Military Personnel
Improvements Needed to Increase Effectiveness of DOD's Programs to Promote Positive Working Relationships between Reservists and Their Employers Gao ID: GAO-08-981R August 15, 2008Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has relied on more than 650,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to support operations at home and abroad. As demobilized reservists return to civilian life and their civilian employment, the difficulties some face in maintaining positive working relationships with their employers is an area of interest. Maintaining employers' continued support for their reservist employees will be critical if DOD is to retain experienced reservists in these times of longer and more frequent deployments. The employment and reemployment rights of service members as they transition between their federal duties and their civilian employment are governed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994. Education of reservists and employers about USERRA is primarily conducted through DOD's office of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), which serves as DOD's focal point in managing the department's relations with reservists and their civilian employers. The Military Reservists and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and Opportunity Act of 20083 directed the Comptroller General of the United States to report to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the House Committee on Armed Services, and the House Committee on Small Business by August 15, 2008, on the options for promoting positive working relationships between reservists and their employers, including assessing options for improving the time in which employers of reservists are notified of a call to active duty other than training. Accordingly, we examined the extent to which DOD has (1) taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers to provide timely notification of a call to active duty, and (2) developed initiatives to promote positive working relations between reservists and their employers. We also were directed to determine whether there has been a reduction in the hiring of reservists by business concerns because of (1) any increase in the use of reservists after September 11, 2001, or (2) any change in any policy of DOD relating to reservists after September 11, 2001.
DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their civilian employers when they are mobilized, but it does not collect data to assess the effectiveness of its efforts. In order to qualify for rights under USERRA, reservists must generally provide their employers with advance notice prior to departure for military duty, and we found that the amount of advance notice provided to employers varies. The steps DOD has taken to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers include (1) implementing policies and procedures that encourage reservists to provide advance notification, and to provide this notification in writing, and (2) providing outreach and education for reservists of obligations and responsibilities under USERRA through ESGR. Despite these efforts to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to provide advance notice to their civilian employers of a call to active duty, DOD does not determine whether its efforts (1) are helpful in informing reservists of their USERRA responsibilities, or (2) enable employers to receive advance notification of reservists' deployments because DOD does not collect data that would enable it to gauge the effectiveness of its efforts. DOD administers Status of Forces Surveys to reservists biannually to monitor the extent to which it informs service members about USERRA obligations and the occurrence of USERRA-related problems, but the surveys do not contain questions on the amount and type of notice that reservists provide to their employers. Since DOD regularly administers these already established surveys, the most effective way to provide DOD with pertinent information on advance notification without imposing a significant administrative burden or cost would be through these surveys. Until DOD collects data on both the amount and type of advance notice that reservists are providing to their employers, it will be unable to determine the effectiveness of its efforts to encourage and enable reservists to provide advance notice to their employers consistent with USERRA or determine if additional measures are required. Toward the completion of our review, officials at the Defense Manpower Data Center, the Defense activity which administers the biannual Status of Forces Surveys, told us that they are planning to include questions in subsequent Status of Forces Surveys regarding the extent to which reservists are providing notification to their employers and whether the notifications are being given orally or in writing.
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-08-981R, Military Personnel: Improvements Needed to Increase Effectiveness of DOD's Programs to Promote Positive Working Relationships between Reservists and Their Employers
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GAO-08-981R:
August 15, 2008:
Congressional Committees:
Subject: Military Personnel: Improvements Needed to Increase
Effectiveness of DOD's Programs to Promote Positive Working
Relationships between Reservists and Their Employers:
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has relied on
more than 650,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to support
operations at home and abroad. As demobilized reservists[Footnote 1]
return to civilian life and their civilian employment, the difficulties
some face in maintaining positive working relationships with their
employers is an area of interest. Maintaining employers' continued
support for their reservist employees will be critical if DOD is to
retain experienced reservists in these times of longer and more
frequent deployments.
The employment and reemployment rights of service members as they
transition between their federal duties and their civilian employment
are governed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment
Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994.[Footnote 2] Education of reservists and
employers about USERRA is primarily conducted through DOD's office of
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), which serves as DOD's
focal point in managing the department's relations with reservists and
their civilian employers. In past years, ESGR's focus was on educating
service members concerning their employment rights under USERRA.
Generally, service members are entitled to the reemployment rights
provided by USERRA, including entitlement to reinstatement by their
civilian employers consistent with the statute, if they meet certain
eligibility requirements set out in the act. In fiscal year 2005, ESGR
shifted its focus to educating employers. The new focus better aligns
with ESGR's mission--to gain and maintain support for employee military
service from all public and private employers of the men and women of
the National Guard and Reserve. To fulfill its mission, ESGR has
developed and implemented a number of outreach efforts to help gain
employer support.
The Military Reservists and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and
Opportunity Act of 2008[Footnote 3] directed the Comptroller General of
the United States to report to the Senate Committee on Armed Services,
the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the House
Committee on Armed Services, and the House Committee on Small Business
by August 15, 2008, on the options for promoting positive working
relationships between reservists and their employers, including
assessing options for improving the time in which employers of
reservists are notified of a call to active duty other than training.
Accordingly, we examined the extent to which DOD has (1) taken steps to
inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their
employers to provide timely notification of a call to active duty, and
(2) developed initiatives to promote positive working relations between
reservists and their employers. We also were directed to determine
whether there has been a reduction in the hiring of reservists by
business concerns because of (1) any increase in the use of reservists
after September 11, 2001, or (2) any change in any policy of DOD
relating to reservists after September 11, 2001.
To address our first objective, we examined policy and guidance
describing DOD's reserve component processes and procedures for
informing reservists of their responsibilities and obligations to their
employers. We also analyzed DOD Status of Forces Surveys on areas
related to advance notice to reservists and other matters concerning
reserve component members. We assessed the survey data for reliability
and found the data to be sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this
report. We held interviews with key DOD officials and with a
nonprobability sample of employers of reservists. Because this was a
nonprobability sample of employers, the results of these interviews are
not generalizeable to the general population of reservist employers.
Further, we conducted focus groups with reservists in three states to
discuss the amount of advance notice being provided both to reservists
by DOD and to employers by reservists. These focus groups were based on
a nonprobability sample and the results from these focus groups are not
generalizeable to the population of reservists. To select participants
for our focus groups, we chose from units with the following
characteristics: (1) Army National Guard and Army Reserve units (which
comprise the majority of total reservists), (2) Reserve units
consisting of 100 or more personnel, (3) units that have deployed and
redeployed back to the United States since January 1, 2007, and (4)
units that conducted weekend drills during the period May 5, 2008,
through July 28, 2008. We conducted a total of 10 focus groups in three
states (Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia) with a total of 50
volunteer participants. We selected employers of reservists for our
structured interviews using DOD's civilian employee information (CEI)
database. We selected employers from this database to include a mix of
both small and large companies based on number of employees, both
governmental agencies and private/nonprofit companies, civilian
employers of reservists from each reserve component, and employers in
states with a heavy concentration of reservists. We selected from those
employers deemed to have a high degree of automated matching accuracy
by Dun & Bradstreet.[Footnote 4] From the employers who met the above
criteria, we randomly selected 77 employers to contact, and ultimately
completed interviews with 11 employers. We found this data to be
sufficiently reliable for our selection purposes.
For our second objective, we analyzed ESGR outreach programs,
initiatives, policies, procedures, and memoranda of understanding that
address the current activities being taken to strengthen reservist/
employer working relations. During our structured interviews and focus
groups, we discussed in detail the outreach programs and efforts being
carried out. Finally, to determine whether there has been a reduction
in the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001, we questioned the
Department of Labor, DOD, and ESGR about any data they may have
collected or analyses they may have done to examine any such
reductions. We also reviewed DOD policies and specifically questioned
participants in the focus groups and structured interviews about any
changes in hiring practices or policies that may have occurred.
We conducted this performance audit from April 2008 through August 2008
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that
the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. Further details on our scope
and methodology can be found in enclosure I.
Results in Brief:
DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and
responsibilities to their civilian employers when they are mobilized,
but it does not collect data to assess the effectiveness of its
efforts. In order to qualify for rights under USERRA, reservists must
generally provide their employers with advance notice prior to
departure for military duty, and we found that the amount of advance
notice provided to employers varies. The steps DOD has taken to inform
reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers
include (1) implementing policies and procedures that encourage
reservists to provide advance notification, and to provide this
notification in writing, and (2) providing outreach and education for
reservists of obligations and responsibilities under USERRA through
ESGR. Despite these efforts to inform reservists of their obligations
and responsibilities to provide advance notice to their civilian
employers of a call to active duty, DOD does not determine whether its
efforts (1) are helpful in informing reservists of their USERRA
responsibilities, or (2) enable employers to receive advance
notification of reservists' deployments because DOD does not collect
data that would enable it to gauge the effectiveness of its efforts.
