On October 15, the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization held a hearing to examine the diversity of the Senior Executive Service (SES), the most senior career employees in the federal government.
Testifying on behalf of the General Accounting Office (GAO), George Stalcup summarized a January 2003 GAO study on future trends in the diversity of the SES. He explained that the report estimated by gender, race, and ethnicity the number of members of the career SES who will leave government service from October 1, 2000, through September 30, 2007, and what the profile of the SES will be if appointment trends do not change. First, the report estimates that 55 percent of the career SES members will have left the service by October 1, 2007. In addition, the report estimates that the only change in diversity would be an increase in the number of white women from 19 percent to 23 percent and a near equal decrease in the number of white men from 67 percent to 62 percent. The current proportion of racial and ethnic minorities would change very little.
“Representation by women and minorities in the government’s executive corps and succession pool is crucial if we expect to bring a wider variety of perspectives and approaches to bear on policy development and implementation, strategic planning, problem solving and decision making, and to provide the organization strength that contributes to achieving results,” Mr. Stalcup stated. He also said that the GAO report provided a new opportunity for federal agencies to “affect SES replacement trends by developing succession strategies that help achieve a diverse work force. Along with constructive agency leadership, these strategies could generate a pool of well-prepared women and minorities to boost the diversity of the SES ranks.”
Dr. Ronald Sanders of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) noted that the challenge for the federal government is to “create a diverse pool of applicants by ensuring that those qualified members of traditionally underrepresented communities know about the program and are encouraged to apply.” He outlined the steps that OPM planned to take to increase diversity through its new Federal SES Candidate Development Program (FedCDP), which prepares potential GS-13s and 14s to enter the SES program. The OPM, together with organizations representing the interests of female and minority federal employees, has designed the program to encourage qualified candidates from underrepresented groups to apply for the program and to persuade federal agencies to participate. Dr. Sanders stated that OPM also intends to open the program “to an external applicant pool that is substantially broader, and hence substantially more diverse, than the typical SES ‘feeder’ group of current GS-14s and 15s.”
Patricia Wolfe, President of Federally Employed Women (FEW), lauded OPM’s initiative to increase diversity of the SES ranks, but felt that more action could be taken. She suggested that federal agencies should include more women and minorities at personnel and human resource meetings to represent the views and concerns of these groups; put more of an emphasis on creating opportunities for career ladder positions for women and minorities; provide more cross-training for women and minorities in order to encourage a natural progression to SES positions; and give guidance to management officials outlining specific guidelines on how to enhance diversity in their SES workforces.
