Book excerpt: Between September 1993 & September 1997, the number of civilian employees across government decreased by about 8,900. To understand the initial effects of this reduction, this report reviews 4 major federal departments to (1) describe the activities they have undertaken in restructuring personnel offices & operations; (2) ascertain what, if any, performance measures are in place to gauge results of the restructuring efforts; & (3) identify issues that agencies may commonly encounter when in restructuring their personnel operations, they consider outsourcing automated personnel &/or payroll services to another agency or the private sector.