At the Department of Labor We're Using our Strategic Plan to Manage. No, Really.

How can a strategic plan become a springboard to directly manage the operations of a federal department or agency in a way that increases the likelihood of achieving the organization’s goals? At the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), we have adopted a systematic approach to assess our progress in the implementation of our fiscal year (FY) 2011-2016 strategic plan to further Secretary Hilda L. Solis’ vision of Good Jobs for Everyone. By cascading the goals laid out in DOL’s strategic plan down to operating plans for each of our agencies, we’ve taken a government strategic plan from its traditional home—the shelf—and moved it to center of the desk. Through quarterly operating plan review meetings between DOL’s chief operating officer, Deputy Secretary Seth D. Harris, and the department’s agency heads, management decisions about strategies, resource shifts, and employee and executive incentives are discussed on a regular basis. This is all in an effort to improve outcomes for job seekers, workers, and working families across the United States.