DOD administers Status of Forces Surveys to reservists biannually to
monitor the extent to which it informs service members about USERRA
obligations and the occurrence of USERRA-related problems, but the
surveys do not contain questions on the amount and type of notice that
reservists provide to their employers. Since DOD regularly administers
these already established surveys, the most effective way to provide
DOD with pertinent information on advance notification without imposing
a significant administrative burden or cost would be through these
surveys. Until DOD collects data on both the amount and type of advance
notice that reservists are providing to their employers, it will be
unable to determine the effectiveness of its efforts to encourage and
enable reservists to provide advance notice to their employers
consistent with USERRA or determine if additional measures are
required. Toward the completion of our review, officials at the Defense
Manpower Data Center, the Defense activity which administers the
biannual Status of Forces Surveys, told us that they are planning to
include questions in subsequent Status of Forces Surveys regarding the
extent to which reservists are providing notification to their
employers and whether the notifications are being given orally or in
writing.
DOD has used ESGR as its focal point in establishing a strategic
approach to promote positive working relationships between reservists
and their employers, but it does not measure the efficiency and
effectiveness of these efforts. While ESGR has established a strategic
plan outlining its mission, goals, and objectives, ESGR has not yet
established a performance plan to measure how well its efforts are
achieving these goals. To help establish positive working relationships
between reservists and their employers, ESGR has developed several
ongoing outreach programs, such as employer briefings and statements of
support, to gain support from employers of reservists. However, DOD
does not know the extent to which these ESGR efforts are helping to
achieve its mission because it lacks (1) an established performance
plan to measure how well it is achieving its goals, (2) a follow-up
mechanism to help maintain relationships with employers once employers
have pledged their support, and (3) an outreach program specific to
small business needs. Given ESGR's numerous outreach programs and
efforts, it is difficult to establish a direct causal link between
these efforts and their effectiveness. Our prior work has shown that
key elements of a sound management approach include defining clear
missions and desired outcomes, establishing implementation goals,
measuring performance, and aligning activities with resources.[Footnote
5] Our past work on defense initiatives has shown the need for DOD to
take a more strategic approach to decision making to ensure that
investments are based on sound plans with measurable, realistic goals
and time frames, prioritized resource needs, and performance measures
to gauge progress.[Footnote 6] An annual performance plan should link
the agency's mission, strategic goals, and program activities. In
addition, according to ESGR's strategic plan and DOD Directive 1250.01,
[Footnote 7] ESGR's mission is to "gain and maintain" support from
employers of reservists. However, DOD does not determine the extent to
which employer relations are maintained once statements of support are
signed, because ESGR does not conduct follow-up activities that could
help maintain established relationships with reservists' employers.
Finally, ESGR's strategic plan states that it shall improve working
relationships with employers by designing tailored products to meet
their specific needs. Small business employers represent nearly 70
percent of selected reservists' employers.[Footnote 8] Many DOD
officials have also acknowledged that small businesses are particularly
affected by deploying reserve employees. However, ESGR has not
implemented any specific programs or activities that explicitly target
small businesses. Unless DOD takes actions to measure how well its
efforts are achieving its goals--such as developing a performance plan,
conducting follow-up activities, or implementing programs that target
small businesses--DOD cannot determine whether its efforts to improve
the working relationships between reservists and their employers
effectively address the needs of reservists' employers.
We were unable to determine the extent to which there has been a
reduction in the hiring of reservists caused by the increase in the use
of reservists after September 11, 2001, or caused by any changes in any
of DOD's policies concerning reservists after September 11, 2001, due
to a lack of available data related to this issue. We were unable to
identify any studies or analyses from either DOD or the Department of
Labor to indicate whether employers have been hiring fewer reservists
since September 11, 2001. During the course of our review, we
identified a number of changes to DOD policies relating to reservists
since September 11, 2001. For example, in early 2007 DOD rescinded a
policy that set a cumulative limit of 24 months of being involuntarily
mobilized over the course of a reservist's military career and
instituted a policy of involuntarily mobilizing reservists for a
maximum of 1 year at a time. However, we were unable to determine how
these policy changes, or any other policy changes related to the use of
reservists, affected the hiring of reservists, if at all. The absence
of such data or analyses precludes us from determining the impact, if
any, of any changes in DOD's policies concerning the hiring of
reservists. Even if a reduction in the hiring of reservists had
occurred, we would be unable to determine what factors contributed to
the decline.
To improve the effectiveness of DOD's efforts, we are making
recommendations that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to (1) establish an
annual performance plan, (2) conduct regular and recurring follow-up
activities, and (3) develop initiatives to outreach to small
businesses. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Department
partially concurred with these three recommendations. The department
also provided several general comments and one technical comment that
we considered and incorporated, as appropriate. The department's
comments and our evaluation of those comments are discussed in detail
in a later section of this report. DOD's written comments are reprinted
in enclosure II.
Background:
In 1994 Congress passed the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994, which protects individuals as
they transition between their federal duties and their civilian
employment. USERRA provides employment and reemployment rights for
service members, including those called up from the Reserves or
National Guard, and prohibits employer discrimination based on military
service or obligation. In order to be eligible for the rights provided
by USERRA, service members must meet certain eligibility requirements
which include, among other things, providing their employers with
proper notice prior to their departure for military service, and
reporting back to work or applying for reemployment in a timely manner.
Provided service members meet their USERRA requirements, they are
entitled to a number of benefits including, in most cases, prompt
reinstatement to the positions they would have held if they had never
left their employment, or to positions of like seniority, status, and
pay. Reservists who have incurred or aggravated a medical disability
during their military service are guaranteed certain reemployment
protections as well, and employers are required to make certain efforts
to accommodate the service member's disability. USERRA applies to
persons who perform service, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the
"uniformed services," which include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air
Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service commissioned corps, as
well as the reserve components of each of these services. USERRA
applies to virtually all public and private employers in the United
States regardless of size, and includes federal, state, and local
governments, as well as for-profit and not-for-profit private sector
firms.
Enforcement and implementation of USERRA involves several federal
agencies with specific--and sometimes overlapping--outreach,
investigative, or enforcement roles. For example, USERRA gives the
Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs shared responsibility for taking steps the Secretaries
determine are appropriate for providing outreach to inform service
members and their respective employers about their rights, benefits,
and obligations under USERRA.[Footnote 9] Reservists have a number of
obligations under the act that must be met if they are to be eligible
for USERRA rights and benefits. This includes the obligation to provide
their employers with advance notice prior to departure for military
duty unless an exception applies.
The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs has overall
supervisory responsibility for matters that involve the reserve
components, and serves as the principal staff assistant and advisor to
the Secretary of Defense on reserve component matters. The Assistant
Secretary oversees the activities of the National Committee for the
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.[Footnote 10] Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) was established in 1972 and has
been tasked by DOD Directive 1250.01 to "promote both public and
private understanding of the National Guard and Reserve in order to
gain employer and community support for the Reserve components as
demonstrated through implementing personnel programs, policies, and
practices that encourage employee and citizen participation in the
National Guard and Reserve." ESGR's mission is twofold. First, it
educates service members about their rights and responsibilities under
the law. This is accomplished by providing annual unit, mobilization,
and demobilization briefings; supplying informational handouts;
assigning military liaisons in units as a support contact; and
maintaining an extensive Web site with information about USERRA.
[Footnote 11] Second, it strives to gain and maintain employer support
for reservists. This is done by recognizing outstanding support,
increasing awareness of the law through employer outreach programs, and
resolving conflicts through mediation. ESGR has full-time paid staff at
its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, including 36 military
employees, 28 civilian employees, 8 contractors, and 94 contractor
field support personnel. ESGR performs most of its work through
volunteers and specially trained ombudsmen who act as informal
mediators for USERRA issues that arise between service members and
their employers. It operates through a network of more than 4,500
volunteers throughout 56 committees located in each state, the District
of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Europe. With
this large network of volunteers and ombudsmen to support reservist/
employer relations, ESGR's task is to support and advise employers,
large and small, and reservists. For fiscal year 2008, ESGR has a
budget of approximately $13.1 million.
A number of surveys and reports have been conducted that analyze
reservist/employer relations. DOD has periodically contracted with the
Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a nonprofit corporation that
administers federally funded research and development programs, to
publish reports and studies that examine reservist/employer relations.
