Summary of Texas Performance Review Recommendations

The area of Human Resource Management has typically been covered in past TPR reports in chapters entitled Employee Benefits or Employee Issues, or as in the last TPR report, Challenging the Status Quo, it was called State Employment.

Human Resource issues cover topics such as training and development, employee satisfaction with their work, recruitment and retention efforts, pay initiatives and other incentives, benefits including deferred compensation plans, insurance, and retirement. Other issues include creating early retirement windows and the temporary reduction of state contributions to the main retirement systems.

Challenging the Status Quo, released in 1999, contained five recommendations affecting state employees, and the Legislature enacted four. Three of the four recommendations adopted affected retirement benefits at ERS and TRS; the fourth recommended managing growth in state government expenditures. The one that failed to pass would have linked employee pay to performance.

Disturbing the Peace was released for the 1997 Legislative session, and the Legislature enacted five of its recommendations. Another two recommendations did not require legislation. One improved access to employee information, and one amended the Uniform Group Insurance Program at ERS to include low-cost managed care plans for retirees under Medicare.

The five recommendations the Legislature passed eliminated vacant state positions; adopted "family-friendly" policies for state employees through a work-family facilitator; required state agencies to achieve a management-to-staff ratio of one to 11; established a human resource task force through the governor's office; and improved procedures for purchasing creditable service in the retirement systems of ERS and TRS.

The recommendations the Legislature rejected included a 13th annuity check for TRS retirees, adoption of an early retirement incentive for employees, and increased funding for the Texas Incentive and Productivity Commission.

Gaining Ground, released in time for the 1995 Legislative session, also contained several employee-related recommendations, with seven gaining legislative approval. The one with the largest impact on state employees reduced state government employment and curbed any future growth for a biennial saving of $300 million in salary and personnel expenses and another $37.5 million from benefit reductions.

Four of the enacted recommendations involved repealing the delay in retirement system contributions or temporarily reducing contributions to the retirement systems. The Legislature also improved the state's risk management to reduce costs and increased the employee donations to sick leave pools.

Recommendations that were not adopted included suggestions for an early retirement incentive, for consolidation of state employee health benefit purchasing and for a mail-order prescription drug program. The Legislature rejected redesigning the state's classification system, the creation of one human resource agency for the state, improvements to training, and modifications to the incentive program for state employees.

In 1993, TPR's Against the Grain, was published. The Legislature enacted five recommendations, which specifically affected retirement or health insurance programs at ERS and/or TRS. One increased the benefit rate at ERS from 2 percent to 2.25 percent as a special retirement window for only those employees eligible to retire during the 1994-95 biennium, another reduced the state contributions to the major retirement systems to the 1992-93 level in the appropriations bill, and another delayed TRS contributions until the next fiscal year.

The remaining recommendations, which did not win Legislative approval would have developed a home loan program at TRS, eliminated partial per diem allowances, used electronic monitoring to provide better safety to state employees after hours, created a central personnel office, coordinated training in a central personnel office, redesigned the state's employee classification system, created an employee relations ombudsman, adopted work alternative policies for state employees, improved incentives for state employees to develop cost-savings ideas, established a central wellness program, and prohibited smoking in state office buildings.

The first Texas Performance Review report, Breaking the Mold, was published in 1991. The Legislature adopted four TPR recommendations. Two reduced the state's contribution to the Employees Retirement System of Texas and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. The remaining two involved increasing employee participation in the state's Premium Conversion Option and containing rising health insurance costs for the state

Recommendations that did not pass included a "holiday" from contributing to the Law Enforcement and Custodial Officers Supplemental Retirement Fund, making retirement systems' administrative expenditures subject to Legislative appropriation, and making changes in the state's sick leave policy.