Happy employees reflect the culture at GAO

So declares comptroller general David Walker, head of the congressional watchdog agency. By most accounts, GAO, under his leadership, has built one of the most progressive management cultures in government.

“What was surprising when I first came to [GAO] was how organized and supportive the [management] structure was,” said Sharon Larkin, a senior attorney in the procurement law division of GAO’s Office of General Counsel, who has worked at the agency for five years. “There’s always bureaucracy and rules within government. I expected it to be much less organized and much less supportive than it is.”

To foster such an environment, Walker puts a lot of stock in his employees. Indeed, around Washington, he’s known as “Mr. Human Capital.”

Walker says he likes the term human capital because it denotes a conceptual shift from the traditional “human resource” or “personnel” function. As a “knowledge-based enterprise,” he said, GAO’s most important asset is its people.

PEOPLE POWER. “You are only as good as your people,” he said. “Therefore, you need to recognize that reality. You need to modernize your policies and practices in order to attract and retain and motivate a top-quality workforce.”

A case in point is Linda Miller, who joined the agency earlier this year as a communications analyst with GAO’s homeland security and justice team. “I wouldn’t have worked anywhere else,” said Miller, who cites GAO’s family-friendly perks—an on-site day-care center, flexible hours and a gym—as big incentives.

“I see the management influence,” said Miller. “There’s a real willingness to listen to what the employees have to say and to try to make changes,” she said.

It’s that type of culture that frees employees to concentrate on fulfilling GAO’s mission—which in itself is highly attractive to employees.

Larkin, for example, values the sense of accomplishment she gets from achieving the GAO’s goal of saving taxpayers money.

“I like the role the GAO plays,” said Larkin, who worked in private practice before taking a position at GAO. “It’s a very rewarding feeling” to work for the good of the country. “That’s why I came here,” she said.

It’s a rigorous strategic plan that lets GAO’s management culture bloom. Under Walker, who began a 15-year term at GAO in 1998, GAO has become focused around the plan, which is designed to ensure and measure its efficiency.

Accordingly, GAO has redefined “success” around results-based criteria, such as how satisfied its client—Congress—is and how happy its employees are, he said.

The first ingredient in meeting those goals is capable, committed and progressive leadership, Walker said. For government agencies, that means a mix of political appointees and career officials working together to focus on developing a plan and defining key goals and objectives.

“Then you have to end up modifying your metrics in order to get people focused” on key outcomes, Walker explained.

Those metrics show GAO’s plan is working. The agency is actually a little smaller than it was eight years ago, but results, as measured by the criteria laid out in the strategic plan, have “doubled in most categories,” Walker said.

At GAO, success is measured according to financial benefits—for example, how much taxpayer money is saved by agencies following its recommendations—and also by harder-to-track qualities such as improvements to safety, security or privacy. In addition, individuals and departments, as well as the agency as a whole, are monitored and measured on their performance.

“We have modernized our performance-management system to be able to make sure we are focusing more on results,” Walker said. That means using technology to monitor key metrics and milestones. The agency has a department, the Office of Quality and Continuous Improvement, dedicated to that. Its strategic plan and performance reports are posted on the agency’s Web site.

Planning for leadership change is key to a long-term strategic plan, said Walker. GAO has a strong program for executive succession in place, so the agency can “make sure that we have a viable and vibrant organization that will stand the test of time.”

Of course, GAO is not unique in having a strategic plan. “Everyone has one, but few follow them,” said Robert Tobias, director of the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation and of public sector executive education at American University. “I think Walker has infused the strategic plan into the way GAO operates.”

GAO ranked No. 4 last year on the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government survey, sponsored by AU and the Partnership for Public Service.

“My students want to go to GAO,” Tobias said. “They see it as an incredibly desirable place to work. I attribute that to Walker.”

GAO does a terrific job with matching people’s skills to their assignments, leading to a high level of job satisfaction, Tobias said. The agency also provides ample opportunity for workers to move among departments and jobs, so people don’t get bored and leave, he said.

During Walker’s tenure, “the performance of the agency has increased both in terms of the quality and in terms of the quantity,” said Tobias.

Walker’s 15-year term as head of GAO gives him the flexibility to act on and improve his plan, said John Kamensky, senior fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government and a former GAO employee. That gives GAO an edge on other agencies.

Unlike other government leaders, “he’s able to undertake initiatives that take multiple years to enact, and is there so he can actually see them through,” Kamensky said. Moreover, he said, the GAO’s strategic plan is “clearly focused on the kinds of issues Congress sees as cutting edge,” and that’s “encouraging the Congress to be more forward-looking.”

“Other agencies are much more likely to implement GAO’s recommendations because they see GAO itself is living to those same standards,” Kamensky said. “It’s changed the culture at GAO.”