According to the Washington Post, Zients said in a speech at the National Treasury Employee Union luncheon last week that, âMany of our [personnel] policies are bureaucratic, cumbersome and outdated. Too often, we donât focus on âpeopleâ as a primary tool for achieving our missions, and we under-invest in management and development.â
He also said âTo attract and retain the best people, we need to fundamentally rethink how we both hire and develop our employees.â Zients went on to explain in his speech how he hopes to cut the administrationâs hiring time in half because the current process is a confusing maze of paperwork and signatures.
Some of the other changes Zients believes would be necessary to reform these processes are improved job training, more job performance ratings and improved IT. He also hopes to bring the governmentâs retirement records up to speed with the present time and ultimately foster more effective and positive relationships between personnel and management.