In addition to seeking out and attracting motivated and skilled employees to fulfill current requirements, you must also consider how you will help your organization live up to future ones. Effective strategic planning and talent management are essential, but those systems cannot stand on their own. The next step is determining how to cultivate a work environment that supports and sustains a culture of superior performance that drives success both now and in the future.

Building a performance culture goes far beyond an agency's performance management system. The performance management system provides a framework for setting objectives, documenting performance standards, and assessing employee results. A performance culture refers to the agency's holistic approach to performance (i.e., ongoing, timely feedback; emphasis on continuous learning; strong employee engagement; inclusion and appreciation of a diverse workforce; and accountability for results). Timely feedback and continuous learning provide a mechanism for ongoing improvement. A diverse workforce represents the public that the Federal Government serves and enhances innovation. Work-Life programs support the employee thereby enhancing productivity, engagement with the agency, and sense of well-being.

Performance Culture Definition

A system that engages, develops, and inspires a diverse, high-performing workforce by creating, implementing, and maintaining effective performance management strategies, practices, and activities that support mission objectives.

Standards

The standards for the Performance Culture System require an agency to have—

1. Strategies and processes to foster a culture of engagement and collaboration;
2. A diverse, results-oriented, high-performing workforce; and
3. A performance management system that differentiates levels of performance of staff, provides regular feedback, and links individual performance to organizational goals.

Outcomes

A valued diverse and inclusive workforce and environment

Executives, managers, and employees share unique insights based on their diverse backgrounds, experience, and knowledge in order to achieve mission related goals, objectives, and expected outcomes.

A sustainable Work-Life balance

Agency leadership and employees undertake Work-Life policies, practices and approaches as a way to achieve mission related goals, objectives, and expected outcomes.

Efficient and effective Labor/Management relations

Labor/Management agreements are designed in true partnership and focused on ways of building and maintaining efficient and effective operations at all levels of the organization (strategic, operational, and employee).

Motivated workforce operating at highest potential

Employees are engaged and have a clear understanding of the goals, objectives, and expected outcomes of the agency and their office.

Increased customer, managerial, and employee satisfaction

Fostering and sustaining performance-related activities and enhancements leads to higher satisfaction levels within the agency and throughout the stakeholder community.

An aligned, trusted performance management system based on empowerment and accountability

Elements, standards, recognition, and rewards are all founded on what and how to accomplish the mission.

Valued rewards and recognition

The foundation of the agency's performance management system is viewed as fair and implemented with integrity.

Successful program actions, activities, and outcomes

Key program activities and measures align with, and reflect, mission-related performance goals, objectives, and expected outcomes.

Increased external awareness for mission-related outcomes

Agency strategic, program, and employee goals and objectives achieve expected outcomes and are recognized by key stakeholders as innovative and successful.

The Results-Oriented Performance Culture system focuses on having a diverse, results-oriented, high-performing workforce, as well as a performance management system that effectively plans, monitors, develops, rates, and rewards employee performance.

What Does This Mean To You As A Senior Leader?

It is up to you to ensure that your staff understands what success looks like. To do so, you have to understand where you are now, where you need to be in the next year, and where you will be in the future. Your imperative is to have a clear vision and communicate the organizational goals and criteria for success. You will need to link your organization's goals with the agency goals, and cascade them throughout your organization.

Senior leaders can help build an agency's performance culture from the top down. Frequent communication and transparency around executive objectives and progress toward agency goals can serve as a foundation for a culture of open feedback. Leaders are also in a position to be role models for embracing continuous learning, work-life flexibility, and diversity initiatives.

Actions/Decisions For Senior Leaders

Review Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey trends to enhance employee engagement and develop action plans that address identified opportunity areas.

Establish a framework, identify progressive solutions, and set the example by projecting and encouraging engagement at all levels of the organization.

Empower managers to own program performance by delegating decisions and actions to appropriate levels within the organization.

