A new report issued by a task force convened by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs examining the changing nature of government service in the 21st century finds that the U.S. government's hiring and personnel system is broken, and that future government officials will require a new set of skills to govern both directly and through networks of private and civic actors.

Created in November 2007, the task force was chaired by Paul Volcker, a 1949 Princeton graduate and Woodrow Wilson School major who is currently the chair the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and comprised of a blue-ribbon panel of experts. For the next 18 months task force members explored how colleges, universities, and schools of public policy can educate and motivate the very best for government service in the 21st century, recognizing that the nature of federal government service in the U.S. is changing.

The task force was directed by William Barron, Jr., a career federal government official. 

The task force studied the extreme demands placed on the government in the 21st century, as well as the shifting career patterns in the workforce. The experts examined the combined efforts of the federal government, schools of public policy, and public service organizations to create an environment where “individual students, career placement experts, government managers, and government leaders can better assure more flexible, rewarding, and productive public service careers.”

The task force found four trends compounding the crisis: a list of major failures in government programs at the federal level; ebbing confidence in government institutions and leaders; a “broken” government hiring and personnel system; and an increased reliance on government subcontracting of programs and jobs.

In addition, the task force highlighted the issue of the anticipated baby boomer retirement wave, which has added another level to the personnel crisis.

Even with the election of a new president, the task force report noted, “the 2008 elections came after an alarming string of outright government failures and in the face of a mounting list of critical challenges.” Some of these failures included “the response to Hurricane Katrina… serious financial and performance issues with both defense and non-defense contractors, collapsing bridges, failure to adequately regulate the banking and mortgage industries, as well as unsafe meat, vegetables, fruit, cribs, toys, drugs, and other products.”

“The task force sought to identify the complex and changing nature of federal service, while highlighting the ongoing crisis in recruitment and retention - a crisis that’s particularly acute as reports indicate the federal government needs to add approximately 600,000 employees just during President Obama’s administration,” said William Barron. “The administration is already taking positive steps to address this important issue. Though the report emphasizes that government needs to engage universities and schools of public policy more proactively to help encourage the next generation to public service.”

The task force offered three overarching recommendations for policy makers and the public to address the changing nature of government service. First, schools of public policy must act as champions of government service for their own students, and serve as a gateway to public service for other parts of their campuses.  Working together, government agencies and schools of public policy should also develop “paths of service” for career opportunities for current and future federal employees, the report said.

Next, to replenish the ranks at all levels, the federal government must segment the applicant pool to better understand the skills, abilities, motivations, and professional needs of distinct career profiles – from traditional “lifers” to “career switchers” coming to government mid-career or later, according to the report. The task force also recommended establishing and maintaining a report card system for staff recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement.

Third, the task force recommended that schools of public policy should work with government agencies and management experts to identify the skills and knowledge needed to allow current and future government officials to govern directly and through networks of private and civic actors.  In this light, the task force further recommended that the federal government initiate an inter-agency discussion to ensure departments and agencies are not outsourcing their core missions and oversight responsibilities.  “Government officials cannot just be monitoring,” the report states, “they must be actively managing in a networked environment.”

Task force members included Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Relations; Alan Krueger, a Woodrow Wilson School professor currently on public service leave at the U.S. Treasury as Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy; Susan Marquis, dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School who earned M.P.A. and Ph.D. degrees from WWS; Nolan McCarty, associate dean of the Woodrow Wilson School; Joseph Nye, Jr., a 1958 graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School and former dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; Anne-Marie Slaughter, former dean of the Woodrow Wilson School currently on public service leave as director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department; Allison Stanger; director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs at Middlebury College; Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service; and Lynn Thoman, a 1977 graduate of Princeton and co-president of the Lowenstein Foundation.