APPENDIX A

REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS AS TO EFFECT OF PERSONNEL OFFICE STAFFING RATIOS

7. Effect on processing, records, and reports.

8. Effect on personnel relations and services..

9. Effect on personnel utilization..

10. Effect on employee compensation..

11. Effect on recruitment assistance to other bureaus and agencies. 12. Effect on management improvement and incentive awards..

1. General effect anticipated by proposed ratio of 1:135

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Washington.-We would have to recentralize in order to do the job with fewer workers. This would slow up getting people on the job, getting unsatisfactory employees off the job, getting jobs classified at proper salary levels, and would impair efficiency of program operations. Ability to take prompt personnel action is a crucial consideration, for example, in operating hospital facilities.

Washington.-Any further constriction in ratio would force the diffusion of many personnel operations throughout the organization served. This would result in an ostensible reduction of personnel staff, but appearances might be deceiving. The minimum personnel functions without which the Department could not operate would, of course, have to be carried on, but less effectively and by the use of more rather than less personnel however widely their diffusion and however complete their disguise. The Personnel Office under such restrictions would be reduced to a clerical operation concerned only with such things as the processing of papers and the other minimum and mechanical essentials.

Washington. Since, by law and regulation, many personnel records and processes are prescribed in detail, most of the clerical and processing personnel activities cannot be reduced. Any further reduction in personnel staff will necessarily come in the already small technical staff. In FHA there are 47 employees in the personnel staff; 21 of these are personnel technicians. A recent inspection by the Civil Service Commission of the processing and records and reports work revealed that such work involved had been reduced to a minimum permissible under existing laws and regulations prescribed in Government personnel practices. A change in the personnel ratio to 1:135 would necessarily mean a reduction of 7 technicians from the staff of 21 now responsible for all personnel work in 137 offices throughout the United States and Territories.

Washington. If a ratio of 1:115 is retained we will do a very poor job in classification, recruitment, and the other activities that just cannot be avoided. In the many areas that are properly thought of as being the heart of good personnel administration we will be able to do virtually nothing. If a ratio of 1:135 is imposed, we will be forced to allow a further terribly demoralizing delay to develop in classification. Similarly additional delays will develop in our already handicapped recruitment activities with the result that urgent matters now before the Commission such as the processing of television station applications will be seriously jeopardized.

Washington.—The ratio tends to limit personnel administration to paperprocessing activities. Transfers personnel work to operating officials lessening their time for program activities. In other words tends to drive personnel work underground.

Field. The basic complaint of all our field managers is the shortsightedness of reducing so drastically a staff function which enabled them to get more production at less cost from all the rest of their employees. Some (as subcommittee staff has verified) actually give figures to show that the efforts of the personnel office

got greater results, or saved time, or decreased costs on the part of some other part of the office. Other than that, the managers can't seem to understand why their personnel staffs are cut to where they can scarcely perform the functions required by law, and have to omit those very profitable ones not required by law. The difference in a ratio of 1:115 and 1:135 is 17 percent. The damage done to the operations of our agency would certainly exceed that percent in that in all likelihood the entire reduction would have to come from the more constructive phases of the personnel program in favor of retaining required records and controls

2. Effect on direction and administration of the personnel program

Washington.-A personnel office best justifies its existence by making positive contributions toward the selection of the best qualified individuals for positions, training and development of employees, prompt and intelligent disposition of disciplinary cases and grievances, efficient utilization of employees' skills, proper classification of positions, and improvement in quality and effectiveness of supervisory practices. In this field, our personnel program has been adversely affected by cutbacks in staff required by congressional limitations.

Imposition of a more restrictive ratio will not affect the maintenance of records and processing of papers required by law. It will definitely force us to limit even more drastically our activities described above. It will cause serious damage to our personnel program which will be widely felt in the management of the agency

Bath, N. Y.-In general it is felt that the personnel program is gradually developing into a routine paper-processing program and that the far more important aspects of a good personnel program such as the proper coordination, orientation, and direct control of supervisors in such fields as training, employee relations, etc., are being eliminated.

