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Washington, D.C.--The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today said a federal report "debunks the myth of poor performance by federal employees," and that it underscores the need for sharply-expanded training for federal agency managers in the art of establishing a workplace environment that is supportive of successful employee performance.

A study by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) put the number of so-called `poor performers' in the federal sector at 3.7 percent of the workforce. OPM interviewed some 250 supervisors in various agencies using survey techniques that encouraged respondents to talk expansively and in plain language about the performance of their employees.

NTEU President Robert M. Tobias said the study "cuts the underpinnings out of arguments that the federal workforce is full of people who either don't know their jobs or don't want to do them well." He added: "That is something we who work with and on behalf of federal employees every day have always known."

NTEU is the largest independent federal sector union, representing more than 155,000 employees in 20 agencies and departments.

NTEU on Employee Performance

The NTEU president said "it would be hard to overstate the importance to improving the federal workplace" of the addition of such training for managers in a meaningful, consistent and ongoing fashion. "Establishing a successful work environment is an art," he said, "and managers need help in learning how to do it. They simply don't get enough training in it."

Tobias said that in most workplaces--public or private--employees thrive when managers know how to create an environment where people are not only rewarded for their best performance, but are actively encouraged to provide it.

"The skilled, dedicated, professional men and women of the federal workforce literally are thrilled when their manager creates and maintains an environment where they are challenged to stretch and reach," Tobias said. On the other hand, he added, "it is very difficult to achieve anything like that in an atmosphere where managers stifle creativity and minimize employee contributions."

NTEU is a leading advocate of federal sector labor-management partnership as a tool for employee empowerment as well as the effective, efficient accomplishment of agency missions.