Human Capital
Further Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's Civilian Strategic Workforce Plan Gao ID: GAO-10-814R September 27, 2010Effective human capital planning can enable the Department of Defense (DOD) to have the right people, with the right skills, doing the right jobs, in the right places, at the right time by making flexible use of its internal workforce and appropriately using contractors. According to the department, as of March 2010, DOD's total civilian workforce included about 718,000 full-time civilians, including more than 2,900 civilians in the senior management, functional, and technical personnel workforce (hereafter referred to as senior leader workforce). Further, DOD reported that, as of the end of September 2009, there were more than 118,000 civilians in DOD's acquisition workforce. DOD has acknowledged, however, that with approximately 30 percent of its workforce eligible to retire by March 31, 2015, and the need to reduce its reliance on contractors to augment the current workforce, it faces a number of significant challenges. For example, in its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), DOD stressed the need for leadership in human capital management, to improve its capabilities for contributing to civilian-led activities and operations supporting "unity of effort" in homeland security, and an appropriately sized cadre of acquisition personnel who have the skills and training necessary to successfully perform their jobs. In that regard, the 2010 QDR stressed the importance of involving senior leadership in human capital management and also stated that DOD must (1) align its resources to establish a balanced total workforce, (2) possess an up-to-date human capital strategy, and (3) continue developing programs to recruit, shape, and sustain the force it needs. DOD's 2009 strategic workforce plan states that in April 2009, the Secretary of Defense announced his intention to rebalance and rightsize the acquisition workforce by adding 20,000 personnel by fiscal year 2015--including 10,000 new hires and an additional 10,000 employees as a result of in-sourcing work that had been previously performed by contractors. Most recently, in August 2010, the Secretary of Defense announced initiatives to reduce duplication, overhead, and excess and instill a culture of savings and restraint across DOD that could affect DOD's civilian workforce planning efforts. These initiatives included reducing the funding available for service support contractors, freezing the number of DOD civilian senior executives and flag officers at the fiscal year 2010 level, and at a minimum, reducing the number of Senior Executive Service members by 150 over the next 2 years. Strategic workforce planning--an integral part of human capital management--helps organizations to determine if they have staff with the necessary skills and competencies to accomplish their strategic goals. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 required us to review and report on DOD's workforce plans for 2009 through 2012 no later than 180 days after DOD's submissions. On March 31, 2010, DOD submitted its 2009 update to the human capital strategic plan, which was intended to address the requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (FY 2006 NDAA). Our objectives were to determine the extent to which DOD's strategic workforce plan addresses the FY 2010 NDAA requirements applicable to (1) the overall civilian workforce, (2) the senior leader workforce, and (3) the acquisition workforce. In our analysis and reporting, we identify the new requirements contained in the FY 2010 NDAA.
DOD's 2009 overall civilian workforce plan addresses 5 and partially addresses 9 of the 14 legislative requirements. For example, DOD's plan addresses the requirement to assess critical skills. Accordingly, we treated MCOs as the department's critical skills and evaluated critical competencies separately. Furthermore, DOD's plan partially addresses requirements such as (1) assessing competency gaps; (2) identifying specific strategies for developing and training its civilian employee workforce, along with needed funding; and (3) assessing the department's progress in implementing the workforce plan with results-oriented performance measures. Additionally, the plan discusses the requirement for identifying strategies for developing and training its workforce, but only partially addresses this requirement because the plan does not identify the needed funding--a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA. Finally, regarding partially addressing the results-oriented performance measures requirement--also a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA--we found that the plan does not report progress on specific goals using results-oriented performance metrics; however, other DOD documents provide some information on performance measures related to the workforce plan. DOD's 2009 senior leader workforce plan addresses 7, partially addresses 6, and does not address 2 of the 15 legislative requirements. For example, the plan addresses the requirement to identify any incentives needed to attract and retain qualified senior leaders-- including offering benefits to senior leaders that are comparable to the benefits provided to general officers. Additionally, DOD's workforce plan addresses the requirement to identify steps that the department has taken or plans to take to ensure that DOD manages its civilian personnel as required by 10 U.S.C. 129--essentially that the department manages the workforce based on workload requirements and available funding. Furthermore, DOD's plan partially addresses the legislative requirements that include (1) an assessment of gaps in the existing or future workforce and (2) identifying specific strategies for, among other things, developing and training its senior leader workforce and identifying needed funding. DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses 5, partially addresses 10, and does not address 1 of the 16 legislative requirements. The plan addresses the legislative requirement to identify changes in the number of authorized personnel to address gaps and meet the needs of the department. Among the elements partially addressed were (1) the current mix of civilian, military, and contractor personnel; (2) a complete assessment of the critical skills of DOD's acquisition workforce; (3) a complete assessment of the critical competencies of DOD's acquisition workforce; and (4) the funds needed to support improvements to the acquisition workforce. For example, the plan did not identify what the appropriate mix of its total acquisition workforce should be, though it stated that guidance is in place for determining the appropriate workforce mix, DOD is inventorying its use of contractors, and in-sourcing is being incorporated as a key component of DOD's growth strategy. Similarly, DOD's plan partially addresses the legislative requirements to assess the critical skills and competencies of its acquisition workforce. A DOD official responsible for the acquisition workforce plan indicated that they did not differentiate skills and competencies, but rather consider skills to be an integral part of the competencies. As such, conducting competency assessments would embody an assessment of the requisite skills. In that regard, however, DOD has completed the competency assessment of its contracting career field, but not the assessments of the remaining 12 career fields, which are in various stages of progress.
GAO-10-814R, Human Capital: Further Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's Civilian Strategic Workforce Plan
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GAO-10-814R:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
September 27, 2010:
Congressional Committees:
Subject: Human Capital: Further Actions Needed to Enhance DOD's
Civilian Strategic Workforce Plan:
Effective human capital planning can enable the Department of Defense
(DOD) to have the right people, with the right skills, doing the right
jobs, in the right places, at the right time by making flexible use of
its internal workforce and appropriately using contractors. According
to the department, as of March 2010, DOD's total civilian workforce
included about 718,000 full-time civilians,[Footnote 1] including more
than 2,900 civilians in the senior management, functional, and
technical personnel workforce (hereafter referred to as senior leader
workforce).[Footnote 2] Further, DOD reported that, as of the end of
September 2009, there were more than 118,000 civilians in DOD's
acquisition workforce.[Footnote 3] DOD has acknowledged, however, that
with approximately 30 percent of its workforce eligible to retire by
March 31, 2015, and the need to reduce its reliance on contractors to
augment the current workforce, it faces a number of significant
challenges. For example, in its 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR),
[Footnote 4] DOD stressed the need for leadership in human capital
management, to improve its capabilities for contributing to civilian-
led activities and operations supporting "unity of effort" in homeland
security, and an appropriately sized cadre of acquisition personnel
who have the skills and training necessary to successfully perform
their jobs. In that regard, the 2010 QDR stressed the importance of
involving senior leadership in human capital management and also
stated that DOD must (1) align its resources to establish a balanced
total workforce, (2) possess an up-to-date human capital strategy, and
(3) continue developing programs to recruit, shape, and sustain the
force it needs. DOD's 2009 strategic workforce plan states that in
April 2009, the Secretary of Defense announced his intention to
rebalance and rightsize the acquisition workforce by adding 20,000
personnel by fiscal year 2015--including 10,000 new hires and an
additional 10,000 employees as a result of in-sourcing work that had
been previously performed by contractors. Most recently, in August
2010, the Secretary of Defense announced initiatives to reduce
duplication, overhead, and excess and instill a culture of savings and
restraint across DOD that could affect DOD's civilian workforce
planning efforts. These initiatives included reducing the funding
available for service support contractors, freezing the number of DOD
civilian senior executives and flag officers at the fiscal year 2010
level, and at a minimum, reducing the number of Senior Executive
Service members by 150 over the next 2 years. See enclosure I for more
information about DOD's strategic planning roles and workforce
planning tools.
Strategic workforce planning--an integral part of human capital
management--helps organizations to determine if they have staff with
the necessary skills and competencies to accomplish their strategic
goals. Since 2001, we have listed federal human capital management as
a governmentwide high-risk area, and in 2009, we stated that ample
opportunities remained for improving strategic human capital
management to respond to 21st century challenges.[Footnote 5]
Additionally, within DOD, workforce-related issues have contributed to
challenges in several of DOD's high-risk areas, including contract
management.
Over the years, Congress has passed legislation requiring DOD to
conduct human capital planning efforts for the department's overall
civilian workforce, its senior leader workforce, and its acquisition
workforce. See enclosure II for a discussion of prior legislation. In
addition, Congress has required us to review DOD's efforts in these
areas. Our work has found that in general, DOD's efforts to address
mandated reporting requirements have been mixed.[Footnote 6]
Consequently, in our February 2009 report,[Footnote 7] we recommended
that DOD develop performance plans for its newly established program
offices whose responsibilities are to oversee development of the
overall civilian strategic human capital plan and the senior leader
workforce plan in response to legislative requirements.[Footnote 8]
Specifically, we recommended that the performance plans include
establishing implementation goals and time frames, measuring
performance, and aligning activities with resources to guide its
efforts to implement its strategic workforce plan. DOD partially
concurred with our recommendations, noting that the newly established
offices were only a couple of months old. DOD noted in commenting on
our 2009 report that efforts were underway to develop performance
plans for the respective offices. Most recently, in October 2009,
section 1108 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2010 (FY 2010 NDAA) required DOD to develop and submit a strategic
plan to shape and improve the department's civilian workforce, and to
include separate chapters for the senior leader workforce and the
defense acquisition workforce.[Footnote 9] The FY 2010 NDAA stipulated
that the plan address a series of requirements concerning the overall
civilian workforce, the senior leader workforce, and the acquisition
workforce. For example, this workforce plan was to include, for each
of the workforces, an assessment of (1) the critical competencies
needed by the future DOD workforce for the 7-year period following the
submission of the report, (2) the critical competencies of the
existing civilian workforce and projected trends in that workforce
based on expected losses due to retirement and other attrition, and
(3) gaps in DOD's existing or projected civilian workforce that should
be addressed to ensure that DOD has continued access to critical
skills and competencies.[Footnote 10] In addition, DOD was to submit a
plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian workforce to
address specific recruiting and retention goals and strategies on how
to train, compensate, and motivate civilian employees and identify the
funding needed to achieve these goals and strategies. See enclosure
III for a summary of the FY 2010 NDAA requirements and how they apply
to the overall, senior leader, and acquisition workforces.
The act required us to review and report on DOD's workforce plans for
2009 through 2012 no later than 180 days after DOD's submissions. On
March 31, 2010, DOD submitted its 2009 update to the human capital
strategic plan, which was intended to address the requirements of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (FY 2006
NDAA).[Footnote 11] According to DOD officials, the department
requested a delay in submitting its March 2009 update, as required by
the FY 2006 NDAA, to incorporate changes that would be needed to
address recommendations in our February 2009 report.[Footnote 12]
During this delay, the FY 2010 NDAA, which incorporated most of the FY
2006 NDAA requirements and contained additional legislative
requirements, was enacted. By the time that DOD submitted its 2009
plan, the FY 2010 NDAA requirements were in effect. DOD officials told
us that the 2009 strategic workforce plan, submitted to Congress in
March 2010, was not intended to address the additional requirements
enacted as part of the FY 2010 NDAA. Our objectives were to determine
the extent to which DOD's strategic workforce plan addresses the FY
2010 NDAA requirements applicable to (1) the overall civilian
workforce, (2) the senior leader workforce, and (3) the acquisition
workforce. In our analysis and reporting, we identify the new
requirements contained in the FY 2010 NDAA.
