The Growing Importance of
Performance Management
Systems at the Federal Level in
the United States
Professor Kenneth Apfel
University of Maryland
KEY COMPONENTS OF PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT PLANS
• System of measuring performance, setting
performance goals and establishing
accountabilities
• System used to manage the organization
(through common language)
• System linked to strategic planning and
evaluation processes
• Internal and external involvement and
acceptance of system - transparency
PERFORMANCE-STAT TENETS
• Accurate and timely
intelligence shared by all.
• Rapid deployment of
resources
• Effective tactics and
strategies
• Relentless follow-up and
assessment
The Baltimore Citi-Stat Process
Participating
agencies
submit
customized
data templates
on a regular
basis to report
on key
performance
indicators.
Mapping
Digital maps are
used to plot
complaints,
vacant homes, lead
paint violations,
food inspections,
and potholes,
allowing managers
to track employee
performance and
public service
delivery.
• Most states - and many US cities - have
now established performance
management systems in varying forms.
• This is a harder task for the US Federal
Government, but performance systems
are growing in importance.
• Older history: Johnson, Nixon, Reagan
PRESIDENT CLINTON’S PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT APPROACH
• Use Government Performance and
Results Act to drive reforms – a federal
law, not just administrative reforms by
the Executive Branch
• National Performance Review – over
1,200 proposals bubbled up.
• Outcomes to be transparent
• Hammer Awards – recognition and
rewards for major successes
GPRA FRAMEWORK:
• Strategic Plans
– general goals and objectives, including outcomerelated goals and objectives, for the major agency
functions
• Annual Performance Plans
– establish performance goals to define the level of
performance to be achieved by a program activity
• Program Performance Reports
– Includes the performance indicators established
in the agency performance plan, along with the
actual program performance achieved compared
with the performance goals expressed in the plan
for that fiscal year.
SSA’s Performance Management Plan
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL INVOLVEMENT IN:
1. Mission
2. Strategic Plan (5 year plan)
3. Annual Performance Plan (annual plan)
4. Annual Performance Reports (results)
Performance reinforced through:
–
–
–
–
Monthly Executive meetings
Quarterly Management Meetings
Regional/Field Actions: Drive Down in Organization
Link to Accountability
President Bush’s Performance
Management Approach
• President’s Management “Scorecard”
• Program Assessment Review Tool
• Greater transparency
• A forceful, focused, high level approach!
Executive Branch
Management Scorecard
Program Assessment Rating Tool
•
Assesses Programs in Four Key Dimensions
– Purpose and Design
– Planning
– Management
– Results and Accountability
•
Generates Objective Program Ratings
– Effective
– Moderately Effective
– Adequate
– Ineffective
– Results Not Demonstrated
•
•
Encourages Continuous Improvement
Applies Consistent Framework to all Programs
National Academy of Public Administration
Study on Federal Performance Management
Strengthen performance initiatives by:
• Focusing on high Administration priorities
• Establishing agency accountability
• Establishing more transparency
• Conducting consultations with Congress
• Ensuring that performance systems are
both useful and used
The Governance Dilemma
(Donald Kettl)
• Coordination
– Growing need for network-based solutions
– No one is—or can be—in charge of results
– Need for a leader to guide process
• Environment
– Intense, immediate media coverage
– Large, rapid costs from program failure
– Serious problems spread globally
• Constraints
– Money: fiscal limits
– Management: results we have are as good as it gets
• Intellectual capital
– No clear guide for theory or practice
17
President Obama’s Performance
Management Approach
• A new, strengthened performance law
• Establish a new White House and agency
senior executive: Chief Performance Officer
• Focus all agency performance around 2-4
key performance goals
• Establish broad-based, cross-cutting
networked goals
• Make performance information both a useful
and a used management tool
The Government Performance and
Results Modernization Act of 2010
Signed into law on January 4, 2011-- reinforces the
1993 GPRA performance legislation:
White House to work with agencies to create a
Federal Performance Plan and Federal Priority Goals.
 White House to develop government-wide
performance goals in consultation with key
committees of Congress.
All federal agencies to designate a Chief Operating
Officer and a Performance Improvement Officer
Systems need more transparency
19
Recovery.gov
20
Recovery.gov
21
WWW.data.gov
(and next generation)
22
USAspending.gov
23
Most Important:
Performance.gov
• This new site will include performance and
evaluation information for all federal
agencies
• Still in development stage --not yet ready
for public viewing
• Soon!
Example of Performance.gov:
Dep’t of Housing and Urban Development
• HUDStat:
• -- HUD is using HUDStat meetings – frequent goalfocused, data-driven discussions – to identify
problems and examine them more carefully to find
patterns and causal relationships, speed progress,
improve quality, prevent or reduce problems, and cut
costs.
• --In one HUDStat meeting that focused on rental
housing, HUD examined geographic disparities in
public housing occupancy rates to identify
opportunities for increasing the number of renters it
serves. HUDStat sessions inform program and
budget decisions.
Example of Performance.gov:
Food and Drug Administration
• FDA-TRACK:
• --FDA-Track develops, monitors, and reports on
monthly performance measures, which are then
analyzed and discussed with Agency's senior
leadership.
• --FDA-Track website allows the public to view FDA’s
performance data, learn about the agency’s breadth
of responsibilities, and track progress.
• --FDA-Track includes important Agency-wide
initiatives, such as progress on egg farm
inspections, H1N1 vaccines and medical
countermeasures.
Example of Performance.gov:
Social Security Administration
SSA Performance Improvement Officer is the new,
accountable official
All federal agencies required to establish ambitious
Priority Goals to achieve over the next 18-24 months.
Social Security Administration has four Priority Goals:
Increase benefit applications filed “online”
Reduce backlogs for disability claims
Improve customers’ service experience
Ensure effective stewardship by increasing program
integrity efforts
SSA evaluations to be included in Annual Performance
and Accountability Reports
27
Example: Crosscutting Goals
• High Priority Performance Goals: limited
number, high public value, achievable in 1824 months:
• Examples:
– Reduce the population of homeless
veterans to 59,000 by June, 2012 (HUD and
VA and HHS)
– By the end of 2011, increase the number of
provinces in Afghanistan in which women
and children are food secure from 10 to 14.
(USDA, State, Defense)
• Evaluation initiatives linked to goals
28
CLINTON AND BUSH AND
OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS
• The past two decades: a stronger approach than the
performance initiatives of prior US Administrations.
• Focus on results: federal laws enacted with greater focus on
performance.
• Major, high visibility efforts by all three Presidents. And all
newer initiatives were built on the performance initiatives (and
weaknesses) of prior Administrations.
• All important steps. But the increasingly “networked” nature of
public challenges will test the performance management
movement in the years ahead. Who is accountable for what?
• PREDICTION: Future Presidents may criticize past Presidential
efforts -- but they will build on past efforts, with increased
transparency. Performance management is here to stay.