million reach
10    the USAJOBS website to inquire about information
11    technology jobs, and we collected 21,000 applications.
12    Now, all that aside, let me tell you one piece here.
13    Interest is there.  We have a patriot website.  Right
14    after 9/11, people said we used to work for the federal
15    government.  We're ready to stand up again for the federal
16    government and the American people.  We registered
17    something like 16,000 people.
18    But here is what one said to us over and over again.  We
19    have interest.  We want to consider federal careers.  But
20    fix your hiring process, and that's the task we have to
21    work on next.
22    (Applause.)
23    Director James is absolutely aware of this and has turned
24    to her deputy, Dan Blair, and made it a major objective of
25    his during his time at the OPM.  He in turn has made it a
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1    personal objective of mine.  And I, in turn, will enlist
2    you in this effort as well.  So those are some of the
3    pieces.  I think that's the opening shot I'd like to make
4    in this area, and then follow up with some other piece
5    later on about how we are working to fix the hiring
6    process.
7    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Dick.  We have two people on the
8    panel, Max and Martha, who are with organizations that
9    have sponsored a lot of research on public attitudes.  In
10    fact, I went to a lunch at the Council for Excellence in
11    Government yesterday where they released a new survey of
12    young people and their attitudes about government and
13    volunteerism and so on.  Let me go first to Max.  And,
14    Max, I know you have a variety of different research you
15    can talk about.  One that I'm particularly interested in
16    is Kennedy School of Government Research.  And I know you
17    know about, were involved in, comparing people's
18    experience.  These are graduates of the Kennedy School, in
19    the public sector in government, versus those who went in
20    the private sector.  But talk about whatever else you want
21    to do, your research in this area.
22    >> MAX STIER:  Well, thank you very much, Tim.  And thank
23    you for all being here.  It is a pleasure seeing you and
24    it's really important, I think, as Dick mentioned, we're
25    going to be able to build off of the interest from both
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1    preSeptember  and post September 11, only through the
2    efforts of all of us.  We were trying to identify how many
3    communications folks there were in the government, and we
4    found at least some data to suggest that there are close
5    to 5,000.  When you think about that, that's an incredible
6    Army of people that can affect public attitudes about
7    government and about government jobs.  And that's really
8    what we're hoping all of you will do here.
9    Secondly, with Tim, and I want to reiterate the plea on
10    the SAMIs, it's a wonderful awards program.  Government
11    Executive is doing a lot of great things in terms of
12    investing its resources to get the word out.  But
13    ultimately what we're hoping for here is two things:  One,
14    to let the American people know about the excellence in
15    the federal workforce.  But also to let the federal
16    workforce know that it's appreciated.  And in order to do
17    that, we really need to reach those good stories.  And all
18    of you in the various agencies that you are in, you're our
19    source.  You need to go out there and find the nominees,
20    the people that you think are doing wonderful things.  And
21    either they can self nominate or you can nominate them by
22    yourself.
23    Now, this is important not only to identify the ultimate
24    winner, but our hope is that we then have created a
25    database of good stories that can be shared with the media
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1    and others about the wonderful things that federal workers
2    are doing.  We can hit this in the second round of
3    questions, but you have the information that Tim provided
4    in the packet.  It talks about the SAMIs or the Website
5    you can go to to nominate.
6    Now, finally, answering Tim's question, the -- and you'll
7    hear from Martha about a poll that the Council and the
8    Partnership did together on public attitudes, but what I
9    thought I might give you is the sort of broad view that
10    we're seeing, conceptual framework that we're seeing as to
11    the problem right now.  And it really seems to be three
12    fold.  The first, frankly, that many people simply don't
13    know about the opportunities in government.  They aren't
14    aware of them.  Second, even if they are aware, the hiring
15    process is broken.  It's interesting to see the applause.
16    We talk to a lot of folk that say:  I'm interested, but I
17    don't know how to apply.  The process is nontransparent.
18    It's cumbersome and takes too long.  And those are things
19    that we are trying to help OPM with, but ultimately it's
20    going to require work inside the agencies as well.
21    And then third and finally, there is a question about what
22    the jobs themselves look like.  And while there are
23    wonderful opportunities in the government, there are ways
24    in which those opportunities could be made better for
25    high performers and innovators, and that is I think the
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1    third level of reform and change that needs to take place
2    ultimately to make the government an employer of choice.
3    And at the partnership, we are trying to work on all three
4    levels.
5    We do think that there is an opportunity here to get the
6    message out about government jobs.  If you look at
7    polling, and again Martha will talk about some of the
8    numbers in specific terms, but the polling basically shows
9    from our end that the American people appreciate
10    government workers more, but they still don't want to be
11    them.  And that is an important development, though,
12    because the appreciation wasn't there previously.  And in
13    order for us really to close a sale, we need to work on
14    all three levels.  Informing the public, changing the
15    hiring process, and making sure that what we're selling,
16    the government job is in fact a great job and has high
17    performers and innovators, as possible.  And with that, I
18    look forward to hearing from the west of my colleagues.
19    >> TIM CLARK:  Martha Johnson from the Council for
20    Excellent in Government.
21    >> MARTHA JOHNSON:  I'm delighted to be here.  I'm
22    responsible for the leadership programs of the Council
23    which focus as much on the people who are already in the
24    federal workforce and rejuvenating and training and
25    offering leadership development to them.  This is an
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1    opportunity for me to move from thinking about that
2    program to sharing with you some of the other work of the
3    Council, and our concern and our interest in trusting
4    government, youth attitudes towards government, and the
5    political process.  And that's some of the things I can
6    talk about today.
7    First, let me say that we did do some polling last fall in
8    the wake of September 11th.  And there were a couple of
9    findings that I think might help frame our thinking today.
10    So let me just give a couple of headlines.  First, there
11    was -- we call it almost a virtual rejection of federal
12    work opportunities on the part of college students.  We
13    found that one in six whom we polled expressed significant
14    interest in coming into the federal system.  So that would
15    say that we were being buffeted last fall by increase in
16    interest, increase in support and trust in the government,
17    and yet still a hesitancy to lay it on the line and join
18    up.
19    The attitudes towards federal service, the recruiting
20    challenge remains the same, is our conclusion after --
21    from our polling last fall.  The change in sentiment from
22    September 11, as I said, isn't really -- see, it isn't
23    really the rising tide that is raising the interest in
24    coming in to work in this federal system as much as we of
25    course would hope.  80 percent of those polled indicated
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1    that their interest in federal work stayed the same.  This
2    was in October.  18 percent indicated that their interest
3    had increased.  So that gives you a bit of a sense of that
4    reality.
5    The lack of -- one of the things that we asked about was
6    well how well do you know about federal work and federal
7    jobs?  And we do indicate -- we find indicators that tell
8    us there is plenty of room for more information sharing.