To examine the extent to which DOD's 2009 strategic workforce plan
addresses the human capital planning requirements for each of the
three workforces--overall civilian workforce, senior leader workforce,
and acquisition workforce--we analyzed the plan and compared it with
the requirements in section 1108(a) of the FY 2010 NDAA for DOD to
submit a strategic workforce plan. Specifically, we analyzed DOD's
2009 Civilian Human Capital Strategic Workforce Plan, key sections of
DOD's Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy,[Footnote 13] and
other relevant information, including a supplemental draft report on
funding of the acquisition workforce and DOD's Civilian Human Capital
Management Report for Fiscal Year 2009 that was submitted to the
Office of Personnel Management. We considered a requirement to be
"addressed" if DOD demonstrated, through evidence, that it discussed
all aspects of the legislative requirement in its workforce plan. In
several instances, "any" was a key word in the legislative
requirement, and we considered those addressed if DOD discussed one or
more actions that demonstrated the requirement. Additionally, we
considered the requirement to be "partially addressed" if DOD provided
evidence that it discussed some aspects of the legislative
requirement, and "not addressed" if DOD did not discuss aspects of the
requirements in the workforce plan. Furthermore, we took steps to
ensure that the data upon which DOD based its workforce assessments
and gap analyses were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of our
review.[Footnote 14] In addition, we interviewed relevant officials in
the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness' Office of Civilian Personnel Policy and the Civilian
Personnel Management Service and the Office of the Under Secretary of
Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. We also interviewed
officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's functional
communities[Footnote 15]--which include human resources, intelligence,
and financial management--the Defense Acquisition University, and
Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, as well as senior staff in
acquisition career functional communities for contracting and
production, quality, and manufacturing. Finally, we reviewed prior GAO
reports assessing DOD's human capital strategic planning efforts.
We conducted this performance audit from December 2009 to September
2010 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 objectives. We
believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. For more
information about our scope and methodology, see enclosure IV.
Summary:
DOD's 2009 overall civilian workforce plan addresses 5 and partially
addresses 9 of the 14 legislative requirements.[Footnote 16] For
example, DOD's plan addresses the requirement to assess critical
skills. Specifically, DOD's plan discusses 22 mission-critical
occupations (MCO),[Footnote 17] which according to DOD represent the
results of the department's assessment of critical skills in its 2009
plan.[Footnote 18] Accordingly, we treated MCOs as the department's
critical skills and evaluated critical competencies separately.
Furthermore, DOD's plan partially addresses requirements such as (1)
assessing competency gaps; (2) identifying specific strategies for
developing and training its civilian employee workforce, along with
needed funding; and (3) assessing the department's progress in
implementing the workforce plan with results-oriented performance
measures. For example, because the plan discusses competency gap
analyses for only 3 of the 22 MCOs--language, logistics management,
and information technology management--and does not discuss competency
gaps for the other 19 MCOs this requirement is partially addressed.
Additionally, the plan discusses the requirement for identifying
strategies for developing and training its workforce, but only
partially addresses this requirement because the plan does not
identify the needed funding--a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA.
Finally, regarding partially addressing the results-oriented
performance measures requirement--also a new requirement in the FY
2010 NDAA--we found that the plan does not report progress on specific
goals using results-oriented performance metrics; however, other DOD
documents provide some information on performance measures related to
the workforce plan. For example, DOD's Civilian Human Capital
Management Report for Fiscal Year 2009 provides a metric for measuring
progress toward DOD's goal of having a mission-ready workforce.
Specifically, it states that the success indicator for measuring
annual progress toward a mission-ready workforce will be achieved when
85 percent of the staffing projections are met within certain targeted
MCOs. DOD's plan also states that it will set performance measures in
2010 and monitor progress by the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.
However, at the time of our review, DOD had not provided information
concerning any additional performance measures. Table 2 in enclosure V
provides a complete description of the legislative reporting
requirements for the overall civilian workforce plan and our
assessment.
DOD's 2009 senior leader workforce plan addresses 7, partially
addresses 6, and does not address 2 of the 15 legislative
requirements.[Footnote 19] For example, the plan addresses the
requirement to identify any incentives needed to attract and retain
qualified senior leaders--including offering benefits to senior
leaders that are comparable to the benefits provided to general
officers. Additionally, DOD's workforce plan addresses the requirement
to identify steps that the department has taken or plans to take to
ensure that DOD manages its civilian personnel as required by 10
U.S.C. § 129--essentially that the department manages the workforce
based on workload requirements and available funding. Specifically,
the plan reiterates DOD's commitment--as stated in DOD's 2008
workforce plan--to develop guidance concerning compliance with 10
U.S.C. § 129. Furthermore, DOD's plan partially addresses the
legislative requirements that include (1) an assessment of gaps in the
existing or future workforce and (2) identifying specific strategies
for, among other things, developing and training its senior leader
workforce and identifying needed funding. Regarding the gaps, at the
time of our review, DOD was in the initial stages of assessing
competency gaps by conducting surveys of its senior leader workforce,
but it had not completed the analysis needed to identify any gaps. In
addition, the plan identifies specific strategies for developing and
training DOD's senior leader workforce; however, it only partially
addresses this requirement because the plan does not identify the
funding needed to implement these strategies--a new requirement in the
FY 2010 NDAA. Further, the workforce plan does not address the
requirements to assess critical skills of the existing and future
workforces. Specifically, while DOD's senior leader plan mentions the
need for skills in areas such as leadership and management for its
Senior Executive Service members, it does not provide details
regarding these skills and does not identify such skills related to
senior leader or scientific and professional positions. Table 3 in
enclosure V provides a complete description of the legislative
reporting requirements for the senior leader workforce plan and our
assessment.
DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses 5, partially addresses 10,
and does not address 1 of the 16 legislative requirements.[Footnote
20] The plan addresses the legislative requirement to identify changes
in the number of authorized personnel to address gaps and meet the
needs of the department. Specifically, the plan states that DOD will
grow by approximately 20,000 new personnel through fiscal year 2015.
Among the elements partially addressed were (1) the current mix of
civilian, military, and contractor personnel; (2) a complete
assessment of the critical skills of DOD's acquisition workforce; (3)
a complete assessment of the critical competencies of DOD's
acquisition workforce; and (4) the funds needed to support
improvements to the acquisition workforce. For example, the plan did
not identify what the appropriate mix of its total acquisition
workforce should be, though it stated that guidance is in place for
determining the appropriate workforce mix, DOD is inventorying its use
of contractors, and in-sourcing is being incorporated as a key
component of DOD's growth strategy. Similarly, DOD's plan partially
addresses the legislative requirements to assess the critical skills
and competencies of its acquisition workforce. A DOD official
responsible for the acquisition workforce plan indicated that they did
not differentiate skills and competencies, but rather consider skills
to be an integral part of the competencies. As such, conducting
competency assessments would embody an assessment of the requisite
skills. In that regard, however, DOD has completed the competency
assessment of its contracting career field, but not the assessments of
the remaining 12 career fields, which are in various stages of
progress. DOD's plan provides information on personnel certification
levels--an indicator of the level of required education, training, and
experience for a particular position--across all 13 of the functional
career fields. While the plan did not include information on the
funding needed to achieve DOD's human capital initiatives for the
acquisition workforce, DOD subsequently issued a separate report on
September 14, 2010. As the report was issued after the completion of
our audit work, we did not have the opportunity to review and assess
it. Finally, the plan did not address the requirement to identify any
legislative changes that would be needed to allow the department to
achieve its goals to improve the acquisition workforce. Table 4 in
enclosure V provides a complete description of the reporting
requirements for the acquisition workforce plan and our assessment.
While DOD has demonstrated some progress in addressing the legislative
requirements related to its Civilian Human Capital Strategic Workforce
plan, several key elements continue to be missing from the process. As
we have previously reported, competency gap analyses and monitoring
progress are two of the key elements in the strategic workforce
planning process.[Footnote 21] Competency gap analyses enable an
agency to develop specific strategies to address workforce needs and
measuring progress demonstrates the contribution of workforce planning
in achieving program goals. In addition, we have also reported that
aligning resources with actions such as strategies for developing and
training personnel is critical for implementing the strategic
workforce plan and, together with the competency gap analyses, can
help justify budget and staff requests by linking the program goals
and strategies with the budgetary and staff resources needed to
accomplish them. Moreover, we found that DOD had not fully developed a
performance plan, as we had recommended in our 2009 report,[Footnote
22] for the responsible program offices to help guide and gauge how
the department is achieving its objective for workforce planning. For
example, DOD officials told us that the overall strategic workforce
plan encompassed the program management office's and executive
management office's performance plans. However, the program management
office's and executive management office's performance plans did not
include time frames and needed resources for all actions and did not
identify how DOD would address the legislative requirements related to
civilian human capital strategic planning. We have previously reported
that performance plans are a key element of a sound management
approach.[Footnote 23] We continue to believe that it is imperative
that DOD have a performance plan to guide how it plans to address all
of the legislative requirements. We provided a draft of this report to
DOD for its comments. DOD did not provide written or oral comments.
Concluding Observations:
Having strategic workforce plans are critical for DOD to manage its
large diverse workforce and to meet the demands of the future. To
date, DOD's workforce plans have produced mixed results. DOD's 2009
workforce plan has demonstrated that some progress has been made by
specifically addressing more than one-third of the legislative
requirements. Most of the remaining requirements, however, were
partially addressed--including key requirements such as conducting
competency gap analyses, identifying the funding needed to implement
strategies to develop and train civilian personnel, and assessing
progress, using results-oriented performance measures. Without
addressing all legislative requirements from the FY 2010 NDAA,
congressional and DOD decision makers will continue to rely on
incomplete information concerning the size, composition, and needs of
its civilian workforce. In particular, DOD may not be able to
determine whether its investment in strategies to improve the civilian
workforce is effective and efficient. Further, this type of
information will likely grow in importance as DOD implements its
recently announced initiative to reduce duplication, overhead, and
excess and instill a culture of savings and restraint across the
department. We believe our prior recommendations for developing
performance plans to help DOD fully address the legislative
requirements for its strategic workforce plans could still serve as a
roadmap to guide its workforce planning and thus still have merit.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided a draft of this report to DOD for its comments. DOD did
not provide written or oral comments. However, DOD provided technical
changes to the acquisition workforce section, which have been
incorporated in this report as appropriate.
If you or your staff have any question about this report, please
contact either Brenda S. Farrell at (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov
or John K. Needham at (202) 512-5274 or needhamjk1@gao.gov. Contact
points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs
may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to this
report are listed in appendix VI.