Plan

• Start with a holistic view of the agency's performance culture. Each focus area contributes to the overall culture, and improvements or challenges in one focus area can impact the others. Senior leaders should have a high level perspective of where the workforce stands on engagement, performance management, work-life issues, diversity and inclusion, and labor management relationships.
• Plan for employee rewards. If available, ensure there is a budget for monetary performance awards and plan for how the awards will be allocated. However, rewarding outstanding performance should be a priority even in face of budgetary constraints. At a minimum, leadership needs to set aside time to identify and recognize top performers for their contributions.
• Use data-driven methods to identify specific priorities for improving the agency's performance culture. When the top priorities have been identified, leadership and operational employees should collaborate to design an action plan. The plan should identify specific goals and methods for completion, as well as identifying responsible parties for each item/initiative.

The following are a few examples of specific Performance Culture focus areas and the policy guidance that guides them:

Labor/Management Partnerships

In 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13522, "Creating Labor Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services". This EO is an excellent source of information for establishing labor management forums within agencies, which can in turn drive the improvement of the delivery of products and services to the public, as well as cut costs and advance employee interests.

Work-Life

Recent legislative actions direct the Federal Government as an employer to promote various aspects of a Work-life portfolio. For example, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act, are key legislative actions that include provisions for employer support of flexibility, well-being, health promotion and disease prevention. OPM's Government-wide and Performance Culture group maintains a number of resources to help senior leadership plan for a more robust Work-Life presence within agencies. Samples include:

• Telework.gov provides guidance and information for leadership, managers and employees.
• Work-Life.gov provides a wealth of information to help develop and improve your agency's Work-Life programs.
• Information on the OPM website detailing policies for various Work-Life programs, including provisions of the PPACA requiring employers to support nursing mothers return to work[j1]. OPM is a strong advocate for multiple Work-Life initiatives and maintains a Government-wide leadership position in supporting and maintaining Work-Life programs.

Diversity and Inclusion

Executive Order 13583 established a coordinated Diversity and Inclusion program in 2011. It also incorporates and supports existing policies, including the Equal Pay effort, and the Executive Orders on Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Hispanic Employment and Hiring People with Disabilities.

Implement

• Include performance management as a standing agenda item for your staff meetings. Addressing performance management regularly and stressing its importance as an ongoing and continuous activity will help ensure supervisors and managers are offering regular feedback and identifying developmental needs to drive improvement in employee performance.
• Continually communicate. The agency has a system and a process in place to facilitate the sharing of information and ideas with all employees. This includes soliciting employee feedback and encouraging direct involvement so all members of the organization are playing a role in successfully executing the mission.
• Motivate all levels of staff. Motivation is a valuable facet of implementation. Leadership should always seek to encourage employees, exposing them to new challenges while also engendering trust and confidence and providing opportunities to learn, succeed, and develop.
• Celebrate successes. The organization takes steps to recognize individual and team achievements, which contributes either to the achievement of specific organizational goals, or to the overall improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal workforce.
• Delegate down to the lowest level. Delegation of responsibility will allow employees at all levels to be more interested and engaged in their positions, which in turn makes them more likely to grow and become better and more productive members of the organization.
• Reward employees. Providing employees and teams a tangible incentive is a crucial aspect of building a Performance Culture. It is equally important to communicate the impact that employee actions can have on the broader, organizational scale. Senior leaders have a responsibility to draw a clear connection between performance expectations and the agency mission.
• Stay focused on the link between performance expectations and outcomes. Ensuring that this connection is communicated and understood across the organization will enable all employees to focus their efforts on those activities that are most important to mission accomplishment.
• Stay informed about Work-Life issues. Fully engage in assessments of how Work-Life is used and how it is serving the agency. Benchmark your own practices against those of other agencies and stay informed about new Work-Life and any related policies. Engage in strategic assessment of how Work-Life programs can be incorporated into agency plans to support mission and strategy. Given their strategic importance, senior leaders should participate in the development of Work-Life offerings and programs to ensure that they support strategic goals in the manner anticipated.

The following are some focus area-specific approaches to consider for implementation:

Labor/Management Partnerships

The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations was created by EO 13522 and regularly issues guidance and recommendations on labor/management relations and agency forums.