9    52 percent of the nonfederal workers know, feel that they
10    know a great deal about private sector work, but only 29
11    percent felt they knew a great deal about public sector
12    work.  So you can see they feel much more informed about
13    opportunities in the private sector.
14    60 percent say that it was difficult to get information on
15    public sector work, while 30 percent said it was easy to
16    get information about private sector work, about public
17    sector work.  So the numbers almost flipped like that.
18    Now, the other piece that echoes what Max was just saying
19    is that we asked questions about what people thought about
20    federal employment, sitting on the outside and looking in.
21    And their concerns, the top concern was that they were
22    worried that they would not find interesting or
23    challenging work.  I have a lot of feeling about that,
24    having worked on the government side and also as an
25    executive search person, that really people are looking
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1    for interesting work.  And it is the work that sells the
2    job, and that's an important thing for us to keep in mind.
3    The second is concern about our rewards system in the
4    federal sector.  And, third, about the ability to take
5    initiative when you're in your job.  How much room, how
6    much elbow room, how much creativity will you be invited
7    to share.
8    One other bit of data I can share, but I wouldn't go on
9    about it, but yesterday as Tim indicated we released a
10    report called "is anyone listening?" And this is a result
11    of some surveys that we did of young people, and it
12    indicated that trust matters.  And there will be some
13    interesting ways in which we can tease out how to reach
14    that particular segment of the population.  So I'll leave
15    it at that right now.
16    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Martha.  Next we will hear from
17    two of my colleagues in the media.  And I'm going to ask
18    them to address the question of the panel.  The topic of
19    the panel, reaching the public while it's listening, is
20    the public listening?  Is there interest in government and
21    is there heightened interest in government?  And is it
22    mature of that interest such that it might actually
23    increase trust in government and interest and working
24    government as you see it through your work in the media?
25    First, Marlis Majerus, news director of
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1    FederalNewsRadio.com, which I believe is the only radio
2    station that exists anywhere that is devoted exclusively
3    to news of interest to the federal worker, is that
4    correct?
5    >> MARLIS MAJERUS:  That's correct, Tim.  We are happy to
6    be there.  You may know WLTP radio, and that's our
7    network.  But FederalNewsRadio.com is online only.  We
8    don't have a signal where you can tune in on your car
9    radio or at home.  We are online on your computer.  We are
10    a 24/7 radio station.  We devote ourselves of targeting
11    news of special interest to feds.  But we have AP
12    broadcast news, so it's a regular radio station news at
13    the top of the hour, and bottom of the hour we have some
14    sports and some interests.  But in there, we do special
15    news of interest to feds.  Mike Kaussy works with us.  And
16    as he wants to say, we dare to be dull, because we talk
17    about things that really interest feds.  We talk about
18    your TSPs.  We talk about your health benefits.  We talk
19    about -- we use some of the jargon that feds and
20    government workers are familiar with, because we talk to
21    them, not necessarily about them.
22    But let me tell you how WTLP came to decide even before
23    9/11 that the government worker audience around the world
24    was one that we wanted to top.  WTLP found that listeners
25    from the government and world were the majority of those
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1    sending us e-mails and listening to our radio station.
2    That's when we decided that we wanted to make a special
3    effort to come up with a new online radio station.
4    As for this recent swell in public good feeling and trust
5    in the government and government workers, first of all I
6    want to say yea! I'm not a government worker, but I've
7    been covering you for 20 years, and even I get tired of
8    those all jokes about how many government workers does it
9    take to screw in a light bulb?  I don't know, by the
10    way...
11    (Chuckles.)
12    But is this going to be a trend that will fade into
13    history or is it going to mean something different for
14    folks and make for more interest in public service, maybe?
15    But I think maybe the more important question is how will
16    this translate into how feds feel about themselves?
17    Now, I don't mean this in the touchy feely, how do you
18    feel about yourself way, but the image of the government
19    worker has suffered in the past, and changing that image
20    and the way feds feel about how and why they do their jobs
21    is really important.  And I think this is an area where
22    the government can take advantage of these feelings at
23    this time.
24    By the way, this reminds me of a cartoon I recently saw.
25    It's a classroom, and the name of the class is written on
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1    the blackboard and it says "self-esteem for federal
2    employees."
3    And a teacher is leading the group in reciting:  I am
4    essential.  I am essential.  I am essential.
5    (Laughter.)
6    So how do you show the public the real federal worker?  We
7    have talked about this, Tim, with the SAMIs and featuring
8    in his publications stories about feds.  We do that on
9    FederalNewsRadio.com.  We have fed faces.  We have the
10    Federal Line.  We have Mike Kaussy's Federal Report.  Put
11    a face on feds.  Get out the stories about the feds who go
12    the extra mile, who do the daily grind, those who keep at
13    it even when they're treated, as Kaussy says, like "skunks
14    at a wine tasting party."
15    Americans need national government in a way they haven't
16    for some time now.  And I think it's time that we show
17    them whose shoulders they're leaning on.  Thanks.
18    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Marlis.  Eleanor, I don't know
19    whether Newsweek has the same motto, there to be -- no.
20    I'm sure it doesn't, actually.  I'm a loyal subscriber for
21    many years.  And so what about from the perspective of the
22    big media?  Is government looking -- is the media
23    portraying government in a more positive light?  And what
24    are you observing about how the media is doing on the
25    story?
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1    >> ELEANOR CLIFT:  First of all, Newsweek won the award
2    yesterday for general excellence in magazines of that
3    size.  We beat out Time.  We are very proud!
4    Secondly, this is a panel that I'm not familiar with,
5    where everybody is so civilized and lets everybody have a
6    turn to speak.
7    (Laughter.)
8    I almost don't know how to handle it.
9    (Applause.)
10    >> MARLIS MAJERUS:  Eleanor, I take issue with it.
11    >> ELEANOR CLIFT:  That's right.  Anyway, I'm glad to be
12    here.  I'm glad to be anywhere where I can finish a
13    sentence without being interrupted.  So I came to
14    Washington covering Jimmy Carter, and I watched how Carter
15    ran against Washington and by implication the dreaded
16    Washington bureaucracy.  Ronald Reagan took that to
17    greater lengths saying the government was not part of the
18    solution, it's the problem.  Much of his appeal was
19    getting government off your back.  The first George Bush,
20    I think, who was kinder and gentler, took some of the
21    edges off of that antigovernment rhetoric, and I think
22    Clinton tried to get some of the last morale in the
23    federal bureaucracy.  But I think 9/11 transformed the
24    image of the federal government, and suddenly the country
25    realizes they need government, that government is the
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1    symbol of a functioning democracy, and they're looking to
2    Washington to be the great protector.  So there is a whole
3    new feeling about Washington and federal workers.