Signed by:
Brenda S. Farrell:
Director,
Defense Capabilities and Management:
Signed by:
John K. Needham:
Director,
Acquisition and Sourcing Management:
List of Committees:
The Honorable Carl Levin:
Chairman:
The Honorable John McCain:
Ranking Member:
Committee on the Armed Services:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye:
Chairman:
The Honorable Thad Cochran:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Defense:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Ike Skelton:
Chairman:
The Honorable Howard P. "Buck" McKeon:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
House of Representatives:
The Honorable Norman D. Dicks:
Chairman:
The Honorable C.W. Bill Young:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Defense:
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives:
[End of section]
Enclosure I:
DOD's Strategic Planning Roles and Workforce Planning Tools:
Several organizations within the Office of the Secretary of Defense
(OSD) share policy and guidance responsibility for the Department of
Defense's (DOD) civilian workforce. Specifically, the Under Secretary
of Defense for Personnel and Readiness serves as the Chief Human
Capital Officer for DOD--both for military and civilian personnel--and
has overall responsibility for its civilian human capital strategic
plan. Within the Office of Personnel and Readiness, the Office of
Civilian Personnel Policy has the lead role in developing and
overseeing implementation of the plan for the overall civilian and
senior leader workforces. The Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L), on the other hand, is
responsible for the effective management (including accession,
education, training, and career development) of persons serving in
acquisition positions and for ensuring that acquisition workforce
policies and procedures are uniform in their implementation to the
maximum extent practicable.
DOD has identified 24 mission-critical occupations (MCO); 22 of these
critical occupations are associated specifically with the overall
civilian workforce and are discussed in DOD's March 2010 civilian
human capital strategic plan. The remaining 2 MCOs are acquisition-
related occupations--contracting and quality assurance--and are
discussed in DOD's acquisition workforce plan. See table 1 for details
on the 24 MCOs. The acquisition workforce plan discusses functional
career fields, which are based on categories of acquisition position
responsibilities and whose incumbents represent a variety of
occupation series. For example, the contracting career field consists
of 74 occupations, including contracting specialists, civil engineers,
and business and industry specialists. Overall, DOD has identified 13
acquisition functional career fields as constituting the acquisition
workforce, consistent with the authority provided under the Defense
Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA).[Footnote 24] DAWIA
requires the Secretary of Defense to establish the minimum
qualification standards of those personnel performing functions
integral to the acquisition process, formalizes career paths for
personnel who wish to pursue careers in acquisition, and defines
critical or senior management acquisition positions.
Table 1: DOD's Enterprisewide Mission-Critical Occupations:
OSD-designated functional communities: Acquisition;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 1102;
MCO description: Contracting;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements;
dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Acquisition;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 1910;
MCO description: Quality assurance;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements;
dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Construction engineering;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0810;
MCO description: Civil engineering;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Financial management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0501;
MCO description: Financial administration;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements; dynamic and rapidly
changing threat environment; sustaining the all-volunteer force.
OSD-designated functional communities: Financial management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0510;
MCO description: Accounting;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements; dynamic and rapidly
changing threat environment; sustaining the all-volunteer force.
OSD-designated functional communities: Financial management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0511;
MCO description: Auditing;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements; dynamic and rapidly
changing threat environment; sustaining the all-volunteer force.
OSD-designated functional communities: Financial management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0560;
MCO description: Budget analysis;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements; dynamic and rapidly
changing threat environment; sustaining the all-volunteer force.
OSD-designated functional communities: Human resources;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0201;
MCO description: Human resources;
DOD strategic factors: All.
OSD-designated functional communities: Information technology
management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0854;
MCO description: Computer engineering;
DOD strategic factors: Dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Information technology
management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0855;
MCO description: Electronics engineering;
DOD strategic factors: Dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Information technology
management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 2210;
MCO description: Information technology management;
DOD strategic factors: Dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Information technology
management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 1550;
MCO description: Computer science;
DOD strategic factors: Dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
executing in-sourcing goals and optimizing workforce mix.
OSD-designated functional communities: Installation and environment;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0018;
MCO description: Safety and occupational health;
DOD strategic factors: Sustaining the all-volunteer force;
increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Installation and environment;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0081;
MCO description: Firefighter;
DOD strategic factors: Sustaining the all-volunteer force;
increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Intelligence;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0132;
MCO description: Intelligence;
DOD strategic factors: Dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment.
OSD-designated functional communities: Linguists/language;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0083;
MCO description: Language specialist;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Law enforcement;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 1040;
MCO description: Police;
DOD strategic factors: Increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Logistics management;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0346;
MCO description: Logistics management;
DOD strategic factors: Sustaining the all-volunteer force;
dynamic and rapidly changing threat environment;
increased engagements.
OSD-designated functional communities: Medical;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0602;
MCO description: Medical officer;
DOD strategic factors: Care for wounded warriors.
OSD-designated functional communities: Medical;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0610;
MCO description: Nurse.
OSD-designated functional communities: Medical;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0660;
MCO description: Pharmacist;
DOD strategic factors: Care for wounded warriors.
OSD-designated functional communities: Medical;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0180;
MCO description: Psychology;
DOD strategic factors: Care for wounded warriors.
OSD-designated functional communities: Medical;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0185;
MCO description: Social work;
DOD strategic factors: Care for wounded warriors.
OSD-designated functional communities: Security;
Mission-critical occupation (series): 0080;
MCO description: Security administration;
DOD strategic factors: Sustaining the all-volunteer force.
OSD-designated functional communities: Civilian expeditionary
workforce (CEW);
Mission-critical occupation (series): All;
MCO description: CEW occupations;
DOD strategic factors: Sustaining the all-volunteer force.
Source: GAO analysis of DOD data.
[End of table]
DOD's overall civilian and senior leader workforce plans use the
Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) workforce forecasting software,
Workforce Analysis Support System (WASS) and Civilian Forecasting
System (CIVFORS). WASS is used to evaluate workforce trends and can
perform simple to complex analyses from counts and averages to trend
analyses, using such characteristics as employee age, retirement plan
participation, and historical retirement data. CIVFORS was adapted
from an Army military forecasting model for civilian use in 1987 and
uses data from DOD's Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS).
CIVFORS is a life cycle modeling and projection tool, which models
most significant events, including personnel actions such as
promotions, reassignments, and retirements. Officials can use a
default projection model or create their own, which can be tailored to
examine issues such as projected vacancies of hard-to-fill occupations
or turnover in specific regions by occupation. The workforce forecasts
are generated over a 7-year projection period, using the most recent 5
years of historical data. While CIVFORS is used at the DOD
enterprisewide level, the department has not directed the components
to use the system. As a result, components may use various systems and
approaches for their forecasts.
Acquisition workforce management data is collected and stored in the
AT&L Workforce Data Mart. Data Mart is a centralized data warehouse
that serves as a single repository for all acquisition workforce data
collected from the Military Personnel Data System, DCPDS, and other
external sources. According to DOD officials, DOD uses Data Mart for
career and workforce management of both civilian and military
acquisition personnel, and it is used to generate data supporting
workforce counts, human capital strategic plans, course demand
management, and the monitoring of certification rates. DOD conducted
workforce forecasting based on the DOD acquisition workforce growth
initiative and recent trend information. Forecasting of gain and loss
levels to achieve targeted growth was supported by RAND and an
internal workforce forecasting tool.
[End of Enclosure I]
Enclosure II:
Prior Legislative Requirements for DOD's Civilian Workforce Plan:
In January 2006, section 1122 of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2006 was enacted. It directed DOD to develop and
submit to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees a strategic
plan to shape and improve the DOD civilian employee workforce. The
plan was to include an assessment of:
* the critical skills that will be needed in the future DOD civilian
employee workforce to support national security requirements and
effectively manage the department over the next decade,
* the critical competencies that will be needed in the future DOD
civilian employee workforce to support national security requirements
and effectively manage the department over the next decade,
* the critical skills of the existing DOD civilian employee workforce,
* the critical competencies of the existing DOD civilian employee
workforce,
* the projected trends in that workforce based on expected losses
caused by retirement and other attrition, and:
* gaps in the existing or projected DOD civilian employee workforce
that should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued
access to the critical skills and competencies needed to support
national security requirements and effectively manage the department
over the next decade.
Also, as part of its civilian human capital strategic plan, the act
directed DOD to include a plan of action for developing and reshaping
the DOD civilian employee workforce to address identified gaps in
critical skills and competencies, including specific:
* recruiting and retention goals, including the program objectives of
the department to be achieved through such goals, and:
* strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, and
motivating the DOD civilian employee workforce and the program
objectives to be achieved through such strategies.
In October 2006, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2007 was enacted. Section 1102 of this act required DOD to
include in its March 1, 2007, update a strategic plan to shape and
improve its senior leader workforce. The plan was to include an
assessment of:
* the needs of DOD for senior leaders in light of recent trends and
projected changes in the mission and organization of the department
and in light of staff support needed to accomplish that mission,
* the capability of the existing civilian employee workforce to meet
requirements relating to the mission of the department, and:
* gaps in the existing or projected civilian employee workforce of the
department that should be addressed to ensure continued access to the
senior leader workforce DOD needs.
Also, as part of its civilian human capital strategic plan, the act
directed DOD to include a plan of action for developing and reshaping
the senior leader workforce to address gaps in the existing or
projected civilian employee workforce of the department that should be
addressed to ensure that the department has continued access to the
senior executives it needs. The plan of action is to include:
* any legislative or administrative action that may be needed to
adjust the requirements applicable to any category of civilian
personnel identified in the senior leader workforce or to establish a
new category of senior management or technical personnel;
* any changes in the number of personnel authorized in any category of
personnel identified in the senior leader workforce that may be needed
to address such gaps and effectively meet the needs of the department;
* any changes in the rates or methods of pay for any category of
personnel identified in the senior leader workforce that may be needed
to address inequities and ensure that the department has full access
to appropriately qualified personnel to address such gaps and meet the
needs of the department;
* specific recruiting and retention goals, including the program
objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals;
* specific strategies for developing, training, deploying,
compensating, motivating, and designing career paths and career
opportunities for the senior leader workforce of the department,
including the program objectives to be achieved through such
strategies; and:
* specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to
ensure that the senior leader workforce is managed in compliance with
the requirements of section 129 of title 10, United States Code.
In January 2008, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2008 was enacted. Section 851 of this act required DOD to include
in its update to the human capital plan a separate section focused on
the defense acquisition workforce, including both military and
civilian personnel. This section was to include:
* an identification of the funding programmed for defense acquisition
workforce improvements, including a specific identification of funding
provided in the Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Fund
established under section 1705 of title 10, United States Code;
* an identification of the funding programmed for defense acquisition
workforce training in the future-years defense program, including a
specific identification of funding provided by the acquisition
workforce training fund established under section 37(h)(3) of the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. § 433(h)(3));
* a description of how the funding identified will be implemented
during the fiscal year concerned to address the areas of need
identified;
* a statement of whether the funding identified is being fully used;
and:
* a description of any continuing shortfall in funding available for
the defense acquisition workforce.
Also, as part of this section, the act directed DOD to include an
identification of any areas of need in the defense acquisition
workforce, including:
* gaps in the skills and competencies of the current or projected
defense acquisition workforce;
* changes to the types of skills needed in the current or projected
defense acquisition workforce;
* incentives to retain in the defense acquisition workforce qualified,
experienced personnel; and:
* incentives for attracting new, high-quality personnel to the defense
acquisition workforce.
