The Trump administration is planning several reforms to the federal Civil Service that would give agencies more discretion on hiring/firing, transfer of employees and pay decisions. The reforms, based on successful strategies employed by private-sector powerhouses like Google and Amazon, are laid out in the President’s budget to be released Monday.
The changes call for an end to automatic pay increases all federal employees receive regardless of performance. Annual reviews that give most employees high grades would be reformed, and federal benefits, which are 47% higher than in the private workforce would be decreased.
Hiring and firing decisions would be made easier, agencies would have more flexibility in moving employees to where they are needed, hiring skilled retirees would be made possible and the “best” employees would be rewarded with bonuses. The goal, officials said, is to bring the 1950s-styled Civil Service into the future.
President Trump alluded to the changes in his State of the Union address last week when he said, “Tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.”
“We’re 18 years into the digital millennium. We need to look at a different way,” an administration budget official said.