San Francisco, Calif.-As a result of reductions in our staff growing out of the 1:115 ratio, this station decentralized many personnel functions to the various operating divisions. In some cases, these functions are now being performed by employees of higher grade and pay than those formerly doing them in personnel. The proposed 1:135 ratio would be ruinous to field stations. Every effort should be made to eliminate any ratio of any kind and to restore to each agency its own choice in the number of personnel employees.

Pittsburgh, Pa.-This is to advise that the arbitrary personnel ratios that have been in effect and those contemplated by legislation are false economy. To substantiate this statement, the following is a narrative description of specific instances wherein better and more professional personnel program could be administered with proper staffing: ***.

Marlin, Tex.-Present personnel ratios affect this station adversely since only one personnel technician is permitted. Those phases of the personnel program required by law consume practically all of his time.

3. Effect on employment, placement, and separation

Washington. We have not been able to develop and maintain realistic qualification standards; to conduct satisfactory reference checks and investigations as to suitability prior to appointment; to conduct followup studies with supervisors to determine whether appointees are satisfactory and how selection methods can be improved.

Washington.-Under the personnel ratio limitation we have been in the paradoxical situation of being unable to employ personnel people to help do the difficult recruitment and personnel work until the recruitment is actually accomplished and new employees are on the job.

Washington. The reduction in personnel positions has also eliminated or seriously curtailed preemployment investigations of qualifications and suitability other than loyalty and security, followup and exit interviews.

Washington. Minimum clerical recruiting needs averaged 200 per month for the past 2 years. About three-fourths of the new clerical employees hired during this period have been recruited out of town by field-recruiting teams. Ratio restrictions have cut this staff of skilled recruiters in half. To maintain the necessary rate of intake, employees from other areas of the Department have been borrowed and trained in field recruitment. This process is costly and less productive than maintaining a well trained central staff.

Washington.-One thousand three hundred and seventy-two new employees hired during the period from July 31, 1951, through January 31, 1952. Better than 75 percent of these persons were recruited directly by the agency. In the absence of a personnel staff sufficient to apply merit-system principles and

techniques in the hiring of these new employees all the dangers of so-called personal recruiting are inevitably present. Under current limitations, the primary concern of the personnel office must be that each appointment is legal in terms of minimum qualifications, veterans' preference, State apportionment, loyalty, propriety of classification, etc. These considerations are foremost. Finding the best qualified person and assuring equitable consideration of all qualified applications tend to be secondary under current conditions.

Boston, Mass.-Ten RIF's within 4 years and the Whitten amendment have

reduced morale to a new low.

Fort Meade, S. Dak.-In a remote area where seasonal work such as contracting and ranching utilizes the majority of labor, considerable time is spent to maintain an adequate force to operate the hospital and other functions are adversely affected.

4. Effect on committees and boards of examiners

Washington. It would preclude the Department's participation in the examining process under the Civil Service Commission.

Washington.-We will be unable to conduct additional examinations for positions now covered by civil-service registers, an area which now includes more than 75 percent of the Agency's jobs. Thus, "personal" recruiting might well be accentuated.

Washington. Since the imposition of the personnel ratio, we have had to use more often the less appropriate general civil service registers, contrary to the trend toward greater agency participation in examining, and have had to hire more often without examinations.

Boston, Mass.-Due to congressional limitations *** we had to inform First Civil Service Region that we could not reannounce examination for medical technician for Massachusetts as requested by the Commission.

Indianapolis, Ind.—It is not possible to announce and reannounce competitive examinations frequently enough to attract the best available applicants * * * delays are encountered in filling vacancies because registers and temporary files cannot be kept up to date *** not possible to give preemployment tests * * * admittedly wasteful of time of operating officials, * * * expedient adopted to cope with manpower limitations ***.

5. Effect on classification, job evaluation, and wage administration

Washington. We have not been able to keep position descriptions fully accurate, current, and up to date. Delays of 1 to 3 months in allocation of new or revised positions are not uncommon. We have not been able in all bureaus to provide a reasonably frequent review (as required by the CSC and the Whitten amendment) of position descriptions and allocations to discover needed adjustments resulting from changes in emphasis or distribution of substantive functions among positions. We have not been able to maintain fully current organization charts without virtually abandoning regular classification work for approximately 1 month or more each year.

