Merit- and Skills-Based Hiring and What's Next For Government Workforce Management with Fellow Steve Krauss and Gabe Menchaca of the Niskanen Center

Host James-Christian Blockwood discusses government performance and HR systems with Gabe Menchaca of the Niskanen Center and Academy Fellow and Government HR expert Steve Krauss. 

Menchaca summarizes a Niskanen-Academy study describing wide variation in state civil service models, limited scholarship on state HR, and mixed early results from skills-based hiring due to assessment and measurement bottlenecks and inconsistent time-to-hire metrics. 

Kraussand Menchaca distinguish nonpartisan hiring from competition-based merit and argue modern merit depends on valid skills assessments. Krauss emphasizes strategic workforce planning, job architecture, skills frameworks, and HR IT modernization, citing initiatives like HR 2.0, USA Hire modernization, online retirement, and more.

00:36 HR Systems Overview
01:19 State HR Study Findings
05:43 Strategic Workforce Planning
08:47 Merit Versus Skills Hiring
13:58 Reimagining Federal HR
17:59 Job Architecture And Classification
19:16 Modernizing HR IT Systems
21:48 Bipartisan Reform Lessons
25:54 Incremental Wins And Big Changes

Management Matters is a presentation of the National Academy of Public Administration produced by Lizzie Alwan and Matt Hampton and edited by Matt Hampton. 

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