[End of Enclosure II]
Enclosure III:
Summary of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010
Requirements Applicable to Overall Civilian, Senior Leader, and
Acquisition Workforces:
An Assessment Of: Critical skills and competencies that will be needed
in the future within the civilian workforce by the Department of
Defense to support national security requirements and effectively
manage the department during the 7-year period following the year in
which the plan is submitted;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
An Assessment Of: The appropriate mix of military, civilian, and
contractor personnel capabilities;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
An Assessment Of: The critical skills and competencies of the existing
workforce of the department and projected trends in that workforce
based on expected losses due to retirement and other attrition;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
An Assessment Of: Gaps in the existing or projected workforce of the
department that should be addressed to ensure that the department has
continued access to the critical skills and competencies it needs;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
An Assessment Of: Using results-oriented performance measures, of the
progress of the department in implementing the strategic workforce
plan under this section during the previous year;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Empty].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Specific recruiting and retention
goals, especially in areas identified as critical skills and
competencies, including the program objectives of the department to be
achieved through such goals and the funding needed to achieve such
goals;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Specific strategies for developing,
training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian
workforce of the Department, including the program objectives of the
department to be achieved through such strategies and the funding
needed to implement such strategies;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Any incentives necessary to attract or
retain any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies
identified;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Any changes in the number of personnel
authorized in any category of personnel in the senior leader workforce
or in the acquisition workforce that may be needed to address such
gaps and effectively meet the needs of the department;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Any changes in resources or in the
rates or methods of pay for any category of personnel in the senior
leader workforce or in the acquisition workforce that may be needed to
address inequities and ensure that the department has full access to
appropriately qualified personnel to address such gaps and meet the
needs of the department;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan Of Action That Includes: Any legislative changes that may be
necessary to achieve the goals;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
Specific Strategies For: Developing, training, deploying,
compensating, motivating, and designing career paths and career
opportunities;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Empty].
Specific Steps That The Department Has Taken Or Plans To Take To:
Ensure that such workforce is managed in compliance with the
requirements of section 129 of this title;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Check];
Acquisition Workforce: [Empty].
Specific Steps That The Department Has Taken Or Plans To Take To:
Develop appropriate career paths for civilian employees in the
acquisition field;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
Specific Steps That The Department Has Taken Or Plans To Take To:
Implement the requirements of section 1722a with regards to members of
the armed forces in the acquisition field;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
A Plan For Funding: Needed improvements in the acquisition workforce
of the Department through the period of the future-years defense
program including a specific identification of funding provided in the
Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Fund, along with a
description of how such funding is being implemented and whether it is
being fully used and a description of any continuing shortfalls in
funding available for the acquisition workforce;
Overall Workforce: [Empty];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Check].
Any Additional Matter: The Secretary of Defense considers necessary to
address;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Empty].
Submittals: From Secretaries of the military services and Heads of the
defense agencies regarding each of the above legislative requirements;
Overall Workforce: [Check];
Senior Leader Workforce: [Empty];
Acquisition Workforce: [Empty].
Total Requirements:
Overall Workforce: 11;
Senior Leader Workforce: 12;
Acquisition Workforce: 13.
Source: GAO analysis of DOD data.
Note: Critical skills and competencies of the existing and future
workforces--lines 1 and 3 above--were divided into 5 items, (1)
critical skills for the future workforce, (2) critical competencies
for the future workforce, (3) critical skills for the existing
workforce, (4) critical competencies for the existing workforce, and
(5) projected trends. Thus, total requirements were 14 for the overall
workforce, 15 for the senior leader workforce, and 16 for the
acquisition workforce.
[End of figure]
[End of Enclosure III]
Enclosure IV:
Scope and Methodology:
To determine the extent to which the DOD's 2009 update to its civilian
human capital strategic workforce plan addresses the statutory
requirements related to the overall civilian, senior leader, and
defense acquisition workforces, as established in section 1108 of the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (FY 2010
NDAA), we obtained and reviewed DOD's workforce plan for the overall
and senior leader workforces titled Report on the Strategic Human
Capital Plan for Civilian Employees of the Department of Defense 2006-
2010 (published March 31, 2010) along with DOD's Acquisition Workforce
Improvement Strategy--published on April 27, 2010 (an appendix to the
aforementioned DOD workforce plan). Together, these documents
consisted of nearly 1,000 pages of information related to strategic
planning for DOD's civilian workforce. We developed a checklist based
on the FY 2010 NDAA legislative requirements, which enabled us to
compare the requirements to DOD's workforce plans. Two analysts
independently assessed the DOD workforce plans using the checklist and
assigned a rating to each of the elements from one of three potential
ratings: "addresses," "partially addresses," or "does not address."
According to our methodology, a rating of "addresses" was assigned if
all elements of the legislative requirement were discussed, even if
specificity and details could be improved upon. In several instances,
"any" was a key word in the legislative requirement, and we considered
those addressed if DOD discussed one or more actions that demonstrated
the requirement. Within our designation of "partially addresses,"
there was a wide variation between an assessment or plan of action
that includes most of the elements of the legislative requirement and
an assessment or plan of action that includes a few of the elements of
the legislative requirement. A rating of "does not address" was
assigned when elements of a characteristic were not explicitly cited
or discussed or any implicit references were either too vague or too
general to be useful. While we took steps to ensure that legislative
requirements were addressed in DOD's workforce plan and other
supporting documents, we did not verify that all actions taken by DOD
for each of the legislative requirements were sufficient and adequate
within our allotted time frame. The independent assessments completed
by the two analysts were in agreement in the majority of the cases.
When different initial ratings were given by the analysts, they met
with a senior analyst to discuss and resolve differences in their
respective checklist analyses. The senior analyst also validated the
results. On the basis of those discussions, a consolidated final
checklist was developed.
We also took steps to ensure that the data upon which DOD based its
workforce assessments and gap analyses were sufficiently reliable for
the purposes of our review of the overall civilian workforce and the
senior leader workforce. Specifically, we (1) interviewed DOD
officials to obtain updated information on the workforce forecasting
systems that DOD used to assess its civilian workforce and ascertained
that the data utilized by the forecasting systems were subjected to
appropriate internal controls and edit checks and (2) reviewed the
steps taken during prior GAO reviews and the conclusion reached
concerning data reliability related to DOD's forecasting systems.
[Footnote 25] For the overall workforce plan, we also analyzed
applicable documents, such as DOD's Civilian Human Capital Management
Report for Fiscal Year 2009 that was submitted to OPM, to determine
the extent to which this report provided information related to the
legislative requirements. We also interviewed officials in DOD's
Office of Civilian Personnel Policy (CPP) and Civilian Personnel
Management Service, along with officials from the DOD functional
communities, about the update and ongoing human capital efforts within
DOD. Further, we identified and reviewed factors that may affect DOD's
civilian workforce planning, such as those that DOD identified in its
update. Finally, we analyzed prior GAO reports examining other human
capital challenges within DOD, including determining how the
department identified gaps in the workforce, assessed its critical
skills and competencies, and identified the necessary funding needed
to achieve goals and implement strategies.
Furthermore, to determine the extent to which DOD's 2009 workforce
plan addresses civilian human capital planning requirements for the
senior leader workforce, we analyzed applicable documents, such as
DOD's senior leader baseline review along with other relevant
information and DOD instructions related to DOD's current efforts. To
corroborate our understanding of DOD's efforts related to strategic
workforce planning for senior leaders, we utilized information from an
ongoing engagement related to planning for the senior leader
workforce.[Footnote 26] Specifically, we interviewed officials in
DOD's CPP about matters related to the legislative requirements,
including determining how the department identified gaps in the
workforce, along with critical skills and competencies.
To establish the extent to which DOD's 2009 workforce plan addresses
civilian human capital planning requirements for the defense
acquisition workforce, we analyzed selected portions[Footnote 27] of
the Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy, which is appendix 1 of
the strategic workforce plan. We took steps to ensure that the data
that DOD used for its assessments and gap analyses associated with its
acquisition workforce were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of
our review. Specifically, we interviewed officials with the Defense
Acquisition University who are responsible for the acquisition
workforce data collection, quality control and data storage to
determine if the data were subject to proper internal controls and
data checks and discussed their approach to forecasting gains and
losses. Finally, we interviewed officials in the Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics along
with officials from selected acquisition workforce career fields
concerning the update and ongoing human capital efforts within the
acquisition workforce.
We conducted this performance audit from December 2009 to September
2010 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 objectives. We
believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
[End of Enclosure IV]
Enclosure V:
GAO Assessment of DOD's Civilian Workforce Plan:
DOD's Overall Civilian Workforce Plan Addresses Five and Partially
Addresses Nine Legislative Requirements of the FY 2010 NDAA:
DOD's 2009 overall civilian workforce plan addresses five of the
legislative requirements and partially addressing the remaining nine
requirements. For example, DOD addressed the requirement to identify
any incentives that are needed to attract and retain qualified
civilians. Specifically, each of the 22 MCOs discussed incentives such
as repayment of student loans and tuition assistance programs. In
addition, the overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
legislative requirements such as assessing the critical competencies
of the existing and future workforce, which we have previously
identified as essential to the strategic workforce planning process.
More specifically, critical competencies have been identified for 6 of
22 MCOs within the existing workforce and 2 of 22 MCOs within the
future workforce. In addition, the overall civilian workforce plan
only partially addresses legislative requirements such as assessing
the gaps in the current or future workforce. For example, while each
of the MCOs identified gaps within its current and future workforce
related to the number of civilians needed, only 5 of the 22 MCOs
identified gaps in training and only 3 of the 22 MCOs--the information
technology management, language specialist, and logistics management
MCOs--identified gaps in the competencies of their workforces. DOD's
overall civilian workforce plan also partially addresses the
legislative requirements for a plan of action to develop and reshape
the civilian workforce. For example, the plan lacks information
regarding the funding needed to achieve DOD's recruitment and
retention goals or to implement strategies to develop, train, deploy,
motivate, and compensate the civilian workforce. (See table 2.)
Table 2: GAO Assessment of the Extent to Which FY 2010 NDAA
Legislative Requirements Are Addressed in DOD's Overall Civilian
Workforce Plan:
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(1) An assessment of the critical skills of the existing civilian
workforce of the department[A] [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's plan discusses 22
MCOs,[B] which according to DOD officials, constitute the department's
critical skills for its existing workforce. Originally, the under
secretaries and human resource representatives from the components
identified a list of MCOs. Then, OSD's Office of Personnel and
Readiness reviewed this list and identified the MCOs that were
applicable enterprisewide. These were subsequently assessed and
validated by the relevant under secretaries and functional community
managers (FCM).[C] While DOD has identified its critical skills as
MCOs, department officials were not able to provide written guidance
defining these terms. During our prior review of DOD's 2008 workforce
plan,[D] DOD officials told us that "MCOs" referred to both critical
skills and critical competencies, and that at the time, the department
was working on guidance to define those terms and various other
workforce planning terms. However, at the time of this review, the
guidance had not yet been completed and issued;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(2) An assessment of projected trends in the existing civilian
workforce based on expected losses due to retirement and other
attrition[A] [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's plan contains projected
trend data based on expected losses from retirement and other
attrition for all 22 MCOs. DOD provides data from OPM's WASS and
CIVFORS projection tool--from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year
2015--that show age distribution, end strength history and
projections, and total gains, total losses, and retirements for each
of the 22 MCOs;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(3) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies, including any incentives necessary to attract or retain
any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies
identified [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement by identifying "any" incentives needed to
attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the identified
skills and competencies. Specifically, the workforce plan states that
the department has established recruitment, retention, and relocation
incentives. For example, incentives are identified for each of the 22
MCOs, including recruitment, retention, and relocation strategies such
as repayment of student loans, tuition assistance programs, and
reimbursements of relocation expenses for qualified positions. For the
3 MCOs that discussed competency gap analyses--language, logistics,
and information technology management--the plan identifies student
loan repayments, advanced degree tuition assistance, and pay-banded
compensation. This is a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(4) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any legislative changes that may be
necessary to achieve its recruiting and retention goals [10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(2)(F)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan identifies
legislative changes that may be necessary to help achieve the
recruiting and retention goals set forth in the plan. For example, DOD
identifies several enterprisewide legislative changes, including
compensation and benefit enhancements, such as restoration of locality
pay and guaranteed cost of living increases, which are necessary to
develop and sustain a cadre of future leaders. DOD also identified
other specific legislative changes, such as direct and expedited hire
authorities, special salary rates, and pilot programs for internships.
