Governmentwide, agencies need to place increased emphasis on holding senior executives accountable for organizational goals. The American people expect and deserve this linkage as well. At the same time, GAO’s work over the years, most prominently in our High- Risk and Performance and Accountability Series, has amply documented that many agencies suffer from a range of long-standing management challenges and a lack of attention to basic stewardship responsibilities, requiring concerted action and sustained top-level attention if they are to be addressed. We also must carefully examine the composition of the SES. GAO’s Constructive Efforts to Help Agencies Address Their Human Capital Challenges

As the federal government’s leading accountability organization, we have made a concerted effort to identify and encourage the implementation of human capital practices that improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government. We also understand that we have a responsibility to “lead by example” and “practice what we preach” in all key management areas, including strategic human capital management. By managing our workforce strategically and focusing on results, we are helping to maximize our own performance and ensure our own accountability. The most prominent change in human capital management that we implemented as a result of the GAO Personnel Act of 1980 was a broadbanded pay-for-performance system.
What GAO Found

Strategic human capital management is critical to maximizing government's performance and ensuring its accountability for the benefit of the American people. The early years of the 21st century are proving to be a period of profound transition being driven by several key trends, including global interdependence; diverse, diffuse, and asymmetrical security threats; rapidly evolving science and technology; dramatic shifts in age and composition of the population; important quality of life issues; the changing nature of the economy; and evolving governmental structures and concepts. GAO designated strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area because of a long-standing lack of a consistent strategic approach to marshaling, managing, and maintaining the human capital needed for government to deliver on its promises. Three broad human capital reform opportunities are instrumental to agency transformation efforts: aligning individual and organizational performance, implementing results-oriented pay reform, and sustaining agency transformation efforts.