Business Finance - Management Preparation Scenario for Assignments

6

Evaluation of Agency's Public Personnel Administration.

Gabrielle McNeely

Pad 530

Strayer University

Phillip Neely

11/3/2023

Evaluation of Agency's Public Personnel Administration.

i) Organizational Design

The design of FDA Human Resource Management is intended to align with the mission of protecting public health through ensuring efficacy, human drugs, biological devices, safety, and medical devices. It demonstrates the necessity of recruiting, retaining, and training a highly skilled workforce specializing in functioning and accomplishing its activities. In 2019, the FDA initialized an operation of implementing agency reorganization that reflected the commitment of the organization to modernizing its structure in advancing the mission while addressing rapid innovation challenges in most of its industries. Alternatively, the FDA depicts the efforts of reorganization in realigning most of its entities in the agency in promoting strategic priorities while elevating role centers, field offices, and office forces. The attachment at the end of the document depicts its current organizational structure. The Office of the Commissioner heads the new organizational structure of the FDA. It comprises the Chief Counsel office, Executive Secretariat office, counselor to the commissioner office, and digital transformation office (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2023). Furthermore, the office is divided into various centers to facilitate its organizations, including:

i) Center for Biologics, Evaluation and Research,

ii) Devices and Radiological Health Center

iii) Drug Evaluation and Research Center

iv) Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Center

v) Tobacco Products Center

vi) Veterinary Medicine Center

vii) Regulatory Affairs office

viii) Center of Excellence Oncology

Strengths and Weaknesses of Organizational Design

The strengths of FDA Human Resource Management is demonstrating collaboration with other organization parts in conducting workforce forecasting and planning. Alternatively, HRM is responsible for overseeing the development and training programs directly tied to the regulatory functions of the FDA. The training enables staying up-to-date with the technologies, regulations, and best practices, significantly evolving in facilitating the agency's success. The HRM also ensures compliance with federal regulations and laws, including civil service rules, equal employment laws, and labor laws. HRM also plays the function of cultivating the values and culture of the agency by creating an environment that encourages collaboration, adherence, and innovation. The weaknesses of HRM of the FDA are bureaucratic procedures slowing the process of decision-making and affecting the quick adaptation of HR to the changing needs. Alternatively, the FDA faces the weakness of budget constraints limiting the available resources for accomplishing the activities of HR, such as employee benefits, development programs, and training. The challenges include the inability of the FDA to track workload, work distribution, and the competencies of human resources.

ii) Personnel Recruitment and Hiring Practices

HRM depicts an essential function of attracting and retaining top talent as one of its key components. It accomplishes the activity through the collaboration of the various centers to determine the needs of each and, therefore, incorporate specialized human resources aligning with the specific needs. It also includes crafting job requirements and specifications to attract the best talent and maintaining the annual hiring and retaining goals (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2022). The component goal is to ensure that the FDA maintains the necessary expertise intended for the evaluation, approval, and regulation of products in specific areas, including medical devices, food safety, pharmaceuticals, and food safety. Alternatively, the FDA indicates the component of maintaining a competitive and rigorous selection process to identify the candidates who are most qualified for the specific task. The goal involves the selection of individuals meeting the set high standards of the agency while depicting commitment to public health safety. The practices include the candidates going through a competitive selection process after job postings and applications. The process includes writing exams, assessments, and interviews. Panel interviews provide the opportunity for the candidates to be interviewed by personnel of the agency who possess the relevant experience and knowledge. The scientific assessments facilitate the candidates to pass through scientific assessments to ensure demonstration of their qualifications. Additionally, the FDA integrates ensuring diversity and equal employment opportunity (EEO). It involves the activity of building a workforce that reflects diversity among the United States Population and fostering an equitable workplace. The practices include integrating EEO programs and the prevention of discrimination by providing equal opportunities and embracing diversity of employees and applicants. It also involves following the affirmative action requirements in addressing the possibility of underrepresenting certain groups, such as the minority groups in the organization.

iii) Employee Skills Training and its Strengths

One of the functions of FDA HRM is training the employees to ensure they remain up to date with the best practices and regulations. It involves the role of the FDA in investing in development and training programs for the existing and the new hires. The development and training of FDA employees ensure the appropriate skills and practices in accomplishing the mission of public health safety and regulation. The strength of FDA training and development is the provision of specialized training that is tailored to its regulation responsibilities and mission. It promotes receiving the required skills, facilitating excellence in the specific roles. Alternatively, the training promotes regulatory expertise in aligning with regulating food, medical devices, or pharmaceuticals, therefore emphasizing compliance with regulations and knowledge specific to that particular industry. It depicts the inclusion of programs that elicit critical thinking skills and support for evidence-based decision-making. They depict training programs that are research and scientific-oriented in developing the appropriate skills. It resonates with the latest agency news published on September 29, 2023, about the FDA providing authorization for DNA tests in facilitating assessment of varying cancer type predisposition. (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2023). It added health information knowledge and guided the health practitioners on the monitoring practices. The benefits of the training are an ongoing process of developing the skills and ensuring compliance.

Employee Skill Training Weaknesses

The FDA approach is limited regarding resources required to execute the activities significantly through budget constraints. The bureaucratic procedures are time-consuming and hinder quick development and improvement of outcomes over time. FDA is a federal agency evolving fast, and therefore, it is a challenge to support its functions. Alternatively, in case of high employee turnover, it is a challenge to retain the top talented employees who are highly skilled. The organization lacks an immediate recovery method in case a turnover occurs (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2022). It depicts a scenario in which highly skilled employees leave the organization. Additionally, research and training require effective integration of technology and approaches that are data-driven and may be challenging in the government environment.

Recruiting and Training Recommendations

One of the recommendations involves the need for the FDA to collaborate with educational institutions or industries to facilitate the creation of specialized programs or internships for early awareness of FDA objectives and goals. It is a method of attracting the appropriate knowledge and skills of the young generation. Partnership with industries enables the exchange of ideas and practices in enhancing the training programs of the FDA. The recommendations for inclusion resonate with the ideas of GAO of implementing and developing a strategic workforce plan, including the performance measures in facilitating the effectiveness of human capital evaluation and enabling an ongoing process of updating the plan (GAO, 2022). Additionally, the GAO recommendation can be strengthened through the invention of e-learning platforms to provide employees with interactive and flexible learning methods. It ensures efficiency since it is a self-paced method accommodating diverse learning styles.

References

GAO. (2022). FDA Workforce: Agency-Wide Workforce Planning Needed To Ensure Medical Product Staff Meet Current and Future Needs. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104791.pdf

United States Food and Drug Administration. (2022). Management’s Response to the FDA Interim Hiring and Retention Assessment. https://www.fda.gov/media/138664/download#:~:text=FDA%20believes%20there%20is%20opportunity,and%20succession%20planning%20(retention).

United States Food and Drug Administration. (2023). FDA Grants First Marketing Authorization for a DNA Test to Assess Predisposition for Dozens of Cancer Types. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-grants-first-marketing-authorization-dna-test-assess-predisposition-dozens-cancer-types

United States Food and Drug Administration. (2023). FDA Organization. https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization

FDA Organizational Chart