Position management planning ensures that organizational structures align with agency missions and goals. Successful implementation requires collaboration among supervisors, HR staff, and employees to identify and resolve structural inefficiencies.
Key Insights
- Define and document position management problems by recognizing symptoms that indicate inefficiencies in work organization and structure.
- Clarify each position’s purpose by assessing its original intent, required resources, and functional relationship to other roles in the unit.
- Evaluate the current position structure using up-to-date organizational charts and system data to ensure alignment with the organization's mission and operational needs.
This lesson is a preview from our Federal Position Management Course and Certified Federal HR Business Partner (cFHRBP) Level III Certificate Program. Enroll in a course for detailed lessons, live instructor support, and project-based training.
Let's move right into Module 3, Effective Position Management Planning. Effective Position Management Planning. The learning objectives for this module are, we're going to define and identify position management problems, recognize the symptoms of problems with work, organization, and management.
We're going to describe the concepts used when defining the purpose of a position. And we're going to identify the key position management considerations in the planning process. And so I want you to understand that the primary responsibility of the agency personnel is to see that the agency's mission and goals are met.
This is a team effort. Supervisors and managers, HR staff, and administrative staff, including employees, must work together to make this happen. And so the unit and the individual positions within it must be structured so that organizational goals are met.
And so this module covers the steps in position design. And so this is a very important module if you anticipate that in your position, you'll be doing position management reviews. And so we want to ensure that every agency and every unit within that agency is accomplishing the missions and the goals of that organization.
And so we will discuss the steps that can be used, whether in a plan to carry out day-to-day position operations, or just in restructuring the unit. All right? And so let's look at the flow chart. The Position Management Planning Flow Chart.
And so this chart gives you the flow of how the position management planning should go, and the things that you need to look at, and the things that you need to consider. And so you want to consider the agency's mission and the organizational structure. The mission is the basis for all organizational and position decisions.
And now you can achieve this by always ensuring that you have accurate, up-to-date organizational charts. And I would like to put a point here that it's necessary sometimes for you to go to your HR Information Systems staff to run a data report of the organizational structure as it appears in the computer, sometimes in the system. Sometimes people move around, and they don't actually do personal actions.
And so they may appear in one place on the written organizational chart, but when you do the data run, it will show you exactly where those positions are, exactly how many positions are there. All right? And so the next step in the Planning Flow Chart, Define Position Management Problems. Recognize where the problems exist.
Document the problems in writing. Use the symptoms as the troubleshooting guide. That's very important.
Consider solutions suggested by the symptom. The next step, define the position's purpose. What was the reason the position was created? The position's existence.
You need to know why it was created. And you need to understand whether or not it was designed to meet the mission of the organization. You need to look at the materials needed to perform the work.
And you need to look at the position's relationship to other positions within the unit. And so the last step is to evaluate the current position structure. You want to look at positions as they currently exist.
Determine how it currently operates. Ask how positions contribute to the mission accomplishment. And determine which solutions suggested by the symptoms solve the problems.
