High-performing organizations in the private and public  sectors have long understood the relationship between effective “people  management” and organizational success. All five of the agencies we reviewed have experienced challenges in  managing their human capital. To  address its strategic human capital management challenges, FEMA has  started an initiative to reduce middle management layers and streamline its  organization. Agency  leaders must commit their organizations to valuing and investing in their  employees and focusing their employees’ efforts on achieving stated  agency missions and goals. For example, FEMA’s U.S. Fire  Administration teams had members from units throughout the  organization. Some of the barriers included  a lack of trust, resistance to change and a lack of buy-in, and  implementation issues. Implementation Issues

Implementation issues, such as workload demands and performance  incentive issues, also presented barriers to change. Agencies Cited Examples Of Performance Improvements

Agencies identified a range of examples to demonstrate the different ways  performance can be improved in implementing the practices to empower  and involve employees. These practices are   providing sustained leadership commitment to open communications  and support culture change,  engaging unions to include all perspectives in achieving consensus   using a variety of formal and on-the-job training approaches to facilitate  the development of new skills,  encouraging employees to combine their resources and talents by  working together in teams,   involving employees in planning and sharing performance information  so that employees help shape agencies’ goals and better understand how  their day-to-day activities contribute to results, and  empowering staff by giving them the authority they need to make  decisions and effectively conduct agency operations.
What GAO Found

People are the federal government's most valuable asset. Studies of private and public sector organizations have shown that high-performing organizations value and invest in their employees--human capital--and align their "people policies" to support organizational performance goals. In the federal government, however, strategic human capital management is a pervasive challenge. GAO has included human capital on its high-risk list. The Administration's emphasis on workforce planning and restructuring will require federal agencies to flatten their organizational hierarchy and improve their work processes. To optimize the services provided to citizens, federal employees must understand the link between their daily work and the results their organization seeks to achieve. For the initiatives GAO reviewed, agencies had to overcome organizational and cultural barriers, including a lack of trust, resistance to change and lack of buy-in from front-line employees and managers, and various implementation issues, such as workload demands. The agencies developed strategies to address these barriers, such as maintaining open communication and reassigning and hiring personnel. In implementing the practices to empower and involve employees, agencies identified a range of examples to demonstrate the performance improvements these efforts have accomplished.