copyright 2009, The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- The 40 people who met behind closed doors in the Ronald Reagan Building on Wednesday weren't in a position to make any decisions about fixing the federal government's recruitment and hiring process, but their discussion could have a lasting impact on federal policy. The Harvard Kennedy School, along with the University of Maryland and the Office of Personnel Management, organized the six-hour meeting of administration officials, members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers, employee organization heads, private sector leaders, good government types and academics. It was an invitee only, off-the-record session that participants described as a candid conversation about the issues facing Uncle Sam as he tries to overhaul a personnel employment process that seems stuck in the mud. While meetings like that sometimes reek of elitist, secretive affairs, a cross section of participants described a valuable exchange of ideas from a broad range of voices and that potentially could help Sam get hiring right. Congress and OPM have been working to reform hiring and OPM Director John Berry hopes to have a set of proposals ready before the end of the year. 'We learned a number of ideas, especially from the private sector and from our union leadership that we had not heard before today,' he told reporters after the meeting. Those ideas, he said, will 'greatly inform' the proposals he presents to President Obama. Others said the ideas included having line managers more directly involved in hiring. Currently, according to some meeting participants, personnel or human relations shops, as important as they may be, don't fully understand the demands of the positions to be filled, yet are responsible for hiring. Another idea from the meeting: Uncle Sam should be better about branding and promoting his work. The Army and Marines know how to do it. Certainly money is a motivating factor for their recruits, but the military, in part through television commercials, has been successful in branding itself as a place where young men and women go to become mature adults with a clear sense of mission. You can't say that about your average civilian agency. Private sector participants urged government officials to make greater use of data and metrics to keep track of how they are doing in their recruiting and hiring efforts. After the session, David Ellwood, Harvard Kennedy School dean and co-chairman of the meeting, said the government's ability to deal with a whole range of issues, including problems as big as pandemics and global warming, depends on the quality of its staff. So, even though the federal workforce gets far less attention than those issues, Ellwood said, 'it is by definition every bit as important.' Staff writer Ed O'Keefe contributed to this column. 