DOD Civilian Personnel
Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plans Needed Gao ID: GAO-04-753 June 30, 2004During its downsizing in the early 1990s, the Department of Defense (DOD) did not focus on strategically reshaping its civilian workforce. GAO was asked to address DOD's efforts to strategically plan for its future civilian workforce at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the military services' headquarters, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Specifically, GAO determined: (1) the extent to which civilian strategic workforce plans have been developed and implemented to address future civilian workforce requirements, and (2) the major challenges affecting the development and implementation of these plans.
OSD, the service headquarters, and DLA have recently taken steps to develop and implement civilian strategic workforce plans to address future civilian workforce needs, but these plans generally lack some key elements essential to successful workforce planning. As a result, OSD, the military services' headquarters, and DLA--herein referred to as DOD and the components--do not have comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide their human capital efforts. None of the plans included analyses of the gaps between critical skills and competencies (a set of behaviors that are critical to work accomplishment) currently needed by the workforce and those that will be needed in the future. Without including gap analyses, DOD and the components may not be able to effectively design strategies to hire, develop, and retain the best possible workforce. Furthermore, none of the plans contained results-oriented performance measures that could provide the data necessary to assess the outcomes of civilian human capital initiatives. The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their need for information on current competencies and those that will likely be needed in the future. This problem results from DOD's and the components' not having developed tools to collect and/or store, and manage data on workforce competencies. Without this information, it not clear whether they are designing and funding workforce strategies that will effectively shape their civilian workforces with the appropriate competencies needed to accomplish future DOD missions. Senior department and component officials all acknowledged this shortfall and told us that they are taking steps to address this challenge. Though these are steps in the right direction, the lack of information on current competencies and future needs is a continuing problem that several organizations, including GAO, have previously identified.
RecommendationsOur 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.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-04-753, DOD Civilian Personnel: Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plans Needed
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Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Readiness,
Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives:
United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
June 2004:
DOD Civilian Personnel:
Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plans Needed:
GAO-04-753:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-04-753, a report to the Ranking Minority Member,
Subcommittee on Readiness, Committee on Armed Services, House of
Representatives
Why GAO Did This Study:
During its downsizing in the early 1990s, the Department of Defense
(DOD) did not focus on strategically reshaping its civilian workforce.
GAO was asked to address DOD‘s efforts to strategically plan for its
future civilian workforce at the Office of the Secretary of Defense
(OSD), the military services‘ headquarters, and the Defense Logistics
Agency (DLA). Specifically, GAO determined: (1) the extent to which
civilian strategic workforce plans have been developed and implemented
to address future civilian workforce requirements, and (2) the major
challenges affecting the development and implementation of these plans.
What GAO Found:
OSD, the service headquarters, and DLA have recently taken steps to
develop and implement civilian strategic workforce plans to address
future civilian workforce needs, but these plans generally lack some
key elements essential to successful workforce planning. As a result,
OSD, the military services‘ headquarters, and DLA”herein referred to as
DOD and the components”do not have comprehensive strategic workforce
plans to guide their human capital efforts. None of the plans included
analyses of the gaps between critical skills and competencies (a set of
behaviors that are critical to work accomplishment) currently needed by
the workforce and those that will be needed in the future. Without
including gap analyses, DOD and the components may not be able to
effectively design strategies to hire, develop, and retain the best
possible workforce. Furthermore, none of the plans contained results-
oriented performance measures that could provide the data necessary to
assess the outcomes of civilian human capital initiatives.
The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their
efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their
need for information on current competencies and those that will likely
be needed in the future. This problem results from DOD‘s and the
components‘ not having developed tools to collect and/or store, and
manage data on workforce competencies. Without this information, it not
clear whether they are designing and funding workforce strategies that
will effectively shape their civilian workforces with the appropriate
competencies needed to accomplish future DOD missions. Senior
department and component officials all acknowledged this shortfall and
told us that they are taking steps to address this challenge. Though
these are steps in the right direction, the lack of information on
current competencies and future needs is a continuing problem that
several organizations, including GAO, have previously identified.
Strategic Workforce Planning Process:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that DOD and the components include certain key elements
in their civilian strategic workforce plans to guide their human
capital efforts. DOD concurred with one of our recommendations, and
partially concurred with two others because it believes that the
department has undertaken analyses of critical skills gaps and are
using strategies and personnel flexibilities to fill identified skills
gaps. We cannot verify DOD‘s statement because DOD was unable to
provide the gap analyses. In addition, we found that the strategies
being used by the department have not been derived from analyses of
gaps between the current and future critical skills and competencies
needed by the workforce.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?-GAO-04-753.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Derek Stewart at (202)
512-5559 or stewartd@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Background:
Steps Have Been Taken to Develop and Implement Strategic Workforce
Plans, but Some Key Elements Are Lacking:
Need for Information on Current and Future Workforce Competencies Is
the Major Challenge to Effective Strategic Workforce Planning:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
Related GAO Products:
Tables:
Table 1: Various Strategic Human Capital Management and Workforce
Planning Guidance:
Table 2: Steps Taken by DOD and the Components to Develop and Implement
Strategic Workforce Plans:
Figures:
Figure 1: Distribution of Civilian Employment by DOD Component, as of
December 30, 2003 (655,545 Direct Hires):
Figure 2: Strategic Workforce Planning Process:
Abbreviations:
DLA: Defense Logistics Agency:
DOD: Department of Defense:
GAO: General Accounting Office:
NSPS: National Security Personnel System:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
OPM: Office of Personnel Management:
OSD: Office of the Secretary of Defense:
OUSD/P&R: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness:
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
June 30, 2004:
The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on Readiness:
Committee on Armed Services:
House of Representatives:
Dear Mr. Ortiz:
The achievement of the Department of Defense's (DOD) mission is
dependent in large part on the skills and expertise of its civilian
workforce. DOD's civilian workforce, among other things, develops
policy, provides intelligence, manages finances, and acquires and
maintains weapon systems. During its downsizing in the early 1990s, DOD
did not focus on reshaping the civilian workforce in a strategic
manner. This downsizing has resulted in a workforce characterized by a
growing gap between older, experienced employees and younger, less
experienced ones. With more than 50 percent of its civilian personnel
becoming eligible to retire in the next 5 years, DOD may find it
difficult to fill certain mission-critical jobs with qualified
personnel. The problem is exacerbated by today's emerging security
threats and rapidly evolving technology. Civilian personnel have been
deployed along with military personnel to participate in operations
such as Iraqi Freedom, Desert Storm, Bosnia, and Kosovo. In addition,
technological advances have generated the need for a DOD civilian
workforce with more advanced education and greater technological
skills.
