When fiscal constraints or restructuring result in the abolition of positions, the State is often unable to transfer employees to available positions where the employees may enjoy continued employment. Thus, the State is unable to effectively allocate its workforce. Therefore, in order to enable the State to offer its employees opportunities for continued employment in positions where their experience and skills will further the State's ability to provide quality services, The Task Force Will investigate ways of retaining skilled employees in State government by enhancing the mobility of employees within the State workforce. A large number of occupational skills are interchangeable between the two, and a healthy exchange of ideas and expertise resulting from the movement of talented individuals between the sectors would benefit both. Unfortunately, a major disincentive which militates against the movement of individuals between the public and private sectors is the lack of pension portability.
Employees feel indentured to the sector which is in control of their pension plan.
The unprecedented changes that New York State government is experiencing and will continue to experience have brought into focus the need for a more comprehensive approach to staffing the management levels of State government. For over thirty years, various studies on improving the civil service system have recommended that New York State establish a coherent and cohesive system to recruit, select, assign, develop, train, evaluate, compensate, and deploy its career management personnel. The Federal government, through statutory reforms in 1978, has already adopted a system for managers which emphasizes merit, fitness and rigorous performance assessment. Therefore, in order to allow State agencies to more effectively and efficiently develop and deploy top level managers, The Task Force Will investigate the merits of establishing a competitive executive service for senior State managers. The local protective services entrance examinations are the most burdensome examinations for municipal civil service agencies to administer in terms of cost, numbers of candidates, test security, and associated logistics.