Federal agencies today are operating in some of the most challenging financial climates in decades, with ever expanding expectations around accountability and performance. Many agencies struggle to balance the need for immediate action with taking a more long-term strategic approach. The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) stated that information linking budget, costs, and performance to support resource allocation decisions is one of the most needed types of analysis. Agencies have implemented a variety of solutions with wide-ranging outcomes, but one of the most successful undertakings was done by a multi-billion dollar service agency with over 2,000 offices across the country and approximately 70 percent of their budget in staffing. Their leadership understood that implementing ‘across the board’ cuts to programs and internal departments would significantly impact their ability to perform and disproportionally burden their services to the public.

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The federal agency, in one of our recent projects, began their right-sizing effort by utilizing a data-driven approach to examining workload. They accepted that each office and state across the country deals with a unique combination of programs and challenges that would not allow staffing to be based solely on public demand for programs. They faced a complex organizational problem, which would require an approach that captures their complexity and reduces it to understandable components and includes the factors and variables that speak to overall resource effectiveness. The answer? Human Capital Analytics.

Agencies need to look beyond traditional reactionary tactics and adopt a holistic, comprehensively planned approach to examining the workforce, performance, and finances. Human Capital Analytics is an invaluable and cost-effective tool for organizations, especially during difficult financial periods and increased public scrutiny.

Download the whitepaper here.

Learn more about Accenture and NITAAC here.