4    And the anthrax scare added this element of danger, that
5    you actually go to work facing some danger.  It's hard for
6    me to take that seriously.  But when you travel around the
7    country, people say, you know, how do you stand living in
8    Washington?  And then they hear the tales about the fears
9    of a dirty bomb and how you really have to be nine miles
10    away from the center of the city to be safe.  And so the
11    world we live in, this kind of drama I think suddenly has
12    put Washington workers in a different light.  You're not
13    quite the heros that the NYPD and the Fire Department in
14    New York, but there is kind of a heroic quality now to
15    public service.
16    And I think the second element is the messages we're
17    getting from popular culture and the extraordinary success
18    of West Wing.  Now, that is politicians, but it's also
19    public service.  And I think the show captures a lot of
20    the trade-offs and the compromises that you have to make
21    in public life and political life that they also capture
22    the idealism.  I don't know how many of you watched last
23    night, but there was a major corporation that had to do a
24    recall and was likely to go under, and of course the CEO
25    was a major contributor of President Bartlett, and wasn't
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1    asking for help, but the chief of staff thought that the
2    White House should help.  And the president of course said
3    I can't help a campaign contributor.  Now, where have we
4    heard that?  Probably never.
5    (Laughter.)
6    And so they figure out that the government will stand by
7    and continue to be the company's client.  And the CEO is
8    not going to take any salary for two years, all the
9    managers are going to take a 50 percent paycut and none of
10    the workers are going to get laid off.  And the final
11    element of the deal is that they can't give any campaign
12    contributions to President Bartlett or any democrat in the
13    foreseeable future because they don't want any suggestion
14    of conflict of interest.  You're sitting there thinking,
15    can't we elect this guy?  But people lap this up.  And
16    there is a new series in the works that is going to
17    portray a member of Congress, I think a gay member of
18    Congress.  You have to get more drama than is already
19    there, and the Supreme Court series.
20    Now, I don't know if Max is going to be a civil servant,
21    but if any of you can come up with a good script, now is
22    the time.  So, yes, the climate has changed completely.
23    The next question which he is going to pose is:  How do
24    you take advantage of that?
25    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Eleanor.  We -- I would like to
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1    note our close watchers of West Wing, the West Wing, and
2    every Thursday I guess it is we publish on our website
3    West Wing watch, in which we examine the show for tiny
4    little flaws in detail.
5    (Laughter.)
6    Such as, when someone in the West Wing, in the White
7    House, was saying okay, let's order up a GAL report.  So
8    we wrote the next day that in the White House you can't
9    write up a GAL report.  It has to be a member of Congress.
10    And sometimes the show will come back at us.  So a few
11    weeks later, there is someone in the West Wing saying, you
12    know, we really ought to get a GAL report on that.  Now, I
13    know we can't order it ourselves, but we will get a
14    friendly Senator.
15    (Laughter.)
16    I think you'd be amazed by this West Wing watch feature
17    that is on the website.
18    One of my own observations is about how the media has
19    treated government in the post 9/11 environment is that it
20    has exposed the flaws of government agencies.  And we
21    have, over the course of many years, been writing about
22    that ourselves.  These are flaws that often result from
23    shortage of resources, but often result from just plain
24    mistakes with the INS issuing permits to the terrorists.
25    But there are shortages of personnel and the border patrol
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1    on the northern border, just for example.  There are
2    conflicts in missions in the agencies, such as at FAA and
3    the INS, which is now being split.  And those things are
4    now being exposed in the media in what I think is a
5    healthy way.  We have been writing about them.  In part, I
6    think it's healthy because it should persuade Congress and
7    I would argue that it is persuading Congress and the White
8    House that there is a need for more investment in the
9    public sector if it's going to do the job in public health
10    and law enforcement and other areas.
11    But given that, Max, and other factors, let's turn to this
12    second topic here, which is what can we do to, by way of
13    steps that we can take, to improve public attitudes toward
14    government?  And increase interest in joining the
15    government as government workers?
16    >> MAX STIER:  A lot, is the answer.  And we'll hear a lot
17    of good ideas I'm sure from everyone else on the panel.
18    But one of the primary ways to do it is to learn from each
19    other.  The federal government is a broad place with many
20    different agencies doing lots of interesting things.  And
21    one of the things that my organization, the Partnership,
22    is doing is try to collect best practices, lessons learned
23    on a variety of topics, and we will be creating a learning
24    center that will allow people to come and get this
25    information.  A good example I was given yesterday, the
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1    NSA has this wonderful -- you can't see it, but it's a CD.
2    Written on it it says, "for your eyes only."
3    And it's a fantastic recruitment tool that they put
4    together with lots of young people talking about what the
5    NSA does, why it should be interested to them, what are
6    the opportunities both as students or as graduates in the
7    NSA, and it's fantastic.  And all the agencies could do
8    something very similar to that.  Or, this morning, someone
9    came back with a brochure from Navair.  DOD, 38 percent of
10    the civilian workforce works at DOD.  And they have done a
11    terrific brochure and they collected information about all
12    the jobs available there.  And when they put out this
13    brochure, which really speaks to people, there is an
14    attractive child on the cover.  They found people coming
15    to their tables doubled simply by having this brochure as
16    something that attracted people, and then gave them an
17    opportunity to make the sale.
18    So one most important thing I think is learn from each
19    other, look to see what other agencies are doing and see
20    if that works for your agency.
21    Secondly, I would point out back to my original point
22    about information.  What we found in our polling and some
23    of the numbers that Martha gave you are true across the
24    board is that people just don't know about the
25    opportunities that are out there.  And we have a
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1    collection of misperceptions.  One is that being a
2    government worker allows you to make a difference.  So we
3    asked talented people in the labor market whether or not
4    they could make a bigger difference in the government,
5    private sector or nonprofit sector.  Not surprisingly, I'd
6    love to actually test out here, your key pads, but maybe I
7    can't do that right here right now, but what we found was
8    that people felt that the nonprofit sector offered an
9    incomparable advantage on the issue of making a
10    difference, that they felt that is the sector you would go
11    to if you wanted to do that.  But they also said that
12    between the government and the private sector, that there
13    was a draw; that the government didn't have a comparative
14    advantage on making a difference.  That's just wrong.
15    One of my favorite statements that I heard from somebody
16    not too long ago, the person who runs the HR side on CDW,
17    which is one of the top companies for the best places to
18    work on Fortune Magazine, what he said, which I thought
19    was terrific, he said our mission is increasing quarterly
20    earnings.  Yours, meaning the government's, is truth,
21    justice and the American way.  In terms of workforce
22    alignment, you have a tremendous advantage.  Hey look, the
23    fact of the matter is that's right, and we are not using
24    that advantage, and that's something that we ought to be
25    out there selling.  So with that, I'm sure you'll hear
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1    lots of good things from other folk here.