Work-Life

Experts in OPM's Government-wide Work-Life Performance Culture advocate following best practices for implementing or advancing any Work-Life program.

• Make a strong business case. Demonstrate how wellness, EAP, telework, dependent care or other programs will support agency mission and strategy. Incorporate Work-Life measures among indicators of success for the agency.
• Identify and engage stakeholders' key to the success of the Work-Life program (e.g., managers, employees). Understand the needs of stakeholders fully and address those in the planning of Work-Life programs.
• Conduct action planning for any Work-Life program initiative. Establish program goals aligned with agency strategy, identify necessary resources and ensure their availability, and identify timeframes and responsible parties for carrying out the Work-Life program implementation.
• Pilot programs in smaller groups prior to making them available to all employees. Engage in ongoing evaluation of the pilot to make certain any potential problems are identified and addressed prior to rolling out the new and/or improved program.
• Ensure that the competencies necessary to make the program a success exist in the agency. Provide interactive training for prospective employee participants and managers.
• Evaluate on an ongoing basis to establish goal achievement and to identify any potential problems early enough to address them.

Diversity and Inclusion

Coordinate outreach and recruiting efforts through the agency's Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Evaluate

There are also a variety of resources available to assess the effectiveness of the efforts put into place to develop, improve and sustain a high performance culture within an organization. For example:

Labor/Management Partnerships

The National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations regularly disseminates guidance and recommendations for agency implementation and evaluation. The results of agency forums (and other labor/management initiatives) are tracked and compiled into regular reports.

Work-Life

• Recognizing that the success of Work-Life programs hinges on evaluation, OPM provides ongoing training and guidance to agencies on goal setting and evaluation of Work-Life programs.
• Agencies are encouraged to use the results of evaluation to promote and improve programs, through development of business cases and calculations of return on investment for implemented programs. Evaluations of Work-Life programs are important to facilitate intra- and interagency learning about best practices for program implementation and to support the accountability

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What Is Available To Help Facilitate Leadership In The Completion Of These Activities And Decisions?

There are a variety of items available to help facilitate leadership in the completion of decisions and activities relating to Performance Culture.

Agency Mission

The agency mission statement serves as the conduit for all activities within a given organization. All strategic plans, annual performance plans, human capital plans, and individual performance plans, to name a few, should all link directly back to the mission of the agency. Agency mission and vision statements are available on their respective websites.

Agency Strategic Plan

An agency's Strategic Plan should provide the context for decisions about performance goals, priorities, and budget planning, and should provide the framework for the detail provided in agency annual plans and reports. An agency's strategic plan is available on its website.

Performance Management Plan, System and Policies

Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals. Employee performance management includes:

• Planning work and setting expectations
• Continually monitoring performance
• Developing the capacity to perform
• Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
Rewarding good performance.

Awards Policies and Plans

Agencies have the authority to provide awards to employees in a variety of forms, including monetary awards, special act awards, performance awards, and granting time-off subject to the availability of funding.

Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

The IDP helps identify employee's career development goals and the means for achieving them. Typically, the employee will complete an IDP on an annual basis and can include training (free or fee based), online learning (through an online learning management system), development opportunities and assignments, mentoring, reading and attending conferences and college courses.

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The Operational view delineates the role of HR staff, hiring managers, and program managers in the agency's performance culture.

What Does This Mean To You As A Program/Process Owner Or HR Professional?

In order to build and sustain high performance at the operational level, you must understand the overarching strategy. Engage with senior leaders to discuss the relationship between the agency's mission and its employee engagement, performance management, and continuous learning. One vital aspect of a high performance culture is open, continuous feedback. Work toward embedding frequent and timely feedback into agency operations. You can start by increasing "lessons learned" discussions about projects and processes; holding informal performance-related discussions with your subordinates; and soliciting feedback from your peers and subordinates.

Actions/Decisions For Program Owner And HR Professionals

Do I have the resources and capacity to accomplish specific program and policy related goals and objectives?

Do I have appropriate tools and technology required for capturing, measuring, and reporting program and policy goals and objectives?

Do we have current procedures and practices required for achieving program and policy-related goals and objectives?

