ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance Management in Hybrid Workplaces

Federal News Network

Federal managers have some help to ensure their employees are performing at a high level no matter where they are working. A new memo from the Office of Personnel Management released today, offers them performance management tips for a hybrid workplace.

Behavioral Science Can Help Increase Satisfaction with Government Services

Government Executive

The success of the new federal COVID test kit website shows what behavioral science can offer to help make services more accessible.

Governments Turn to Data to Find Solutions to Equity Issues

RouteFifty

It’s easy for leaders to pronounce that they’re going to make a fairer state or locality. Here’s how several states, counties and cities are utilizing information to achieve their goals.

New Orleans Leans into Data to Reduce Incarceration

RouteFifty

To address racial and ethnic disparities in its local criminal legal systems, New Orleans is creating a blueprint for reform using data-driven analysis and community engagement.

Fraudsters Set to Pounce on Massive Infrastructure Money

Pew – Stateline Blog

At least 10% of the total $1.2 trillion in infrastructure funding could be used fraudulently, estimates Stephen Street, president of the Association of Inspectors General, a nonprofit membership group. . . . While federal agencies ultimately are responsible for how the money gets spent, it will fall to states, cities and counties awarding contracts to oversee everything from the bidding process to the quality of the work, say auditors and watchdog groups.

Webinar: Do’s and Don’ts for Performance Management – March 1, 2022, 1 p.m. Eastern

ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

The Urban Institute recently published a report titled: “Dos and Don’ts: Tips for Strengthening Your Performance Management Systems, which was aimed at educating readers in a way that can help them answer that question. Four of the authors of this important piece of research are going to engage in a facilitated conversation about the scores of concepts covered in the report — and more.

Progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals Measured at State-Local Levels

International Institute for Sustainable Development

Over 330 subnational governments – including New York City — have agreed to align local efforts with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, engage stakeholders to share their experiences, lessons learned, and information gathered using the SDG framework – and voluntarily submit a status report to the UN’s High-Level Political Forum. 

Resource of the Week: Federal Funding Streams Available for Education Data Systems

Data Quality Campaign

This resource identifies federal funding streams that are flexible, specify data as an allowable activity, or are allocated specifically for data, and provides details on the amount of funding most likely to be used for these purposes, where possible.

How integrated data, analytics can provide the highest ROI for customer experience

Federal News Network

Recent developments at the Agriculture Department may serve as a model for how agencies can move forward. It launched AskUSDA to serve as the single “front door” to deliver a centralized contact center experience that aims to help customers get consistent and streamlined information. 

The Next Frontier in Equity Is All About Data

RouteFifty

Developing strategies centered on data collection is critical for governments to make sure resources are deployed in an effective and equitable way. . . . The American Rescue Plan Act offers a starting point for how to create consistent equity measures.

Citizen Satisfaction with Federal Government Services Hits All-Time Low

Government Executive

Citizen satisfaction with federal government services continued a four-year plummet and dropped to an all-time low score of 63.4% in 2021, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) annual report released on Tuesday.

It’s Time to Bridge the Divide Separating Policymakers and Researchers

Government Executive (Don Kettl)

For years, researchers have complained that government doesn’t pay enough attention to the work they do. But the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget have rolled out arequest for help in shaping learning for President Biden’s management agenda. How can we get the research we need to solve some of government’s toughest problems?

Video of 2021 Public Performance Conference on International Best Practices and Generally Accepted Performance Principles 

National Center for Public Performance

Presentations by academics and practitioners. Includes great case studies of performance initiatives in countries in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. 

How Better State Data Shaped Indiana’s Response to the Pandemic

Government Technology

The Indiana Management Performance Hub (MPH) played an instrumental part in preparing the state to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, making data a central part of its approach to governing through the crisis.

State and Local Fiscal Relief Funds: Lessons Learned

Results for America (Twitter Thread)

A webinar provides insights on implementation of federal Rescue Plan funds to several localities, and a link to a report dashboard reviewing the plans of 150 localities submitted to the US Treasury as a requirement for receiving their share of $350 billion in relief funds.