2    >> TIM CLARK:  Dick, why don't we turn to you, and I know
3    you're proposed to talk about the many steps OPM is taking
4    in trying to increase the attractiveness of the federal
5    employment scene.
6    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  I'd like to talk about some of
7    the great lead-in that Max gave to me.  The key part is
8    whether or not we will sustain this interest in federal
9    employment over time as 9/11 becomes more and more of a
10    memory.  Our task is, in fact, to sustain the image of
11    public service by, as I heard, putting a face on feds,
12    getting that message across.  By telling the stories of
13    tremendous efforts of federal employees.  All these things
14    position us well to be extremely competitive in a labor
15    market which is going to get hot again and we are going to
16    need to be as competitive as possible.  We are going to
17    need to have employment branding, and in fact some
18    processes that look as good or better than private
19    industry.  One of the things that we can do, and from our
20    research, too, is just simply listen to what people are
21    looking for in all employment.  A good organization is
22    www.naceweb.org, did a survey about what applicants are
23    looking for in employment.  And this has relevance of
24    course to us.  An agency should blend their own programs
25    to be able to apply this research to make us far more
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1    competitive in the labor market.  The number one area that
2    they indicated was opportunity for advancement.  The goal
3    we have as we go through these is let's say that the
4    federal government should be able to check off and say
5    yes, there is opportunity for advancement, and all these
6    other pieces as well.  We are in boon times.  As baby
7    boomers fly off into the sunset, there will be
8    opportunities for advancement across the federal agencies.
9    The benefit package, how good is it?  It can always be
10    better.  It's a strong package.  We don't advertise it as
11    well as Johnson and Johnson advertise the benefit
12    packages.  We hit people on the website with here are the
13    jobs.  As a subpiece I may talk about later on, these are
14    the vacancy announcements, and you may say what is this
15    job they're talking about?  That is another piece of
16    research that we found out that we have work to do there.
17    The third piece, continuing education and training.
18    Federal agencies need to, in fact, step up to the plate
19    and seek the funding to do the continuing education
20    training, which is seen as very desirable for coming into
21    and staying in federal service.
22    The fourth, job responsibilities and duties, we heard
23    about.  Absolutely we have interesting and very literally
24    it is from A to Z, archaeologist, archivist to zooologist.
25    It's phenomenal work.  And the stories are not told, some
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1    of the best stories around that we could be telling, and
2    we need to do that to sustain that interest.
3    The Harvard group met this past Monday, hosted by the
4    Office of Personnel Management.  Director James, in fact,
5    presented a White Paper on compensation, modernizing pay.
6    It is to begin the conversation when a modernized pay
7    system, if it's not already on the OPM website, it will be
8    there this week I'm sure.  The other piece, what to look
9    for?  Geographic location.  Well, the federal government
10    is a global enterprise.  We have jobs virtually everywhere
11    in the world.  And for those who are interested in that
12    kind of opportunity, it's there and it's to be taken
13    advantage of.
14    Another piece is organizational integrity.  Thanks, Max,
15    for that great lead-in about truth, justice and the
16    American way, because as a matter of fact, I don't know of
17    too many other jobs where the first act is to take an oath
18    of allegiance to the constitution of the United States.
19    That tells something right there as well.
20    And there is more stability in federal implement, which is
21    another item on the research list of what people are
22    looking for in jobs.  The federal government of course has
23    a greater record of stability than many private
24    industries.  So these are some of the pieces, my key piece
25    and message being we need to take this kind of research
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1    and we need to actually listen to what the public is
2    looking for in our jobs and craft our programs so that, in
3    fact, we can become very much oriented to the applicants
4    as opposed to just focusing on processes.
5    >> TIM CLARK:  All right, Dick.  Let me ask you one
6    follow-up question.  Do you have materials available on
7    the website or elsewhere that lay out these points and
8    would help these people make these arguments?
9    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  We can make these materials
10    available, in fact.  And I don't mind getting 300 e-mail
11    messages.  I can send it out to you at rawhitfo@opm.gov.
12    So we can make this available to you.
13    >> TIM CLARK:  Let me turn to Martha to address the
14    question of what we can do and what the council is doing
15    to improve the climate here.
16    >> MARTHA JOHNSON:  Let me take a slightly different
17    approach, which is coming from the voice of the
18    practitioners.
19    Some of my background has been in recruiting.  I've been
20    in colleges, corporate, I've been at the White House where
21    the resumes came in faster than the machines could cope
22    with.  I've been in Jerry's recruiting.  So I've been in
23    great environments to do recruiting, but I have to say the
24    best practice effort I can offer is in my time when I was
25    at Cummins Engine Company in Southern Indiana.  The CEO at
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1    that point had a son who decided to go to Stanford
2    business school, and so the CEO said we should have
3    Stanford business school graduates here at Cummins Engine
4    here in Indiana working the graveyard shift.  We really
5    should do this.  So you go and recruit them.  And I was
6    the recruiter.  And I have to say the lesson I learned
7    very painfully was it has to have a human face.  Each of
8    you is a human face.  Each of your stories is very
9    important.
10    When the team went to Stanford, they each took their
11    resumes and a picture and put it on the door of their
12    interview room.  No one at Stanford had ever been given
13    the resume of the interviewer, and it was a nice sort of
14    conversation starter.  We wrote personal letters to
15    people, handwritten letters, and we ended up with six
16    people coming from the Stanford business school to Cummins
17    Engine Company that year.  It says that profits and system
18    aside, each of us needs to get out and tell these stories
19    to each other so that we can leverage, them but we need to
20    be in the schools talking about our work.  And we need to
21    be talking with great enthusiasm and dignity about the
22    challenges that we face, not with the stress of the day on
23    us.
24    Talking to young people about our jobs is just the way to
25    get them enthusiastic.  And as anyone knows, as I am, who
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1    is concerned with retention, keeping people interested in
2    their work and engaged in their work is that we need to
3    allow people to rejoice and remember why they're there.
4    So storytelling all the way through is great.  One other
5    real personal kind of technique is that we need to reflect
6    what's right about the work we do.  This is the truth and
7    justice piece.  But bearing witness to that takes it out
8    of the abstract and makes it personal.  In our polling of
9    young people, we have learned that the people most
10    interested in the political process and in government are
11    people who went with their parents to the polls, talked
12    about politics at the dinner table, overwhelmingly.  The
13    more people are here and know about the political and
14    government processes, the more they are engaged.