Plan

• Create a communication matrix for your organization. This should show communication paths flowing up, down and across your organization and throughout the agency. This document will be useful when exploring communication options outside of the traditional all-hands email. For example, communications about milestones in an agency performance cycle may be best suited to the all-hands email list, but more targeted emails about roles, responsibilities, and sub-organization-specific issues may be more effectively delivered by branch chiefs, team leads, individual supervisors, etc.
• Plan to go beyond the performance management policy. It is important to have a strong program/policy, but the policy likely represents the minimum required to document performance expectations and ratings. One mid-year review may be required by policy, but more frequent formal or informal feedback sessions would be essential in order to maintain an ongoing dialogue about performance and development.
• Identify specific, actionable short-term goals that will contribute to long-term progress. "Building a culture of high performance" is a lofty, though important, goal. Use available data to determine which specific aspects of performance culture are most important to target for improvement this year.

As an operational leader, here are some additional resources and approaches at your disposal:

Labor/Management Partnerships

Each agency should have an implementation plan that addresses how it will work with the representatives of its employees to develop agency or bargaining unit-specific metrics to monitor improvements in areas such as labor-management satisfaction, productivity gains and cost savings.

Work-Life

Coordinate with senior leadership to develop a flexible telework program that provides opportunities for all employees to participate.

Diversity and Inclusion

Each agency should implement its own Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan. These plans are driven by the Government-wide plan with (3) overarching goals:

• Workforce diversity
• Workforce inclusion
• Sustainability

Implement

• Continually communicate. Supervisory communication with employees is essential to clear performance expectations and results. Proactive two-way communication with union representatives facilitates productive labor-management relationships. Effective communication about Work-Life initiatives increases awareness, preparation, and participation.
• Take ownership of performance and development. Human Resources staff should be available to provide guidance and advisory services on performance management policy and processes, but they should not be the sole owners. Each program office and supervisor should take ownership of his or her employees' performance. The same is true for employee development. HR staff may be the experts on assessing needs, filling competency gaps, and resources for learning, but program managers, supervisors, and employees should be driving development as well.
• Require accountability for performance management. Ideally in an organization with a high performance culture, the performance management policy and processes would be highly valued with minimal administrative burden, and managers and employees would actively engage in these processes. It is important to hold supervisors and employees responsible for completing these processes.
• Integrate Work-Life flexibilities. Consider tying Work-Life support to leader/manager performance plans. This shows that the organization truly values effective use of work-life programs. Work with leaders and other managers to build management skills that enable them to support these flexibilities successfully.
• Monitor the agency's current status and progress on diversity and inclusion initiatives.

To see the specific connection to Performance Culture, consider these examples:

Labor/Management Parternships

A key implementation goal to focus on is the creation and maintenance of a non-adversarial forum for managers, employees and union representatives to discuss operations that will promote satisfactory labor relations and improve the productivity and overall effectiveness of the Federal Government.

Work-Life

• Develop and oversee comprehensive wellness programs focusing on health education and support that link to external programs (Federal Employee Health Benefits, community programs, etc.), as well as social and/or environmental support systems.
• Develop telework programs following the requirements outlined in the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, and guidance issued by OPM. Engage in interagency collaboration to identify "best practices" for implementation strategies that work. Implementation practices are featured in annual telework status reports to Congress and pose a good starting point for identifying implementation strategies that work. Engage in action planning to ensure that the essential stakeholders and resources have been identified and are available to support successful telework.

Diversity and Inclusion

There are programs in place that can help you successfully develop and execute a Diversity and Inclusion process within your organization: Mentoring, D&I Council, Leadership Diversity and Accountability. More information and resources can be found on OPM's Diversity and Inclusion web page.

