Introduction to Human Capital Management in Public ... - CQ Press

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2 CHAPTER 1
The City of Chicago has over 1,500 job titles. The purpose of the citywide
job analysis is to ensure that all of the job descriptions are current and conform
to industry standards and to recommend consolidation of titles where appropriate.
The city is developing a citywide Core Competency Model, as well as
job-specific functional competencies. Chicago’s charge is not only to recruit
specific talent, but to recruit individuals who are ethical, accountable, and loyal
to the public interest.
Motivating and retaining excellent employees are also goals of the City of
Chicago. In 2008 the Department of Human Resources will launch a citywide
new-employee orientation program, as well as enhance its training and professional
development programs. Commissioner King has said that that the
rewards of public service are not always material. They can be moral, psychological,
or even spiritual. According to King, Chicago’s development programs
will highlight and emphasize the rewards of public service.
The City of Chicago wants to continually find ways to improve its
processes, including the posting of positions; recruiting, screening, and selection;
hiring activities; and training and development. In transforming the
Department of Human Resources, Commissioner King believes, the city will
create a high-performing, values-based organization that will attract, motivate,
and retain talented public service employees. The city’s ultimate goal, however,
is to ensure that its improved processes have a direct and positive impact on
service delivery to the taxpayers of Chicago.
The Chicago example illustrates the ways in which governments are
changing how they operate their civil service systems, even in environments
where change might not be expected. Chicago’s civil service is over one hundred
years old, labor unions are strong, and politics is highly centralized in the
political machinery (Kasperson 1965). These are all conditions that might create
barriers to modernization. However, as illustrated throughout this book,
the types of changes occurring in Chicago are happening throughout federal,
state, and local governments.
HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SYSTEMS
Human capital management (HCM) is an essential component of any public
management system. It refers to the systems, policies, procedures, and practices
of managing human capital within public organizations, whether merit or nonmerit
systems, civil or non–civil services. The term is often used interchangeably
with “human resource management” and “personnel management.” However,
practitioners, such as David Walker, comptroller general of the United States,
and scholars use the term “human capital” to emphasize the importance of people
to the success of government and the need to change the ways employers and
organizations interact. In an extensive review of human capital efforts of federal
agencies, the Center for Innovation in Public Service outlined four guideposts
for human capital management. Organizations need to