People Science?
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Hello and welcome to the first issue of People Science: The Journal of Human Capital Management & Leadership. People Science replaces the magazine we've been producing for over two years now, Leadership Excellence in Government.
You might be thinking that "people science" is a bit of an oxymoron. Maybe, but we believe the science of human capital management has been neglected — especially in government and the broader public sector — for long enough. We don't discount the art, soft skills and various intelligences that are all essential when attempting to manage human beings (hence the name people science) but we hope to shift the balance in some small way by also emphasizing the quantitative side of people management. In so doing, we aim to help nurture a cadre of more professional, more credible and more effective human capital leaders to respond to the 21st Century challenges facing the public sector.
People management is both art and science. Masterful leaders engage their teams using their relationship skills, not math. On the other hand, executives who want to invest their time and resources in the best ways possible rely on data and evidence to inform their judgment when they make decisions. Of course, leadership isn't management. Managers are concerned with making things or processes faster, cheaper and better — noble and necessary work. Leaders guide people into an uncertain future. They create the new and take responsibility for making decisions where the path is uncertain. That decision-making is part art and part science.
Today, the US Federal Government spends less than 1 percent of its overall budget on evaluating its programs. Despite more than twenty years of law, policy and guidance aimed at performance metrics, evidence-based decision-making and better evaluation of government programs, nothing substantial is different about the way programs are run and money is spent now versus then. But things are about to change. Budgets are tighter than they've been in decades and they will get even smaller. The American public wants better, more accountable government at lower costs, and they will dismiss leaders that fail to deliver.
Lower cost government will be achieved in many ways but certain to occur are further cuts to the workforce and reduction of spending on employees. Right or wrong, we'll have a smaller government in years to come, even as the demands on it grow in number, size and complexity. Human capital analytics prepares agencies for this kind of sweeping change. The quantitative side of human capital management requires advanced workforce analytics to understand the competencies and composition of the workforce on an ongoing basis; program evaluation to know what investments in people and HR technology are effective; analysis of engagement data to know what adjustments are needed to produce optimal performance; and how knowledge flows in the agency so that it gets to the people who need it, to name a few.
A much more sophisticated age of talent management is upon us. We intend for "People Science" to be a guide for public sector leaders who see the opportunity and intend to seize it.
Sincerely,
Allan Schweyer
Editor
Dear Colleagues...
Because the government will be running on a smaller budget, cuts to the government workforce and reduction of spending on employees is certain.