Evaluate

• Measure the impact of performance appraisal and rewards. Were performance ratings meaningfully correlated with appraisal outcomes (e.g., awards, merit increases)? Did supervisors successfully differentiate among performance levels? What about investment in development from the previous year? Did participation in training or other developmental opportunities lead to an increase in mission critical skills or other agency performance outcomes?
• Was agency leadership able to effectively link strategic goals and performance objectives? The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey contains several items that relate to strategic alignment with performance management, but operational leaders can supply valuable contextual information from their day-to-day interactions with staff.
• Engage with employees to gather information on their opportunities to improve their own performance and the performance of the organization. Are employees satisfied with these opportunities? It is important to solicit employee feedback and to follow up on the responses you receive. If feedback themes show a particular area of concern, acknowledge the findings and incorporate strategies for improvement into future plans/objectives.
• Is the agency meeting diversity and inclusion targets? If so, which factors contributed to success in recruiting, retention, and development? Aside from meeting the target, what other performance outcomes were associated with this success?

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What Is Available To Help In The Completion Of These Activities And Decisions?

There are a variety of items available to help facilitate HR Practitioners and Program Supervisors in the completion of decisions and activities relating to Performance Culture.

Agency Strategic Plan

An agency's Strategic Plan should provide the context for decisions about performance goals, priorities, and budget planning, and should provide the framework for the detail provided in agency annual plans and reports. An agency's strategic plan is available on their respective website.

Action Plans

From a human capital perspective, agencies utilize the results from the Federal Employee View Point Survey to generate actionable strategies and measures as a way to enhance and improve employee engagement.

Performance Management Plan, System and Policies

Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals. Employee performance management includes:

• Planning work and setting expectations
• Continually monitoring performance
• Developing the capacity to perform
• Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
• Rewarding good performance

Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

The IDP helps identify employee's career development goals and the means for achieving them. Typically, the employee will complete an IDP on an annual basis and can include training (free or fee based), online learning (through an online learning management system), development opportunities and assignments, mentoring, reading and attending conferences and college courses.

Employment Policies

In the Federal Government, employment policies are established through title 5 of the United States Code. The Office of Personnel Management provides employment policy guidance through title 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Each agency will develop specific policies that align with both the statute and code.

Labor/Management Agreements

Provide the framework and articles outlining a constructive and cooperative working relationship between an agency and the labor organizations representing the employees.

Awards Policies and Plans

Agencies have the authority to provide awards to employees in a variety of forms, including monetary awards, special act awards, performance awards, and granting time-off subject to the availability of funding.

Delegations of Authority

Because the management of human resources is becoming a strategic function, line managers are increasingly held accountable for directly delivering some human resource services. As line managers assume more hands on responsibility for managing all aspects of the workforce, human capital practitioners' roles will also shift to increasingly complex roles such as business strategic partner, employee champion, and change agent.

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Being part of a successful team is important and knowing where you fit into the team and that what you do every day is linked to the overall success of the organization. Your morale, your ability to be engaged, and to contribute, impacts the success of the organization.

What Does This Mean To You As An Employee Of Your Organization?

Your commitment to meeting your own performance expectations, your ability to accomplish assigned tasks, and your level of interest and engagement all have a very real impact on the mission. Strategic and operational leadership are responsible for enabling you to be successful and for providing the support and resources you need to fulfill your job requirements. It is also up to you to hold yourself accountable and to seek out new challenges for yourself.

Actions/Decisions For Employees

Are you working closely with your supervisor to understand the goals of the organization and where your job fits into their accomplishment? Have you discussed the specific link between your role/function and the broader agency mission?

What skills do you have that are especially beneficial to your organization? What skills would you like to develop that would further enable you to contribute to positive organizational outcomes? Are you currently in a role that maximizes your potential and allows room for further development? If not, what would you need to do to get there?

If there are barriers to your engagement at work, have you thought about how best to reduce those barriers and increase engagement for you and your colleagues?

Plan

• Work with your supervisor to develop and understand your performance standards, goals, and expectations.
• Ensure that you understand your Agency Performance Management Rating and Awards Plans.

Below are some examples of planning steps to be taken in order to successfully contribute to the development and sustainability of a High Performance Culture:

Labor/Management Partnerships

Your organization should have its own internal policies or memorandums of understanding to serve as a reference for employees.

