Department of Energy Personnel Management Activities

Selected aspects of the Departent of Energy's (DOE) personnel management practices were reviewed. Specifically, the effects of three recent actions were examined: the impact of the Federal hiring freeze, the allocation of supergrade positions, and the recent Civil Service Commission (CSC) report on DOE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) personnel matters. DOE organizations were given some form of staffing relief for high priority programs and in general the hiring freeze had no serious impact on their organizations. A systematic review of the allocation of supergrade positions is currently being conducted to provide DOE with a greater understanding of how and where the executive level positions are being utilized and to identify areas where allocation adjustments may be necessary. The CSC report identifed two major DOE personnel management problems: DOE lacked a complete organization structure, including a lack of mission and functional statement; and numerous DOE positions were misclassified and overgraded. DOE is currently reviewing recent Office of Personnel Management interim regulations on downgrading before taking any action on the overgraded positions.