Defense Infrastructure

In response to concerns about the impact of proposed cuts in the Defense Commissary Agency's workforce, the House Armed Services Committee placed in its report on the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 a requirement that we evaluate the effect of the personnel reductions. Specifically, we assessed (1) the status of personnel reductions and how they have affected store operations and customer service, and (2) whether the agency uses a reliable methodology to measure customer satisfaction with its commissaries.

The Defense Commissary Agency's commissary operations and customer services have been maintained at the same level, and in some cases improved, despite the recent reductions in workforce. As of December 31, 2002, the agency had completed most of its 3,047 planned personnel reductions in full-time positions. It accomplished this primarily by achieving efficiencies or eliminating vacant positions in the stores. Only 122 employees have been separated and 341 retired as a result of the personnel cutbacks. A major focus of DeCA's personnel reductions, as outlined in its strategic plan, was to reshape the workforce and develop a more efficient organization. We found that commissaries are making greater use of part-time employees because of the reductions. This has allowed some stores to increase their operating hours to better meet customer needs. It has also given store managers more flexibility in meeting workload fluctuations. However, DeCA's strategic plan does not include specific goals for achieving a certain full-time/part-time workforce mix in stores. As a result, the planned percentage of part-time positions varies widely by store. A recent customer satisfaction survey showed that commissary patrons expressed high satisfaction with their overall shopping experience, as well as with such key indicators as time waiting in line and convenient hours. However, the managers of the smaller commissaries reported concerns over balancing workload and maintaining store operations. We found that the Commissary Customer Satisfaction Survey methodology is reasonable. However, some improvements in the analysis of survey data could ensure that the findings are more complete and consistent. Such changes could include adjusting survey results for the volume of sales at individual stores or for the number of shoppers who refuse to fill out the questionnaire. Furthermore, the current survey does not collect information on the number of, and reasons why, potential customers do not shop at their local commissaries.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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