National Office Reinvention Underway

The Mediator Task Force on the Future of FMCS looked at the agency, its future and made recommendations to lead FMCS into the 21st century. As a result of the Task Force Report and recommendations, a Strategic Action Plan was developed as a guide for FMCS' Reinvention.

The Strategic Plan first focused on the field organization--the service delivery point for FMCS' customers. The National Office began its Reinvention with a focus on skills assessment and training, work schedules and workforce diversity. Individual development plans for the National Office staff have been completed and training programs have begun.

This spring, the FMCS National Office began its work design Reinvention initiative. This initiative began with an all employees meeting in the Director's office followed by a half-day all employees' meeting with Mary Gail Biebel, the consultant assisting in the reinvention initiative. In this meeting, Biebel discussed the redesign process and taught all employees how to map their basic work processes.

Biebel then worked with Notice Processing Unit (NPU) and Arbitration employees for a day and half to assist them in learning and analyzing the work redesign process. Over the past three months, both NPU and Arbitration employees have met on a weekly basis to identify and map their basic work processes. The next step involves going on a "benchmarking" visit to another agency doing similar work and compare how the work is done and maybe learn from them. Following the visits, both departments will be ready to begin the reinvention stage of their reinvention efforts.

To keep FMCS competitive in today's workplace, which requires doing more with less, it is important that we evaluate our work processes and use technology to help improve efficiency and increase productivity. This is essential to FMCS' survival.

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Last modified: January 26, 1998