In addition, the Defense Manpower Data Center collects, archives, and
maintains manpower and personnel data, as well as financial databases,
for DOD. In this capacity, the Defense Manpower Data Center administers
an annual survey to civilian personnel, biannual surveys to selected
reserve personnel, and active duty surveys three times a year. These
surveys provide relevant and important data on such issues as advance
notice to reservists, the work of ESGR; and other matters concerning
civilian, active duty, and reserve component members.
We have issued prior reports related to employer support, USERRA, and
in general the need for results-oriented government. In a 2002 report,
we addressed DOD's management of relations between reservists and their
employers.[Footnote 12] Among other things, we found that ESGR did not
have data to determine the effectiveness of its outreach and mediation
efforts. DOD concurred with many of our recommendations and has taken
action on a number of them. For example, DOD developed the Civilian
Employer Information database to assist in DOD's outreach efforts to
employers. This database contains a list of reservists' civilian
employers, which can help DOD reach out to these employers and gain
support. In addition, we have issued a number of reports that address
the need for federal agencies to manage for results. For example, in
2004 we issued a report that examined, among other things, the
challenges agencies face in using performance information in management
decisions and how the federal government can continue to shift toward a
more results-oriented focus.
DOD Has Taken Steps to Inform Reservists of Their Obligations and
Responsibilities to Notify Their Employers When They Are Called to
Active Duty, but Does Not Assess Its Effectiveness:
DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and
responsibilities to provide advance notification to their civilian
employers when mobilized, but it does not collect data to gauge the
effectiveness of its efforts. To qualify for protection under USERRA,
reservists must generally provide their employers with advance notice
prior to their departure for military duty. The steps DOD has taken to
inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their
employers include (1) implementing policies and procedures aimed
directly at the issue of advance notification, and (2) providing
outreach and education through ESGR concerning reservists' obligations
and responsibilities under USERRA.
First, DOD has established policies and procedures to inform guard and
reserve members of their obligations and responsibilities to their
employers. Specifically, DOD Instruction 1205.12 assigns
responsibilities and prescribes procedures for informing service
members of their civilian employment and reemployment rights, benefits,
and obligations under USERRA. This instruction requires that the
service members be advised that DOD strongly encourages reservists to
provide advance notice in writing to their civilian employers of a
pending mobilization with the explanation that providing written
advance notice is preferable to verbal advance notice since it is
easier to establish that this basic prerequisite to retaining
reemployment rights has been fulfilled. The ESGR USERRA annual
briefings presented at the unit level also point out that written
notification would be better than verbal notification. However, in our
focus groups with reservists, we found that some individuals provided
only verbal notice of an upcoming call to active duty to their civilian
employer. The instruction also requires service members to be advised
that notice, whether verbal or written, should be provided as early as
is practicable and that DOD strongly recommends that advance notice to
civilian employers be provided at least 30 days prior to departure for
uniformed service when it is feasible to do so. According to the
instruction, the advance notice requirement can be met by providing the
employer with a copy of the unit's annual training schedule or by
preparing a letter. A sample standardized letter is provided in the
instruction and on the ESGR Web site. In addition, the Navy Reserve
provides specific guidance to its members on advance notice to
employers. This guidance also strongly encourages reservists to give
their employers as much notice as possible to enable employers to make
the necessary arrangements to cover the reservists' work in their
absence. The guidance also instructs Navy reservists to give notice in
writing and to keep a copy in case a question arises as to whether
notice has been given.
Second, DOD has assigned ESGR responsibility for conducting outreach
and education programs and activities to educate and inform guard and
reserve members of their obligations and responsibilities under USERRA.
ESGR accomplishes its outreach and education mission through several
mechanisms, such as a toll-free information line, informational
brochures and handouts, a Web site, individual and group briefings, and
military unit liaison representatives. ESGR conducts thousands of
annual briefings, most often at the unit level, to inform reservists
and their employers about their rights and responsibilities under
USERRA. In fiscal year 2007, more than 67,000 employers and
approximately 235,000 reservists were briefed on USERRA and ESGR
services. The ESGR Web site contains links that direct individuals to
the USERRA statutes as well as explanations of the law. In addition to
these briefings and other outreach efforts, every reserve component
unit within each state is to have an assigned military liaison who
serves as the primary link between the reserve components and ESGR,
assists their assigned commands/units in developing and executing
employer relations, and provides USERRA training and materials. The
liaison also helps train the command's or unit's appointed employer
relations representative if requested so that this representative can
provide employer relations and USERRA training. Consistent with ESGR's
previously mentioned outreach efforts in conjunction with related
resources available to the reservists, we observed in our focus groups
that most reservists were aware of their obligation to provide advance
notice to employers.
Despite these efforts to inform reservists of their obligations and
responsibilities to provide advance notice to their civilian employers
of a call to active duty, DOD does not determine whether its efforts
are helpful in informing reservists of their USERRA responsibilities or
enabling employers to receive advance notification of reservists'
deployments. DOD does monitor the extent to which it informs service
members of their USERRA obligations and the occurrence of USERRA-
related problems by including questions on these areas in its Status of
Forces Surveys (SOFS), which are periodically conducted to identify
issues that need to be addressed or monitored. For example, according
to a 2006 DOD SOFS of guard and reserve members, most reserve component
soldiers have been briefed on employment rights and responsibilities;
an estimated 79 percent of those responding said that they had been
briefed on USERRA at least once.
One of the first steps to ensuring that employers are adequately
notified of a reservist's call to active duty is ensuring that
reservists themselves are adequately notified by DOD of an impending
deployment or mobilization. DOD provides informal "alerts" (warning
orders) prior to issuing formal notification orders. These alerts
provide additional advance notice to reservists that their unit may
soon be called to active duty. On its SOFS, DOD has included questions
to measure the extent to which reserve component members receive
advance notice prior to a call to active duty. According to the 2007
SOFS, an estimated 76 percent of reservists had received an informal
alert notice; of those, an estimated 77 percent received notice of 30
days or more. However, formal notice from DOD is provided much closer
to the mobilization date; an estimated 47 percent of reservists
reported on the 2007 SOFS that they received written, formal orders 30
days or more prior to having to report for active duty. Thus, a
reservist might receive an informal alert of an upcoming activation
several months in advance, but might not receive formal orders until a
month prior to activation. According to DOD officials, the informal
alerts should allow employers to better plan for when reservists will
not be available to them. We noted in a prior report that the Office of
the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs emphasized the
need to provide orders well in advance of deployments, in part so that
employers could be notified promptly.[Footnote 13] In addition, the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs warned that
"unjustifiably late notification may harm the working relationships
between reservists and their employers."
However, we found that these informal alerts provided by DOD to
reservists may not necessarily translate into earlier notification to
employers. In focus group discussions we conducted with soldiers who
had been redeployed back to the United States since the beginning of
2007, they noted that deployment plans frequently changed. Because
plans changed so often, there was general agreement in several of our
focus groups that it was not a good idea to share the informal alert
information with an employer. Some reservists in some of the focus
groups said that they had to strategically plan how and when to share
information and notice with employers because of fears that employers
might react negatively; some reservists perceived they could be passed
over for a promotion and others felt they should not tell their
employer of an upcoming call to active duty too far in advance out of
fear of being written out of the company's future plans. In a few focus
groups there was general agreement that the reservists would each
provide their respective employers no more than 30 days notice no
matter how much formal or informal notice they had received from DOD.
DOD, however, does not collect data that would enable it to gauge the
effectiveness of its efforts because DOD has not developed procedures
to identify the amount or the form of notice, written or verbal, that
reservists are actually providing to their civilian employers.
Consequently, DOD is unable to determine either the amount of notice
reservists are regularly providing to their employers or the form
(written or verbal) in which this advance notice, if any, is being
provided. Given that DOD's Status of Forces Surveys do not specifically
address the issue of employer notification form (written or verbal),
DOD is unable to determine the percentage of individuals that provide
only verbal notice to their employers. While DOD is not required to
collect data that identify the amount or the form of notice provided to
civilian employers, the collection of these data could help DOD gain a
better understanding of the amount and type of notice reservists are
actually providing to their civilian employers. The collection of these
data from civilian employers of reservists could potentially be both
cost prohibitive and time consuming. DOD currently has a survey
mechanism in place (DOD's biannual Status of Forces Surveys) capable of
capturing these data. These surveys already capture data about when
reservists receive alerts and mobilization orders, so there would be
context for adding questions pertaining to reservists' notification of
mobilization to their civilian employers. Thus, DOD's Status of Forces
Surveys may be the most effective means to provide DOD with pertinent
information on advance notification without imposing a significant
administrative burden or cost. Additionally, adding these questions may
provide DOD a valuable source for discovering any trends in either the
amount of advance notice or form of notice being provided to civilian
employers by reservists. Until DOD begins to develop procedures and to
collect data on both the amount, as well as the type, of advance notice
being given by most reservists to their civilian employers, it may be
unable to measure the effectiveness of its efforts to inform service
members of their benefits and obligations under USERRA or determine
whether additional measures are required. Toward the completion of our
review, officials at the Defense Manpower Data Center told us that they
are planning to include questions in subsequent Status of Forces
Surveys regarding the extent to which reservists are providing
notification to their employers and whether the notifications are being
given orally or in writing. We will continue to monitor these efforts
and the extent to which they contribute to DOD's effectiveness in
improving reservists' notifications to their employers.
