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Reinvention@workforyou
Creating a Culture of Change and Reconnecting Americans to Their Government

This year marks the seventh anniversary of Vice President Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) -- the longest and most successful national government reform effort in American history.

Its mission: to make government work better, cost less, and get results Americans care about.

Reinvention = Results

• Overall, NPR recommended and Congress adopted savings of about $136 billion since 1993.

• NPR recommended a series of government procurement reforms. Over the last seven years, those changes have saved the American taxpayers more than $12 billion.

• More than 1,200 Hammer Award teams have been honored for reinvention and cost savings of $37 billion.

• During the Clinton-Gore Administration, federal spending -- on a per capita basis -- grew at the slowest rate since the Eisenhower Administration, not including inflation.

• The government is smaller than it's been in 40 years. It has 377,000 fewer employees than in 1993. This represents a 17% reduction in the size of the federal civilian workforce. It's smaller, leaner, and more efficient.

• Agencies have completed a substantial majority of the 1,500 recommendations NPR made in 1993 and 1995. They've completed about two-thirds of the original 1993 recommendations.

• Some of the recommended changes required Presidential and Congressional action. As a result, President Clinton signed nearly 50 new directives and Congress passed nearly 100 laws.

Changing the Culture by Changing the Conversation

• NPR's goal in the year 2000 is to make change and reinvention a permanent part of the day-to-day operations and culture of government. Its 32 "high-impact agency" partners are transforming themselves to be performance-based, results-oriented, and customer-driven.

• NPR's focus on customer service is paying off. The American Customer Service Index (ACSI) results released last December show that some government agencies surveyed are already delivering services equal to or better than "the best in business."

• "Customer satisfaction" is becoming a mantra throughout the halls of government and the ACSI results are a baseline measurement for it. (For more on the ACSI survey, visit www.customersurvey.gov.)

• NPR is also measuring employee satisfaction in the federal government, because it goes hand-in-hand with satisfied customers. The vast majority of federal employees now recognize that customer service is part of their jobs. Three out of four -- 72% -- say they know their agencies have customer service goals.

• Among supervisors, there has been a dramatic leap in awareness of service goals -- from 36% in 1992 to 79% of supervisors who responded to the 1999 Employee Survey.

• The results of NPR's second government-wide survey validate those of the first - employees who work at agencies that make reinvention a top priority are 2-3 times more satisfied with their jobs than those who don't.

• The federal government should be the nation's model employer and NPR wants to make sure government executives and managers are committed to that goal. (For information on the employee survey, visit www.employeesurvey.gov).

• To tell the reinvention story, last fall NPR launched REGO, its online "e-zine" designed to showcase the people who've benefited from reinvented government and to give it a human face. The address is www.rego.gov.

NPR 2000: "Reinvention@workforyou" to Restore Trust in Government

• In late 1999, NPR reassessed the best approaches to continuing reinvention well into the 21st century. In 2000, NPR will continue its work to make agencies that have the most contact with the public more performance-based, results-oriented, and customer-driven. NPR will partner with agencies to:
  • Achieve customer satisfaction with federal services equal to or better than the business service sector, as measured by ACSI; and

  • Develop an architectural design to enable Americans to have access to all government information and be able to conduct all major transactions on-line by 2003.

• NPR will also work with local and state governments and the private sector to:
  • Achieve dramatic reductions in gun violence;

  • Help states achieve their goals of universal health insurance for children; and

  • Provide all Americans a seamless learning and employment system to get the job skills they need to be successful in the 21st century.

• A generation ago, when asked by the University of Michigan "Do you trust the federal government to do the right things most of the time?," 76% of Americans said yes. By 1994, that number was only 21%. In 1998, that number had nearly doubled to 40%.

• This increase shows that Americans still believe that government can deliver results and improve their quality of life. That is what drives NPR's intended outcomes.

• By working toward these outcomes, NPR is working to restore trust and strengthen Americans' confidence that government can make a difference in their lives.

April 2000

For more detailed information on NPR's history, initiatives, accomplishments, and goals, as well as specific agencies' reinvention strategies, please visit www.npr.gov or call (202) 694-0001.