A new report from the Partnership for Public Service outlines the barrel the Senior Executive Service is facing in terms of recruitment and how it can improve an impending workforce shortfall.

The Senior Executive Service faces an impending workforce shortfall, but a new report from the Partnership for Public Service offers strategies for tackling the challenge.

The service is being squeezed on two sides, first by the potential of losing half of its workforce before the next administration takes office and then the tepid reception it has received from the talent that could refill its ranks.

Following December's executive order from the Obama administration to reform the service, the partnership sought to find out how the SES could both solve problems.

Related: Read the report

"These are critical outcomes for our nation," said Mallory Barg Bulman, research director for the Partnership for Public Service. "We're talking about Social Security. We're talking about education. We're talking about our law enforcement and criminal justice systems. This could be an opportunity, but we also see the pipeline of individuals is not as robust as it needs to be."

Bulman added that tThe partnership also surveyed fellows in its Excellence in Government program — a curriculum for GS-14 and GS-15s to improve their leadership development — and found that only 58 percent were interested in joining the SES, according to Bulman.

Its The report, co-authored with McKinsey & Company, looks at four focus areas that the service can center its interest to improve for both the recruitment of new talent and the retention of veteran executives. Among them include:

  • Culture, recognition and prestige.
  • Recruiting and hiring.
  • Performance management.
  • Leadership development.

The report’s authors recommended a series of strategies to address each area. To improve culture, the report touched on strategies that have been included in the SES reform executive order, like more recognition awards and events, but also by fostering greater communication and collaboration between SES members to increase innovation and the use of best practices.

To tackle the recruiting crunch, the report said agencies should use resume-based hiring and behavior-based interviewing strategies to streamline the screening process. Including more gender and ethnic diversity strategies could also were also seen as a positive step in drawing in more talent, as women account for 33 percent of senior executives and minorities only 20 percent.

The report recommended adding qualitative measures to performance reviews and leveraging those for recognition awards to incentive SES members, as well as to plan succession and recruitment.

To develop better leaders, the report again mirrored the executive order by recommending that executives rotate through multiple positions and "stretch" skills with assignments based on agency need.

Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Beth Cobert said that moving executives served an integral role in addressing last summer's data breach.

"We had individuals — including senior executives — from multiple agencies come onto our team in some cases for extended periods of time to help us drive real improvements," she said. "We need to make that kind of practice not the exception, but something that we do regularly, not just in times of crisis."

Cobert added that the study could provide the agencies with a playbook to try new innovative strategies to grow their SES ranks.

"Agencies across the government, I know, are eager to learn new and eager to find things that they can use to in a practical way and I think this report will give them many of those tools."

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