DOD Has Established a Strategic Approach with Many Outreach Initiatives
to Promote Positive Working Relationships between Reservists and
Employers, but Does Not Gauge the Effectiveness of Its Efforts:
While DOD has used ESGR in establishing a strategic approach that
includes many of DOD's outreach initiatives to help improve working
relationships between reservists and their employers, it does not gauge
the effectiveness of its efforts. Specifically, ESGR does not know the
extent to which these outreach initiatives are helping achieve its
mission because ESGR (1) lacks an established performance plan to
measure how well it is achieving its goals, (2) does not have a
mechanism in place to follow-up with employers to help maintain
relationships once employers have pledged their support, and (3) lacks
an outreach program specific to small business needs.
ESGR has been DOD's focal point in creating and instituting a strategic
approach that includes many outreach initiatives to help improve
working relationships between reservists and their employers. Table 1
provides some information on the different types of outreach
initiatives used by ESGR to help gain employer support, which aids in
promoting positive working relationships between reservists and their
employers.
Table 1: Examples of ESGR Programs Aimed at Promoting Positive Working
Relationships between Reservists and Their Civilian Employers:
Program: Boss Lifts;
Description: The employer is provided an opportunity to visit the
reservist at his or her drill site to gain firsthand experience and an
appreciation for the employee‘s military service. These events provide
the employer with opportunities to directly observe the technical,
organizational, team building, and leadership skills of their
employees. They also provide employers with opportunities to observe
military training, some of which may be directly related to their
employee‘s civilian job.
Program: Mass Market Outreach;
Description: ESGR uses public service advertising as available, in
spaces such as billboards, and magazines. ESGR uses additional media
outreach activities involving advertising and article placement to help
promote ESGR as a resource and to highlight what employers are doing to
help support reservists who are called to active duty.
Program: Strategic Partnerships;
Description: Through strategic partnerships with the national
headquarters and local chapters of the Chamber of Commerce, Society for
Human Resource Management, National Federation of Independent Business,
Small Business Administration, and Rotary Club, ESGR strives to educate
employers about USERRA and the ESGR organization. According to an ESGR
official, they are in the process of distributing a direct-mail
publication ’about ESGR“ to all 250,000 members of the Society for
Human Resource Management, and they have provided direct mail about
ESGR to 15,700 members of the International Association of Chiefs of
Police.
Program: Employer Briefings;
Description: ESGR provides employer briefings as a forum for local
employers, unit commanders, ESGR members, and community leaders to
meet, network, and discuss issues that arise from employee
participation in the National Guard and Reserves. The meeting site can
be a local restaurant, hotel, service club, Chamber of Commerce,
National Guard Armory, Reserve Center, or military installation.
According to an ESGR official, in fiscal year 2007, ESGR field
committees briefed 68,803 employers.
Program: Awards Program;
Reservists can nominate their employers to receive sequential and
progressive awards.
The Patriot Award recognizes individual supervisors, not necessarily
the employer organization as a whole. During fiscal year 2007, 15,124
employers were nominated. Nominated employers receive a Patriot Award
certificate and accompanying lapel pin.
The Above and Beyond Award honors employers of reservists who go above
and beyond the requirements of USERRA, for example, an employer
providing continuation of benefits or pay differential.
The Pro Patria Award is the highest award that an ESGR field committee
may bestow upon employers within its purview. Employers who are
previous recipients of both the Patriot Award and the Above and Beyond
Award, and have signed a statement of support, are eligible to receive
the Pro Patria Award.
The Freedom Award (The Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom
Award) is given to exemplary employers in three categories: large
business, small business, and the public sector. Reservists submit
nominations, from which 15 are selected and forwarded to the Secretary
of Defense. In fiscal year 2007, more than 1,000 reservists nominated
their employers for this award.
Sources: GAO analysis, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
information.
[End of table]
Given ESGR's numerous outreach programs and efforts, it is difficult to
establish a direct causal link between these efforts and their
effectiveness. While these initiatives represent positive efforts to
promote positive working relationships between reservists and their
employers, ESGR does not know the extent to which these outreach
initiatives are helping achieve its mission because ESGR (1) lacks an
established performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its
goals, (2) does not have a mechanism in place to follow-up with
employers to help maintain relationships once employers have pledged
their support, and (3) lacks an outreach program specific to small
business needs. Our prior work has shown that key elements of a sound
management approach include defining clear missions and desired
outcomes, establishing implementation goals, measuring performance, and
aligning activities with resources.[Footnote 14] Our past work on
defense initiatives has shown the need for DOD to take a more strategic
approach to decision making to ensure that investments are based on
sound plans with measurable, realistic goals and time frames,
prioritized resource needs, and performance measures to gauge progress.
To be able to assess the effectiveness of their activities and
determine how well they are achieving their mission, organizations need
to link established performance measures with set goals, as we have
previously reported.
ESGR has established a strategic plan that provides a workable
foundation for annual performance planning and reporting. ESGR's
strategic plan outlines its mission, goals, and objectives. For
example, ESGR's August 22, 2007, strategic plan states that ESGR is to
conduct focused outreach efforts to gain statements of support from all
identified civilian employers of reservists by 2011; this equates to a
goal of obtaining an average of 20 percent of these employers in each
year of the period covered by the plan. During fiscal year 2007, more
than 20,644 employers signed statements of support. ESGR collects and
reports some data on its outreach efforts. The organization's state
field committee representatives prepare quarterly reports on the
various outreach activities performed. These quarterly reports include
data on some of the programs listed in table 1. While all events listed
may not occur regularly in all locations, data on the different types
of outreach efforts to help promote positive working relationships
between reservists and their civilian employers are reported to ESGR.
For example, field committee reports have included data on the number
of media events, trade shows, conferences, symposiums, boss lift
events, and awards for the quarter. ESGR officials noted that the
statements of support signings are their primary outreach effort to
gain employer support, and explained that these statements of support
often are acquired as a result of other ESGR outreach efforts. For
example, one field committee representative we spoke with stated that
she had attended a symposium sponsored by the Society for Human
Resource Management and obtained 20 to 25 statements of support from
employers.
Despite its collecting and reporting data on these outreach efforts,
ESGR does not have an annual performance plan in place to measure how
well its outreach efforts are achieving its goals. As a step in that
direction, ESGR has recently issued its first annual report.[Footnote
15] ESGR's annual report provides information on, among other things,
the organization's guiding principles and organizational structure, a
historical overview, and some statistics on its outreach programs.
Nonetheless, ESGR's 2007 annual report provides data on only some of
its activities; it does not include performance measures to demonstrate
the effectiveness of ESGR's outreach efforts. As previously mentioned,
ESGR established a 5-year goal (by 2011) to obtain statements of
support from 100 percent of the employers it has identified. However,
the annual report does not discuss the progress being made towards
achieving this goal. Without a performance plan, ESGR may not be able
to evaluate the extent to which it is meeting its goals, or identify
successes as well as potential problem areas that might require
adjustments to these goals.
While ESGR's mission is to "gain and maintain" support from employers
of reservists, it does not have a follow-up-mechanism in place to help
maintain the relationships established with those employers who have
signed statements of support. During the course of our review, we found
that once a statement of support is signed by an employer, there is no
follow-up-mechanism in place to maintain the established employer
relationship. DOD officials acknowledged that they do not have a follow-
up mechanism in place that can help maintain employer support; they
stated their belief that such an effort would be beneficial. Until a
follow up mechanism is in place, DOD is unable to determine whether
meeting its goals for employer signings of statements of support shows
real progress toward developing effective employer relationships and
whether it is able to fully attain its goal of both gaining and
maintaining support from employers.
Furthermore, ESGR lacks a systematic approach for identifying problem
areas that could help to target outreach efforts. For example, while
DOD conducts outreach to its general population of employers, DOD has
not developed an approach for targeting small businesses. A November
2007 DOD report to Congress found that nearly 70 percent of employers
of selected reservists have fewer than 100 employees. ESGR's strategic
plan states that the organization will conduct an environmental
assessment of customer needs through targeted outreach and analysis.