DOD has undertaken several human capital reforms that will affect its
future civilian workforce of approximately 700,000 personnel. One major
initiative is DOD's creation of a new human capital management system,
the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which will give the
department significant flexibility for creating a new framework of
rules, regulations, and processes to govern the way civilians are
hired, compensated, promoted, and disciplined. In addition, DOD has
undertaken efforts to convert over 20,000 military positions to
civilian positions in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, and more conversions
are to be addressed in fiscal year 2006 and the out-years. Futhermore,
DOD was granted permanent authority beginning in fiscal year 2004 to
extend buyouts to as many as 25,000 civilian employees each year to
downsize or restructure the workforce to meet mission objectives. For
these and other human capital reforms to have maximum effectiveness and
value, it is critical that DOD engage in effective strategic workforce
planning.
Leading public-sector organizations have found that strategic human
capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change
management initiative to transform the culture of government agencies.
Strategic workforce planning, an integral part of human capital
management, helps ensure that an organization has the staff with the
necessary skills and competencies to accomplish its strategic
goals.[Footnote 1] Critical skills are core mission and support
occupations that are vital to the accomplishment of an agency's goals
and objectives. Competencies are a set of behaviors that encompass
knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes that are critical
to successful work accomplishment. They describe what employees know,
what they do, and how they do it and translate into effective on-the-
job performance. Strategic workforce planning is an iterative,
systematic process that addresses two critical needs: (1) aligning an
organization's human capital program with its current and emerging
mission and programmatic goals and (2) developing long-term strategies
for acquiring, developing, and retaining an organization's workforce to
achieve programmatic goals. The strategic workforce planning process
includes five elements used by leading public-and private-sector
organizations: (1) involvement of management, employees, and
stakeholders in developing, communicating, and implementing strategic
workforce plans; (2) performing analyses to identify critical skill and
competency gaps between current and future workforce needs; (3)
developing strategies to fill these skill and competency gaps; (4)
building the capability necessary to address administrative,
educational, or other requirements to support workforce strategies; and
(5) monitoring and evaluating progress and the contribution of
strategic workforce planning efforts in achieving program goals.
In recent years, we have examined various aspects of DOD's human
capital management of its civilian workforce. For example, in March
2000, we testified that a strategic approach should be used to guide
DOD civilian workforce management. We further testified that DOD must
define the kind of workforce it will need in the coming years, develop
plans for creating that workforce, and follow up with the actions and
investments needed so that the right employees--with the right skills,
training, tools, structures, and performance incentives--will be on
hand in the years to come.[Footnote 2] In March 2003, we reported on
the department's strategic planning efforts for civilian personnel both
at DOD and selected defense components.[Footnote 3] In that report we
recommended that the Secretary of Defense strengthen civilian human
capital planning, including integration with military personnel and
sourcing initiatives. DOD did not concur with our recommendation and
stated that it presently has both a military and civilian plan; the use
of contractors is just another tool to accomplish the mission, not a
separate workforce, with separate needs, to manage. In April 2003, we
issued a report on DOD's strategic workforce planning efforts for its
civilian industrial workforce.[Footnote 4] We recommended, among other
things, that the Secretaries of the services and the Commandant of the
Marine Corps improve the quality and comprehensiveness of the services'
workforce planning efforts for civilian industrial employees. DOD
concurred with most of our recommendations and highlighted the
importance the department places in human capital management.
In our 2001 High-Risk Series and Performance and Accountability Series
and again in 2003, we designated strategic human capital as a high-risk
area and stated that serious human capital shortfalls are threatening
the ability of many federal agencies to economically, efficiently, and
effectively perform their missions.[Footnote 5]
This report addresses DOD's efforts to strategically plan for its
future civilian workforce at the Office of the Secretary of Defense
(OSD), the military services' headquarters, and the Defense Logistics
Agency (DLA). As agreed with your office, we determined (1) the extent
to which civilian strategic workforce plans have been developed and
implemented to address future civilian workforce requirements and (2)
the major challenges affecting the development and implementation of
civilian strategic workforce plans.
To determine the extent to which OSD, the military services'
headquarters, and DLA (hereinafter referred to as "DOD and the
components")[Footnote 6] have developed and implemented strategic
workforce plans to address future civilian workforce requirements, we
obtained their workforce planning documents and evaluated their
strategic workforce planning efforts in terms of the five strategic
workforce planning elements noted above. We tested the reliability of
selected Defense Civilian Personnel Data System data used for workforce
analysis and reviewed the internal controls related to the management
of the system. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable
to meet our objectives. To determine what challenges affect OSD's, the
service headquarters', and DLA's development and implementation of
civilian strategic workforce plans, we interviewed officials and
obtained, reviewed, and analyzed documentation to identify the
challenges that affect planning. We conducted our review from April
2003 through June 2004 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. Further details on our scope and methodology are
presented in appendix I. A list of recent GAO products related to
federal agencies' management of human capital is included at the end of
this report.
Results in Brief:
The Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military services'
headquarters, and DLA have taken steps to develop and implement
civilian strategic workforce plans to address future civilian workforce
needs, but these plans generally lack some key elements essential to
successful workforce planning. As a result, DOD and the components do
not have comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide their human
capital efforts. None of the plans included analyses of the gaps
between the critical skills and competencies currently needed by the
workforce and those that will be needed in the future. Analyses of gaps
between critical skills and competencies are critical to mapping out
the current condition of the workforce and deciding what needs to be
done to ensure that the department and components have the right mix of
skills and talents for the future. As a result, none of the human
capital strategies contained in the strategic workforce plans were
derived from such analyses. Without including analyses of gaps in
critical skills and competencies, DOD and the components may not be
able to design and fund the best strategies to fill their talent needs
through recruiting and hiring or to make appropriate investments to
develop and retain the best possible workforce. Furthermore, none of
the plans contained results-oriented performance measures; that is, the
plans did not reflect the measures that could provide meaningful data
necessary to assess the outcomes of their civilian human capital
initiatives. Without these measures, DOD and the components cannot
gauge the extent to which their human capital investments contribute to
achieving their organizations' programmatic goals.
