AGENCY CAREER SERVICES

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP92-00455R000100090007-9
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
9
Document Creation Date: 
December 12, 2016
Document Release Date: 
February 25, 2002
Sequence Number: 
7
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
May 3, 1973
Content Type: 
MF
File: 
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PDF icon CIA-RDP92-00455R000100090007-9.pdf392.89 KB
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Approved FdVaKelease 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-004981C000100090007-9 3 MAY 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Secretary, CIA Management Committee SUBJECT: Agency Career Services REFERENCE: Memo dtd 17 April 1972 to CIA Management Committee fr ES/MC, Same Subj 1. Your comments in referent memorandum indicating augmentation of the Career Service system to include the use of effective personnel management mechanisms and the monitoring of the program at the Agency level are most encouraging, for in addition to personnel being our most important resource, they are our most costly asset; as you know well, salaries and benefits alone account rof the Agency's budget for FY 1974. 2. The investment and management of these resources has traditionally been handled, as the recent IG report discloses, in a decentralized fashion by the Directorates, and the dividends appear to have accrued more to these corporate units than to the Agency as a whole or to the individual employee. The extremely small number of past cross--Directorate assignments has not only promoted a narrowness of perspective but has resulted in a negligible Agency pool of senior officers with varied experience in our diverse enterprises; the constraints on mobility, deriving more from attitude than merit, have frustrated the legitimate ambitions of many employees at all grades and ages and have limited career development and planning to a level which most employees find hard to recognize. ME", Approved M A 11W W f`i- 1Q5=00090007-9 Approved Fdx Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-004,%0000100090007-9 3. What appears to be needed is a personnel management system which will guarantee: a. to Agency management the degree of control which will assure an abundant supply of highly skilled and widely experienced officers for the whole range of senior Agency positions, b. to operating components the degree of control essential to the conduct of their operations, and c. to the individual employee the rights of equitable pay, advancement, and participation, and the opportunity for varied assignment based on demonstrated ability and potential. 4. To accomplish the above, some DCI-sponsored objectives should be established and some firm plans made to achieve them with responsibility for implementing and monitoring the program clearly assigned. The recent and forthcoming personnel reductions will make the task of personnel management difficult, especially selling the individual employee on the notion of improved career development. Thus, some bold steps are necessary to demonstrate clearly that personnel development is a particular interest of the Agency's Management Committee. 5. Looking at the problem as one of resource management, I have drafted some objectives which should get us on the road. If you approve, I am prepared to undertake in coordination with the Directorates and the Director of Personnel the development of these objectives and of follow-on plans for their implementation. At your earlier suggestion, I have arranged for receipt of statistical personnel data to establish base lines for the evaluation of program effectiveness. ar es r1ggs Attachment: Director of Planning, Programming, and Budgeting DCI Personnel Management Objectives Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : Cl -RDP92-00455R000100090007-9 ~tfi3';d.~t11 NO .u'bi" AI~W AA4i aaJJi7,+ kA%aii.SCAI a aflL. U' APIB6.I Approved Fdelease 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-004000100090007-9 DCI PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES (PROPOSED) O/PPB Comment Career development is not easily defined. At a minimum it includes judicious assignment, training, promotion, and develop- mental rotation. Equally important, however, is the development of the individual employee's attitude toward his job, his supervisors, and the Agency. In drafting these objectives we have included one, viz., the separation of marginal employees, which may appear out of place in a list of career development objectives; such action, however, is essential, particularly when these individuals are in a supervisory or managerial capacity and thus directly and adversely affect the attitude of junior personnel. A related problem which these objectives do not address but which must be resolved since it has too great an impact on employee attitude, is that of marginal activity. Nothing will kill incentive, initiative and interest quicker than work which does not result in a meaningful contribution; none worth keeping will stay at it and all who support it lose respect. The bulk of career development planning should remain with Directorates; a piece of the action, however, should go both to Agency-level management and to the individual employee to serve their legitimate needs if not their innate rights. Objective 1 Review and revise as appropriate the Agency staffing complement to achieve an overall T/O reduction during FY 1975 of o based on the elimination of lower priority tasks. O/PPB Comment The intent of this objective is to provide prior notice in the event a reduction is indeed planned for FY 1975. In order to make any orderly plans for career development, it is essential that the operating components know the levels at which they will be operating. Approve ~V/5~;1y#P,p4g4 6x0100090007-9 %OU0. %itiL i Approved Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-00461000100090007-9 Objective 2 Restructure the Agency's career service system to promote a broadening of perspective and to restore employee confidence in the concept of career development. O/PPB Comment This objective is intended to convince the individual employee that there is an Agency personnel management and. career develop- ment system. Given the depth of disbelief on the part of the average employee and the ingrained intransigence of many managers, this program must be DCI-sponsored and articulated, and it must be monitored by his personal representative. It must be a bold new program with change from the past and change for the better clearly evident; it must be an all-employee's program with the interests of the clerical, technical and professional personnel at all grade levels provided for but with the interests of the Agency pre-eminent. ' In developing the program, consideration