Work-Life

Some good first steps to consider in taking advantage of your agency's Work/Life-related programs, including telework, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), worksite wellness, and childcare subsidy:

• Become informed about Work/Life programs that may be available to you in your agency or workgroup.
• Determine if you meet the established eligibility requirements, including any permissions or training that might be needed prior to participation.
• Verify the eligibility of your specific job classification.
• Discuss suitability with your supervisor.

Diversity and Inclusion

Your organization should have its own implementation plan for executing the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan developed by OPM.

Implement

• Review your performance standards and goals at least once a month to ensure that you are on track. Discuss your progress with your manager frequently to make sure your expectations are aligned.
• Talk to your manager about the accuracy of your position description. Has your role changed significantly from when you were hired, and if so, was your position description updated accordingly? Are the expectations and standards in your performance plan aligned with your position description (PD) and with the work you are actually performing?
• Discuss any issues with your manager as soon as they come up. If there is a barrier to your successful performance, the best approach is to address it right away and work with your manager to identify a solution.

Here are some additional ideas to consider:

Labor/Management Partnerships

Forums are established within your organization for the purpose of labor and management collaboration on workplace matters and shared responsibility for mission accomplishment.

Work-Life

• Take the time to explore your Work-Life program options by consulting with your agency's Work-Life coordinators and related policies. Are there onsite wellness opportunities available to you? Are there flexibilities available to you in terms of where and when you do your job that would allow you to be more productive and satisfied with your work environment and to help you balance your other life responsibilities with work? Are there on-site childcare centers or childcare subsidies that will help you manage your work and dependent care needs? If you are a nursing mother, is there a worksite lactation room available that can provide you with a private and comfortable space to express breast milk? In order to take advantage of these opportunities, demonstrate an ability to achieve work goals in a timely and independent manner.
• Participation in some Work-Life programs such as workplace flexibilities may require you to gain specific skills (e.g., an ability to use agency-supported technology and communicate effectively with supervisor and co-workers) and you should be sure to demonstrate these.

Diversity and Inclusion

Participate in available diversity and inclusion training.

Mentoring

If your agency has a mentoring program, consider participating as a mentor, mentee, or both.

Evaluate

• Assess your own performance as it relates to Agency mission and goals. How can you use your strengths to add more value to the organization and the mission? What developmental areas are most important to focus on in the future?
• Participate actively in evaluation efforts. Take the time to fill out the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. Federal leaders use these data extensively for action planning, so it is important that the results are truly representative of the agency's workforce.

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What Is Available To Help In The Completion Of These Activities And Decisions?

There are a variety of items available to help Employees in the completion of decisions and activities relating to Performance Culture.

Agency Strategic Plan

An agency's Strategic Plan should provide the context for decisions about performance goals, priorities, and budget planning, and should provide the framework for the detail provided in agency annual plans and reports. An agency's strategic plan is available on its website.

Performance Management Plan, System and Policies

Performance management is the systematic process by which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of agency mission and goals. Employee performance management includes:

• Planning work and setting expectations
• Continually monitoring performance
• Developing the capacity to perform
• Periodically rating performance in a summary fashion
• Rewarding good performance.

Awards Policies and Plans

Agencies have the authority to provide awards to employees in a variety of forms, including monetary awards, special act awards, performance awards, and granting time-off subject to the availability of funding.

Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

The IDP helps identify employee's career development goals and the means for achieving them. Typically, the employee will complete an IDP on an annual basis and can include training (free or fee based), online learning (through an online learning management system), development opportunities and assignments, mentoring, reading and attending conferences and college courses.

Position Description (PD)

Describe the roles and responsibilities outlined in a job opening. Human resource officials and hiring managers should continually review their position descriptions for currency and relevance to ever-changing mission requirements. In addition, managers can proactively plan for vacancies and potential shifts in the composition of their workforce during this process.

Performance Elements and Standards

Performance elements and standards should be measurable, understandable, verifiable, equitable, and achievable. Through critical elements, employees are held accountable as individuals for work assignments or responsibilities.

Labor/Management Agreements

Provide the framework and articles outlining a constructive and cooperative working relationship between an agency and the labor organizations representing the employees.

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