The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their
efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their
need for information on current personnel competencies and those that
will likely be needed in the future. This problem results from DOD and
the components not having developed tools to collect and/or store, and
manage data on workforce competencies. Without this information it
cannot be determined whether DOD and the components are designing and
funding workforce strategies that will effectively shape the civilian
workforce with the appropriate competencies needed to accomplish future
DOD missions. Senior department and component officials all
acknowledged this shortfall and told us that they are taking steps to
address this challenge. For example, in July 2003, the Army formed a
working group to identify its civilian personnel competencies. In
February 2004, the Navy implemented an online survey instrument to
collect competency data for its civilian workforce. The Navy has also
partnered with a contractor to manage its competency collection
process. In July 2004, DLA plans to implement an automated skills
inventory tool to capture the competencies of its current workforce.
Though these are steps in the right direction, the lack of information
on current competencies and future needs is a continuing problem that
several organizations, including GAO, have previously identified.
We are making recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to have DOD
and the components include more key elements in their civilian
strategic workforce plans to help guide their human capital efforts.
DOD provided oral comments after reviewing a draft of this report,
concurring with one of our three recommendations, and partially
concurring with two others. In partially concurring with our
recommendation to analyze and document critical skills and competency
gaps between its current and future workforces, the department stated
that it recently began analyses between gaps in the critical skills
currently needed and those needed in the future. We cannot verify DOD's
statement because DOD was unable to provide any specific documentation
showing that it had performed gap analyses. Regarding gap analyses of
competencies, DOD stated that the value of conducting a global gap
analysis between current competencies and those needed for the future
is unclear. Our recommendation did not suggest that DOD conduct a
global gap analysis of competencies for its entire civilian workforce.
Rather, we recommended that DOD analyze and document the gaps between
current critical skills and competencies and those needed for the
future workforce. In partially concurring with our recommendation to
develop workforce strategies to fill identified workforce gaps in
skills and competencies, the department stated that it is actively
engaged in developing strategies to fill identified skills gaps and
noted that its new human capital management system, the National
Security Personnel System, will provide for increased personnel
flexibilities designed to help support the department's strategic
workforce planning efforts. The department also noted that it continues
to use existing flexibilities such as recruitment and retention
bonuses, and relocation allowances. In our report, we acknowledge that
DOD and the components have implemented various strategies to address
workforce imbalances. However, as we noted in our report, these
strategies have not been derived from analyses of critical skills and
competency gaps.
Background:
With almost 700,000 civilian employees on its payroll, DOD is the
second largest federal employer of civilians in the nation, after the
Postal Service. The achievement of DOD's mission is dependent in large
part on the skills and expertise of its civilian workforce. DOD's
civilian workforce, among other things, develops policy, provides
intelligence, manages finances, and acquires and maintains weapon
systems. Because of the global war on terrorism, the role of DOD's
civilian workforce is expanding to include participation in combat
support functions, thus enhancing the availability of military
personnel to focus on warfighting duties for which they are uniquely
qualified. Career civilian personnel possess "institutional memory,"
which is particularly important in DOD because of the frequent rotation
of military personnel and the short tenure of the average political
appointee.
Since the end of the Cold War, the civilian workforce has undergone
substantial change, due primarily to downsizing, base realignments and
closures, competitive sourcing initiatives, and DOD's changing mission.
For example, between fiscal years 1989 and 2002, DOD's civilian
workforce shrank from 1,075,437 to 670,166--about a 38 percent
reduction.[Footnote 7] As of December 30, 2003, DOD's civilian
workforce was down to 655,545 employees. DOD performed this downsizing
without proactively shaping the civilian workforce to ensure that it
had the specific skills and competencies needed to accomplish future
DOD missions. A consequence of this lack of attention to force shaping
can be seen in the age distribution of the civilian workforce in
comparison to the distribution at the start of the drawdown. Today's
workforce is older and more experienced, but 57 percent of the
workforce will be eligible for early or regular retirement in the next
5 years.
As shown in figure 1, as of December 30, 2003, the military services
employed about 85 percent of DOD's civilians; 15 percent were employed
by other defense organizations.
Figure 1: Distribution of Civilian Employment by DOD Component, as of
December 30, 2003 (655,545 Direct Hires):
[See PDF for image]
[A] Other Defense organizations include Defense agencies, DOD field
activities, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Office of the Inspector General,
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the Office of the
Secretary of Defense.
[B] The Department of the Navy includes Navy and Marine Corps
personnel.
[End of figure]
DOD Civilian Human Capital Reforms:
DOD has undertaken several human capital reforms that will affect the
future civilian workforce. In November 2003, Congress, in making
authorizations for DOD, authorized the Secretary of Defense to
establish a new human capital management system, the National Security
Personnel System.[Footnote 8] The law granted DOD exemptions from laws
governing federal civilian personnel management found in title 5 of the
United States Code.[Footnote 9] Congress provided these flexibilities
in response to DOD's position that the inflexibility of federal
personnel systems was one of the most important constraints to the
department's ability to attract, retain, reward, and develop a civilian
workforce to meet the national security mission of the 21st century.
The NSPS will give the department significant flexibility for creating
a new framework of rules, regulations, and processes to govern the way
that civilians are hired, compensated, promoted, and disciplined.
Congress also granted DOD other new personnel flexibilities, including
permanent authority to extend separation incentives (commonly referred
to as "buyouts") to induce as many as 25,000 civilians to voluntarily
leave federal service. These separation incentives may be used to,
among other things, reshape or reduce the department's civilian
workforce. In December 2003, the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness authorized the military services' headquarters
and DOD components to immediately initiate buyouts as long as affected
employees leave government service during fiscal year 2004.
