III.C.5: Employee Participation through OpenED

Establish a process through which every government worker can submit ideas on how to save money.

Other Information:

OpenED—President Obama pledged to look for budgetcutting ideas “from the bottom up,” saying he would establish a process through which every government worker could submit ideas on how to save money. In February 2009, to heed the President’s call, Secretary Duncan established in the Department the OpenED project to help identify cost savings and improvements across the agency. OpenED is an established Department-wide employee idea creation and collaboration project created and managed by the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service (PPSS), for the Office of the Secretary (OS), Chief of Staff. Along with an email account and hard-copy suggestion box, OpenED operates an online forum that provides the opportunity for employees to engage in ongoing, productive discussions about ideas to enhance the work of the Department. The Forum seeks to draw upon the institutional knowledge and creativity of all ED employees to improve programs and Department operations. This IT application allows all employees access to the system using their network authorization. Once in the system, employees can enter an idea into the Forum and other employees may read or comment on the new idea. All entries are accessible and visible to each employee in the agency. This open discussion typically leads to further development of the idea or results in a better solution surfacing relative to the topic. Employees can vote on ideas in the Forum resulting in the most highly rated idea (based on the greatest number of yes votes) rising to the top of the list. Employees are encouraged to enter into discussions and participate regularly in Forum discussions. OpenED Forum can be accessed from connectED, the Department’s Intranet web site. To date, 1,124 employees (approximately 25 percent of ED employees) have logged into OpenED Forum accumulating a total of 8,519 visits to the site since its inception. Currently, the Forum contains eight topics for discussion that have generated approximately 250 new ideas, producing 195 sublevel discussions about these ideas. One topic alone received 62 new ideas, generating 72 sublevel postings. To date all ideas have been reviewed, 59 ideas were approved to send forward to ED senior leaders for their approval and next steps. Senior leaders provided responses to 25 ideas to date. These responses are posted online in OpenED Forum and on ConnectED. Sustainable governance structure: To sustain and manage all operations of the OpenED Forum, PPSS staff created a partnership between PPSS (OPEPD) and OS and set up a Steering Committee of staff representing both offices. PPSS staff run operations of OpenED Forum and OS staff provide leadership and input on operations. The Steering Committee established a reading committee for the purpose of reviewing the hundreds of ideas submitted to the Forum.

Stakeholder(s):

• PPSS Staff: To sustain and manage all operations of the OpenED Forum, PPSS staff created a partnership between PPSS (OPEPD) and OS and set up a Steering Committee of staff representing both offices. PPSS staff run operations of OpenED Forum and OS staff provide leadership and input on operations. The Steering Committee established a reading committee for the purpose of reviewing the hundreds of ideas submitted to the Forum.


• The Reading Committee: The OpenED Forum Reading Committee reviews and manages the evaluation process of Forum postings for the purpose of determining what ideas are beneficial that may improve or enhance the work of the Department. The Committee connects with the OpenED Steering Committee throughout the review process to ensure concurrence between both Committees and adherence to the goals of OpenED Forum. The Reading Committee consists of 7 members with 6 members selected from three different principal offices. Each principal office designates a manager and nonmanager staff member to represent their office. This “mixed” membership provides a balance between levels of leadership within the Department. The Reading Committee serves for a period of six months after which a new group of representatives from three other Principal Operating Components (POCs) are designated to serve.


• Steering Committee: The Steering Committee determines the three POC’s that will be asked to designate staff to work as the Reading Committee for a period of six months. The Steering Committee reviews the work of the Reading Committee including its recommendations and POC reviews of ideas considered for implementation. The Steering Committee determines what ideas will be implemented and sends their recommendation to the Chief of Staff for approval. For each idea implemented, the Steering Committee is responsible for ensuring that the ED employee who generated the original idea receives recognition by ED leadership. PPSS staff on the Steering Committee represents ED at the government-wide ideation community run by the Assistant Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. PPSS staff responds to emails and calls from employees across ED related to the OpenED initiative. The Steering Committee coordinates all ED-wide communications for OpenED and advertises regularly to encourage participation.

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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