For the three MCOs that discussed competency gap analyses--language,
logistics, and information technology management--the plan identifies
the use of expedited hiring authorities, special pay provisions, and
noncompetitive conversions for specific scholarships. This is a new
requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(5) Any additional matters the Secretary of Defense considers
necessary to address [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(4)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. DOD has included information as "additional
matters" that the Secretary of Defense considers necessary to address.
For example, DOD included OSD's Office of Personnel and Readiness'
Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2010-2012 as an enclosure to its
workforce plan, which includes five strategic goals and time frames
for the 24 subgoals. The plan also discussed key factors, such as
implementing base realignment and closure, continuing care for wounded
warriors, and meeting mission requirements related to ongoing efforts
in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(6) An assessment of critical skills that will be needed in the future
within the civilian workforce by the Department of Defense to support
national security requirements and effectively manage the department
during the 7-year period following the year in which the plan is
submitted[F] [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, as previously discussed,
DOD's plan discusses 22 MCOs,[B] which according to DOD officials,
constitute the department's critical skills for its existing
workforce. The MCOs were originally identified by the under
secretaries and human resource representatives from the components.
Then, OSD's Office of Personnel and Readiness reviewed this list and
identified the MCOs that were applicable enterprisewide. These MCOs
were subsequently assessed and validated by the relevant under
secretaries and functional community managers.[C] However, DOD's
workforce plan does not provide an assessment of critical skills
needed in the future that cover the 7-year period following the year
in which the plan was submitted, as stated in law. This 7-year period
is a revised requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA--in the FY 2006 NDAA, DOD
was required to submit information for a 10-year period. Because DOD's
workforce plan was submitted in March 2010, the period stipulated in
law would need to be from 2010 to 2017. However, DOD's workforce plan
covers a different time frame--the period from fiscal year 2009
through fiscal year 2015;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(7) An assessment of critical competencies that will be needed in the
future within the civilian workforce by the Department of Defense to
support national security requirements and effectively manage the
department during the 7-year period following the year in which the
plan is submitted[F] [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's plan discusses all
22 MCOs in the appendixes to its workforce plan; it identifies future
competencies for only 2 of the MCOs--language specialist and logistics
management. However, the assessment of critical competencies for the 2
MCOs does not cover the 7-year period following the year in which the
plan was submitted. This 7-year period is a revised requirement in the
FY2010 NDAA--in the FY 2006 NDAA, DOD was required to submit
information for a 10-year period. We found that because DOD's
workforce plan was submitted in March 2010, the assessment of critical
competencies would need to extend through fiscal year 2017 to address
the legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan covers
a 7-year period from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2015.
Furthermore, the workforce plan does not identify future competencies
for the remaining 20 MCOs. The plan does, however, state that DOD has
begun a pilot program to perform competency assessments for the MCOs
that it has identified. But, according to department officials, DOD
anticipates completing four or five assessments per year. At that
pace, it would take until 2015 to complete assessments on the
currently identified MCOs;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(8) An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and
contractor personnel capabilities [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan
identifies seven factors that will affect DOD's future civilian human
resource requirements. One such factor is successfully executing in-
sourcing goals and optimizing the department's military, civilian, and
contractor mix. In addition, the MCO reporting template used for the
2009 workforce plan instructed the functional community managers to
consider a number of factors, including both in-sourcing and military-
to-civilian conversions, when evaluating their workforce requirements.
In addition, in February 2005, DOD issued a directive that stated that
missions should be accomplished using the least costly mix of
personnel (military, civilian, and contract) consistent with military
requirements and other needs of the department.[G] Further, this
directive stated that functions that are inherently governmental
should not be contracted and that manpower should be designated as
civilian except when military incumbency is required for, among other
things, reasons of law, command and control of crisis situations, and
combat readiness. Subsequently, in April 2010, DOD issued an
instruction that included guidance on implementing the prior directive
and identifying specific positions and circumstances where military
personnel have the specialized knowledge or training critical to
holding these positions.[H] For example, only members of the military
have the training and skills to issue warrants, make arrests, or
preserve crime scenes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
However, while DOD has taken some steps to address this requirement,
its overall civilian workforce plan does not provide an assessment of
the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel
capabilities. This is a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(9) An assessment of the critical competencies of the existing
civilian workforce of the department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD discusses all 22 MCOs
in the appendixes to its workforce plan and identifies critical
competencies for 6 of the MCOs. For example, the medical community
provides competency frameworks for 3 of its 5 MCOs, which includes
necessary education, training requirements, service-specific
competencies, situation-specific competencies, and core competencies.
However, critical competencies are not provided for the remaining 16
MCOs. As discussed above, DOD has begun a pilot program to perform
competency assessments for the MCOs that it has identified. But,
according to officials, the department anticipates completing four or
five assessments per year. At that pace, it would take until 2015 to
complete assessments on the currently identified MCOs;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(10) An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected civilian
workforce of the department that should be addressed to ensure that
the department has continued access to the critical skills and
competencies it needs [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(D)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan
includes some gap analyses for the 22 MCOs. For example, DOD provides
gaps related to the number of personnel needed based on WASS/CIVFORS
data--from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2015. This information
shows age distribution, end strength history and projections, and
total gains, losses, and retirements for each of the 22 MCOs.
Additionally, as discussed below, DOD identifies recruiting and
retention goals for each of the 22 MCOs. Using the WASS/CIVFORS data
and the recruiting and retention goals, gaps in the number of
personnel needed can be identified. In addition, 5 MCOs identified
additional training needed by their workforces--that is, training
gaps. While DOD's plan discusses the above gaps, the plan discussed
competency gap analyses for only 3 of the 22 MCOs. As we previously
reported,[I] it is essential for gap analyses for strategic workforce
planning to include an evaluation of gaps in numbers of personnel
needed, as well as for the critical skills and competencies needed by
the workforce. Further, the competency gap analyses become a basis for
the department to establish recruitment and retention goals as well as
to identify strategies to develop, train, deploy, compensate, and
motivate the workforce. To facilitate the gap analyses, DOD has begun
a pilot program to perform competency assessments for the MCOs that it
has identified. Specifically, in its efforts for its 2010 workforce
plan, DOD officials stated that it will take an enterprisewide
approach in developing the Enterprise Management Competency System.
This system will be an add-on to DCPDS and will serve as a competency
repository--including competencies that are enterprisewide, component
based, and occupation specific--for the MCOs. As of June 2010, DOD
officials stated that the only functional community to have OPM
validate its competencies is the leadership community, with three
additional MCOs currently in the validation process with OPM.
Furthermore, according to DOD officials, the department anticipates
completing four or five assessments per year. At that pace, it would
take until 2015 to complete assessments on the currently identified
MCOs;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(11) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific recruiting and retention goals,
especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies,
including the program objectives of the department to be achieved
through such goals and the funding needed to achieve such goals [10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(A)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan
identifies recruiting and retention goals for each MCO--the number of
positions that are needed. However, while these goals identified by
DOD are designed to fill gaps in the number of personnel, some of
these goals are not based on competency gaps analyses--especially
since only 3 of the 22 MCOs have identified competency gaps--which we
have previously reported as essential to strategic workforce planning
efforts.[I] Furthermore, the workforce plan does not discuss the
funding needed for achieving the recruiting and retention goals. This
is a new requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(12) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific strategies for developing,
training, deploying,[J] compensating, and motivating the civilian
workforce of the department, including the program objectives of the
department to be achieved through such strategies and the funding
needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan
identifies a number of specific strategies to develop, train, deploy,
compensate, and motivate the department's workforce for each MCO. For
example, the human resources MCO developed courses to train its
personnel and address competency gaps in benefits offices.
Specifically, it developed a pay course that focuses on teaching
recruiters and others how to use the wide range of pay flexibilities
and a classification course to help managers understand how to
leverage competencies when establishing or classifying positions. This
MCO also identified strategies to deploy employees, which included
expedited hiring authorities, relocation incentives, and scholarships,
along with strategies to compensate and motivate personnel, which
included special pay rates for specialty occupations, wellness
initiatives, and incentives such as telework and flexible work
schedules. However, some of the strategies identified by DOD are not
based on competency gap analyses because only 3 of the 22 MCOs have
identified competency gaps, which we have previously reported as
essential to strategic workforce planning efforts. Strategies
identified by the 3 MCOs included scholarship programs, use of Base
Realignment and Closure bonuses, and special salary rates for
qualified employees. Furthermore, the workforce plan does not identify
the funding needed to implement these strategies--a new requirement
under the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(13) An assessment, using results-oriented performance measures, of
the progress of the department in implementing the strategic workforce
plan under this section during the previous year [10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(3)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
the legislative requirement. While the plan does not report progress
on specific goals using results-oriented performance metrics, other
DOD documents provide information on performance measures related to
the workforce plan. For example, DOD's Civilian Human Capital
Management Report for Fiscal Year 2009 provides a metric for measuring
progress toward DOD's goal of having a mission-ready workforce.
Specifically, it states that the success indicator for measuring
annual progress toward a mission-ready workforce will be achieved when
85 percent of the staffing projections are met within certain targeted
MCOs. More specifically, the report states that this performance
measure was met--with respect to number of people only--by eight MCOs,
including information technology, human resources, and acquisition.
Further, the report stated that DOD hopes to assess all MCOs against
this measure in future years. However, DOD lacks additional indicators
to determine the relationship of its efforts to the accomplishment of
its goals and objectives. For example, we found that the workforce
plan identified a number of specific strategies for developing,
training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian
workforce, but it did not specify performance measures to determine
how and if the strategies were implemented. DOD's 2009 workforce plan
states that the department will set and communicate performance
metrics in fiscal year 2010 and that it will begin to monitor and
track progress in the third or fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010.
However, at this time, DOD has not provided information concerning any
additional performance measures. This is a new requirement in the FY
2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Overall civilian workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(14) Submittals from secretaries of the military services and heads of
the defense agencies regarding each of the above legislative
requirements that are submitted within established deadlines to ensure
timely consideration [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)];
Comments: DOD's overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses
this legislative requirement. DOD did receive input from the military
services and defense agencies when developing information at the MCO
level. However, a deadline for the submittal of the reports that were
to contain information concerning each of the legislative requirements
was never established by the Secretary of Defense, and the secretaries
of the military departments and the heads of the defense agencies
never formally submitted reports addressing each of the matters
described in the legislation. This is a new requirement in the FY 2010
NDAA. In plans for its next update, DOD has established time
frames/deadlines for components to provide information. Additionally,
DOD has established a "component integrator" position to coordinate
information developed at the functional community level within each
component through a single point to ensure that the information
conveys the component perspective;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Source: GAO analysis of DOD data.
Notes:
[A] Specifically, this legislative requirement states that DOD is to
complete an assessment of the critical skills and competencies of the
existing workforce and projected trends based on expected losses
caused by retirement and other attrition. In our 2009 report, GAO-09-
235, we separated this requirement into three requirements covering
critical skills, critical competencies, and projected trends.
[B] DOD has identified 24 enterprisewide MCOs; 22 of these occupations
are associated specifically with the overall civilian workforce and
are discussed in the strategic workforce plan, while, the remaining 2
are acquisition-related occupations--contracting and quality
assurance--and are discussed in the Defense Acquisition Workforce
Improvement Strategy (published as a separate report).
