To improve state management generally, and personnel management more specifically, the following plan for personnel management in Virginia State government has been prepared. The Plan is presented to the 1979 session of the General Assembly pursuant to House Joint Resolution No. 34, adopted by the 1978 General Assembly. In addition, the Plan shall constitute the Biennial Report required pursuant to Section 2.1-114.8 of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended.

Personnel management as it is largely viewed and organized in State government is primarily an administrative operation responsible for processing personnel transactions. Most authority and responsibility for such transactions is vested in the Department of Personnel and Training.

To improve the personnel management system, it is necessary for agency management to assume a greater responsibility for managing the employee-employer relationship. This requires that agency management accept the responsibility for operating within the parameters of established state personnel policy, and be held accountable for the discharge of such responsibility.

The Department of Personnel and Training has begun to identify specific administrative tasks that can be readily delegated or decentralized to the agencies. However, for the personnel management program to be materially improved, the respective agencies must shift their program from one of administering a paper system, to a program of employee relations management that will become an integral part of the management character of the agencies.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Charles B. Walker
Secretary of Administration and Finance