15    So in our work to magnify the ideas about taking your
16    children to the polls, we are trying to send those kinds
17    of messages.  We need to connect people to this process
18    very individually, one by one.
19    Thank you.
20    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Martha.  I'm going to ask our
21    two people from the press just to comment on what has been
22    said so far on this topic.  Maybe Eleanor, you first this
23    time.  And also maybe address the question of how the
24    people in the audience, two dozen agencies, government
25    communicators, can get these stories to the press or
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1    whether they can get them in the press.
2    >> ELEANOR CLIFT:  Well, if you were to do a map of
3    Washington and where the reporters are located, you would
4    see a huge collection around the White House.  I think
5    2,000 reporters are accredited there, and you'd see a lot
6    certainly on Capitol Hill.  And then the Pentagon, the
7    Justice Department and the Supreme Court.  And if you look
8    around at the other departments and agencies, you would
9    see very little sort of routine coverage.  The major media
10    have moved away, actually, from sort of beat reporting.
11    And often there is nobody in particular even assigned to
12    cover some of the agencies.
13    I remember when Reagan was president, the HUD secretary, I
14    believe is name was Sam Pierce, wasn't doing much in his
15    job and apparently it was reported that he spent the
16    afternoon watching the soap operas, and various scandals
17    came out.  But nobody was watching.  So for a brief period
18    we will be covering the rest of the federal government,
19    but that didn't last long.  So I think the impetus is on
20    you all to get the story out.  And the way you do that is
21    you have to identify some reporters who have done
22    something that indicate that they might have an interest
23    in the stories that you're pushing.  And you have to
24    develop relationships.  This is a very personal town.
25    Sending a press release and expect it will get printed is
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1    not right.  They regard them as advertising for the
2    agency.
3    Think what are the series that somebody can do to make a
4    name for him or herself.  Link it to the issues of the
5    day.  Anything having to do with bioterrorism is probably
6    going to find a home.  AIDS is a huge issue around the
7    world, anything you can tie to combating that.  And
8    NPR just recently has done a wonderful series on the
9    changes in the food industry.  I mean, McDonald's has put
10    out the word to all the hen producers that they are only
11    going to use eggs from hens that are treated more
12    humanely.  And there was another long segment about
13    Florida houses, and how they are trying to make that a
14    more humane process.  This is all oversight.  The press
15    will be eager to hear those kinds of stories.
16    So I think you have to think what are people going to be
17    interested in, and package it, and you have to work a
18    little.  But you have to sell a story just as reporters
19    have to sell stories to editors.
20    And then I certainly echo the business about getting the
21    true believers out there, particularly to the schools.
22    This is not exactly analogous, but yesterday I did an
23    interview with the Washington Humane Society, because I
24    recently adopted two cats from the shelter here, and they
25    want to get the word out that they have great animals.
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1    They need homes and I'm satisfied customer.  So, you know,
2    get the true believers out, and I think I can convince
3    people this is a great place to convince animals.  I'm
4    hoping to get that message across today, too.  I had a
5    terror of ever going to a humane center facility, thinking
6    I would see all these poor suffering animals in cages,
7    being unhappy, and I couldn't do anything about it and it
8    just would be so emotionally upsetting.  Well, I had a
9    totally different experience.  And the center had helpful
10    volunteers.  The cages of the animals that were up for
11    adoption were roomy with toys in them.  My husband and I
12    signed off on the first two cats we saw, a mother and a
13    son, and we have been very happy since.
14    So, I'm a true believer.  And I'm sure there are people
15    working in federal government who feel that they have
16    satisfying jobs and they're the ones that can go out there
17    and convey that, because you can't make it up.  You've got
18    to feel it in your heart.  And if the passion is there,
19    the kids will pick up on it.  And certainly the CIA and
20    the FBI certainly since post 9/11 have gotten a new aura
21    of excitement around them.  So you have to find ways to
22    build excitement around other jobs as in the bureaucracy.
23    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Eleanor, Marlis your thoughts?
24    >> MARLIS MAJERUS:  Well, when I was thinking about this
25    topic as I was preparing some remarks, I thought well now
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1    what can I offer as the news director of an online only
2    radio station?  And then it hit me that my very medium is
3    my message to you.  The fact that there is a
4    FederalNewsRadio.com is my message.  Technology started us
5    down a road to communicating our news and information in
6    an entirely different way.  You already know that.  But,
7    maybe you didn't know that this field is growing so fast.
8    We see it every day at FederalNewsRadio.com as the numbers
9    of people who listen and visit our website just grow
10    exponentially.  And, where those people are from.  They're
11    all over the world.
12    In addition, we see a vast audience that we can reach.
13    Feds and nonfeds, we can get the message out about
14    government work and public service to people who want to
15    catch up on the news while they're online.  And you know
16    those folks aren't alone.  I have a couple stats, too.
17    There is a Congress online project funded by a grant from
18    the Pugh Charitable Trusts, and I found it online.  And
19    they say the number of new Internet users per month in the
20    United States is 2 million.  The percentage of U.S. adult
21    Internet users who visited a government website in 2001,
22    55 percent.  The percentage of Americans with Internet
23    access, 56 percent.  And really the telling one I found
24    was the percentage of children, age 14 to 17, who use the
25    Internet, 75 percent.  So there's your future.
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1    As those numbers grow, Uncle Sam can't afford to turn its
2    back on cyberspace for getting out his message.  And I
3    congratulate you, Dick, because one of the things that I
4    saw recently was the virtual IT job fair.  And I thought
5    that was fascinating.  And look at your success!  You
6    know, 20,000 people submitted applications, is that right,
7    for about 230 federal technology jobs.
8    And the FBI has done it, too.  They had 15,000 online
9    applications for 900 special agent positions.  And then
10    after 9/11, when the FBI director issued a public appeal
11    for people who could translate in Arabic and other middle
12    eastern languages, they received about 15,000 online
13    applications.  So there is my message for you.  Technology
14    cybercruiting, that's a wave of the future.
15    I also would suggest to you something that has really
16    worked for us.  Think about partnerships with the media.
17    Think about synergies that you can use.  We have a
18    delightful and very wonderful partnership with the FBI,
19    Neil Shiff does a show, "Just a Minute," every week for
20    us, "Gotcha," that the FBI gets the story out about
21    somebody that they have caught, the bad guys.  And it gets
22    their word out.  It's a delightful information and
23    informative.  And so we use that partnership to get news
24    and information.  And it gets their message out, too.
25    So think about who you could partner with.  Like Eleanor
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1    said, series or ideas about things that are already in the
2    news, and how you can use those and get your word out.  So
3    partnerships and synergy, those seem to be the new buzz
4    words, but I really believe in them because we are using
5    them a lot and we are seeing a lot of success with it.