The strategic plan also states that ESGR shall improve working
relationships with employers by designing tailored products to meet
their specific needs. Multiple DOD officials have acknowledged that
small businesses are especially affected by the deployment of their
reserve employees; these officials noted that small businesses were one
of the main challenges or obstacles that DOD was facing. Additionally,
during interviews we held with selected employers (both large and
small), some of the small business owners told us that their business
suffered while their reservist employee was deployed. Some employers
said it cost them additional overtime to compensate other workers to
replace the deployed reservists, and some said they had to move
employees around to areas that they were not as familiar with or
trained in. Additionally, a small business owner told us that the
replacements were not as good as the reservist they had replaced.
However, ESGR has not established any outreach programs specifically
targeted to small business owners that could address these concerns and
potentially improve working relationships between reservists and their
small business employers. Until ESGR develops a focused effort to
target small businesses, it may be unable to address the unique needs
of small businesses, which are the majority of reservists' employers.
Data Unavailable to Identify Any Reductions in the Hiring of Reservists
Since September 11, 2001:
We were unable to determine the extent to which there has been any
reduction in the hiring of reservists because of the increase in the
use of reservists after September 11, 2001, or because of any changes
in DOD's policies concerning reservists after September 11, 2001, due
to the lack of available data related to this issue. We discussed with
DOD and Department of Labor officials the extent to which they
maintained data on the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001,
and whether there were changes in any of DOD's policies relating to
reservists after September 11, 2001. Officials were not aware of any
data related to a reduction in the hiring of reservists. We also asked
participants in our focus groups if they were aware of any reduction in
hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001. While the results of
these discussions were limited by the small number of participants in
the focus groups, the general consensus of the reservists was that they
had not noticed any changes in the hiring of reservists since September
11, 2001. Some focus group participants felt that employers were hiring
fewer reservists, but said they could not substantiate their beliefs.
Also, in discussions with employers, which were also limited by the
small number of participants, the employers we spoke with all indicated
that they had not seen any reductions in their companies' hiring, or
any changes in their hiring policies, with respect to reservists since
September 11, 2001. However, these focus groups and discussions were
based on a nonprobability sample and are therefore ultimately not
generalizable; the data do not help determine the extent to which there
was a reduction in the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001.
In the course of our work, we identified a number of DOD policy changes
relating to reservists since September 11, 2001, but we were unable to
determine the extent to which these policy changes or others may affect
the hiring of reservists. For example, on January 19, 2007, the
Secretary of Defense announced that reserve component personnel will
now be mobilized for a maximum of 12 months at any one time with
discretion given to the services to exclude time for training needed
for deployment and post-mobilization leave from that 12-month period.
This is a change from the earlier policy that limited involuntary
mobilizations of reservists to a total of 24 cumulative months. In
addition to this policy change, the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel Readiness Mobilization/Demobilization issues memoranda each
time the President authorizes the involuntary call-up of Reserve
Component members and has periodically issued other similar memoranda
all of which the department says are designed to maintain employer
support and to remind reservists of the requirement to provide notice
to their employers. However, even if a reduction in the hiring of
reservists had occurred after September 11, 2001, we would not be able
to attribute any such decline to specific factors such as any changes
in DOD policy. Absent such data or analyses, DOD has no way to know if
there has been a reduction in the hiring of reservists since September
11, 2001. The absence of data also precludes any analysis to determine
the impact, if any, on reservists.
Conclusions:
DOD has taken steps toward informing reservists of their obligations
and responsibilities to provide advance notification to their civilian
employers before they are mobilized and improving working relationships
between reservists and their employers, but it does not assess the
effectiveness of these efforts. Until DOD begins to develop procedures
and to collect data on both the amount, as well as the type, of advance
notice being given by most reservists to their civilian employers, DOD
will not be able to determine how well its efforts to inform reservists
of their obligation to provide advance notice to employers are working
or determine whether additional measures are required. Furthermore, DOD
and ESGR have developed many outreach initiatives to help improve
working relationships between reservists and their civilian employers,
but they do not assess the efficiency and effectiveness of these
efforts. Without a performance plan and a clearly defined approach to
evaluate and analyze the results of its outreach efforts, ESGR may be
unable to evaluate the extent to which it is meeting its goals, or
identify successes as well as potential problem areas that might
require adjustments to these goals. Without a follow-up process to help
maintain relationships established through the signing of statements of
support, ESGR may be unable to determine whether it is making progress
toward developing effective employer relationships or whether it is
able to maintain established employer support. Finally, unless ESGR
develops initiatives targeted to small businesses, the needs of the
majority of civilian employers of reservists may not be fully
addressed.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To gauge the effectiveness of DOD's actions to increase the likelihood
that more progress will be made in promoting positive relationships
with employers, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness take the
following three actions:
* establish an annual performance plan that develops and facilitates
the implementation of performance measures on how well ESGR is
achieving its goals,
* conduct regular and recurring follow-up activities on outreach
efforts to maintain positive working relationships with employers who
have previously signed statements of support, and:
* develop initiatives to specifically conduct outreach efforts to small
businesses that employ reservists.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
In addition to the three recommendations listed above, the draft report
that we provided to DOD for review and comments included a fourth draft
recommendation in which we recommended that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to
include questions in DOD's Status of Forces Surveys for reserve
component members to determine the amount of notification being
provided by service members to their civilian employers prior to
activation and the extent to which mobilization notices are provided
verbally versus in written form. DOD did not concur with this draft
recommendation and stated that the responsibility for employer
notification rests ultimately with the service member and should not be
used to judge the effectiveness of DOD's outreach efforts. While we
recognize that the responsibility for employer notification rests
ultimately with the service member, DOD has a responsibility to inform
reservists of their obligations under USERRA, which would include the
obligation to generally provide their employers with advance notice
prior to departure for military duty. Moreover, we believe that a very
important element to developing and maintaining employer support for
members of the Guard and Reserves is to ensure that these service
members are aware of their responsibilities to their employers and are
following through on these responsibilities. As we stated in the
report, we believe that the most effective means for continually
monitoring the effectiveness of the department's outreach efforts to
inform service members of their responsibilities is through the
biannual Status of Forces Surveys. However, because officials at the
Defense Manpower Data Center told us toward the completion of our
review that they are planning to include questions in subsequent Status
of Forces Surveys regarding the extent to which service members are
providing notification to their employers and whether the notifications
are being given verbally or in writing, we omitted this draft
recommendation from the final report. Nonetheless, we continue to
believe this initiative has merit, and we encourage its full
implementation. The department partially concurred with the three
remaining recommendations. A detailed discussion of the department's
comments regarding these three recommendations and our evaluation of
those comments is included in the paragraphs below. DOD's written
comments are reprinted in enclosure II.
The department also provided several general comments and one technical
comment that we considered and incorporated, as appropriate.
Specifically, DOD stated in its comments that the Department of Labor
may be able to provide data on the number of USERRA complaints filed
with that agency involving discrimination. Officials at the Department
of Labor told us that they could provide data on the total number of
USERRA complaints filed, but not on the number of complaints filed in
specific categories such as discrimination. In addition, DOD stated in
its comments that the department does not agree with the statement in
our report that ESGR does not collect data to assess the effectiveness
of its efforts and does not measure the efficiency and effectiveness of
its efforts. As we state in our report, however, while ESGR has a
Strategic Plan that includes specific goals and objectives, it lacks an
established performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its
goals. DOD notes in its comments that ESGR is developing an Operational
Plan to supplement its Strategic Plan and to provide additional
guidance and measures. DOD also stated in its comments that in our
discussion of the changes in defense policies since September 11, 2001,
regarding the hiring of reservists, we make reference to only one
specific policy memo. The department identified other relevant policy
memos which we have added in the report. Lastly, DOD stated in its
technical comment that it is not aware of the role that the Department
of Veterans Affairs has in the enforcement of USERRA. As we state in
our report, under the provisions of USERRA, the Department of Veterans
Affairs has a role in providing outreach to inform service members and
respective employers about service members' rights, benefits, and
obligations. The statement in our report refers to their outreach
responsibility under §4333 of USERRA, which gives the Secretary of
Defense, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
responsibility for taking steps the Secretaries determine to be
appropriate for providing outreach to inform service members and their
respective employers about their rights, benefits, and obligations
under USERRA.
