Your Plan Is A Great Beginning...

by Ed Powell
Director of Business Development for Monster Government Solutions

You should feel proud of what you and your team have accomplished. You have completed your agencies Human Capital Strategic Plan “on-time and on-budget.” Also, in those all-important next steps:

• You have finely aligned your Human Capital program goals with the mission and strategic goals of your agency,
• You have a team focused on building and reinforcing a Performance Culture in you agency,
• You have created an Executive Succession strategy and component plans for ensuring a rich and diverse pipeline of future executive talent,
• You have created a Knowledge Management awareness in your agency and have programs in place for ensuring the conservation of the corporate memory and other intellectual jewels of your agency,
• you have a comprehensive Workforce Management program that is based on an exhaustive inventory of the competencies in the existing workforce and seasoned and studied projections of the future competency needs of your agency, and
• You have attracted genuine top management interest and investment in Plan success.

What a great START! Now let’s REALLY get down to business in earning “a seat at the table” in agency strategic leadership.

You have shown that your Human Capital Strategic Plan is not an empty Plan -- a “credenza document” that is read once, put aside and never referenced. How? You have taken the next steps -- you have created plans, programs, teams, activities and you have generated management interest.

However, when those newly interested and invested top managers ask you –

“What is our progress in meeting the goals in the Human Capital Strategic Plan… (or) the Workforce Management Program… (or) the Executive Succession strategy?”

How will you answer? There was a time when evaluations like “great” or “fine” or “perfect” were acceptable answers. Today is not one of those times.

In 2004, federal executives demand performance- and outcome-based metrics. They want to see actionable goals and measurements that, for example, demonstrate that (1) genuine progress is being made and (2) the trajectory of change will result in goal attainment in accordance with the plan. They want this for every Plan component, every objective, every goal, every planned outcome.

Measurement is not something to be feared. It is an integral part of the management process and few plans ever live up to their promise without it. Measurement provides substance to the planning process by turning ideas into a measurable reality. It enables you to finely define the starting point, the “baseline” or the “As is” state of you agency. Then, it allows to quantify and identify the magnitude of the gap between the beginning state and the “To Be” end state as well as to track the speed, rate and volumes of gap closure.

Most importantly, measurement is the means by which you monitor the effectiveness of your plan execution so that you can adjust or abandon strategies that are not providing the expected results. It is the only way to provide the answers that your top managers demand.

Where do you start? Ideally, measures and plan goals are determined at the same time. If that didn’t occur, don’t fret—all is not lost. You start with today and identify the appropriate baselines on which all future measures will be based. For example:

• What is our average cost and average elapsed time for a new hire? (Outcome – Reduce time for new hire to __ and cost to $___ by 200_)
• What are the customer satisfaction levels with our services? (Outcome – Improved customer satisfaction with services to__% by 200_)
• What percentage of our workforce is eligible for voluntary or early retirement? (Outcome – Reduce average age of workforce to __ by 200_)
• What percentage of our EEO complaints/grievances are resolved using ADR? (Outcome – Increase use of ADR for complaints by _% a year to 200_)
• What is the voluntary turnover percentage in key occupations? (Outcome – Reduce voluntary turnover by _% a year to 200_)