In addition, DOD has undertaken efforts to expand the use of its
civilian workforce to perform combat support functions traditionally
performed by military personnel. In December 2003, the Under Secretary
of Defense (Comptroller) directed the military services to convert over
20,000 military positions to civilian positions in fiscal years 2004
and 2005; more conversions are to be addressed in fiscal year 2006 and
the out-years.
Strategic Workforce Planning:
Studies by several organizations, including GAO, have shown that
successful organizations in both the public and private sectors use
strategic management approaches to prepare their workforces to meet
present and future mission requirements. We have found that these
organizations have used strategic workforce planning as a management
tool to develop a case for human capital investments and to anticipate
and prepare for upcoming human capital issues that could jeopardize the
accomplishment of goals.[Footnote 10] Strategic human capital planning
begins with establishing a clear set of organizational intents--
including a clearly defined mission, core values, goals and objectives,
and strategies--and then developing an approach to support these
strategic and programmatic goals. Strategic workforce planning, an
integral part of human capital management, requires systematic
assessments of current and future human capital needs and strategies--
which encompass a broad array of initiatives to attract, retain,
develop, and motivate a top-quality workforce--to fill the gaps between
an agency's current and future workforce needs. Approaches to such
planning vary according to agency-specific needs and mission, but our
work suggests that, irrespective of the context in which planning is
done, such a process should address five key elements (see fig. 2):
1. Involvement of management and employees: Efforts that address key
organizational issues, like strategic workforce planning, are most
likely to succeed if, at their outset, agencies' top program and human
capital leaders set the overall direction, pace, tone, and goals of the
effort, and involve employees and stakeholders in establishing a
communication strategy that creates shared expectations for the
outcomes of the process.
2. Workforce gap analysis: Identifying whether gaps exist between the
current and future workforces needed to meet program goals is critical
to ensuring proper staffing. The absence of fact-based gap analyses can
undermine an agency's efforts to identify and respond to current and
emerging challenges. The analysis of the current workforce should
identify how many personnel have the skills and competencies needed to
meet program goals and how many are likely to remain with the agency
over time, given expected losses due to retirement and other attrition.
The characteristics of the future workforce should be based on the
specific skills and competencies that will be needed. The workforce gap
analyses can help justify budget and staff requests by linking the
program goals and strategies with the budgetary and staff resources
needed to accomplish them.
3. Workforce strategies to fill the gaps: Developing strategies to
address any identified workforce gaps in critical skills and
competencies creates the road map needed to move from the current to
the future workforce. Strategies address how the workforce is acquired,
developed and trained, deployed, compensated, motivated, and retained.
4. Build-up of capability to support workforce strategies: As agencies
develop tailored workforce plans and the administrative, educational,
and other requirements that are important to support them, it is
especially important to educate managers and employees about the human
capital flexibilities so that the flexibilities are implemented openly,
fairly, and effectively.
5. Evaluation of and revisions to strategies: Evaluating the results of
the workforce strategies and making needed revisions helps to ensure
that the strategies work as intended. A key step is developing results-
oriented performance measures as indicators of success in attaining
human capital goals and program goals, both short-and long-term.
Periodic measurement and evaluation provide data for identifying
shortfalls and opportunities to revise workforce plans as necessary.
Figure 2: Strategic Workforce Planning Process:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
These concepts are especially relevant in considering the human capital
reforms that DOD has under way that will fundamentally change the way
it manages its civilian workforce. Because DOD is one of the largest
employers of federal civilian employees, how it approaches human
capital management sends important signals about trends and
expectations for federal employment across the government. More
importantly, the role that DOD's civilian workforce plays in support of
our national security makes DOD's approach to managing its people a
matter of fundamental public interest.
Guidance for Managing Strategic Workforce Planning:
Four agencies--GAO, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD/P&R)--have
developed guidance for human capital management and workforce planning.
Highlights of this guidance are presented in table 1.
Table 1: Various Strategic Human Capital Management and Workforce
Planning Guidance:
Agency: GAO;
Guidance: In March 2002, we issued an exposure draft of our model of
strategic human capital management to help federal agency leaders
effectively lead and manage their people. The model is designed to help
agency leaders effectively use their people and determine how well they
integrate human capital considerations into daily decision making and
planning for the program results they seek.
Agency: OMB;
Guidance: In October 2001, OMB developed standards of success for
strategic human capital management--one of five governmentwide reform
initiatives in the President's Management Agenda.
Agency: OPM;
Guidance: In December 2001, OPM released a human capital scorecard to
assist agencies in responding to the OMB standards for success; later
in October 2002, OMB and OPM developed--in collaboration with GAO--
revised standards for success. To assist agencies in responding to the
revised standards, OPM released the Human Capital Assessment and
Accountability Framework.
Agency: OUSD/P&R;
Guidance: In April 2002, OUSD/P&R published a departmentwide strategic
plan, the Civilian Human Resources Strategic Plan, to set forth its
vision to design, develop, and implement human resource policies,
strategies, systems, and tools to ensure a mission-ready civilian
workforce.
Source: GAO.
[End of table]
Congress has additionally recognized the importance of workforce
planning and, in 2002, added to the Government Performance and Results
Act a provision requiring the Chief Human Capital Officer of each
agency to prepare an annual plan that provides a description of how the
performance goals and objectives are to be achieved, including the
operation processes, training, skills, and technology, and the human
capital, information, and other resources and strategies required to
meet those performance goals and objectives.[Footnote 11]
Steps Have Been Taken to Develop and Implement Strategic Workforce
Plans, but Some Key Elements Are Lacking:
Although the DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and
implement strategic workforce plans, the plans lack some key planning
elements. As a result, the plans are not comprehensive. DOD and most of
the components we reviewed have involved top-level management, staff,
and stakeholders in the development and implementation of their
strategic workforce plans; however involvement has been limited in the
Navy but increasing. The strategic workforce plans have also included
the identification of critical skills currently needed by the workforce
and those needed in the future, as well as administrative, educational,
and other requirements developed to support workforce strategies.