6    >> TIM CLARK:  Thank you, Marlis.  While we're on the
7    Internet, I might want to add that we do a daily
8    newsletter called governorexec.com, which is free.  You
9    can subscribe to it on our website, and we are reaching
10    70,000 people every day with that.  And we are always
11    looking for interesting things to write about in the
12    federal sector.  So I encourage you to send us an e-mail
13    or call us with any thoughts you have.
14    I know that Max wants to say -- has a few more thoughts on
15    this topic, so I'm going to ask him for those, and then I
16    hope we will have questions from the audience.  Max?
17    >> MAX STIER:  Sure.  One last thing I wanted to share is
18    an initiative that we are doing in partnership with OPM,
19    call the call to serve.  It's an attempt to reconnect the
20    federal government to University communities, a connection
21    that by and large has been lost for most agencies.  We
22    started the project with OPM no more than two months ago.
23    We already have over 350 colleges and universities
24    nationwide that have signed on.  36 agencies.  The
25    interest is astounding.  What's nice about this, though,
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1    is it becomes a vehicle for all of you.  Your agencies, to
2    reach these students.  We have a contact person at every
3    University that has the University president has committed
4    to raising the profile of the federal workforce on their
5    campus, and that becomes a way for you to interact and
6    reach those students and to develop relationships with
7    those universities.  And so if your agency is not involved
8    in this, it should be and you should hopefully have passed
9    the word.
10    One of the important lessons that we learned from that, we
11    had our launch event a week and a half ago, and Senator
12    Lieberman did a terrific job talking.  Director James was
13    fabulous in terms of her remarks.  Secretary Chao from
14    labor did a terrific job.  But this was held at the
15    GW campus.  But the best speaker was Carey Aiksbuller from
16    the state department.  I got her name wrong then, but it's
17    right now.  There was a change in demeanor of the students
18    and by and large everyone else that was there.  So when we
19    talk about putting faces on these things, we have to
20    really talk about what is the right face?  And when you're
21    dealing with the college and University crew, it's
22    important to have people talking to them that are more
23    like them, that can share their experiences in a way that
24    is going to really reach them.  And she could say that, in
25    her four years in the government, she had already been to
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1    over 30 countries, that she had briefed over 500
2    ambassadors and senior officials on cyberterrorism and
3    cybersecurity.  And that was a message that you could not
4    have had any better messenger to provide.
5    So I would strongly suggest that in thinking about this,
6    that we try to identify those kinds of people.
7    Lastly, we have a resource, www.calltoserve.org or .com.
8    It's a platform for people interested in federal jobs.  On
9    that, we selected all the sites where you can get
10    internships in the government, information about
11    terminology, tips about what you go through to get
12    government jobs, and very importantly a site which we
13    refer to as the speakers bureau.  One of the other
14    projects that we are working on is trying to identify the
15    Carey Aiksbullers, so they can become a resource for
16    groups that are interested in having people come there.
17    So I encourage you to look there, identify these people
18    and let us know and you obviously will be able to access
19    that as a resource yourself as well.  Thank you very much.
20    >> TIM CLARK:  Dick?
21    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  As an outgrowth of that call to
22    serve, which really is a tremendous initiative for all of
23    us, we have a pledge to applicants as well.  And you'll
24    get more information about that.  We are in the process of
25    communicating to all the federal agencies through the
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1    directors of personnel.  But the pledge really is a good
2    example of the kind of vision that we have and the fact
3    that we can conceive it means we can work towards
4    achieving it and making it a reality for the way we do
5    business.  It has six different points.  I can do those
6    quickly.  A user friendly application process, literally,
7    1, 2, 3, not burdensome or time consuming.  Clear
8    understandable job announcements and instructions for
9    giving timely responses to questions about the process and
10    timing.  Private agency and the government gets the same
11    criticism.  I could have sent the application to a PO box
12    at random.  I never hear back.
13    The other thing is that we have regular updates on
14    application status.  People tell us over and over again
15    they want to know about it.  Director James has the same
16    message.  And the message is, if I can track where my
17    Christmas wreath is from L.L. Bean, I should be able to
18    track where my application is for a federal job.  And some
19    people have to wait 60 or 120 days or longer, and some
20    agencies are doing exceptional things in this area.  The
21    bureau of the census is reducing it from 100 days to 7
22    days.  Those are the pieces that are part of the pledge
23    and we will hear more about that and hopefully helping us
24    carry it forward as time goes on.
25    >> TIM CLARK:  Let's turn to questions from the audience.
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1    Right there.  The lady in the purple dress.  Sue, that's
2    you.  We have a microphone.  Good.
3    >> Hi.  I'm S. Bitter.  I'm one of the fall blooming
4    perennial PMIs, transplanted in the corporate world.  I
5    came here two years ago, almost.  I'm at the end of my
6    program.  And I think it's an interesting commentary to
7    note that our panel and often our agencies often refer to
8    the young people at college campuses, when in fact if
9    maybe you did your recruiting at night you'd find out that
10    the highest enrollment period is adults.  And they're
11    usually in their mids, like me, and the average age is 46
12    years old.
13    Now, the difficulty is that when you come to federal
14    government as a perennial, you find that the mentality of
15    the individuals that you work with, who are often your
16    peers in age, though they have extensive management
17    experience, is that of caring for the quick, blooming,
18    colorful annuals, and they don't want a bunch of stodgy
19    old perennials around.
20    So with that said, may I also add that I discovered so
21    many wonderful things.  I love the job opportunities that
22    I've had.  I never experienced anything like it in the
23    corporate world.  And I am here because I wanted to make a
24    difference in public service.
25    I've discovered a new term called appreciative inquiry and
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1    all that process of organizational development.  And I'd
2    ask the panel only this:  Could you please start including
3    us as valuable in the federal hiring process?  And is
4    there a movement towards that?  Thank you.
5    (Applause.)
6    >> TIM CLARK:  Which of you perennials would like to field
7    that question?
8    (Laughter.)
9    I'm not sure you qualify as a perennial, Max, but go
10    ahead.
11    >> MAX:  The point is very well taken.  And you're
12    absolutely right and it's true that the federal government
13    really, right now, needs talent at all ages, at all
14    levels.  The partnership issue to report about a month and
15    a half ago about experienced workers and what the
16    government does in terms of recruiting.  And, in fact,
17    what we found was that literally for jobs that are for
18    experienced workers, only half of them are even advertised
19    externally.  Only 13 percent of the federal jobs that are
20    filled come from outside the government.  And the bottom
21    line here is that when you look at the numbers, you look
22    at the talent that the federal government needs, we have
23    to be reaching everywhere and we need to reach the talent,
24    as perennials or however you want to describe it.  And
25    it's true not only in terms of age range, but it's true
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1    also with respect to diversity.  An important issue when
2    you think about looking at the federal government and
3    whether it looks like America, one of the groups that is
4    clearly underrepresented right now in the federal
5    government is the Hispanic community.  And if you're going
6    to do something about that, that means the federal
7    government, A, needs to be reaching out into communities
8    in a very serious way.  And it also needs to make sure
9    that everyone, again, knows about the opportunities that
10    are there.  But I take your point and I will try to be
11    much more careful myself in the future.  Thank you.
