, ,

It’s too early to plan for FY15, right? Wrong.

It may seem hard to believe, but the Federal Fiscal Year 2013 is a mere 3 months away. Lots will happen between now and October 1, but it’s important that government employees in all different functional areas (not just budget officials) begin to think about what they want to accomplish in FY14 / FY15.

Ask yourself these questions (and you don’t need to be a manager):

  • Were you pleased with your office’s talent strategy in FY12? Did you have one that you can clearly articulate?
  • Did you recruit and retain the caliber of employee that is necessary to achieve your mission and high-priority performance goals?
  • If you answered NO, what are you going to do about it in the future?

OPTION ONE: Sit around, kvetch (complain for non-Yiddish speakers), and wait for HR to fix everything.

OPTION TWO: Allocate funds for strategic recruiting activities, professional development, and executive coaching.

Tip #1 – Get as specific as you possibly can. Think about which positions you might recruit for in the coming years (i.e. who’s planning to retire or where might you have unforeseen attrition that would really cripple your organization?)

Tip #2 – Think about the 3-4 best training opportunities, who you’d like to send, and how much they cost.

Tip #3 – Finally, who might benefit from executive coaching or other leadership development activities? Ask for recommendations internally or here on GovLoop. Then, work with your budget office to allocate funds for these purposes. You may be asked to justify these added costs; don’t let that scare you off.

Special thanks to Peter Sperry for the correction!

Which option will you choose?

Andy Lowenthal is a public sector strategy consultant. Follow him on 
Twitter and friend him on GovLoop.

Leave a Comment

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Peter Sperry

Well considering the budget for FY 2013 went to OMB last August, was submittted to Congress in February and is currently being considered by the Appropriations committees; all of these activities, while desirable, needed to have been completed about 14 months ago to have much impact in FY 2013. For most agencies, the window for FY 2014 closed about 2-4 weeks ago when internal budgets were due to cabinet level departmental budget offices. But the items mentioned should certainly be carefully considered when preparing agencies FY 2015 budget request.