Organizational Improvements HUD wide

1. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide Grants Management – NOFA Development. Budget Staff within various Program Areas. Consolidation of Program Areas/Consolidate Program Area support functions. Estimate staffing requirements by top-down, rather than bottom-up approach. Consult mid- to senior-level staff for efficiencies, not managers. Forced efficiencies.

2. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide • Grants Management – NOFA Development Program Areas have separate Grants Management offices that review, score and perform other related functions for Program Grants. Recommendation: While it’s reasonable to have NOFA development done by Subject Matter Experts within the respective program offices, Grants Management centers throughout the Department should be evaluated and possibly consolidated into one central Grants Management Office.

3. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide • Budget Staff Budget Analysts are within all Program Areas performing Formulation and Execution aspects of the budget process. There is also a centralized budget shop within the OCFO. The Department has both, centralized and decentralized budget operations performing formulation and execution duties. Further, Program Offices have additional staff that perform formulation activities that are eventually rolled up to each budget shop. Recommendation: Examine Budget operations, along with Program Offices, throughout the Department for redundancies and potential efficiencies.

4. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide • Consolidation of Program Areas/Consolidate Program Area support functions. There are varying missions throughout HUD’s 17 Program Areas – understandably so. Some have duplicative activities and may prove to be overlapping. Likewise, there are multiple support functions undertaken within each Program Area in addition to the OCXOs – HR activities, IT planning and development, Procurement, etc. Recommendation: Evaluate Program Areas’ for overlapping missions. Consolidate with a more relevant PA or create new PA encompassing existing ones. Evaluate OCXOs’ functions and work activities for duplication within Program Areas.

5. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide • Consult mid- to senior-level staff for efficiencies, not just managers. Engaging front line employees that are closest to the work being preformed is a central theme of several business management and quality improvement principles and theories. In addition to the wealth of knowledge gained from seasoned managers, non-supervisory staff can provide helpful insight to the work processes and activities of an Office. More importantly, experienced staff can provide constructive criticism on Programs, Office operations, and other inefficiencies. Recommendation: Consult staff in a direct, informal and casual manner. Soliciting feedback in a formal atmosphere may make employees more reluctant to offer up suggestions and negative critiques of their Office’s operations.

6. Organizational ImprovementsHUD wide • Estimate staffing requirements by top-down, rather than bottom-up approach. When interviewed, employees will invariably provide estimates of work to fill an 8 hour day – regardless of whether, or not, that work activity demanded a full work day. Recommendation: Examine the functional areas and work activities that are required, notthe necessary work activities that are completed based off of staff estimates of how much time is expended on them.