Resource of the Week: Conservation Programs and Performance Data

Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA

This Data Resource provides extensive data on the Nation’s conservation program activities through its Resource Conservation Act Data Viewer. And now, data visualizations have been added to the tool, making the data easier to interpret, sort, and download. Users can also link to research reports on the effect of conservation practices, including those from the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental effects of conservation practices and programs and show the results of our conservation dollars spent.

Is Performance Measurement a Fad That Has Now Come and Gone?

Federal Computer Week (Steve Kelman)

Steve Kelman warns that a constant priority under the previous four presidents is getting far less attention from the Biden administration.

How Agencies Are Using Data and Data Science to Evaluate Programs

Federal News Network

The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, passed back in 2018, aims to bring data and data science more deeply into evaluation. There’s even a foundation to support this work. Recently it surveyed agencies to see how they’re doing. Data Foundation president Nick Hart joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss the findings.

Why Do We Need to Rethink Budgeting?

ICMA/Government Finance Officers Association

The public finance profession has an opportunity to update local government budgeting practices to take advantage of new ways of thinking, new technologies, and to better meet the changing needs of communities. The Rethinking Budgeting initiative will raise new and interesting ideas like those featured in this paper and will produce guidance for state and local policy makers on how to local government budget systems can be adapted to today’s needs.

Resource of the Week: Funding Performance Profiles (Nonprofits)

Links to reports and papers by Foundations and other Funders of nonprofit grantees that support learning and performance improvements by grant recipients.

Federal Employee Pulse Survey: Preliminary Insights

Performance.gov
In October, the President’s Management Council (PMC), together with the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and the General Services Administration piloted the first-ever, Government-wide pulse survey that allow leaders to hear directly from their 2 million employees about issues such as the pandemic, equity, and engagement with work.

Dos and Don’ts: Tips for Strengthening Your Performance Management Systems

Urban Institute (Harry Hatry, Batia Katz, Katherine Barrett, Richard Greene)

This report breaks down “dos and don’ts” for performance management—best practices for collecting, analyzing, presenting, disseminating, and using performance data.

US Cities Use Data to Fight Race and Income Gaps

Reuters

In October 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropy’s Stacey Gillett helped start a program with Bloomberg’s What Works Cities initiative, bringing together budget and finance heads from several dozen cities to look at how to foster an equitable recovery from the pandemic. . . . Data has played a central role in crafting policies focused on boosting equality.

Using Data to Inform Decisions

Twitter Stream (@emilytroutman)

Disaster reporter Emily Troutman describes how Montgomery County, MD, began sharing school COVID data publicly to show which schools would close because of high infection rates – then stopped when too many schools were closing: “Generation of useless data is one of the top ways that aid groups and governments fail people in need.”

Resource of the Week: Centre for Public Impact

CPI is a learning partner involved in helping public servants (1) collectively make sense of the complex challenges facing people and (2) adopt an action-learning, experimental, iterative mindset to day-to-day activities. They work in Europe, North America, and Australia/New Zealand.

Tennessee Adds More Evidence, Data Requirements to Budget Proposal Process

Kingsport Times News

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is required to present next year’s budget proposal before Feb. 1, and the process leading up to it now includes a complete evidence-based budget analysis, including a series of new questions for each state agency.

U.S. Treasury Releases Final Guidance for Performance Reporting on Recovery Funds

U.S. Treasury Department

The American Rescue Plan established the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to provide $340 billion to states, localities and tribal governments. This final guidance encourages evidence-based services in education, nutrition, social programs; and investments in evidence building and program evaluation.

Priority-Based Budgeting Has a Short-Term Impact

Public Budgeting & Finance Journal (David Mitchell et al)

Do results justify the significant organizational costs of changing budget and accounting practices? It does work, but authors caution that budgetary reallocation toward higher-priority departments begins to wane by the third year after priority-based budgeting is implemented, potentially limiting its long-term effectiveness.

Rooting for the Infrastructure Implementation Task Force

Government Executive (Ed DeSeve)

The new Implementation Task Force created by President Biden to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act should actively work to see that state, local, tribal and territorial governments are adequately organized to receive and account for funds.

Resource of the Week:  National Center for Public Performance

Institute for Public Service, Suffolk University-Boston

NCPP sponsors conferences, training events, research, and publications supporting a network of public performance practitioners and academics in the US and across the globe. The new Center executive director is Aroon Manoharan and the new managing director is Mary Gibson.