However, the plans are not comprehensive because they lack some key
elements essential for successful workforce planning. For example, the
strategic workforce plans lacked analyses of gaps in critical skills
and competencies, human capital strategies derived from analyses that
identified such gaps, and results-oriented performance measures.
DOD and Components Have Taken Some Strategic Workforce Planning Steps:
DOD and most of the components we reviewed have involved top-level
management, staff, and stakeholders in the development and
implementation of their strategic workforce plans. However, involvement
has been limited but increasing in the Navy. The strategic workforce
plans have also included the identification of critical skills
currently needed by the workforce and those that will be needed by the
workforce in the future, as well as agencywide plans and procedures to
support workforce strategies. Table 2 provides an overview of the steps
taken by DOD and the components toward developing and implementing
strategic workforce plans in terms of the five key strategic workforce
planning elements.
Table 2: Steps Taken by DOD and the Components to Develop and Implement
Strategic Workforce Plans:
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Involvement of management
and employees: Top management set the overall strategic direction;
OSD: Yes;
Army: Yes;
Navy: Yes[A];
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: Yes;
DLA: Yes.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Involvement of management
and employees: Employees and stakeholders involved in developing and
implementing future workforce strategies;
OSD: Yes;
Army: Yes;
Navy: Yes;
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: Yes;
DLA: Yes.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Involvement of management
and employees: Communication strategy established to create shared
expectations, promote transparency, and report progress;
OSD: Yes;
Army: Yes;
Navy: Yes;
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: Yes;
DLA: Yes.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Workforce gap analysis:
Identification of current and future critical skills;
OSD: Yes;
Army: Yes;
Navy: Yes;
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: Yes;
DLA: Yes.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Workforce gap analysis:
Analysis of gaps between current and future critical skills;
OSD: No;
Army: No;
Navy: No;
Marine Corps: No;
Air Force: No;
DLA: No.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Workforce gap analysis:
Identification of current and future competencies;
OSD: No;
Army: No;
Navy: No;
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: No;
DLA: No.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Workforce gap analysis:
Analysis of gaps between current and future competencies;
OSD: No;
Army: No;
Navy: No;
Marine Corps: No;
Air Force: No;
DLA: No.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Workforce strategies to fill
the gaps: Strategies derived from analyses of critical skills and
competency gaps;
OSD: No;
Army: No;
Navy: No;
Marine Corps: No;
Air Force: No;
DLA: No.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Build capability to support
workforce strategies: Administrative, educational, and other
requirements developed to support workforce strategies;
OSD: Yes;
Army: Yes;
Navy: Yes;
Marine Corps: Yes;
Air Force: Yes;
DLA: Yes.
Key strategic workforce planning elements: Evaluate and revise
strategies: Result-oriented performance measures established to
evaluate plans;
OSD: No;
Army: No;
Navy: No;
Marine Corps: No;
Air Force: No;
DLA: No.
Sources: DOD (data); GAO (analysis).
[A] Subsequent to our exit conference with DOD and the components to
discuss the results of our work, a Department of the Navy official
provided us with a draft human capital strategic plan for the civilian
workforce (Department of the Navy Human Capital Management: An
Overview, April 2004). However, we did not have time to assess the plan
because of the short period of time between the time when the draft
plan was provided and the issuance of this report.
[End of table]
Strategic Workforce Plans Lack Some Key Elements:
While DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and implement
civilian strategic workforce plans, their plans generally lacked some
key elements essential to successful workforce planning. Specifically,
none of the plans included analyses of gaps between the critical skills
and competencies currently needed by the workforce and those that will
be needed in the future. As a result, none of the human capital
strategies contained in the strategic workforce plans were derived from
analyses that identified gaps in critical workforce skills or
competencies needed by DOD and the components to meet future strategic
goals. Furthermore, none of the plans contained results-oriented
performance measures. As a result, DOD and the components do not have
comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide their human capital
efforts. Without comprehensive strategic workforce plans, DOD and the
components may not know the competencies of the current and future
staff, what gaps exist in skills and competencies, and what their
workforce strategies should be. This is especially important as changes
in national security, technology, budget constraints, and other factors
alter the environment within which DOD operates.
Strategic Workforce Plans Did Not Analyze Critical Skills and
Competency Gaps:
As previously discussed, the civilian strategic workforce plans we
reviewed included information about the current and future critical
skills. However, none of the plans included analyses of gaps between
the critical skills and competencies currently needed and those needed
in the future. GAO and others have reported that it is important to
analyze future workforce needs to (1) assist organizations in tailoring
initiatives for recruiting, developing, and retaining personnel to meet
their future needs and (2) provide the rationale and justification for
obtaining resources and, if necessary, additional authority to carry
out those initiatives. We also stated that to build the right workforce
to achieve strategic goals, it is essential that organizations
determine the critical skills and competencies--a set of behaviors that
encompass knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes--that
are critical to successful work accomplishment. To do so, the following
data are needed:
* What is available--both current workforce characteristics and future
availability. This is accomplished by assessing the current workforce-
-defining the number and types of competencies for employees in each
occupational group; determining the skill levels for each competency;
and assessing how they will evolve over time, factoring in such events
as retirements.
* What is needed--the critical workforce characteristics needed in the
future. This is accomplished by analyzing the future workforce--
developing specifications for the kinds, numbers, and location of
personnel it will need to address its future challenges.
* What is the difference between what will be available and what will
be needed--that is, the gap. This is especially important as changes in
national security, technology, and other factors alter the environment
within which DOD and the components operate.
