Data deficit: Good information is critical to making decisions

The Missouri State Government Review Commission is entering the final stages of a 10-month process of hearings, subcommittee meetings and many hours of reading and analysis.

Ninety percent of the subcommittee meetings have concluded. Members and assigned staff are putting their recommendations into written form for the full commission's review, discussion, acceptance, modification or rejection.

Five days of meetings are scheduled in September (with more to be booked, if needed). A final draft will be circulated to the commission for review before the report is submitted to Gov. Matt Blunt in late October or early November.

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Like any business or organization, success is generally more related to the people, management and information rather than the structure and rules.

Missouri appears to have good department heads in place with many strong, dedicated staff employees upon which to build. Some of the current structure is more restrictive than helpful.

This year Missouri has already generated considerable cost savings by virtue of executive orders, consolidation of space and canceling of unneeded leases. I'll have more details on this after the commission report.

For more than 15 years, Missouri has worked on bringing its information technology up to the level of providing the data for management decisions. This is easier said than done, but a major effort (by executive order) has already started that ambitious effort.

Our commission will stress that funding and staffing in this area is critically important.

Information-technology initiatives to date include:

1. Network consolidation of all state IT divisions under one budget and director.

2. E-mail consolidation.

3. Smart buy or bulk buy for IT products.

4. Access and use of state-owned fiber optic cable.

5. Reduce state data, voice and video costs.

6. Increase sharing of data across agencies. (If you think there's a wall between the FBI and CIA, you should see these information roadblocks. The goal is no more "silos" or "stovepipes" which prevent the providing of service.)

7. Increase cyber security on state-managed data and equipment.

8. Partner with the Missouri Department of Transportation, National Guard and electric co-ops on fiber and satellite communications.

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Why is information important? Because it's hard to manage anything you can't measure or when you have insufficient or incomplete data. For example:

1. Missouri's uniform classification and pay system has "approximately" 1,000 job classes for more than 62 percent of its employees, while the other 38 percent have their own schedules.

2. Seventy-six percent of Missouri's population is categorized as metropolitan -- 4,272,270 -- while 24 percent -- 1,328,320 -- is listed as non-metropolitan.

3. Missouri's 2004 census total population of 5,754,618 ranks as the 17th largest state in the U.S., which has a total population of 293,655,404.

However Missouri's 2003 Census Bureau report of state government employment and payroll lists us as 49th in ranking. This is an oft-used report, and I have questioned Missouri's ranking, which excludes fringe benefits and employees by categories. Missouri would place differently if ranked by number of employees per state population.

For example, Illinois, which has a population of 12,714,634 (fifth in the nation) has 76,533 full-time-equivalent employees listed in the same report compared with Missouri's 61,030 FTEs to service a population of 5,754,618.

Thus, Illinois has 221 percent greater population than Missouri and would have to have 134,876 state employees to be on a comparable employee-per-population ratio.

A good comparison? No.

A fair comparison? No -- because Missouri provides different services. My point: Without full information, the current statistical analysis is invalid. By dividing total employees (61,030) by total payroll (without fringes), a larger personnel payroll base will lower the average state pay. And 15 other states' average pay is within $3,000 of Missouri's 2003 average salary of $31,028. I've requested a breakout of Missouri payroll by three categories:

1. Senior management.

2. Middle management and senior employees.

3. Beginning and lower skilled employees.

It's probable that some employees are underpaid, and this needs to be addressed, because Missouri's 8.3 percent turnover ratio is high.

Let's find out what data we can agree upon before attempting to solve the problem.

"Action without knowledge can lead to chaos."

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FYI: Most Missouri businesses are small in nature. Of the 158,393 private businesses in the state, those with fewer than 10 employees make up nearly 75 percent of that total.

Yet in spite of this large number, businesses that small do not represent our state's largest percentage of employees. That distinction goes to those businesses that employ 10 to 49 workers. They represent nearly 30 percent of our state business community. Another 29.5 percent comes from those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. So even when you categorize by number of employees, the majority of Missouri businesses could still be considered relatively small with fewer than 100 employees.

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications and a member of the Missouri State Government Review Commission.