The US Agency for International Development - Essay Example

Analysis of the Agency’s Policies, Procedures, and Plans Regarding Unions, Privatization, Pensions, and Productivity.

Agency and Unions

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has undertaken several programs and reforms towards strengthening its internal operations and service delivery. With more changes expected to occur in the coming years, questions of accountability and efficiency still linger. The human resource is still a critical component of the agency, and issues revolving around unionization, pensions, and employee rights need planning to ensure the strategies safeguard their safety. The agency handles a diverse workforce scattered across the globe. Experts question adopting union representation for its diverse employees with its Office of Human Capital and Talent Management (OHCTM) managing hiring and retaining the agency's workforce. Indeed, the agency should have union representation and take advantage of the benefits, including increased performance and accountability.

First, collective bargaining through union representation is a fundamental right for every employee. According to Desmond & Wilson (1), union representation improves employees` income and wellbeing. Through union representation, USAID workers can strengthen their capacity to safeguard their interests and advocate for better employee rights effectively. Compared to non-union workers, employees under union representation receive better deals due to collective bargaining (Desmond & Wilson, 1). As a result of a diverse workforce, inequalities are part of the USAID human resource's challenges. Collective bargaining through unions can help resolve some of these inequalities, pressuring the employer to enforce policies and initiatives that mitigate these challenges. For instance, gender inequality is a significant issue impacting USAID employees, and the agency is geared towards promoting gender equality among its workers.

Another reason for empowering union representation is creating safer and healthy workplace environments for USAID employees. A diverse workforce poses several workplace challenges, and employees demand a safe and healthy work environment for increased efficiency and productivity. Unions provide their members with better job security, a unified voice, and better working conditions. The bargaining power of a union allows the employees to have a say on major issues and decisions within the organization. As such, the organization is left to handle the other problems that revolve around increased productivity and performance metrics. Ultimately, both USAID and its employees will benefit from the inclusion of union representation. For the agency, union representation will bring safety and compliance, better employer-employee communication, and improved work productivity.

The Agency and Privatization

A government can privatize some of its services over to the private sector for varied reasons. Economists argue that government services' privatization may result in better services (Alonso & Andrews, 2). Privatizing USAID services will not be a significant move, considering its efficiency and not-for-profit purposes. Indeed, the privatization of USAID services will not serve the public interest. Among other international organizations, USAID plays a significant role in helping the public interest, including in fields such as health, humanitarian services, and foreign aid, among others. USAID's objectives do not constitute any profit motives. As such, privatizing its services will negatively impact its goals and the reason it exists in the first place (Alonso & Andrews, 2). More so, privatizing USAID services will transform its mission from providing foreign aid to the vulnerable to prioritizing profits. The agency's objectives do not require profit incentives to improve the overall internal standards.

Further, privatization of USAID services may result in monopolistic concerns, regulation of the organization's processes, fragmentation, and short-termism (Ward, 3). USAID is the only U.S. agency responsible for foreign humanitarian work. Privatizing the agency translates to creating a monopoly that may restructure the initial agency's objectives into one that exploits foreign countries. Also, private monopolies cannot be regulated (Ward, 3). An agency of such magnitude requires constant regulation to prevent abuse of the monopolistic power. In the long run, privatization will not lead to the efficiency of the services provided. It can further lead to fragmentation and short-termism of the agency if privatized. More specifically, the agency can be divided into several branches that operate independently. These short-term pressures can create responsibility and accountability problems, with each unit pointing fingers at the others in case of accountability issues. Therefore, USAID should not be privatized.

Employee Pension Plans

USAID implements several pension plans for its employees. As part of the workplace benefits, the agency offers a USAID 401(k) plan, allowing all its eligible employees to set aside some of their wages for retirement plans. The 401(k) plan is one of the most supplementary retirement plans used by most organizations, with the employer making a small contribution towards their employees` savings (USAID, 4). The plan further allows the employees to invest part of their contributions. Employees also decide on how they will contribute to the savings and how they want the money invested. However, the 401(k) plan has several caveats that prohibit the employee from accessing the employer's contributions immediately (USAID, 4). Moreover, the employee cannot withdraw their contributions until after a certain period is achieved. These restrictions prevent employees from leaving the plan early. While the IRS controls the limit for deposits, it is advisable to save as much as possible.

Another pension plan is the Thrifts Savings Plan (TSP). While TSP shares similar benefits to a 401(k) plan, it is only available for federal employees and uniformed service personnel (USAID, 5). The plan offers an automatic payroll contribution for the employees and matches the same contribution to that of the employer. These contributions are tax-deferred, meaning that taxes only apply when the money is withdrawn. Employees also have an option to make after-tax contributions and avoid paying taxes one they retire. TSP has a wide range of investment options, each offering its benefits over the others. The amount an employee can invest in the TSP plan depends on them, but it is advisable to save enough, keeping in mind long-term returns.

Recommendations for Improving Productivity and Performance Evaluation

Despite implementing several policies, procedures, and best practices, USAID, as any other organization, has a performance evaluation system that promotes effectiveness and productivity. With employee commitment guaranteed, the performance evaluation system aligns team or departmental goals with individual goals, ensuring the organization achieves its vision and set goals (Nielsen et al., 6). In essence, the extent to which an organization can be seen as successful depends on implementing well-structured performance measurement metrics. At the same time, individual and team goals should address the evaluation system's objectives and behavioral attributes. In so doing, organizations prosper from aligning their strategies, values, and vision through strategic management. While the current performance evaluation system serves the agency well, increased global agency's needs and the emerging challenges of a diverse workforce demand significant improvements. Improving productivity and performance evaluation, USAID needs to apply several recommendations to its core processes.