The department partially concurred with our first recommendation that
the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness establish an
annual performance plan that develops and facilitates the
implementation of performance measures on how well ESGR is achieving
its goals. In response to this recommendation, DOD specifically
commented that the ESGR Strategic Plan includes measurable, realistic,
and time-sensitive objectives and performance measures, and that the
department is currently engaged in an effort to supplement the
Strategic Plan with an Operational Plan to provide additional guidance
and measures. As stated in our report, we agree that ESGR's Strategic
Plan includes specific goals and objectives but we continue to believe
that ESGR lacks specific performance measures and an established
performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its goals. While
we acknowledge that ESGR collects certain data elements related to
their goals and objectives, as discussed in their comments, ESGR does
not have an annual performance plan for measuring trends or
periodically assessing its progress toward meeting its goals and
objectives. For example, one of the objectives in ESGR's Strategic Plan
is to obtain statements of support from all identified reserve
component employers. To accomplish this objective, ESGR established a 5-
year goal (by 2011) to obtain statements of support from 100 percent of
the employers it has identified. While ESGR reports the total number of
statements of support signed, ESGR does not periodically measure or
report the extent to which it is attaining this long-term goal. DOD's
characterization of the intent of the ESGR Operational Plan to
supplement its Strategic Plan and to include additional effectiveness
measures appears consistent with the intent of our recommendation to
develop an annual performance plan. We support the department's efforts
to develop its annual Operational Plan and to provide additional
guidance and measures to assess the extent to which ESGR is
accomplishing its goals and objectives.
The department also partially concurred with our second recommendation
that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness conduct
regular and recurring follow-up activities on outreach efforts to
maintain positive working relationships with employers who have
previously signed statements of support. Specifically, the department
commented that, while it agrees that employer outreach is important,
there is a limited number of ESGR staff to conduct such employer
outreach efforts and the department believes that an employer who signs
a support agreement is less likely to then engage in a contrary
practice. As stated in our report, however, ESGR officials that we
spoke with during the engagement agreed that additional follow-up
efforts with employers would be beneficial toward maintaining employer
support subsequent to an employer signing a statement of support. We
also continue to believe that periodic and consistent outreach to
employers will help DOD to fully attain its goal of both gaining and
maintaining support from employers.
Lastly, the department also partially concurred with our third
recommendation that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness develop initiatives to specifically conduct outreach efforts
to small businesses that employ reservists. Specifically, DOD commented
that it believes the challenges small business owners may face when a
reservist-employee is absent to perform military duty are beyond the
scope of responsibilities which are under ESGR's purview. As stated in
our report, however, small businesses that employ reservists face a
number of specific and unique challenges when a reservist-employee is
called to perform active military duty.
Further, as previously mentioned in our report, ESGR's strategic plan
states that it shall improve working relationships with employers by
designing tailored products to meet their specific needs. We continue
to believe that, for ESGR to effectively perform its mission of gaining
and maintaining employer support, it needs to establish mechanisms to
assess and address these unique challenges facing small businesses.
We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Defense; the
Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; the Employer Support of
the Guard and Reserve; and the Defense Manpower Data Center. We will
also make copies available to others on request. In addition, the
report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov].
Should you or your staff have any questions on the matters discussed in
this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov.
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who
made key contributions to this report are listed in enclosure III.
Signed by:
Brenda S. Farrell:
Director, Defense Capabilities and Management:
List of Congressional Committees:
The Honorable Carl Levin:
Chairman:
The Honorable John McCain:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
United States Senate:
The Honorable John F. Kerry:
Chairman:
The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Ike Skelton:
Chairman:
The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Nydia M. Velázquez:
Chairwoman:
The Honorable Steve Chabot:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Small Business:
House of Representatives:
[End of section]
Enclosure I: Scope and Methodology:
To address our objectives we obtained, reviewed, and analyzed available
documents, reports, laws, regulations, surveys, and other information
related to promoting positive working relationships between reservists
and their employers.
We interviewed officials within the Office of the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Reserve Affairs (RA), Headquarters Marine Corps
(Manpower and Reserve Affairs), Office of Chief of Navy Reserve, United
States Army Reserve, National Committee for Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve, National Guard Bureau, Army National Guard, Defense
Manpower Data Center, United States Air Force Manpower and Reserve
Affairs, and joint Deployment Support and Reintegration Program. We
also interviewed Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Program
Support specialists and executive directors.
In addition, we reviewed our prior work on reserve forces and issues
related to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights
Act (USERRA) of 1994. A list of Related GAO Products is included in
enclosure IV. We also coordinated with the DOD Office of the Inspector
General to discuss ongoing work related to this project.
To evaluate the extent to which DOD has taken steps to inform
reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers
to provide timely notification of a call to active duty, we obtained
information describing DOD active and reserve component procedures and
processes in place to inform reservists of their responsibilities and
obligations to their employers. This includes procedures regarding
advance notification by reservists to employers of upcoming
mobilizations as well as the reservists' rights and responsibilities
under USERRA. To determine the effectiveness of DOD's programs to
inform reservists of their rights and responsibilities to their
employers, we also analyzed DOD Status of Forces Surveys on areas
related to advance notice to reservists and other matters concerning
reserve component members. We assessed these survey data for
reliability and found them to be sufficiently reliable for the purposes
of this report. We held interviews with key DOD officials and
established a nonprobability sample of employers of reservists. Because
this is a nonprobability sample of employers, the results of these
interviews are not generalizeable to the general population of
reservist employers. We conducted focus groups with reservists in three
states to discuss their responsibilities regarding the amount of
advance notice being provided both to reservists by DOD and to
employers by reservists. This was also a nonprobability sample and the
results from these focus groups are not generalizeable to the
population of reservists. To select participants for our focus groups,
we chose from units with the following characteristics: (1) Army
National Guard and Army Reserve units (which comprise the majority of
total reservists), (2) reserve units consisting of 100 or more
personnel, (3) units that have deployed and redeployed back to the
United States since January 1, 2007, and (4) units that conducted
weekend drills during the period May 5, 2008, through July 28, 2008. We
conducted a total of 10 focus groups in three states (Kentucky, North
Carolina, and Virginia) with a total of 50 volunteer participants. We
selected employers of reservists for our structured interviews using
DOD's civilian employee information (CEI) database. We selected
employers from this database to include a mix of both small and large
companies based on number of employees, both governmental agencies and
private/nonprofit companies, civilian employers of reservists from each
reserve component, and employers in states with a heavy concentration
of reservists. We selected from those employers deemed to have a high
degree of automated matching accuracy by Dun & Bradstreet.[Footnote 16]
From the employers who met these above criteria, we randomly selected
77 employers to contact, and ultimately completed interviews with 11
employers. We found this data to be sufficiently reliable for our
selection purposes.
To determine DOD's initiatives to support reservist/employer relations,
we met with and conducted interviews with knowledgeable officials at
DOD, including Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, National
Guard Bureau, and reserve components. To learn more about ESGR's roles
and responsibilities in implementing programs that promote positive
working relations between reservists and their employers, we also
conducted interviews with several ESGR field representatives. To
determine the extent to which DOD has taken initiatives to promote
positive working relations between reservists and their employers, we
obtained documents, policies, and procedures; information on DOD's
employer outreach efforts; and memoranda of understanding addressing
the current activities to help promote and strengthen positive working
relationships between reservists and their civilian employers. We
specifically questioned employers in our structured interviews on their
relationships with their respective reserve employees, and what
suggestions, if any, they had to strengthen reservist employer
relations.
To determine the extent that there has been a reduction in the hiring
of reservists after September 11, 2001, or any change in any of DOD's
policies relating to reservists after September 11, 2001, we requested
data from the Department of Labor, Defense Manpower Data Center, and
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. We specifically questioned
participants in our focus groups and structured interviews on any
changes in hiring practices or policies that have occurred.
We conducted this performance audit from April 2008 through August 2008
in accordance with generally accepted government accounting standards.
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that
the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives.
[End of section]
Enclosure II: Comments from the Department of Defense:
Assistant Secretary Of Defense:
Reserve Affairs:
1300 Defense Pentagon:
Washington, DC 20301-1500:
August 14, 2008:
Ms. Brenda S. Farrell
Director, Defense Capabilities and Management:
US Government Accountability Office:
441 G Street, NW:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Ms. Farrell:
Enclosed is the Department of Defense (DoD) response to the GAO Draft
Correspondence, GAO-08-981R, "Military Personnel: Improvements Needed
to Increase Effectiveness of DoD 's Programs to Promote Positive
Working Relationships Between Reservists and Their Employers" dated
August 5, 2008 (GAO Code 351205).