[C] FCMs are appointed by their respective under secretaries and are
responsible for monitoring the strategic human capital planning
efforts for their respective communities, including workforce
forecasting, competency assessment, and strategy development.
[D] GAO-09-235.
[E] GAO, DOD's High-Risk Areas: Observations on DOD's Progress and
Challenges in Strategic Planning for Supply Chain Management, GAO-10-
929T (Washington, D.C.: July 27, 2010) and GAO-04-753.
[F] Specifically, this legislative requirement states that DOD is to
complete an assessment of the critical skills and competencies of the
future workforce. In our 2009 report, GAO-09-235, we separated this
requirement into two requirements covering critical skills and
critical competencies.
[G] DOD Directive 1100.4, Guidance for Manpower Management (Feb. 12,
2005).
[H] DOD Instruction 1100.22, Policy and Procedures for Determining
Workforce Mix (Apr. 12, 2010).
[I] GAO-04-753.
[J] DOD's 2009 Civilian Human Capital Strategic Workforce Plan defines
"deploy" as any activity or program designed to acquire and assign the
workforce to positions, jobs, or locations.
[End of table]
DOD's Senior Leader Workforce Plan Addresses Seven, Partially
Addresses Six, and Does Not Address Two Legislative Requirements of
the FY 2010 NDAA:
DOD's senior leader workforce plan, as seen in table 3, addresses
seven, partially addresses six, and does not address two of the
requirements found in the FY 2010 NDAA. For example, the senior leader
workforce plan addresses the requirement to identify any incentives
needed to attract and retain qualified senior leaders--including
offering benefits to civilian leaders that are comparable to the
benefits provided to general officers. Further, DOD's senior leader
workforce plan identifies changes needed in the number of personnel
authorized to address its growing civilian senior leader workforce
needs. However, the senior leader workforce plan partially addresses
legislative requirements such as the assessments of gaps in the
existing or future workforce. Specifically, gap analyses are ongoing
to identify the competencies that the existing senior leader workforce
needs. DOD's senior leader workforce plan also partially addresses the
legislative requirements for a plan of action to develop and reshape
the senior leader workforce that includes recruiting and retention
goals and strategies to develop, train, deploy, motivate, and
compensate the needed senior leaders. For example, the senior leader
workforce plan lacks information regarding the funding needed to
achieve its recruitment and retention goals as well as the funding
needed to implement strategies to develop, train, deploy, motivate,
and compensate the senior leader workforce. Finally, the workforce
plan does not address the assessment of skills of the existing or
future workforces. (See table 3.)
Table 3: GAO Assessment of the Extent to Which FY 2010 NDAA
Legislative Requirements Are Addressed in DOD's Senior Leader
Workforce Plan:
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(1) An assessment of the projected trends in the senior leader
workforce based on expected losses due to retirement and other
attrition [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan provides
projected workforce trends for senior leaders based on anticipated
retirement rates and other attrition. Further, the plan includes trend
projections for the Senior Executive Service and the Senior Leader,
the Science and Professional, and the intelligence community segments
of the senior leader workforce. This is a new requirement in the FY
2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(2) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any incentives necessary to attract or
retain any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies
identified [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement by identifying "any" incentives needed to
attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the identified
skills and competencies. Specifically, DOD recognizes a need to grow
and sustain a culture that values and respects members of the civilian
executive ranks as much as general and flag officers (G/FO) and
identified incentives to create such a culture. For example, DOD's
workforce plan identifies an administrative action that is under
consideration to provide civilian Senior Executive Service-level
personnel with parking, motor pool, and mess privileges equivalent to
those of G/FOs. In addition, DOD would support legislative action to
expand the use of special pay provisions granted under a pilot
project. This project created a special pay band beyond the General
Schedule 15 level to attract and retain senior scientists, engineers,
and technologists to scientific, engineering, and technical positions
who do not fully meet the criteria for either a Senior Executive
Service position or a Scientific and Professional position;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(3) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any changes in the number of personnel
authorized in any category of personnel in the senior leader workforce
that may be needed to address such gaps and effectively meet the needs
of the department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(2)(D)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. For example, DOD's workforce plan identifies
a number of changes needed in the number of personnel authorized and
stated that it expects executive requirements to increase by more than
400 positions by fiscal year 2015--over 60 percent of these
requirements are needs that cannot be filled within the department's
current executive allocations. Specifically, the plan identifies the
need for 240 additional senior leader allocations for fiscal year 2010
to satisfy emerging mission needs--including allocations for increased
medical requirements and to backfill positions previously held by
G/FOs who have been or will be deployed. Additionally, the components
identified a need for 25 senior leader allocations to address
shortfalls in the acquisition workforce;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(4) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any changes in resources or in the rates or
methods of pay for any category of personnel in the senior leader
workforce that may be needed to address inequities and ensure that the
department has full access to appropriately qualified personnel to
address such gaps and meet the needs of the department [10 U.S.C. §
115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(E)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. For example, the plan stated that DOD
supports legislative action to expand the use of special pay
provisions granted under a pilot project for senior scientists,
engineers, and technologists. This project created a special pay band
beyond the General Schedule 15 level to attract and retain candidates
to scientific, engineering, and technical positions who do not fully
meet the criteria for either a Senior Executive Service position or a
Scientific and Professional position. Finally, DOD is considering
bonuses to alleviate pay compression for the Science and Engineering
laboratory employees. Additionally, the plan states that DOD would
advocate legislative actions to expand the definition of Scientific or
Professional criteria to include Information Technology to allow use
of the Scientific or Professional pay system for highly specialized
work in information technology architecture, systems integration, and
information assurance;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(5) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any legislative changes that may be
necessary to achieve the goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(2)(F)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD has identified a need in
the intelligence MCO for an increase of 100 Defense Intelligence
Senior Executive Service positions, which would require legislation to
change 10 U.S.C. § 1606(a). DOD is seeking authorization for 50
Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service positions for fiscal
year 2011 and will seek to increase its authorization of Defense
Intelligence Senior Executive Service positions at a rate equal to the
Senior Executive Service allocation increase, not to exceed a total
increase of 100 positions. These increases would bring the total
authorization for Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service
positions to 694. Additionally, as stated above, DOD supports
legislative actions to expand the definition of Scientific and
Professional position criteria to include Information Technology as
well as Research and Development to allow use of the Scientific and
Professional position pay system for highly specialized work in
information technology architecture, systems integration, and
information assurance;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(6) Specific strategies for developing, training, deploying,
compensating, motivating, and designing career paths and career
opportunities [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan identifies
strategies for managing career paths and opportunities to include
talent management panels that are used to make career opportunities
available to the Senior Executive Service workforce. Additionally, the
plan discussed use of the Defense Talent Management System (DTMS) to
identify talent pools and succession plans and to share talent across
DOD. More specifically, it states that DTMS will be used to create
succession plans for executive positions, create and project executive
bench strength, define levels of executive potential, identify talent
pools at early and mid levels to be future top leaders, and share
talent across DOD. Some modules of the system are currently
operational and being used by the Army and the Air Force. DTMS is
expected to be fully operational for all components in 2010;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(7) Specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to
ensure that such workforce is managed in compliance with the
requirements of section 129 of this title [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(D)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan addresses this
legislative requirement by identifying plans to issue guidance
concerning compliance with 10 U.S.C. § 129. As we previously reported
on DOD's 2008 workforce plan,[A] DOD was in the process of developing
a new instruction that would explain the manpower and resources that
are allocated and managed to support the strategic objectives, daily
operation, and effective and economical administration of the
department. DOD's 2009 workforce plan, published March 2010,
reiterates this commitment to providing policies needed to ensure
compliance with 10 U.S.C. § 129 and states that the proposed
instruction was expected to go into final coordination by October
2009. However, at the time of our review, DOD officials stated that
this guidance had not yet been issued because the department had
originally planned to issue a directive-type memorandum,b but was
later instructed to issue an instruction that the department
anticipates issuing by the end of fiscal year 2010;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(8) An assessment of critical competencies that will be needed in the
future within the senior leader workforce by the Department of Defense
to support national security requirements and effectively manage the
department during the 7-year period following the year in which the
plan is submitted [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD collaborated with Office of
Personnel Management to assess the future critical skills and
competencies needed by its Senior Executive Service workforce. For
example, DOD used the Office of Personnel Management's Civilian Leader
Development Competency Assessment Survey to validate five core
competencies for the Senior Executive Service workforce. These
included leading change, leading people, results driven, business
acumen, building coalitions, and enterprisewide perspective. DOD also
identified three unique DOD competencies--joint perspective, national
security perspective, and enterprise perspective--which it will
require for some of its more advanced executives. In August 2008, DOD
administered the survey to supervisors, managers, and Senior Executive
Service members to establish a baseline for the capabilities of its
Senior Executive Service workforce. While the plan does not identify
critical competencies related to the Senior Leader and Scientific and
Professional positions, a DOD official stated that Subchapter 920 of
the DOD's Civilian Personnel Manual titled Executive and Senior
Professional Pay and Performance System contains performance elements
that would be similar to competencies for these positions.
Furthermore, the assessment of critical competencies for the senior
leader workforce does not cover the 7-year period following the year
in which the plan was submitted. The 7-year period is a revised
requirement in the FY 2010 NDAA--in the FY 2006 NDAA, DOD was required
to submit information for a 10-year period. Since DOD's workforce plan
was submitted in March 2010, the assessment of critical competencies
of the senior leader workforce would need to extend through fiscal
year 2017 to address the legislative requirement. DOD's workforce
plan, however, covers a different 7-year period--from fiscal year 2009
through fiscal year 2015;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(9) An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and
contractor personnel capabilities [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)]; Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan
partially addresses this legislative requirement. DOD's workforce plan
states that, due to gaps in the expertise of its senior leader
workforce in the 2000's, the use of contractors increased during that
time period, particularly after September 11, 2001. Furthermore, DOD's
workforce plan recognizes the need for an increase in civilian senior
leadership positions in part to replace existing contractors and
identifies the need for 240 additional senior leader allocations for
fiscal year 2010 to satisfy emerging mission needs--including
allocations to backfill positions previously held by General and Flag
Officers who have been or will be deployed. The plan, however, does
not identify what the appropriate level of military, civilian and
contractor personnel should be. This is a new requirement in the FY
2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(10) An assessment of the critical competencies of the existing senior
leader workforce of the department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan assessed
six OPM core competencies for its Senior Executive Service workforce
along with three unique DOD-specific competencies. The plan also
mentions that by September 30, 2010, the department will establish
joint capability competency requirements for 80 percent of DOD's
Senior Executive Service positions. It further states that by
September 2011, DOD would complete requirements for the remaining 20
percent. While the plan does not identify critical competencies
related to the Senior Leader and Scientific and Professional
positions, a DOD official stated that subchapter 920 of DOD's Civilian
Personnel Manual, titled "Executive and Senior Professional Pay and
Performance System," contains performance elements that would be
similar to competencies for these positions. We note that this
requirement is new in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(11) An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected senior leader
workforce of the department that should be addressed to ensure that
the department has continued access to the critical skills and
competencies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(D)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan identifies
gaps in the number of senior leader authorizations needed through
fiscal year 2015. However, as mentioned previously, while DOD has
identified core competencies for the existing Senior Executive Service
workforce, efforts are ongoing to assess the competency gaps for the
existing Senior Executive Service workforce. Specifically, DOD
administered a survey to supervisors, managers, and Senior Executive
Service members to establish a baseline for the core competencies of
its Senior Executive Service workforce. According to DOD officials, a
second survey will be completed and the results will be compared to
those of the first survey, which will allow DOD to identify its
competency gaps;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(12) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific recruiting and retention goals,
especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies,
including the program objectives of the department to be achieved
through such goals and the funding needed to achieve such goals [10
U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(A)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan has
identified recruiting and retention goals. However, the goals are not
based on competency gap analyses, and the plan does not discuss the
funding needed to achieve the recruiting and retention goals. As we
have previously reported,[A] analyses of gaps in critical skills and
critical competencies are essential to mapping out the current
condition of the workforce and deciding what needs to be done to
ensure that the department and components have the right mix of skills
and talent for the future. We note that the funding portion of this
requirement is new in the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(13) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific strategies for developing,
training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian
employee workforce of the department, including the program objectives
of the department to be achieved through such strategies and the
funding needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. §
115b(c)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)];
Comments: DOD's senior leader workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's workforce plan identifies
a number of strategies to develop, train, deploy, compensate, and
motivate the senior leader workforce. For example, DOD identifies a
pay-for-performance management system for it Senior Executive Service
and Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service personnel; is
considering providing Senior Executive Service personnel with parking,
motor pool, and mess privileges equivalent to those of their military
counterparts; and identifies succession planning models and leadership
development tools. Further, DOD has identified the need for special
pay authorization for a certain scientific, engineering, and technical
positions that do not fully meet the criteria for either a Senior
Executive Service position or a Scientific and Professional position.
