VA employees offer 3,000 ideas for improvement

President Barack Obama said in August he wanted to hear from Veterans Benefits Administration employees on how to improve the agency, and employees are responding.

In the first week, the survey site for VBA employees was visited 29,000 times by 7,000 employees, who submitted more than 3,000 ideas, said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and VA Chief Technology Peter Levin in a blog post on whitehouse.gov Monday.

Obama said he wants employees to contribute their ideas to solving its claims backlog and improving agency efficiency, and the survey is yielding results, Chopra and Levin wrote. Employees can also vote on the best suggestions on the Web site.

The VA innovation competition will create a new channel for best ideas to rocket right to the attention of the President and Secretary Shinseki, and for the outstanding employee-innovators behind those ideas to get some serious recognition.”

Chopra and Levin expect the survey process to be quick, with results coming in the next few months.

The next step is for the regional office directors to cull through their treasure chest, figure out which jewel they’d like to develop more, and submit it to headquarters. Next, (Benefits) Undersecretary (Patrick) Dunne and his team will pick the fifteen best, and invite them to Washington for an in-person presentation. The winners should be announced in the first couple of weeks of January, and we fully expect regional offices to fast-track the low-hanging fruit.”