Federal Government Policy and Business

Are You Ready For Pay For Performance?

Government Executive: The Administration has recently emphasized its intention to implement pay for performance across the federal workforce. You can agree or disagree with the idea, and in my view the evidence is mixed, but that doesn't change the fact that government leaders will have to have a strategy to deal with it.

To make pay for performance work, you have to set clear goals and point the organization towards those goals. Surprisingly this is rarer than it should be. Many organizations have to muddle through without much direction. Some staff are connected to customers and have a good idea of what they need but many others simply revert to doing whatever is convenient, seems to be rewarded internally, or simply engage in internal fights for resources and power. If your culture is like this, pay for performance will simply exacerbate those problems. But if you are able to develop a simple and clear strategy, you have a chance to transform your organization.

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