A pilot program had authorized 40 such positions, but a recent DOD
study has identified the need for additional authorization for these
types of scientific, engineering, and technical positions. However,
the strategies in the senior leader workforce plan are not based on
completed gap analyses, and the plan does not discuss the funding
needed. We note that the funding portion of this requirement is new in
the FY 2010 NDAA;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(14) An assessment of critical skills that will be needed in the
future within the senior leader workforce by the Department of Defense
to support national security requirements and effectively manage the
department during the 7-year period following the year in which the
plan is submitted [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: While the plan does not identify critical skills related to
the Senior Leader and Scientific and Professional positions, a DOD
official stated that subchapter 920 of DOD's Civilian Personnel
Manual, titled "Executive and Senior Professional Pay and Performance
System," identifies some skills as part of performance elements
related to the senior leader workforce. However, another DOD official
stated that there were no critical skills related to the senior leader
workforce;
Our assessment: Not addressed--workforce plan does not discuss aspects
of the legislative requirement.
Senior leader workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(15) An assessment of the critical skills of the existing senior
leader workforce of the department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A); 10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: As discussed above, while the plan does not identify
critical skills related to the Senior Leader and Scientific and
Professional positions, a DOD official stated that subchapter 920 of
DOD's Civilian Personnel Manual, titled "Executive and Senior
Professional Pay and Performance System," identifies some skills as
part of performance elements related to the senior leader workforce.
However, another DOD official stated that there were no critical
skills related to the senior leader workforce;
Our assessment: Not addressed--workforce plan does not discuss aspects
of the legislative requirement.
Source: GAO analysis of DOD data.
Notes:
[A] GAO-09-235.
[B] Per DOD, a directive-type memorandum is a memorandum issued to
make policy, implement policy, or establish procedures that because of
time constraints, cannot be published in the DOD Directives System. A
directive-type memorandum shall be effective for no more than 180 days
from the date signed, unless an extension is approved, during which
time the memorandum shall be incorporated into an existing DOD
issuance, converted to a new DOD issuance, reissued, or canceled.
[End of table]
DOD's Acquisition Workforce Plan Addresses 5, Partially Addresses 10,
and Does Not Address 1 of the Legislative Requirements of the FY 2010
NDAA:
DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses 5, partially addresses 10,
and does not address 1 of the legislative requirements.[Footnote 28]
In support of the strategy outlined in the Secretary of Defense's
April 2009 memorandum to resize and rebalance the acquisition
workforce, DOD's plan identified planned workforce growth, specified
recruitment and retention goals, and forecasted workforce-wide
attrition and retirement trends. In that regard, the plan addresses
the legislative requirement to identify changes in the number of
authorized personnel to address gaps and meet the needs of the
department. Specifically, the plan states that DOD will grow by
approximately 20,000 new personnel through fiscal year 2015. Among the
elements partially addressed were (1) the current mix of civilian,
military, and contractor personnel; (2) a complete assessment of the
critical skills of DOD's acquisition workforce; (3) a complete
assessment of the critical competencies of DOD's acquisition
workforce; and (4) the funds needed to support improvements to the
acquisition workforce. For example, the plan did not identify what the
appropriate mix of its total acquisition workforce should be, though
it states that guidance is in place for determining the appropriate
workforce mix and that DOD is inventorying its use of contractors and
incorporated in-sourcing as a key component of DOD's growth strategy.
Similarly, DOD's plan partially addresses the legislative requirement
to assess the critical skills and competencies of its acquisition
workforce. While DOD has completed the competency assessment of its
contracting career field, it has not completed assessments of the
remaining 12 career fields, which are in various stages of progress.
DOD's plan provided information on personnel certification levels--an
indicator of the level of required education, training, and experience
for a particular position--across all 13 of the functional career
fields. While the plan did not include information on the funding
needed to achieve DOD's human capital initiatives for the acquisition
workforce, DOD subsequently issued a separate report on September 14,
2010. As the report was issued after the completion of our audit work,
we did not have the opportunity to review and assess it. Finally, the
plan did not address the requirement to identify any legislative
changes that would be needed to allow the department to achieve its
goals to improve the acquisition workforce. (See table 4.)
Table 4: Summary of Extent to Which DOD's Acquisition Workforce Plan
Addresses the Legislative Requirements in the FY2010 NDAA:
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(1) An assessment of projected trends in the existing civilian
workforce based on expected losses due to retirement and other
attrition [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses this legislative
requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan provides projected
trends in the workforce based on anticipated workforce gains and
losses, hiring and retention levels, retirement trends, and
anticipated separation rates both across the workforce and the defense
components. For example, officials stated that acquisition workforce
growth targets were exceeded in fiscal year 2009 and that DOD is on
target to meet or exceed growth targets in fiscal year 2010. Further,
the plan indicated that overall turnover rates across the acquisition
workforce decreased in fiscal year 2009, likely because of, in part,
the economy. Nevertheless, the plan also states that a significant
portion of the acquisition workforce will be eligible to retire over
the next 5 years. Currently, approximately 19,400 civilians are
eligible to retire and another 21,600 will become eligible during this
period. Finally, DOD anticipates that this trend in retirement-
eligible civilians will continue through fiscal year 2019;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(2) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies, including any incentives necessary to attract or retain
any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies
identified [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses this legislative
requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan identifies specific
recruitment and retention incentives being used across the workforce
to attract and retain personnel, including targeted hiring strategies,
such as the rehiring of experienced annuitants or the selective hiring
of highly qualified experts, the use of retention bonuses and
recognition programs, as well as student loan repayment and tuition
assistance programs;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(3) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any changes in the number of personnel
authorized in the acquisition workforce that may be needed to address
such gaps and effectively meet the needs of the department [10 U.S.C.
§ 115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(D)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses this legislative
requirement. The plan outlines strategies for growing the acquisition
workforce through retention, new hiring, and in-sourcing initiatives,
which reflect DOD's efforts to address gaps in the numbers of
authorized personnel in the workforce and to meet the needs of the
department. Specifically, the plan identifies DOD's overall
acquisition workforce improvement strategy, which targets the
workforce for growth by 20,000 additional personnel by fiscal year
2015 and further indicates how that planned growth is to be allocated
across each of the 13 acquisition career fields. Also, noting a
significant increase in the demands and complexity of the workload, an
increased use of contractors, and a decline in the size of its organic
acquisition workforce, officials cited an overarching goal to return
the total acquisition workforce to a size above its 1998 level of
approximately 146,000 personnel by 2015;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(4) Specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to
develop appropriate career paths for civilian employees in the
acquisition field [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses this legislative
requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan identifies a civilian
career path and certification framework established based on DAWIA,
which sets forth career certification standards and provides career
development opportunities by acquisition career field. For example,
the plan indicates that the acquisition workforce management framework
based on DAWIA assigns certification standards--Level I-Basic, Level
II-Intermediate, or Level III-Advanced--based on the complexity and
scope of a position's responsibilities and also assigns minimum
education, training, and experience requirements needed to perform the
acquisition mission. While minimum standards are established, the plan
identifies several efforts to augment career certification and career
development requirements. Specifically, the plan identifies DOD's
initiatives to validate career certification standards via the
competency assessments, expand job-specific training--such as the Core
Plus concept, which ensures that personnel have access to job-specific
training beyond the minimum requirements--and increase experience
requirements in several career areas;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(5) Specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to
implement the requirements of section 1722a of this title with regard
to members of the armed forces in the acquisition field [10 U.S.C. §
115b(d)(2)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan addresses this legislative
requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan identifies policies and
guidance on military career paths, provides military career path
models, cites the reservation of acquisition-coded billets for command
and senior noncommissioned officer positions and increased promotional
opportunities, and reflects efforts and initiatives directed toward
improving DOD's contingency contracting capacity. For example, both
the Army and the Air Force explicitly identify policies or guidance
designed to develop military personnel within the acquisition
workforce. In addition, the plan identifies career path models and
career paths for officers and enlisted personnel within all three
military departments. For example, the Air Force advocates the
development of Air Force contracting general officers up to the three-
star level to alleviate shortfalls in promotional opportunities for
Air Force contracting personnel beyond the rank of colonel. Further,
the plan indicates that DOD had reserved 84 billets for G/FOs in
fiscal year 2009 for the acquisition workforce, including assignments
in commands and as program managers. DOD also reported that it had
more than 414 senior noncommissioned officers in the acquisition
workforce in fiscal year 2009. Lastly, the Army and the Navy
identified efforts to increase their contingency contracting capacity;
Our assessment: Addressed--workforce plan discussed all aspects of the
legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(6) An assessment of the critical skills that will be needed in the
future within the civilian employee workforce by the Department of
Defense to support national security requirements and effectively
manage the department during the 7-year period following the year in
which the plan is submitted [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. While the plan provides data on all 13
acquisition career fields, including identifying targeted growth for
each career field by 2015, the plan does not explicitly identify
critical skills needed by the future workforce for each. Under
Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics
officials have indicated that critical skills and competencies are not
treated separately within the Defense Acquisition Workforce
Improvement Strategy. These officials noted that competencies are "an
observable, measurable set of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors
and other characteristics" which enable personnel to successfully
perform the functions of their occupation. Further, according to these
officials, the competency assessments serve as a baseline for
understanding the current inventory of skills and those skills needed
in the future. Competency assessments are being conducted to update
and validate existing competencies for all 13 career fields. To date,
an assessment for the contracting career field has been completed, and
assessments of the 12 remaining communities are in various stages of
progress. Moreover, DOD has identified shortages in other skill areas
that have been targeted for recruitment and expanded training. For
example, the plan reported that a retention and talent management
strategy has been implemented to address shortages in cost estimating,
systems engineering, and program management. Further, DOD indicated
that its portfolio of executive and leadership courses at the mid and
senior grade levels has been expanded. In addition, the contracting
and oversight workforce, including the Defense Contract Management
Agency and the Defense Contract Audit Agency, has been targeted for
growth;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(7) An assessment of the critical competencies that will be needed in
the future within the civilian employee workforce by the Department of
Defense to support national security requirements and effectively
manage the department during the 7-year period following the year in
which the plan is submitted [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. §
115b(b)(1)(A)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. While the plan provides data on all 13
acquisition career fields, including identifying targeted growth for
each career field by 2015, the plan does not explicitly identify
critical competencies needed by the future workforce. Competency
assessments are being conducted to update and validate existing
competencies for all 13 career fields. To date, an assessment for the
contracting community has been completed, and assessments of the 12
remaining career fields are ongoing and in various stages of
completion. Moreover, DOD has identified shortages in other areas that
have been targeted for recruitment and expanded training. For example,
the plan reported that a retention and talent management strategy has
