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Department/Agency:

Federal Aviation Administration

City:

Fort Worth

Ideas contributed by Community Member

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Mandate Electronic Forms and Signatures

  There are too many paper transactions in the government. This is particularly true when dealing with the small number of users of federal services that do not own computers. Maintaining the infrastructure and inventory to deal with paper forms submitted by the public is a ridiculous policy regardless of whether "ma and pa service user" choose not to own a computer or have an internet connection. The cost for retaining ...more »

  There are too many paper transactions in the government. This is particularly true when dealing with the small number of users of federal services that do not own computers. Maintaining the infrastructure and inventory to deal with paper forms submitted by the public is a ridiculous policy regardless of whether "ma and pa service user" choose not to own a computer or have an internet connection. The cost for retaining the antiquated processes to generate, process, and store/destroy paper forms significantly outweighs the benefit to the few individuals that do not wish to participate in the modern world.

  Option 1: Eliminate all paper forms and require electronic signatures to process documents.

  Option 2: Establish a single submission point for non-electronic forms that will scan or enter the forms into the electronic system for processing and disposition.

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  3 comments for Idea: Mandate Electronic Forms and Signatures

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Revive OMB Circular A-76 and Restructure to Maximize Results

  It is time to revive OMB Circular A-76 “Performance of Commercial Activities” such that the Federal Government is no longer doing work that is fundamentally identical to private sector “commercial activities”. The government currently labels many federal jobs as “inherently governmental” under current guidance because a tiny sliver of the work fits the intent of that definition, when the bulk of these jobs do not contain ...more »

  It is time to revive OMB Circular A-76 “Performance of Commercial Activities” such that the Federal Government is no longer doing work that is fundamentally identical to private sector “commercial activities”. The government currently labels many federal jobs as “inherently governmental” under current guidance because a tiny sliver of the work fits the intent of that definition, when the bulk of these jobs do not contain functions exclusive to the government. I propose approaching redefinition of federal jobs with a concentrated focus on reducing and consolidating job functions that are “inherently governmental” away from functions that are “commercial activities”. This will greatly enhance the ability of all organizations to adapt to changing demands and fiscal circumstances while minimizing risks and retaining complete control of functions in the public trust.

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  Add your comment for Idea: Revive OMB Circular A-76 and Restructure to Maximize Results

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Use VoIP Phone Services

  Start using VoIP services instead of traditional telephone lines. These services are inexpensive, easy to administer, and allow substantial reductions in infrastructure O&M.

  1 comment for Idea: Use VoIP Phone Services

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  9 votes

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Index Federal Salaries

  There is no doubt that some Federal employees’ compensation is below the market for what they do, but the same number or more are far above it. The government and unions hide behind the idea that the government employees do much more complex work or have greater responsibility, but we seldom select people for positions based on the requirements of the job; what we us is the vague requirements for a series that we want ...more »

  There is no doubt that some Federal employees’ compensation is below the market for what they do, but the same number or more are far above it. The government and unions hide behind the idea that the government employees do much more complex work or have greater responsibility, but we seldom select people for positions based on the requirements of the job; what we us is the vague requirements for a series that we want to fill a position. In truth, very few jobs in the government do not have a direct private sector counterpart; in fact, the government is reducing the number of government-only jobs through its normal operations and the need to reduce costs (e.g. contract air traffic controllers that work for private sector companies—those are private sector air traffic controllers).

  I propose that the Federal Government establish salary indexes for job series that are tied to labor categories in the private sector. Leave out arbitrary increases and ceilings, instead opting to pay workers a fair rate for what they do based on the demand for their skills and skill level. Include incentives for industry certifications (and applicable government counterparts) so that workers are encouraged to increase their value to the organization rather than obtain career status and then “camp out” until retirement. Combined with real performance measures, this will allow the government to get the most bang for its labor buck!

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  1 comment for Idea: Index Federal Salaries

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Base Performance on Productivity, Not Time

  The current systems government-wide rely primarily on time spent in the office and perceived “business” to determine productivity rather than objective outcomes that contribute value to agency missions. I propose developing solid, objective performance metrics for each position in the government, and then converting the current hourly systems into true salaried positions. The results will pay back the cost for evaluating ...more »

  The current systems government-wide rely primarily on time spent in the office and perceived “business” to determine productivity rather than objective outcomes that contribute value to agency missions. I propose developing solid, objective performance metrics for each position in the government, and then converting the current hourly systems into true salaried positions. The results will pay back the cost for evaluating work many times by allowing agencies to:

  • Establish and maintain legitimate performance incentive systems

  • Eliminate tenure as a part of worker retention (i.e. stop promoting and retaining just because someone has a lot of time in the agency)

  • Enable telework as a real strategic option

  • Shape work processes to meet true agency needs

  • Eliminate unnecessary meetings, conferences, and the like

  • Establish and maintain legitimate performance improvement programs

  • Creating and managing jobs to achieve maximum employee engagement

  • Compare worker value to the organization through objective, “apples to apples” outcomes

  • Move or remove unproductive “dead weight” from the payroll

  • Allow better job definitions to improve recruitment based on the needs of the job, not just the series that occupies the desk currently

  • Facilitate process and performance improvements by recruiting and retaining experts in the actual work done (e.g. hire certified business analysis to do analysis work in business units instead of field technical experts, engineers, or mathematicians)

  • Establish meaningful connections between operational and support functions within agencies

  • Accurately represent employee expectations, contributions, and best practices

  • The list goes on!

  It is important to note that significant literature exists regarding the measurement of white-collar productivity, and a lot of the work emphasizes measuring and reporting jobs that are non-routine. The biggest part of making progress in this area is tracing job tasks to higher-level business functions (e.g. interviewing is a task of the HR business function; invoicing is a task of the purchasing business function; etc.). It may require difficult discussions however, because there are meetings and other “busy work” assignments that do not contribute to a business outcome, and it is necessary to eliminate these. In the end, work that does not result in progress in a business function of the agency is not productive.

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  5 comments for Idea: Base Performance on Productivity, Not Time

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Transition to Remote Desktop Systems

  Some suggestions propose that the government should figure out a better way to by the millions of individual copies of software that each stand alone PC uses in the government. I propose that we move even farther, and into a remote desktop infrastructure that reduces redundancy, enhances administration and monitoring, and enables telework globally without compromising security or system availability. The current configuration ...more »

  Some suggestions propose that the government should figure out a better way to by the millions of individual copies of software that each stand alone PC uses in the government. I propose that we move even farther, and into a remote desktop infrastructure that reduces redundancy, enhances administration and monitoring, and enables telework globally without compromising security or system availability. The current configuration is based on very expensive storage and bandwidth costs, but the current and future reality is that both are very inexpensive, and they are getting cheaper and better all of the time. Additionally, in a world where many things are trending toward platform independent operation, we continue to manage the configuration of memory modules and other items only because of our platform dependent infrastructure. Remote desktop configuration (e.g. Citrix Desktop) fixes these problems.

  Thanks to a comment, we now know that the government already owns and controls capabilities in this area ( http://spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm )! Now, lets make this the way we work everyday, not the way we work only when we have no other choice!

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  1 comment for Idea: Transition to Remote Desktop Systems

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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