12    >> TIM CLARK:  Excellent point.  The comment you made
13    about the student population, we may slip into that notion
14    that these are all fresh out students, when, in fact,
15    you're absolutely right.  You look at the number of people
16    and the age range of people that are in colleges and
17    universities today, they represent a tremendous source of
18    talent for the federal government and others.  We also
19    have another case, well, how can we open the door to mid
20    career changes?  And we have veterans who are leaving
21    armed forces in the same status.  We have to look in that
22    area as well.  It goes without saying, and in fact we
23    probably do need to say it more and more, we are looking
24    for a workforce that looks more like America.  And the
25    demographics are on our side to achieve it and we need to
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1    have a resolution to do that.  We know where we are
2    underrepresented in the Hispanics, and they will be 25 or
3    26 percent of the population.  And people with
4    disabilities need a fair chance to come forward and put
5    their talents to use in federal service, too.
6    >> TIM CLARK:  Martha?
7    >> MARTHA JOHNSON:  When I was an GASA, we exercised the
8    industry hiring authority.  They couldn't come from
9    government, they had to come from industry.  We were in an
10    experiment phase of that, but that was opened up.  So that
11    is a way of bringing people in very fast.  And I just
12    invite you to learn about it.  I'm about a year out of
13    date on the details, but... that's a good thing.
14    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  Based on the research that the
15    Partnership for Public Service has done, we are looking at
16    a companion program to the presidential management program
17    that looks at mid career people for their intro into
18    federal positions.
19    >> TIM CLARK:  That would be a legislative initiative?
20    >> RICHARD A. WHITFORD:  No.  That is something that we
21    are looking at under the regulatory framework.
22    >> TIM CLARK:  A question.
23    >> I'm Carl.  I work for the Department of Army.  Just to
24    let you know, there are interns out here.  At one time I
25    was an intern.  The reference to you, Ms. Johnson, about
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1    quality management or TQM, or it's called a revolution,
2    because it's about change.  We want to make a difference.
3    However, sometimes we don't have that toolbox.  What kind
4    of toolbox does the worker have to get past the leaders
5    that are often dinosaurs, that don't want to change, they
6    are just waiting out their last few years?
7    (Applause.)
8    In a graying workforce, one of the questions -- what I do
9    is I do executive communication training.  It's the senior
10    executives and general officers, we train them on how to
11    address the media.  One of the things we talk about is
12    you've got to treat the media as an audience or
13    conversation with a purpose.  And a lot of the problems
14    that we have is they have this very clear attitude.  We
15    have a lot of things we have to get past.  And so we find
16    that the ones that are the most receptive are the colonel,
17    the major, the people that we taught below the level
18    because they haven't been through that zero defect type
19    mentality.
20    Again, the toolboxes that are out there, maybe
21    Mr. Whitford can help us, what is it as an employee can we
22    do?  I had the idea, sir, if I could put in an idea, the
23    guy who was helping us, I had a response within a week.
24    And it was moving up the track and I could see progress
25    and we had change.  And there were cash awards.  We're
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1    strapped, we don't have the -- we decide, the headquarters
2    downsized, we are seeing our finances go and we want to
3    make a difference.
4    >> I could talk all day, but I'll try just to be very
5    brief in saying that the first thing you've done
6    absolutely right is come together as a group.  And I think
7    that the critical thing about anyone who is addressing
8    change, particularly cultural change, is you should never
9    get out there all by yourself because that just makes you
10    a martyr, and I think you lose the sense of what the
11    issues are just because you are struggling to stay
12    standing.  Now we have technology that allows for that
13    kind of communication.  That's good news.  Those are
14    fairly obvious, quick, almost flat answers right away.
15    But the positioning of it with other people, so that
16    you're sharing ideas, first practicing them with
17    sympathetic people who can hone them and then carry them.
18    We are learning a lot about how organizations spread new
19    ideas.  It's not up, across and down, it's the spiral
20    nature of it.  And I believe that's how the tactics of it
21    need to be shaped.  So that is just a real first answer.
22    But I can chat more afterwards.
23    >> TIM CLARK:  Anyone else?
24    >> There is going to be a government wide survey that I
25    encourage you to actually, as the communication network,
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1    really encourage those who would like to participate, to
2    participate in it.  We used to think that the human
3    resources world just started with a job description or
4    whatever, what we all have come to figure out is that we
5    have to pay attention to organizational culture.  That is
6    where we will rise or fall.  How healthy the culture is
7    that we're working in every day.  We can spend lots of
8    money in the recruitment process, but if we can't retain
9    the good people that we get, we haven't done very much in
10    all of that.  What we need to do is look at organizational
11    culture, and we have lots of studies in that area.  Here
12    are what healthy companies in America are pursuing.  We
13    have to find out what are the healthy benchmarks, where we
14    need improvement.  Clearly one of the things that comes
15    across is that people have poor supervision and they are
16    not open to new ideas.  So we have to incorporate that
17    into our tool kit as the HR community, but we need help in
18    that area communicating why that's an important thing to
19    do.  I'd say you are on the right track, but the key part
20    is not just finding, we are talking about keeping really
21    talented people in federal service, and we have to have an
22    atmosphere that absolutely encourages that.  You have to
23    get to the stage where, when you talk, like we have done
24    this before, you talked to like a janitor at the Johnson
25    Space Center and ask him:  What do you do here?  He says I
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1    help launch space shuttles.  There is somebody who is
2    working in a place that has a healthy culture, and that's
3    the kind of things that people should be after to have
4    them in their agencies and organizations.
5    >> TIM CLARK:  I think we have another question -- over
6    here, yes.
7    >> Yes, good morning.  I'm Ann Cook.  Just been working
8    with a corporate website doing news and content writing
9    and development.  When I look at the idea of becoming
10    something like a government employee, the first ideas that
11    come to mind are not creative, dynamic and forward
12    thinking.  So, right there, there is a selling issue from
13    an employee, potential employee perspective.
14    I think that there is the same issue in corporate America,
15    in terms of a lot of lip service being given to the notion
16    of those ideas and the annual implementation on the ground
17    as far as executive and second level relationships and
18    being able to develop ideas safely from the bottom up,
19    that that hasn't been happening.