We reported that DOD and the four military services lacked information
about their future workforce needs in a March 2003 report on strategic
planning efforts for civilian personnel.[Footnote 12] We pointed out
that a National Academy of Public Administration study noted DOD's
increasing reliance on contractor personnel, and its need for civilian
personnel expertise to protect the government's interest and ensure
effective oversight of contractors' work. We recommended that DOD
define the future civilian workforce, identifying the required
characteristics (e.g., the skills and competencies, number, deployment,
etc.) of personnel needed, and determine the workforce gaps that needed
to be addressed through human capital initiatives. DOD did not concur
with our recommendation and stated that this action was already being
accomplished through information provided to OMB and OPM for the
President's Management Agenda Scorecard.[Footnote 13] However, DOD did
not provide us with this information during the course of our prior
review. Based on our current review of the data being supplied to OMB
and OPM, we determined that the data are not sufficiently comprehensive
to fully address the broader elements of workforce planning that we
have endorsed to ensure that workforce data be compiled and analyzed as
an integral part of the strategic workforce planning process and
factored into planning for human capital initiatives.
Workforce Strategies Generally Not Derived from Analyses of Critical
Skills and Competency Gaps:
Though DOD and the components have implemented various strategies to
address expected workforce imbalances, these strategies have not been
derived from analyses of gaps between the critical skills and
competencies currently needed by the workforce and those that will be
needed in the future. Without analyzing critical skills and competency
gaps, DOD and the components may not be able to design and invest in
strategies that will effectively and efficiently transition to the
future workforce they desire and need.
Applying this principle to strategic workforce planning means that
agencies consider how hiring, training, staff development, performance
management, and other human capital strategies can be used to close
gaps and gain the critical skills and competencies needed in the
future. GAO and others have reported that it is important to analyze
future workforce needs to assist organizations in tailoring initiatives
for recruiting, developing, and retaining personnel to meet their
future needs, and to provide the rationale and justification for
obtaining and targeting resources and, if necessary, additional
authority to carry out those initiatives. Although not based on formal
analyses of skills and competency gaps, DOD and the components have
implemented various recruitment, retention, training and professional
development, and compensation strategies to address workforce
imbalances.
* The Army is planning to hire more entry-level professional,
administrative, and technical personnel through its career intern
program in preparation for expected retirements of civilians in
leadership positions. In addition, it is offering bonuses for
engineers, scientists, and computer specialists; accelerated
promotions for engineers; permanent change-of-station moves for all
interns; and in some cases, advanced in-hire pay rates. According to
the Army, all of these initiatives will help grow the leaders of
tomorrow, accomplish the necessary transfer of institutional knowledge,
and restore a more balanced age distribution to the Army's workforce.
* The Navy (including the Marine Corps) has implemented a variety of
recruitment, retention, and retirement strategies to address its aging
civilian workforce. One particular strategy involves hiring retired
military personnel, who are well-seasoned employees already familiar
with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain the Navy's mission.
* The Air Force has developed a strategy centered on enhancing
recruitment efforts, investing in the workforce through skill
proficiency training and leadership development, and establishing
incentives for force shaping. As of April 2004, the Air Force had hired
1,381 interns since fiscal year 2000. According to the Air Force, the
intern program is a key element of the Air Force renewal effort. In
addition, the Air Force believes that force development plays a central
role in creating a workforce that is ready for the challenges of its
aerospace mission to ensure the orderly transfer of institutional
knowledge as well as develop new skills for the aerospace mission.
According to an Air Force official, in fiscal year 2002, the Air Force
invested $9 million in civilian leadership training as a direct result
of its aging workforce profile.
* DLA has created a Corporate Intern Program that provides systematic
training and on-the-job training work experience. DLA plans to hire
approximately 150 interns per year through fiscal year 2007. According
to a DLA official, 518 interns had been hired since 2000. DLA developed
a Professional Enhancement Program to help high-potential employees in
grades 12 to 15 to increase their knowledge and/or skills.
While these strategies are important efforts to help shape DOD's and
the components' future as the current workforce becomes eligible for
retirement, these strategies have not been derived from analyses of
gaps between the critical skills and competencies currently needed by
the workforce and those that will be needed in the future. Therefore,
it is unknown whether these strategies will lead to a desirable future
workforce that will help attain programmatic goals.
Strategic Workforce Plans for Civilian Personnel Lack Results-Oriented
Performance Measures to Monitor and Evaluate Progress:
DOD and the components have not developed results-oriented performance
measures to provide a basis for evaluating workforce planning
effectiveness. Thus, DOD and the components cannot gauge the extent to
which their human capital initiatives contribute to achieving their
organizations' missions. Performance measures, appropriately designed,
can be used to gauge two types of success: (1) progress toward reaching
human capital goals and (2) the contribution of human capital
activities toward achieving programmatic goals. These measures can also
improve the effectiveness of workforce planning strategies, the overall
workforce planning process, and oversight, by identifying shortfalls in
performance and other improvement opportunities, such as corrective
actions that can be incorporated into the next planning cycle. Without
results-oriented measures, it is difficult for an organization to
assess the effectiveness of its human capital initiatives in supporting
its overarching mission and goals.
DOD and the components have not defined practical, meaningful measures
that assess the effectiveness of human capital management. For example,
DOD's fiscal year 2003 Annual Report on civilian human resources
emphasized the department's efforts to achieve activity-oriented goals,
such as employee satisfaction with DOD employment, diversity in
management positions, and new hire turnover rates. While this is useful
for tracking DOD's progress, it does not gauge how well DOD's human
capital efforts helped the department achieve its programmatic goals.
As a result, the link between specific human capital strategies and
strategic program outcomes is not clear.
Need for Information on Current and Future Workforce Competencies Is
the Major Challenge to Effective Strategic Workforce Planning:
The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their
efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their
need for information on current workforce competencies and the
competencies they anticipate needing in the future. This problem
results from DOD's and the components' not having developed tools to
collect and/or store, and manage data on workforce competencies that
are critical to successful work accomplishment. As a result, it is not
clear whether they are designing and funding workforce strategies that
will effectively shape the civilian workforce with the appropriate
competencies needed to accomplish future DOD missions.
Effective workforce planning requires that human capital staff and
other managers base their workforce analyses and human capital
decisions on complete, accurate, and timely personnel data. Senior
department and component officials all acknowledged this shortfall, and
told us that they are taking steps to address this challenge. Though
these are steps in the right direction, the lack of information on
current competencies and future needs is a continuing problem that
several organizations, including GAO, have previously identified.