First, USAID needs to implement a culture that values feedback. Performance and productivity rely heavily on feedback, and the agency's managers must be well trained to provide feedback regularly (Nielsen et al., 6). Employees need to understand that feedback promotes good communication, personal, and professional growth. Performance appraisals fail because the supervisors communicate feedback and forget to make follow-ups on the same. Instead, the agency should train its supervisors to observe their employees' progress after giving feedback. Both motivational and corrective feedback are critical to increased productivity and performance evaluation. For instance, supervisors should motivate and support their employees immediately after finishing their tasks. Moreover, before repeating the task, the supervisor should offer corrective feedback and observe the employee's actions while making amends to the given task. Feedback should focus on the employees` behavioral attributes and not their personalities (Nielsen et al., 6). Embracing the feedback culture will address issues surrounding workplace productivity, teamwork, and general employee behavioral characteristics.

Another recommendation is to reward good performance. Incentives are a good motivation to increase performance and productivity. After a performance evaluation, the agency should put in place a system that rewards the best performers. Reviewing an employee's salary after a performance appraisal is another incentive to increase productivity (Thibault Landry & Whillans, 7). Apart from rewards, managers should understand the power of meaningful conversations with employees regarding rewarding performance. Communication is critical to any organization, and supervisors should relate well with their employees through effective communication. Reinforcing a reward system for best performers will encourage other employees to improve their performances, impacting the overall productivity in the long run.

Lastly, USAID should enforce training and development procedures to its managers and employees regularly. Business needs change over time, and employees need to acquire new set skills and knowledge to manage emerging challenges that hinder business prosperity. These sessions will also allow the agency to address underlying workplace issues that prevent the agency from achieving its set goals. These issues can range from conflicts within the workplace to inconsistent decision-making. Through training and development, the collaboration between the two groups will strengthen workplace relations, foster teamwork, and create a conducive workplace culture and environment (Nielsen et al., 6). Ultimately, each agency member has to play their part in ensuring the agency meets its goals, promotes a unique culture, and contributes to its success.

The Agency and Privatization

A government can privatize some of its services over to the private sector for varied reasons. Economists argue that government services' privatization may result in better services (Alonso & Andrews, 2). Privatizing USAID services will not be a significant move, considering its efficiency and not-for-profit purposes. Indeed, the privatization of USAID services will not serve the public interest. Among other international organizations, USAID plays a significant role in helping the public interest, including in fields such as health, humanitarian services, and foreign aid, among others. USAID's objectives do not constitute any profit motives. As such, privatizing its services will negatively impact its goals and the reason it exists in the first place (Alonso & Andrews, 2). More so, privatizing USAID services will transform its mission from providing foreign aid to the vulnerable to prioritizing profits. The agency's objectives do not require profit incentives to improve the overall internal standards.

Further, privatization of USAID services may result in monopolistic concerns, regulation of the organization's processes, fragmentation, and short-termism (Ward, 3). USAID is the only U.S. agency responsible for foreign humanitarian work. Privatizing the agency translates to creating a monopoly that may restructure the initial agency's objectives into one that exploits foreign countries. Also, private monopolies cannot be regulated (Ward, 3). An agency of such magnitude requires constant regulation to prevent abuse of the monopolistic power. In the long run, privatization will not lead to the efficiency of the services provided. It can further lead to fragmentation and short-termism of the agency if privatized. More specifically, the agency can be divided into several branches that operate independently. These short-term pressures can create responsibility and accountability problems, with each unit pointing fingers at the others in case of accountability issues. Therefore, USAID should not be privatized.

Employee Pension Plans

USAID implements several pension plans for its employees. As part of the workplace benefits, the agency offers a USAID 401(k) plan, allowing all its eligible employees to set aside some of their wages for retirement plans. The 401(k) plan is one of the most supplementary retirement plans used by most organizations, with the employer making a small contribution towards their employees` savings (USAID, 4). The plan further allows the employees to invest part of their contributions. Employees also decide on how they will contribute to the savings and how they want the money invested. However, the 401(k) plan has several caveats that prohibit the employee from accessing the employer's contributions immediately (USAID, 4). Moreover, the employee cannot withdraw their contributions until after a certain period is achieved. These restrictions prevent employees from leaving the plan early. While the IRS controls the limit for deposits, it is advisable to save as much as possible.

Another pension plan is the Thrifts Savings Plan (TSP). While TSP shares similar benefits to a 401(k) plan, it is only available for federal employees and uniformed service personnel (USAID, 5). The plan offers an automatic payroll contribution for the employees and matches the same contribution to that of the employer. These contributions are tax-deferred, meaning that taxes only apply when the money is withdrawn. Employees also have an option to make after-tax contributions and avoid paying taxes one they retire. TSP has a wide range of investment options, each offering its benefits over the others. The amount an employee can invest in the TSP plan depends on them, but it is advisable to save enough, keeping in mind long-term returns. Read More