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12 ideas posted

22 comments 3781 votes

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Department/Agency:

US Dept of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons

City:

Honolulu

Ideas contributed by Community Member

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

  Take top 25 submissions and top 25 contributors for discussion

  I like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do. It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time. I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really ...more »

  I like most ideas on this website. I think that most ideas have come from somebody who is trying to do a great job at what they do.

  It has become so difficult to navigate through that, I have decided to take 15 minutes out of my day to dedicate to this at home on my own time.

  I believe that the top 25 contributors and top 25 idea submitters should be invited to bring their heads together and discuss what is really important to their agency and to the federal government as a whole.

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  5 comments for Idea: Take top 25 submissions and top 25 contributors for discussion

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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

  Make smarter public sector purchases

  Government purchasing is typically spread across several departments. Consolidating and streamlining the purchasing process not only reduces time, money, and potential mis-communication between departments, but also allows to make government purchasing more transparent and easily audited. Strengthening the centralized purchasing organization by giving it power to do thorough product assessments and work closely with relevant ...more »

  Government purchasing is typically spread across several departments. Consolidating and streamlining the purchasing process not only reduces time, money, and potential mis-communication between departments, but also allows to make government purchasing more transparent and easily audited. Strengthening the centralized purchasing organization by giving it power to do thorough product assessments and work closely with relevant agencies will also lead to more targeted (and thus less wasteful) purchasing.

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  1 comment for Idea: Make smarter public sector purchases

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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

  Change government employee mindsets.

  Government employees have different challenges than private-sector employees. Absent a competitive environment, focusing on the customer is less of a priority. Bureaucratic “silos” create redundant jobs and inter-departmental tension. Risk-taking is often unrewarded and occasionally punished. Turning these mindsets around by incentivizing customer service and innovation and creating inter-departmental teams working toward ...more »

  Government employees have different challenges than private-sector employees. Absent a competitive environment, focusing on the customer is less of a priority. Bureaucratic “silos” create redundant jobs and inter-departmental tension. Risk-taking is often unrewarded and occasionally punished. Turning these mindsets around by incentivizing customer service and innovation and creating inter-departmental teams working toward the same goal would create huge gains in productivity and save the government stacks of long-term cash.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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

  Keep track of what's actually necessary.

  An example cited in the McKinsey report is the U.S. security clearance process. At its worst, it took 446 days to obtain a security clearance, costing the government $1 billion a year in backlogs. Now, after doing a thorough and objective analysis of the process and eliminating all unnecessary or non-value-adding steps to the process, the time required has been reduced to a tenth of that time (around 40 days). This is ...more »

  An example cited in the McKinsey report is the U.S. security clearance process. At its worst, it took 446 days to obtain a security clearance, costing the government $1 billion a year in backlogs. Now, after doing a thorough and objective analysis of the process and eliminating all unnecessary or non-value-adding steps to the process, the time required has been reduced to a tenth of that time (around 40 days). This is something that can be applied in all areas of government.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  11 votes

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Keep actual performance metrics.

  art of the problem with productivity is that it's hard to measure. Frequently, productivity is lost just because standards are unclear about what a “good” job is or there's no incentive to find out what a “good” job is. By developing specific, quantifiable measurements about what is expected to be done at government positions, productivity can increase for the cost of a few TPS reports.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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

  Mandating productivity from the top levels of government

  A constant complaint of government antagonists and private-sector advocates is that the public sector doesn't have to compete, and so there's no real incentive for government managers and employees to do the absolute best job they can. There's just no real competition for government services — it's not like people can get Swedish health care here (although those Canadian pharmaceuticals are another matter entirely). Mandates ...more »

  A constant complaint of government antagonists and private-sector advocates is that the public sector doesn't have to compete, and so there's no real incentive for government managers and employees to do the absolute best job they can. There's just no real competition for government services — it's not like people can get Swedish health care here (although those Canadian pharmaceuticals are another matter entirely). Mandates need to come from the top levels because individual agencies have practically no incentive to innovate that exceeds their desire to not be publicly castigated for innovative failures.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  21 votes

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Elimnate the use of Floor Stripper in the Prisons

  When ever someone from a Regional or the Central office visits a federal prison, Federal Prisons across the US use tens of thousands of dollars of floor stripper and wax on the floors for aesthetics.

  2 comments for Idea: Elimnate the use of Floor Stripper in the Prisons

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  13 votes

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  Increasing Trade, Exports, and Overall Competitiveness »

  Directing Employees to YouTube videos they can't view?

  Today I received an agency wide email directing me to "http://www.whitehouse.gov/federalvoices" to view Obama's speech inviting all federal employees to participate in the"Federal Voices" initiative. The problem is the video is an embedded YouTube video. If the government wishes to implement the "Federal Voices" effectively, it might want to think about directing them to videos, they ARE able to view.

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  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  162 votes

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

  Solar Power for Federal Buildings

  Create and enforce a policy that all federal buildings use solar panels. The Federal Detention Center in Honolulu has the highest electricity bill on the island of Oahu and doesn't use any solar power!

  15 comments for Idea: Solar Power for Federal Buildings

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  26 votes

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  Reform Eeo

  Its a bad solution to a bad problem. Find a better way to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the work place. It costs the taxpayers money every time some one says something ignorant to a fellow employee.

  5 comments for Idea: Reform Eeo

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  111 votes

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

  This web site,

  Instead of having ideas submitted like this once a year, why not have this website operational year round? Employees a bound to come up with similar ideas during other parts of the year but have no way to submit them.

  6 comments for Idea: This web site,

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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

  Percentage Incentive to Employee for Money Saved

  If an employee comes up with an idea to save money and it works, then that employee should get percentage of the amount saved.

  12 comments for Idea: Percentage Incentive to Employee for Money Saved

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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