In our March 2003 report on DOD strategic human capital management, we
reported that DOD had begun adopting the Army's Civilian Forecasting
System and its Workforce Analysis Support System for departmentwide
use. According to DOD, those systems are still being evaluated by the
Strategic Integration Division in the Civilian Personnel Management
Service (CPMS) at OSD and CPMS is trying to make this software easier
to use. However, the systems do not collect, store, and manage data on
current and future competencies. The Army is working with OPM to link
its Civilian Forecasting System and Workforce Analysis Support System
to OPM's Human Resources Management database to perform competency
forecasts.
In April 2001, the Army commissioned a contractor to, among other
things, assist in assessing its civilian workforce and to develop new
concepts for workforce planning. The contractor concluded that the
Army's forecasting models are largely based on the current occupational
series and grade structure and do not lend themselves to forecasting
the supply of multiskilled civilians with the competencies needed in
the future. The contractor recommended that the Army develop a
competency-based inventory of the current workforce using, among other
types of information, core and occupation-specific competencies.
According to an Army official, in July 2003, the Army formed a
Competency Area Review Work Group that consists of the Chief of
Workforce Analyses and Forecasting in Civilian Personnel Policy, some
operations research analysts, and personnel specialists to identify the
civilian personnel competencies and competency measures. According to
an Army official, the group is constructing a competency database that
will eventually contain competencies on all employees. By the end of
July 2004, the Army will have occupational forecasts linked to
competencies for a subset of the Army's workforce. In fiscal year 2005,
the remaining workforce will be linked by occupation to competencies.
Like the other agencies, the Navy currently does not have the means to
collect, store, and manage data on workforce competencies. In August
2000, a National Academy of Public Administration study for the Navy
pointed out that strategic workforce planning should include automated
tools to identify the tasks and competency requirements of its civilian
workforce. In February 2004, the Navy implemented an online survey
instrument to collect competency data for its civilian workforce. It
has also partnered with a private-sector contractor to manage the
competency collection process. The safety community of the Navy was the
first to initiate the pilot. The process is the same that is being used
to collect competencies for Navy sailors and officers.
The Marine Corps has collected data on workforce competencies. It has a
system under development (the Civilian Workforce Development
Application) that will be used to store and manage data on these
competencies. The target date for completing construction of the
application is July 2005.
The Air Force has identified leadership competencies for the total
force (i.e., active duty military, Air National Guard, Air Force
Reserves, and civilians). It has begun to develop an analytical
information system--the Total Human Resource Managers' Information
System--to capture occupational codes for the total force. But
according to Air Force officials, the system will not collect, store,
and manage data on workforce competencies.
DLA also currently lacks competency data but has included an objective
in its 2002-2007 Strategic Plan to identify gaps between the workforce
competencies and the skills to meet mission requirements for all DLA
positions by the end of fiscal year 2007. According to a DLA official,
the agency is in the process of constructing a skills management tool.
With the help of a contractor, DLA plans to roll out an automated
skills inventory tool (Competency Analysis Management Tool) expected in
July 2004 to capture the competencies of its current workforce. The
analysis tool will be a Web-based system that employees can access and
provide input regarding their proficiency levels in competencies that
have been identified for the respective job families, according to a
DLA official.
Conclusions:
DOD's current efforts to establish a new personnel system and convert
thousands of military positions to civilian positions, and permanent
authority to offer annual cash buyouts to thousands of employees--when
taken together--provide for wide-ranging changes in DOD's civilian
personnel reforms. However, it is questionable whether DOD's
implementation of these reforms will result in the maximum
effectiveness and value because DOD has not developed comprehensive
strategic workforce plans that identify future civilian workforce
needs.
Although DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and
implement civilian strategic workforce plans to address future civilian
workforce needs, they generally lack some key elements essential to
successful workforce planning. Because DOD and the components have not
addressed all of the elements of strategic workforce planning, they do
not know what gaps exist in skills and competencies; what type of
recruitment, retention, and training and professional development
workforce strategies should be developed and implemented to meet future
organizational goals; and what competencies their staff need to do
their work now and in the future. More complete information on the
competencies needed for the future workforce would, for example,
enhance DOD's decisions on which employees to offer cash buyouts. In
addition, DOD and the components lack defined practical, meaningful
measures to gauge outcomes of their workforce strategies. Without
including these key elements, their civilian strategic workforce plans
lack comprehensiveness and consequently, DOD's future strategic
workforce plans may not result in workforces that possess the critical
skills and competencies needed.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To improve the comprehensiveness of strategic workforce planning for
the DOD civilian workforce, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military service
headquarters, and the Defense Logistics Agency to build upon their
strategic workforce planning efforts through the following three
actions:
* Analyze and document the gaps between current critical skills and
competencies and those needed for the future workforce.
* Develop workforce strategies to fill the identified skills and
competency gaps.
* Establish results-oriented performance measures to use in evaluating
workforce planning efforts.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Department of
Defense. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness provided oral comments on a draft of this report. The
department partially concurred with our recommendation that it analyze
and document critical skills and competency gaps between its current
and future workforces. Also, the department partially concurred with
our recommendation that it develop workforce strategies to address
identified workforce gaps in skills and competencies. The department
concurred with our recommendation that it establish results-oriented
performance measures to use in evaluating its workforce planning
efforts. DOD also provided technical and general comments that we have
incorporated where appropriate.
DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the department
analyze and document critical skills and competency gaps between its
current and future workforces. The department stated that in the first
quarter of fiscal year 2004, it began analyses between gaps in the
critical skills currently needed and those needed in the future, and
that it supplements the analyses, as necessary, to meet emerging
technologies and missions. We cannot verify DOD's statement because DOD
was unable to provide any specific documentation showing that it had
performed gap analyses. Regarding gap analyses of competencies, DOD
stated that the value of conducting a global gap analysis between
current competencies and those needed for the future is unclear,
particularly as applied to over 650,000 jobs in nearly 700 occupations.
Our recommendation did not suggest that DOD conduct a global gap
analysis of competencies for its entire civilian workforce. Rather, we
recommended that DOD analyze and document the gaps between current
critical skills and competencies and those needed for the future
workforce.
DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the department
develop workforce strategies to fill identified workforce gaps in
skills and competencies. The department stated that it is actively
engaged in developing strategies to fill identified skills gaps and
noted that its new human capital management system, the National
Security Personnel System, will provide for increased personnel
flexibilities designed to address workforce challenges and help support
the department's strategic workforce planning efforts. The department
also noted that it continues to use existing flexibilities such as
recruitment and retention bonuses, and relocation allowances. In our
report, we acknowledge that the NSPS will give the department
significant flexibility for creating a new framework of rules,
regulations, and processes to govern the way civilians are among other
things, hired, compensated, and promoted. We also acknowledge that DOD
and the components have implemented various recruitment, retention,
training and professional development, and compensation strategies to
address workforce imbalances. However, as we noted in our report, these
strategies have not been derived from analyses of critical skills and
competency gaps. Without such analyses, DOD and the components may not
be able to design and invest in strategies will effectively and
efficiently transition them to the future workforce they desire and
need.
Regarding our recommendation that the department establish results-
oriented performance measures to use in evaluating its workforce
planning efforts, the department concurred, noting that it is committed
to focusing on results and using data in evaluating workforce planning
efforts.
We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional
committees; the Secretary of Defense; the Secretaries of the Air Force,
Army, and Navy; the Commandant of the Marine Corps; and the Director of
DLA. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In
addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site
at http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions regarding this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-5559 (stewartd@gao.gov) or Sandra F. Bell at
(202) 512-8981 (bells@gao.gov). Major contributors to this report were
Janine Cantin, Jeanett H. Reid, Jose Watkins, Alissa Czyz, and Cheryl
Weissman.
Sincerely yours,
Derek B. Stewart:
Director, Defense Capabilities and Management:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology:
To determine the extent to which civilian strategic workforce plans
have been developed and implemented to address future civilian
workforce requirements, we obtained and reviewed Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) guidance on standards for success for strategic human
capital management, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Human
Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. We also obtained and
reviewed civilian human capital strategic plans, workforce planning
documents, and workforce analysis submitted by the Department of
Defense (DOD) to OMB. We assessed the reliability of data used for the
workforce analysis by (1) reviewing existing information about the
system and the data produced by the system; (2) interviewing agency
officials knowledgeable about the data and reviewing their responses to
questions on system controls; and (3) making basic comparisons of the
data with OPM's Civilian Personnel Data File's data for obvious errors
in accuracy. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable to
meet our objectives. Using the workforce planning documents, we
evaluated DOD's and the components' strategic workforce planning
efforts in terms of five strategic workforce planning elements that we
identified through our prior work in review of studies by leading
workforce planning organizations that included the OPM, other U.S.
government agencies, the National Academy for Public Administration,
and the International Personnel Management Association. We also held
discussions with the following cognizant officials to obtain their
views on their strategic workforce planning efforts: the Office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; the Army, Navy,
Marine Corps, and Air Force headquarters; and the Defense Logistics
Agency. Additionally, we obtained and reviewed civilian employee data
and personnel retirement eligibility data from the Defense Civilian
Personnel Data System.
To determine the challenges affecting the development and
implementation of civilian strategic workforce plans, we interviewed
officials and obtained, reviewed, and analyzed documentation to
identify the types of challenges that might affect planning. We also
assessed the extent to which the DOD components had efforts under way
to develop and implement tools to collect, store, and manage data on
workforce competencies.
We conducted our work from April 2003 through June 2004 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.
[End of section]
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2001.
Human Capital: Major Human Capital Challenges at the Departments of
Defense and State. GAO-01-565T. Washington, D.C.: March 29, 2001.
Human Capital: Meeting the Governmentwide High-Risk Challenge. GAO-01-
357T. Washington, D.C.: February 1, 2001.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Government Performance and Results Act required that an
agency's strategic plan cover a period of at least 5 years forward from
the fiscal year in which it was submitted. We have reported that the
act's strategic planning requirements provide a useful framework for
agencies to integrate their human capital strategies with their
strategic and programmatic planning. See U.S. General Accounting
Office, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-02-373SP
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002).
[2] U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Strategic Approach
Should Guide DOD Civilian Workforce Management, GAO/T-GGD/NSIAD-00-120
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 9, 2000).
[3] U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Personnel: DOD Actions Needed
to Strengthen Civilian Human Capital Strategic Planning and Integration
with Military Personnel and Sourcing Decisions, GAO-03-475 (Washington,
D.C.: Mar. 28, 2003).
[4] U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Civilian Personnel: Improved
Strategic Planning Needed to Help Ensure Viability of DOD's Civilian
Industrial Workforce, GAO-03-472 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 30, 2003).
[5] U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: An Update,
GAO-01-263 (Washington, D.C.: January 2001); U.S. General Accounting
Office, Performance Accountability Series--Major Management Challenges
and Program Risks: A Governmentwide Perspective, GAO-01-241
(Washington, D.C.: January 2001); and U.S. General Accounting Office,
Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: A Governmentwide
Perspective, GAO-03-95 (Washington, D.C.: January 2003).
[6] Throughout this report, the term "component" refers to DLA and all
the services in DOD. The term "service" refers to the U.S. Air Force,
the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, or the U.S. Navy.
[7] These numbers do not include indirect-hire employees.
[8] National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, Pub. L.
No. 108-136, § 1101 (codified at 5 U.S.C. § 9902).
[9] Congress did not exempt DOD from provisions of title 5 pertaining
to veterans' preference, merit systems principles, prohibited personnel
practices, and equal employment opportunity.
[10] GAO-02-373SP and U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital:
Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).
[11] See Pub. L. No. 107-296, § 1311(a)(1), which rewrote 31 U.S.C. §
1115(a)(3); See Pub. L. No. 107-296, § 1311(a)(2-3), which redesignated
former subsection (f) as (g) and added a new subsection (f).
[12] GAO-03-475.
[13] As part of the President's management agenda for improving
government performance, OMB evaluates executive agencies, including
DOD's performance in five major management categories, including human
capital management.
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