The Department appreciates the opportunity to review and comment on the
draft report. General comments on the GAO draft report and detailed
comments on the GAO recommendations are enclosed. The Department non
concurs with one recommendation and partially concurs with three
recommendations in the draft report.
For further questions concerning this report, please contact my action
officer, Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Barrett. She may be contacted by e-
mail at michelle.barrett@osd.mil or by telephone at (703) 380-9262.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
T. F. Hall:
Enclosure: As stated:
GAO Draft Report – Dated August 5, 2008:
GAO CODE 351205/GAO-08-981R:
"Military Personnel: Improvements Needed to Increase Effectiveness of
DoD‘s Programs to Promote Positive Working Relationships Between
Reservists and Their Employers"
Department Of Defense General Comments:
The GAO acknowledges the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
Strategic Plan and the myriad Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
programs to inform reservists and employers of their rights and
obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment
Right Act. These outreach efforts are designed to gain and maintain the
support of employers for their employees who serve in the Guard or
Reserve.
It is not surprising that GAO found no studies on the extent to which
employers hiring practices might have changed. The Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act includes a discrimination
provision which prohibits an employer from basing a hiring decision on
an individual‘s service in a Uniformed Service or an obligation to
serve in the Uniformed Services. However, we suggest that complaints
filed by individuals claiming discrimination would provide a meaningful
way of determining if employees or potential employees believe an
employer is engaged in a discriminatory practice with respect to
hiring. The Department of Labor may be able to provide data on the
number of complaints filed with that agency involving discrimination.
The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve also maintains a database
on the types of inquiries they receive and mediation conducted by
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.
The Department does not agree with the statement that Employer Support
of the Guard and Reserve does not collect data to assess the
effectiveness of its efforts and does not measure the efficiency and
effectiveness of its efforts. The Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve Strategic Plan specifically contains measurable objectives, and
considerable effort has been undertaken by Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve to quantify and measure its activities in order to
evaluate returns on investments. The quarterly reports produced by the
organization, together with a Management Control Plan, provide a clear
performance plan for leadership, and adjustments are made on a regular
basis to achieve ever-better results. As stated by GAO itself, it is
difficult to establish a direct causal link between Employer Support of
the Guard and Reserve efforts and their effectiveness, but based on the
activities conducted by Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and
comparing the number of cases filed with the Department of Labor to the
actual utilization of Guard and Reserve members, the Department
believes that Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and its over
4,200 volunteers are making a positive impact in fostering positive
relationships between Reserve Component members and their employers.
We also noted that GAO only cited one memorandum on the employment of
Reserve Component members”the memo issued on January 19, 2007, by the
Secretary of Defense. But GAO did not reference several other DOD
policy documents in which the Department explicitly provided guidance
on the reasonable employment of reservists. These policy documents were
designed to maintain employer support, and to remind Reserve Component
members of the requirement to provide notice to their employers. These
include the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
Mobilization/Demobilization memoranda issued each time the President
authorizes the involuntary call-up of Reserve Component members and the
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness memo of July 19,
2002, which prescribes guidance on the judicious and prudent use of
National Guard and Reserve personnel. Further, in the September 20,
2001 memorandum, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness limited the initial period of mobilization to 12 months with
a 24-month cumulative limit. While conditions on the ground resulted in
the Secretary of Defense granting an exception to the 12 month limit
for the Army, it nonetheless remained the policy until Secretary Gates
issued his new policy on force utilization on January 19, 2007, as
noted in the correspondence.
We have one comment on a technical issue: the Department is not aware
of the role that the Department of Veterans Affairs has in Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act as stated on page 6 of
the draft report.
Department Of Defense Comments To The Recommendations:
Recommendation 1: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to
include questions in DoD‘s Status of Forces Surveys for Reserve
Component members to determine: (1) the amount of notification being
provided by Service members to their civilian employers prior to
activation; and (2) the extent to which mobilization notices are
provided verbally versus in written form.
DOD Response: Nonconcur. While this information may be of some
interest, it would provide information that is beyond the Department‘s
control. The Department uses Status of Forces Surveys of Reserve
Component members to help assess the effectiveness of it efforts, but
the responsibility for employer notification ultimately rests with the
Service member and should not be used to judge the effectiveness of
outreach efforts. The following are examples of the types of questions
included in the Status of Forces Surveys of Reserve Component members
that are useful to the Department:
* the number of Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights
Act briefing members received;
* additional information on Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act that would be helpful;
* the best time to provide information on Uniformed Services Employment
and Reemployment Rights Act;
* satisfaction with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
assistance;
* the degree of employer support;
* the type of support provided by an employer;
* their reemployment experiences following activation;
* problems experienced despite Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act; and;
* the type of assistance reservists sought.
While the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
only requires advance notice be given employers without specifying the
form (verbal or written) or the timeliness of the notice, the
Department, through numerous outreach initiatives and policies has
encouraged Reserve Component members to notify their employers as early
as possible about their mobilizations, and will continue to engage in
education efforts to foster two-way communication between Reserve
Component members and their employers.
The Department has a responsibility to inform reservists and the
employers of reservists of their obligations under the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. The Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act requires a member to provide
notice, written or verbal, to his or her employer. As stated in the GAO
correspondence, the Department has exceeded its obligation by strongly
encouraging reservists to provide that notice in writing. Also, for
reservists to provide notice to their employers, they must know when
they will be required to perform military duty. The correspondence
acknowledges that the Department has done that. Further, as
mobilizations have become more predictable, the Department has been
able to increase the amount of notice that it provides reservists of a
pending period of military service. But it is the individual
reservist‘s responsibility to notify his or her employer. While having
data on how far in advance an employer receives notice is interesting,
there is little action the Department can take despite being armed with
that information. The correspondence states that ’Until DOD begins
developing procedures to collect data regarding both the amount, as
well as the type, of advance notice being given by most reservists to
their civilian employers, it may be unable to measure the effectiveness
of its efforts to inform servicemembers of their benefits and
obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment
Rights Act or determine whether additional measures are required.“ This
implies that these two data elements would be the determining factors
in whether Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve efforts to inform
reservists of their rights and benefits under Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act are successful. The Department
disagrees with this assertion. As previously stated, Employer Support
of the Guard and Reserve has several ways to determine the
effectiveness of its outreach efforts. While the Department will
continue to emphasize and encourage reservists to provide notice as far
in advance as possible and to provide notice in writing, this remains a
responsibility of the member and should not be used as the basis for
judging the effectiveness of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
outreach efforts.
Of note, according to a 2008 survey of employers by the Institute for
Defense Analyses and Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Customer
Service Center data, employers have not indicated lack of early
notification as a significant challenge in their support for the
military service of their employees.
Recommendation 2: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to
establish an annual performance plan that develops and implements
performance measures on how well Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve is achieving its goals.
DOD Response: Partially Concur. The GAO did not acknowledge the efforts
and performance measures Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has
in place to gauge its effectiveness. Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve, a Department of Defense organization with a mission to gain
and maintain employer support for Guard and Reserve service by
recognizing outstanding support, increasing awareness of the law, and
resolving conflicts through mediation, serves as the DoD‘s focal point
in managing the Department‘s relations with reservists and their
civilian employers.
The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Strategic Plan
specifically contains measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-
sensitive objectives and considerable effort has been undertaken to
quantify and measure its activities in order to evaluate returns on
investments. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve documents the
number of Bosslifts, the number of mailings, strategic partnership
gained, employer briefings and recipients of awards. Measures such as
these must be used against a standard to determine their effectiveness.
This is accomplished by analyzing the number and type of requests for
information and complaints Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
receives from reservists or filed with the Department of Labor. The
quarterly reports produced by the organization, together with a
Management Control Plan, provide a clear performance plan for
leadership. This process allows Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve to make appropriate adjustments on a regular basis to achieve
ever-better results. Further, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
is currently engaged in an effort to supplement its Strategic Plan with
an annual Operational Plan to provide additional guidance and
measurements.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent
Global War on Terrorism, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has
ramped up its activity in step with the increased mobilization of the
Reserve Component while providing a dedicated and valuable service to
hundreds of thousands of Reserve Component members and their employers.
Over the years, focused outreach and communications efforts conducted
by Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve have resulted in greater
awareness and support by employers for the military service of their
employees.
Data from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Ombudsman
Service indicate that the total number of contacts to Employer Support
of the Guard and Reserve have increased from 5,298 in FY05 to 7,765 in
FY06 to 13,116 in FY07 to 8,575 in FY08 (as of June 30), noting
increased awareness of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve among
our customers. Meanwhile, the number of actual cases has decreased,
from 4,682 in FY05 to 3,152 in FY06 to 2,374 in FY07 to 1,988 in FY08
(as of June 30). This underscores the effectiveness of Employer Support
of the Guard and Reserve outreach to and education of employers and
Reserve Component members across the country.