Washington. The Department is unable to conduct a full classification program within the limitation. It has not been possible to conduct any comprehensive classification surveys with the present staffs.

Washington.-As a result of a 40-percent cut in the classification staff, [the Administrator] cannot be sure that his responsibilities under the Classification Act are being properly discharged by the constituent heads and field officials to whom he has delegated them. We have barely adequate information on our job classifications. Further reduction would make it impossible to carry out Whitten amendment requirements. This would result in overpayment of employees and increase in Government costs.

Washington.-Since 1947 a classification workload increase of approximately 25 percent has been accompanied by a decrease in classification staff of 35 percent. This does not take into account additional responsibilities as the Whitten amendment, Public Law 253, and the Performance Rating Act. The Civil Service Commission has indicated the Department must assume the major responsibility for developing written standards for our positions not now covered by published standards. This involves about 40 percent of our positions.

Washington. The Civil Service Commission, in a report of survey of our agency dated May 7 1952, stated: "The personnel staff has been greatly handicapped by the required ratio of personnel people to the overall personnel of the agency. Any further reduction will seriously handicap, if not render it impossible to operate an effective classification program."

Phoenix, Ariz.-No desk audits of positions for classification purposes have been made since personnel ratios have been in existence.

Cleveland, Ohio. Repeated writing and rewriting of position descriptions could have been avoided if we had an employee who could spend sufficient time in this field. A typical example is that of the clinical psychology position, grade GS-12, that was rewritten 4 or 5 times and the final description was some 32 pages long. 6. Effect on training

Washington.-We have not been able to conduct adequate programs for training of supervisors on job instruction of subordinates, job methods analysis, job relations improvement, the techniques of work simplification, and the identification of problem cases; to provide adequate orientation information to all employees, or to advise them with respect to improvement of their qualifications for [our] work; or to provide for the identification of potential supervisors and executives, effect special assignments to insure their development, or maintain continuous evaluation throughout their careers.

Washington-It has been necessary to close the Border Patrol Training School at El Paso and it will not be possible to reopen the school within the present personnel limitation. Several hundred new law-enforcement officers have entered [on duty] since the enactment of the Internal Security Act of 1950 and additional recruitment will be necessary as a result of turnover and increased appropriations for additional personnel. There is need to provide training for new officer personnel as well as for retraining of those already in the Service because of changes in legislation and regulations governing enforcement activities. Because of the personnel limitation the training activities have been restricted to a limited correspondence course on the law and regulations.

Washington.-The ratio limitation forced us to eliminate almost all training except in the security function. Have postponed installation of planned executive development program which was designed to assure us well-trained understudies in key executive positions.

Washington.-The Department conducts only a very limited supervisory training program, because manpower is not available to increase it.

Washington. With 1,370 new employees in 6 months, the Agency can afford no technical staff time for an organized training and orientation program to permit the rapid integration of these new 1-in-10 employees in agency operations. Supervisory development and improvement in the selection of supervisory staff, two activities which are now receiving such emphasis in industry and which are so important to efficiency and economy, must be conducted on a catch-as-catch-can basis under these limitations.

Biloxi, Miss.-The most important single result of limited personnel office staffing is the handicap we face in providing staff assistance to operating officials in carrying out their training responsibilities * * *.

New Orleans, La.-It appears that the abolishment of the training officer's position (due to the personnel ratio) resulted in the loss of at least $100,000 per year potential savings ***. A copy of the training officer's report reflected $36,980 savings made in six training courses.

Batavia, N. Y.-The elimination of the training specialist took away from management one of its most effective tools *** one specific instance ***. After 10 days of training in 1 operating division immediate effect was noticeable, and within a matter of months, we were able to eliminate 4 people from this division.

7. Effect on processing, records, and reports

Washington. We have not been able in all bureaus to carry out the requirements of applicable regulations for installation of a simplified, basic personnel records and files system.