should be given to the following suggestions: a. Demonstrate greater interest in what the employee thinks about management-related matters, prefers by way of assignment, etc., by expanding the Management Advisory Group (MAG) concept to the Office/Division level, by conducting periodic attitudinal surveys, and by inviting junior officer representation in the restructuring of the career service system. b. Guarantee to interested and qualified junior officers assignment in at least two Directorates during the first years of service. c. Remove all supergrade (and GS 15?) positions from individual career service jurisdiction, put them under the purview of the DCI's Career Development Officer and require his concurrence for promotion to these grades or assignment to these positions. d. Limit tenure in senior (GS 16 and above) positions to five years except in cases approved by the DCI. qhw -r ...y$].n?r. Ulv Approved For Release 2002/05/07 CIA -RDP92-00455R000100090007-9 Approved Fdlelease 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-004000100090007-9 e. Inaugurate a Personnel Action Line providing employees a telephone number which they can call to get prompt, accurate, and authoritative answers to questions of a personnel nature. f. Require advertising via the Vacancy Notice system of all position vacancies for which a component does not have a qualified candidate considering, in addition to present mechanisms, the use of closed circuit television or bulletin boards in secure areas. Make application procedures less formal and less risky to the individual who now often hesitates to apply for positions for fear of a possible adverse impact on his future in his present office. A Xerox copy of the one page OP biographic profile mailed directly to the advertising office by the employee might suffice initially. g.. Drop the designations ("career employee," "career status," etc.) which in fact mean little and tend to mislead both the employee and management by their title. Extend the probationary appointment period in order to permit supervisors to better assess new employees. h. Study position comparability in the Agency and make recommendations on possible consolidatons regarding their service designation. There are many positions in the Agency (technical professional positions like computer personnel, engineers, etc.) which might be combined under a single service to the possible advantage of both the employee and component management. Objective 3 Reduce by o the annual attrition rate due to job dissatisfaction. O/PPB Comment According to official records, over the past ten years an average of 320 employees per year have resigned for reasons of "job dissatisfaction." It can be accepted as fact that these records Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-00455R000100090007-9 3 Approved Fo elease 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-004NO000100090007-9 inadequately and often inaccurately reflect the real reasons why people leave the Agency. This stems largely from a lack of candor on the part of those resigning who are concerned that factual reasons might adversely affect employment recommendations, jeopardize possible future employment with the Agency, and embarrass former colleagues or supervisors who may be friends, or the departees may just not want to get involved in what they consider an 'exercise in futility. Thus, not only is it obvious that care in matching the individuals, training, experience and desires with the requirements of the job is. required, particularly in the initial work assignment, but also that greater speed is required to change mismatch assignments. Objective 4 Increase by o the number of black professionals on duty in the Agency. O/PPB Comment This objective was discussed at the June 1972 DCI Planning Conference and was favorably endorsed. Objective 5 Identify and take action to remedy gaps in individual employees' training--language, technical, supervisory, area management or other--both for their present assignment and/or grade level and as they represent developmental training for more responsible positions. Objective 6 Improve employee/ management communications. O/PPB Comment: A classic and a truism, but not adequately attended to, its motherhood acceptance notwith- standing. From Fitness Reports to productivity evaluation sessions to periodic rap sessions by the DCI in the auditorium with Agency personnel or by Deputy Directors with their Directorate personnel, Approved F-A&'I , N4 I :ti fir D 5 i1 h 0090007-9 A Approved F04 I WK-44 a 090007-9 much needs to be done in the area of communications, especially to restore employee confidence in his role as well as that of the Agency in support of national policy. The DDO's recent revision 11 December 1972) of its Fitness Report procedures is a significant and constructive improvement in our personnel management operations; the approach and philosophy it represents should be considered as Agency policy and so applied. . Objective 7 Establish and carry out a vigorous and honestly managed program to identify the lowest o of the work force each year and to eliminate half that number the following year. Objective 8: Another motherhood perennial, but never effectively - undertaken. Develop an Agency-wide list of "comers" and ensure that in any given year at least o of them move between Directorates. Objective 9 Reduce by at least % the number of Personnel Rank Assignments at grades GS 14 and above which have been in effect more than years, "xW~~~~'a ~ Approved For Release 200210 I0 ~: ~I -1 P -0 455R 0 00090007-9 5 Approved Foelease 2002/05/07 CIA-RDP92-004000100090007-9 much needs to be clone 'in the area of 'communications, especially to restore employee confidence in his role as well as that of the Agency in support of national policy. The DDO's recent revision 11 December 197;.) of its Fitness Report procedures is a significant and constructive improvement in our personnel management operations; the Ipproach and philosophy it represents should be considered as Agency policy and so applied. Objective 7 Establish and carry out a vigorous and honestly managed program to identify the lowest 4 of the work force each year and to ? eliminate half that number the following year. Objective 8 Develop an Agency-wide list of "comers" and ensure that in any given year at least of them move between Directorates. O/PPB Comment Another motherhood perennial, but never effectively undertaken. Objective 9 Reduce by at least a the numbed Personnel Rank Assignments at grades GS 14 and ,;love which have been in effect more than years. Approved" # b (1-51f i, 3 d +''" 9161 25X1 Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-00455R000100090007-9 Next 53 Page(s) In Document Exempt Approved For Release 2002/05/07 : CIA-RDP92-00455R000100090007-9