Concurrently, the number of employers of Guardsmen and Reservists who
sign statements of support has increased, from 10,909 in FY05 to 11,396
in FY06 to 20,644 in FY07 to 27,770 in FY08 (as of June 30).
Recommendation 3: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to
conduct regular and recurring follow-up activities on outreach efforts
to maintain positive working relationships with employers who have
previously signed statements of support.
DOD Response: Partially Concur. The Department of Defense recognizes
the importance of employer support and has provided increasing levels
of support for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve since 2001.
Two factors are important when looking at the issue of follow-up
activities. First, there is a limited Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve staff and they must prioritize their efforts. Second, it could
be assumed that an employer who signs a support agreement is less
likely to then engage in a contrary practice. But that does not mean
that follow up or reengagement is unnecessary; it is. Since the
availability of the Civilian Employer Information data, Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve has sought to put into place processes
and programs to conduct regular, recurrent, and focused outreach to
known employers of Reserve component members. Since 2005, Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve has sent an annual direct mail
informational brochure to all known employers of Reserve component
members and plans to continue this mailing annually. Also, Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve plans to supplement this direct
outreach with additional direct outreach to Reserve Component members,
and to specific subsets of the employer community, such as small
business owners or specific industries. Further, the Employer Support
of the Guard and Reserve Statement of Support Program is built around
the concept of ’gaining and maintaining“ support through an initial
symbolic statement of support signing and subsequent maintenance of
contact at the local level. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
also plans, as resources are available, to conduct direct mail outreach
as well as personal contact to employers who have signed statements of
support as a means of maintaining contact and support.
In addition to initiatives noted above, individual services have their
own initiatives directly and indirectly related to employer outreach
efforts. For example, the National Guard Bureau has partnered directly
with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for financial support of
full-time personnel in each state to assist in outreach efforts. The
Army Reserve has established an ambitious employer outreach program
aimed at building and maintaining positive ’Employer Partnerships“ by
actively reaching out to employers of Army Reserve Soldiers and Family
members. The outreach program seeks to build enduring relationships
which encourages employers to hire Soldiers and share the human capital
resource. Several partnerships have already been codified in signed
Memoranda of Agreements between the Army Reserve and employers and more
are planned in the near future. The ’Employer Partnership“ initiative
will continue to be a very important priority for the Army Reserve. The
GAO was provided with numerous documents and examples of those
initiatives and efforts.
Recommendation 4: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense
direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to
develop initiatives to specifically outreach to small businesses that
employ reservists.
DOD Response: Partially Concur. GAO cited several challenges a small
business owner may face when a reservist-employee is absent to perform
military duty. But those are issues that are beyond the scope of
responsibilities which are under the purview of the Employer Support of
the Guard and Reserve. For several years, the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense (Reserve Affairs) has been engaged with and formed
a strategic alliance with the Small Business Administration to help
Small Business Administration identify and develop programs to assist
small business owners with the challenges they may encounter during the
absence of a reservist-employee. The most recent example of such a
program is the Small Business Administration‘s recently-established
Patriot Express program.
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is an information broker to
Reserve Component members and their employers regarding the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. As the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act applies to all
employers, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve conducts outreach
to all known employers of Reserve Component members. Additionally,
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has strong working
relationships with government, non-profit, and industry groups
representing specific employer or industry segments. These
relationships foster important ’Strategic Partnerships“ with Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve. Specifically, Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve has a strong working relationship with the Small
Business Administration with whom Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve has conducted joint outreach efforts to increase awareness to
small businesses. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve outreach
efforts are geared to provide a baseline information campaign to all
Reserve Component members and their employers and to provide additional
information to specific industry or employer segments. The National
Guard and Army Reserve actively reach out to employers of all sizes and
actively seek out ’small business“ owners in order to build
relationships.
Also of note, from the Institute for Defense Analyses study previously
referenced, data indicate the lack of significant problems from
employers in general, including small businesses specifically,
regarding the impact of the military service obligations of their
employees.
[End of section]
Enclosure III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contact:
Brenda S. Farrell, (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov:
Acknowledgments:
In addition to the individual named above, David Schmitt (Assistant
Director), Bonita Anderson, Renee Brown, Janine Cantin, Rudy Chatlos,
Nicole Harms, Tobin McMurdie, Terry Richardson, Shana Wallace, Tracy
Williams, and Matthew Young made key contributions to this report.
Enclosure IV: Related GAO Products:
Military Personnel: Federal Agencies Have Taken Actions to Address
Service members' Employment Rights, but a Single Entity Needs to
Maintain Visibility to Improve Focus on Overall Program Results.
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-254T]. Washington,
D.C.: November 8, 2007.
Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of
Reserve Employment Issues. [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-07-259]. Washington, D.C.: February 8, 2007.
Military Personnel: Federal Management of Service member Employment
Rights Can Be Further Improved. [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-06-60]. Washington, D.C.: October 19, 2005.
Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Address Long-term Reserve Force
Availability and Related Mobilization and Demobilization Issues.
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-1031]. Washington,
D.C.: September 15, 2004.
Military Pay: Army Reserve Soldiers Mobilized to Active Duty
Experienced Significant Pay Problems. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-990T]. Washington, D.C.: July
20, 2004.
Reserve Forces: Observations on Recent National Guard Use in Overseas
and Homeland Missions and Future Challenges. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-670T]. Washington, D.C.: April
29, 2004.
Military Pay: Army National Guard Personnel Mobilized to Active Duty
Experienced Significant Pay Problems. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-89]. Washington, D.C.:
November 13, 2003.
Military Personnel: DOD Needs More Data to Address Financial and Health
Care Issues Affecting Reservists. [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-03-1004]. Washington, D.C.: September 10, 2003.
Military Personnel: DOD Actions Needed to Improve the Efficiency of
Mobilizations for Reserve Forces. [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-03-921]. Washington, D.C.: August 21, 2003.
Military Personnel: Preliminary Observations Related to Income,
Benefits, and Employer Support for Reservists During Mobilizations.
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-549T]. Washington,
D.C.: March 19, 2003.
Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations Between
Reservists and Their Employers. [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608]. Washington, D.C.: June 13, 2002.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] For the purposes of this report, the terms reserve components and
reservists refer to the collective forces of the Army National Guard,
Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, and
Marine Corps Reserve.
[2] Pub. L. No. 103-353 (1994), as amended, codified at 38 U.S.C.
§§4301-4334.
[3] Pub. L. No. 110-186, §207 (2008).
[4] Dun & Bradstreet, an organization that maintains a database of more
than 130 million business records, reviews DOD's civilian employer data
and generates a maximum confidence code denoting an entry's degree of
accuracy. For the purposes of our review, entries with a confidence
code of 7 or higher were considered more reliable.
[5] See GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist
Mergers and Organizational Transformation, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-669] (Washington, D.C.: July
2, 2003) and Executive Guide: Effectively Implementing the Government
Performance and Results Act, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-
bin/getrpt?GA0/GGD-96-118] (Washington, D.C.: June 1996).
[6] See GAO, Defense Business Transformation: Achieving Success
Requires a Chief Management Officer to Provide Focus and Sustained
Leadership, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-1072]
(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 5, 2007), and Business Systems Modernization:
DOD Needs to Fully Define Policies and Procedures for Institutionally
Managing Investments (Washington, D.C.: May 11, 2007).
[7] Department of Defense Directive 1250.01, National Committee for
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (NCESGR), (Apr. 13, 2004).
[8] Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness, Working Group Interim Report to Congress:
Special Working Group on Transition to Civilian Employment of National
Guard and Reserve Members Returning from Deployment in Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, Washington D.C. (Nov. 2007).
[9] 38 U.S.C. §4333.
[10] The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve is sometimes abbreviated NCESGR, but throughout this report we
use the more common ESGR abbreviation to include both the headquarters
and volunteer field staff of the organization.
[11] For more information on ESGR please go to [hyperlink,
http://www.esgr.org].
[12] GAO, Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations
between Reservists and Their Employers, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608] (Washington, D.C.: June
13, 2002).
[13] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608].
[14] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-669].
[15] National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
Annual Report, (Arlington,VA: Fiscal Year 2007).
[16] Dun & Bradstreet, an organization that maintains a database of
more than 130 million business records, reviews DOD's civilian employer
data and generates a maximum confidence code denoting an entry's degree
of accuracy. For the purposes of our review, entries with a confidence
code of 7 or higher were considered more reliable.
[End of section]
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