The jobs of politically appointed executives leading federal agencies are typically seen as being mostly about policy and politics, not internal management and organizational performance. But is that really the case? And if so, should politicos then stay out of the management realm? Harvard’s Kennedy School recently looked at the issue in their new report,Read… Read more »
In your mind, good citizen engagement might not be that important. Sure, your agency tweets and engages occasionally online, but its not a focus or a priority. After all, it can’t really affect anything that you’re doing that much, right? Wrong. According to new data from Forrester Research, bad citizen engagement and poor customer service fromRead… Read more »
At today’s GovLoop training, The Citizen and the Government – How they Connect, we heard from Martha Dorris, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies (OCSIT) at the General Services Administration (GSA). She started off by telling us that if we didn’t get anything else from her speech (don’t worry, we did!),Read… Read more »
The federal performance appraisal system is somewhat similar to performance reviews in other job sectors. It’s an assessment of how well you’re performing your duties, whether you’re meeting expectations, if your skills still align with the job you have, how well you communicate or work in groups, etc. Such appraisals come into play when itsRead… Read more »
Slow days happen for a couple of reasons. It could be that our workload is just lighter that day – say we’re waiting for necessary information to start on a project, or it’s simply the off season in your field. Or, maybe there are legitimate projects to be done, but because of burnout or generalRead… Read more »
Baby boomers are retiring in droves and the government is in desperate need of the next generation of public servants. But government doesn’t just want anybody – they want the best and the brightest. One program that is looking to help attract the top talent is the Presidential Management Fellowship program. For more than 35Read… Read more »
It’s a scary digital world out there. A recent GAO study found that cyber attacks on government have increased 782% between 2006 and 2012. With increasing amounts of sensitive data stored in your network or cloud, your agency faces risks that are not to be taken lightly. It’s not all doom and gloom, however. There are stepsRead… Read more »
Once upon a time, there was a young girl living in Fairfax County, yearning to go to school. She wanted nothing but to attend the best school in the safest neighborhood with a good police force. But the problem was that she had no way of figuring out which schools were in which areas. InRead… Read more »
Remember your teacher telling you to pay attention and “Get your head out of the clouds?” Well, times have changed, and it’s time to get your head in the cloud. Cloud computing, that is. With a simple internet search, it is easy to discover the many ways in which cloud computing is benefitting private andRead… Read more »
You wouldn’t go to a new restaurant without checking out the Yelp reviews, but government might buy a billion dollar software system without checking the data first. But now government is trying to reverse the trend. They are starting to use performance data to create better government decision-making. Chris Mihm, Managing Director of Strategic IssuesRead… Read more »