Finally, if you have not begun to develop a labor-management plan, OPM has prepared the following general guidance to help agencies and unions get started. The vision sets out the reasons that labor and management have decided to plan together and the results they hope to achieve. None of the subsequent steps will matter very much if labor and management cannot agree in which direction they are headed. Once the vision is clearly identified, labor and management should analyze their external and internal environment. For example, budget limitations, workforce changes, or mandates from the Administration or Congress are all environmental factors that can have an impact on the ability of labor and management to achieve their goals.
Strategic issues are the fundamental challenges that confront labor and management.
Identifying these issues is at the heart of labor-management planning. Labor and management should develop a set of commonly understood, clearly articulated steps that will help them address their strategic issues and achieve their goals. These action steps define how you get to where you want to go. As noted below, the requirements in Section 2 of Executive Order 12871 should be addressed in all labor-management plans. Periodic evaluation of strategies, tactics, actions and results are essential to good planning.