Washington.-In the face of a growing body of basic statutes, riders, opinions, and regulations which detail requirements for such personnel activities as recruitment, reduction in force, salary and wage administration, loyalty, etc., personnel staffs available under statutory limitations find it increasingly difficult to cope with all the routine processing required to assure the legality of individual personnel actions. In this situation attention to the basic objectives of personnel legislation, i. e., to the spirit of the law, becomes secondary.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-If personnel cuts are made, many personnel functions will have to be further decentralized to operating services and divisions, though rightfully belonging in the personnel office. It is noted that operating services and divisions are not equipped, especially in this teaching hospital, to absorb any further personnel duties. due to lack of trained personnel and availability of clerical assistance for these duties.

8. Effect on Personnel Relations and Services

Washington.-We have not been able to study and equalize differences in the rating standards applied by supervisors in preparing employee performance ratings; to inform the employee about the agency in sufficient detail that he appreciates his responsibilities; to provide for consideration of employee view in the formulation and adjustment of policies which affect him; to study, set, and maintain' reasonable standards pertaining to safety, health, and working conditions.

Washington.-The final effect upon the Department would be severe since such a cut [to 1:135] would greatly hamper the efforts of the Department to effectively utilize its manpower. It would also increase employee turnover since we have found that our activities in the field of employee counseling [to be abandoned] have materially reduced personnel turnover.

Washington.-The proposed cut of 1:135 * * * would abolish the last employee relations position in the agency.

Bath, N. Y.-I am particularly interested in the personnel ratios at this time because of the establishment of a Westinghouse plant in the village of Bath which will employ about 2,000 persons. To my knowledge, they have already employed three industrial relations assistants as compared with zero for this center. This hospital will be in direct competition with the Westinghouse plant and it would appear to be of advantage to the Government to at least give us the tools to compete with civilian organizations of this type.

Salt Lake City, Utah.—Restricted employee-relations program definitely reflecting upon rate of employee turnover, necessitating costly hiring programs. Only essential phases of program promulgated by law of a must nature being adequately accomplished..

Big Spring, Tex.—The instability of the working force results from several nonchanging factors; the isolated location of the station, unfavorable climatic conditions, the high cost of living in this "oil-boom" area, the scarcity of housing, etc. *** personnel activity limited to fulfilling mandatory requirements * * legislative personnel ratios should be eliminated.

9. Effect on personnel utilization

Washington. We have not been able to provide for the continuous consideration and assessment of the requirements, working conditions, and environmental factors of each position; to provide for frequent analyses and inventories of employees' interests, skills, aptitudes, and personal qualifications; to develop and administer fair, objective, and effective promotion programs and procedures; to provide for the rapid identification of inefficient employees to effect demotion or separation; or to study the problem of reassignment rights in relation to qualification requirements for continuing positions and the effect thereof on efficiency and economy in the service.

Washington.-Work on programs to assure more effective utilization of skill and manpower have also been forestalled by the ratio limitation.

Washington.-The whole field of performance evaluation and utilization of available skills and an equitable promotion and placement program is seriously curtailed under current restrictions.

Washington.-We have been able to do absolutely nothing in the way of studies to insure that employees are used to the fullest extent of their capabilities.

New Orleans, La.-We formerly made personnel utilization surveys such as one that eliminated 22 jobs. We do not now have the staff to make personnel utilization surveys.

10 Effect on employee compensation

Lyons, N J-In a station where the great majority of our employees are nonclerical and more than 600 live on the station, our workload in compensation cases is heavy and in spite of compensatory time worked, we are unable to keep abreast of our cases and are continuously backlogged. This delays benefits to employees. A number of our cases are active ones of 2 or more years and require monthly medical reports, detailed leave data, extensive hospitalization, etc. currently have several TB cases, several hernia cases. back injuries, broken pelvis, one cancer case (kicked in the kidney by a patient) total disability, and others that involve a great number of man-hours.

We

Brooklyn, NY.-During the past year, it is estimated that this work (Bureau of Employees Compensation cases) consumed 50 percent of the time of one employee in the Personnel Division.