The Partnership for Public Service has called upon the incoming United States Administration to make addressing a “looming crisis” in the Federal bureaucracy a top priority.
The non-profit, non-partisan organisation that strives for a more effective Government, said nearly two-thirds of the Senior Executive Service would be eligible to retire by the end of fiscal 2023.
It said that elsewhere in the Federal workforce, one-third of employees on board at the end of fiscal 2019 were eligible to retire at the end of 2023.
A recent survey the Partnership conducted with Princeton University, Vanderbilt University and Georgetown University found just 6.3 per cent of Federal employees were under the age of 30 as of June 2019.
The survey found only 45 per cent of respondents said their Agencies had enough employees to do a quality job.
The Partnership recommended a national Federal hiring campaign to encourage young talent to join Government.
It called for a “clear mandate” for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to develop a proposal for a brand new, modern personnel system that would more effectively attract and retain top talent.
In a statement accompanying the survey, the Partnership said leadership development and training opportunities for supervisors and executives should be a top priority.
It was supported by the Senior Executives Association and the Centre for Organisational Excellence which said the Federal workforce did not have the capacity to handle all the challenges today’s world had thrown at it.
In a joint report, the two organisations recommended a reorganisation of the OPM and the creation of a Select Committee on the Federal Workforce in Congress.
Washington, 11 November 2020