20    And I'm just wondering, post September 11th, it seems like
21    there is an opportunity for a paradigm shift in terms of
22    how these organizational cultures work, both in corporate
23    and in federal.  And I'm just wondering if anyone could
24    speak to that.  Thank you.
25    >> TIM CLARK:  Well, that has to be someone who worked in
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1    the federal government, doesn't it?
2    >> I mean we looked at it from the perspective of the
3    magazine and it's the toughest issue, how do you change a
4    culture?  And it's not the work of a moment and you do
5    have organizations that have done we well -- very well of
6    creating a culture of excitement and forward thinking.
7    You could argue that NASA is one of them and elements of
8    military certainly are.
9    But I don't know about the agriculture department.  Here
10    we are in the agriculture department, and I just don't
11    know about that.  Anyone else?
12    >> Yes.  I actually -- I have worked in the federal
13    government at HUD and at the Department of Justice.  And
14    as I indicated earlier, I really do see this as at least,
15    a three tiered problem in terms of recruiting, the hiring
16    process and the jobs themselves.  The jobs themselves are
17    about culture.  One of the jobs that we are engaged with
18    for the Kennedy school executives, we did it just a couple
19    days ago, a presentation on pay for performance in the
20    federal government.  We identified 32 units in government
21    that have some sort of performance management system in
22    which there is a pay for performance component that looked
23    like there is some successful results from that.
24    For the next session, the next session will actually be
25    about the workplace and the work environment.  And we are
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1    going to be going through the same process of trying to
2    identify organizations in the federal government that have
3    very successful cultures.  And so I'll be able to give you
4    more information in about two months or six weeks.  But
5    the point, though, I think is the same, and that is that
6    you're right.  The private sector has good models, they
7    have a lot of bad models, too.  The real question is
8    identifying what works, why it works, and will those
9    things work in the environment in which we're working in?
10    And again, the lesson always has to be I think that one
11    size does not fit all and it has to be tailored to the
12    particular culture and the needs and mission of the
13    organization.
14    But again, we can learn from ourselves.  The federal
15    government does have high performing workplaces.  It does
16    have cultures that are working.  We will be creating the
17    learn center that will have all the information available
18    to you and to everyone else interested in it.  I wish I
19    had it now, but it will be soon.
20    >> TIM CLARK:  We have only five more minutes.  We have a
21    question at the back and we have several other questions.
22    You need a microphone, but anyway, at the back.
23    >> Hi.  My name is Tina Morris.  I was particularly
24    interested in what Mr. Whitford said.  I commute to DC on
25    the DRE.  And over the years I participated in a number of
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1    conversations with experienced IT people who are
2    frustrated with the process of trying to apply for
3    government jobs.  They feel that they are just generating
4    paper work that goes into a blank hole.  Writing a
5    GSA takes time.  So I'm interested in what you had to say
6    and also what Ms. Johnson had to say.  The idea of who is
7    evaluating you and how you're being evaluated.  And among
8    the issues that are discussed in these types of
9    conversations, one of the threads is that there is a
10    secret list of buzz words that the computer looks for in
11    your application.  And if your application doesn't have
12    these buzz words, it just spits you out because it has so
13    many.  And, really, very experienced people are just
14    frustrated.  And they say they don't want to bother.  Not
15    that they're not interested in the jobs, but the process.
16    >> That's something the virtual job fair, that the -- one
17    of the lessons we learned is that this is probably on the
18    right track.  We're not evaluating people in that case on
19    the list of buzz words.  We were asked to do a couple
20    things in the process.  One, try to show how we can fill
21    federal positions more quickly.  How we can fill them with
22    high quality people, look for diversity in an applicant
23    pool at a reasonable cost to the federal government.  We
24    think we are going to be able to show that we have done
25    all three.  The key thing that we know is that there are a
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1    lot of more applicants than jobs available.  So what we
2    have to do is get back to people as quickly as we possibly
3    can and say look, you may not have made it this time, but
4    there will be other opportunities.  We have 17,000 jobs in
5    the database of federal jobs every day.  They change every
6    day.  So there are plenty of opportunities there.  We want
7    to keep people looking, if the first time is not
8    successful, that they need Tom could back a second time,
9    too.
10    That is, saying all that is how we're looking at the
11    mechanics of a process.  At the same time, you're looking
12    at the mechanics of a current process.  You're looking
13    down the road to redesigning the whole process and seeing
14    how you could take out pieces that have been accredited
15    over time, and they just simply get in the way of getting
16    a more modern workforce in place.
17    >> If I could say for one minute more.  You cannot
18    believe, or maybe you can believe it, we just recently
19    acquired assistance from two private sector people who are
20    going to help us in a vacancy announcement project.  They
21    can start rewriting vacancy announcements in plain
22    language, not making them reminiscent of position
23    descriptions.  Those are the things that represent real
24    breakthroughs to the population we are trying to reach.
25    People inside may not have a problem understanding the
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1    code.  People outside really need assistance in a clear
2    description of what it is we want people to do.
3    We ran research groups, all age levels, from college
4    students all the way through who were 69 and 70 years of
5    age, asking them what they read.  And the first message
6    was we read it, we really didn't know what the government
7    was looking for in some of the actual vacancy
8    announcements.  So it was a message for all of us.  And
9    they told us about the tone of the the announcements, that
10    they were too negative and so on.  We have got work to do.
11    But I think an earlier commentary came out.  We have the
12    moment now and we need to seize this opportunity to make
13    these changes, because we're kind of like we are at a
14    precipice for federal employment.  We can go forward and
15    make a significant difference or we can just stand intact.
16    And what I hear from all over the place and from the
17    public, they want us to go forward.
18    >> TIM CLARK:  I'm under strict orders to have you out of
19    here at 11:30, because the Agriculture Department has the
20    entire agriculture department descending on the cafeteria
21    in about half an hour as I understand it.  So, you are
22    going to be ahead of the crowd, if I let you go now.  I'm
23    sure that our panelists would be happy to stick around.
24    There is an announcement from the boss here.  Let's thank
25    the panelists.
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1    (Applause.)
2    >> CAROL HARVEY:  First, we asked Eleanor Clift to bring
3    copies of her book, "Madam president" with her today.
4    Marci is holding one up.  If you'd like to buy a copy and
5    have it autographed by the author, she will do that before
6    she leaves, if you go out the left door there.
7    Some of you signed up for lunch and paid for it in
8    advance.  If you are one of those individuals, you have a
9    blue ticket in your name badge.  And you should go to the
10    back of the cafeteria, where your lunch is waiting for
11    you.  The rest of us will go through the regular line.
12    And if you would like to sign up for membership in the
13    federal communicators network, leave your forms near the
14    door here.  And I'll see you all at 1 o'clock.
15    (End of session.)
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