been implemented to address shortages in cost estimating, systems
engineering, and program management. Further, DOD indicated that its
portfolio of executive and leadership courses at the mid and senior
grade levels has been expanded. In addition, the contracting and
oversight workforce, including the Defense Contract Management Agency
and the Defense Contract Audit Agency, has been targeted for growth;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(8) An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and
contractor personnel capabilities [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, the plan provides detailed
information about the civilian workforce, identifies specific guidance
that is in place for determining the appropriate workforce mix,
indicates that initiatives have begun that are aimed at inventorying
the use of contractors across all 13 career fields, and details how in-
sourcing has been incorporated as a key component of the acquisition
workforce growth strategy. For example, the plan reported that under
DOD's acquisition workforce growth strategy, 10,000 positions will be
in-sourced by 2015. However, the workforce plan does not provide an
assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and
contractor personnel across the 13 career fields. In addition, while
the plan provides information on military personnel currently serving
in the acquisition workforce, it does not identify specific growth
targets for military personnel or provide data on the current or
future contractor personnel in DOD's total acquisition workforce;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(9) An assessment of the critical skills of the existing civilian
acquisition workforce of the department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10
U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,
Technology and Logistics officials have indicated that critical skills
and competencies are not treated separately within the Defense
Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy. These officials noted that
competencies are "an observable, measurable set of skills, knowledge,
abilities, behaviors and other characteristics" which enable personnel
to successfully perform the functions of their occupation. Further,
according to these officials, the competency assessments serve as a
baseline for understanding the current inventory of skills and those
skills needed in the future. While the plan does not explicitly
identify critical skills needed by the existing acquisition workforce
and competency assessments are still ongoing for 12 of the 13 career
fields, certification levels and certification rates across the 13
career fields and DOD components were reported, reflecting the
complexity and scope of position responsibilities and representing
competencies and skill sets needed to perform the acquisition mission;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(10) An assessment of the critical competencies of the existing
civilian acquisition workforce of the department [10 U.S.C. §
115b(d)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. While the plan does not explicitly identify
critical competencies needed by the existing acquisition workforce and
competency assessments are still ongoing for 12 of the 13 career
fields, certification levels and certification rates across the 13
career fields and DOD components were reported, reflecting the
complexity and scope of position responsibilities and representing
competencies and skill sets needed to perform the acquisition mission;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(11) An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected acquisition
workforce of the department that should be addressed to ensure that
the department has continued access to the critical skills and
competencies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(A); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(D)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. Specifically, DOD's acquisition workforce
plan identified current workforce size, planned growth targets,
projected retirement trends, as well as certification rates,
reflecting gaps in size and experience, gaps in training, and gaps in
specialized skills and knowledge across the 13 career fields and 4
defense components. For example, the plan details how the targeted
growth will be allocated across each of the 13 acquisition career
fields. Specifically the contracting and systems planning, research,
development, and engineering fields are targeted for the largest
allocations of growth at 26 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Further, the plan projected the workforce gains and losses needed to
achieve and maintain targeted growth across the civilian workforce
through fiscal year 2017 and outlines DOD's AT&L Workforce Lifecycle
Model, which identifies and depicts the distribution of experience
levels among the members of its acquisition workforce by years-to-
retirement eligibility. However, the plan did not explicitly identify
critical skills and competencies needed by the acquisition workforce,
and competency assessments are still ongoing for 12 of the 13
functional career fields;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(12) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific recruiting and retention goals,
especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies,
including the program objectives of the department to be achieved
through such goals and the funding needed to achieve such goals [10
U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(A)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan identifies
the annual hiring and retention levels needed to reach and sustain
targeted growth across each of the 13 acquisition career fields. For
example, according to DOD, under its current growth strategy, annual
hiring levels for fiscal years 2010 and 2011 must be sustained around
15,000 and 12,500 personnel, respectively, while retention efforts
need to ensure losses remain below 8,000 for fiscal year 2010 and
8,500 in fiscal year 2011. DOD's plan also cites a separate
supplemental report that is intended to address workforce funding
matters. DOD subsequently issued a separate report on September 14,
2010. As the report was issued after the completion of our audit work,
we did not have the opportunity to review and assess it;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(13) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes specific strategies for developing,
training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian
employee workforce of the department, including the program objectives
of the department to be achieved through such strategies and the
funding needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. §
115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. DOD's acquisition workforce plan directly
links its workforce growth and improvement initiatives to DOD's
overall acquisition workforce improvement strategy for rightsizing,
reshaping, and rebalancing the defense acquisition workforce that was
cited in the Secretary of Defense's April 2009 memorandum. For
example, DOD indicated that initiatives are being implemented to
recruit interns, midlevel personnel, highly qualified experts, and
separating members of the military and veterans into the acquisition
workforce. Further, as part of DOD's Defense Acquisition Workforce
Certification Improvement Initiative, the plan indicated that as the
result of reviews of career field experience and training requirements
by functional career area leaders, the experience requirements for the
engineering and cost estimating fields have already been increased.
Further, the plan cites implementation of longstanding and recently
implemented awards in a dedicated appendix. These awards recognize
individuals, teams, and organizations across DOD; the military
departments; and defense agencies for successes in the field of
acquisitions. DOD's plan also cites a separate supplemental report
that is intended to address workforce funding matters, which DOD
subsequently issued on September 14, 2010. As the report was issued
after the completion of our audit work, we did not have the
opportunity to review and assess it;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(14) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any changes in resources or in the rates or
methods of pay for any category of personnel in the acquisition
workforce that may be needed to address inequities and ensure that the
department has full access to appropriately qualified personnel to
address such gaps and meet the needs of the department [10 U.S.C. §
115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(E)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. While no specific changes in rates or methods
of pay were identified in the acquisition workforce plan, the plan did
indicate that DOD was prepared to implement enterprise incentives and
pay policies targeting mission-critical functions to ensure
competitiveness for attracting and retaining personnel with critical
skills. Additionally, the Air Force indicated that as part of its
efforts to attract and retain personnel with critical expertise and
capabilities, such as science, technology, engineering, and math
degrees, to its workforce, the Air Force acquisition community would
monitor regional compensation and grade structure and, when
appropriate, initiate actions to ensure that employment with the Air
Force remains competitive with that of other government agencies;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(15) A plan for funding needed improvements in the acquisition
workforce of the department through the period of the future-years
defense program, including the funding programmed for defense
acquisition workforce improvements, including a specific
identification of funding provided in the Department of Defense
Acquisition Workforce Fund established under section 1705 of this
title, along with a description of how such funding is being
implemented and whether it is being fully used, and a description of
any continuing shortfalls in funding available for the acquisition
workforce [10 U.S.C. § 115b(d)(2)(D)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan partially addresses this
legislative requirement. DOD's plan cites a separate supplemental
report that is intended to address workforce funding matters,
including funding under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development
Fund and how funding is being implemented. DOD subsequently issued a
separate report on September 14, 2010. As the report was issued after
the completion of our audit work, we did not have the opportunity to
review and assess it. However, our review of the draft funding plan
indicates that DOD has identified the sources, amounts, and projected
uses of the funds programmed for acquisition workforce improvements
through fiscal year 2011, but does not cover the period through the
current future-years defense program as required by the legislation;
Our assessment: Partially addressed--workforce plan discussed some
aspects of the legislative requirement.
Acquisition workforce legislative requirements and comments:
(16) A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian
workforce of the department to address the gaps in critical skills and
competencies that includes any legislative changes that may be
necessary to achieve its recruiting and retention goals [10 U.S.C. §
115b(d)(2)(B); 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(F)];
Comments: DOD's acquisition workforce plan does not address this
legislative requirement. DOD officials noted, however, that a DOD
legislative proposal to make adjustments and expand the Expedited
Hiring Authority was implemented in the 2010 National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010. These officials noted that no
legislative proposals specifically regarding the defense acquisition
workforce were submitted by the Administration for fiscal year 2011;
Our assessment: Not addressed--workforce plan does not discuss aspects
of the legislative requirement.
Source: GAO analysis of DOD data.
[End of table]
[End of Enclosure V]
Enclosure VI:
GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Brenda S. Farrell, (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov:
John K. Needham (202) 512-5274 or needhamjk1@gao.gov:
Acknowledgments:
In addition to the individuals named above, Marion Gatling, Assistant
Director; Timothy DiNapoli, Assistant Director; Patrick Breiding;
Alysia Darjean; Scott Doubleday; Kristine Hassinger; Joanne Landesman;
Ashley Lipton; Brian Mateja; Lonnie McAllister; Sophia Payind; Brian
Pegram; Terry L. Richardson; Roxanna Sun; Angela Thomas; John Van
Schaik; and John Wren made key contributions to this report.
[End of Enclosure VI]
Footnotes:
[1] Department of Defense, Civilian Personnel Management Services
March 31, 2010 Demographics (Washington, D.C., March 2010).
[2] For example, section 1102 of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2007 mandated that DOD's update to its human
capital strategic plan cover senior management, functional, and
technical personnel (including scientists and engineers) which
includes the following categories of DOD civilian personnel: (1)
appointees in the Senior Executive Service under section 3131 of title
5, United States Code; (2) persons serving in positions described in
section 5376(a) of title 5, United States Code; (3) highly qualified
experts appointed pursuant to section 9903 of title 5, United States
Code; (4) scientists and engineers appointed pursuant to section
342(b) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995
(Pub. L. No. 103-337 (1994)), as amended by section 1114 of the Floyd
D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (as
enacted into law by Pub. L. No. 106-398 (2000)); (5) scientists and
engineers appointed pursuant to section 1101 of the Strom Thurmond
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 (5 U.S.C. §
3104 note); (6) persons serving in the Defense Intelligence Senior
Executive Service under section 1606 of title 10, United States Code;
(7) persons serving in Intelligence Senior Level positions under
section 1607 of title 10, United States Code. For the purposes of this
report, senior management, functional, and technical personnel will be
referred to as the senior leader workforce.
[3] DOD defines its defense acquisition workforce as those personnel
who work within 13 designated acquisition career fields, based on the
Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA). Pub. L. No. 101-
510 § 1202(a) (1990) (codified, as amended, at 10 U.S.C. § 1721(a),
(b)). These 13 career fields are (1) contracting; (2) systems,
planning, research, development, and engineering--program and systems
engineering career paths; (3) systems, planning, research,
development, and engineering (science and technology career path); (4)
program management; (5) life cycle logistics; (6) business (cost
estimating and financial management career paths); (7) production,
quality and manufacturing; (8) audit; (9) information technology; (10)
facilities engineering; (11) test and evaluation; (12) industrial
property management, contract property management, or both; and (13)
purchasing.
[4] Department of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review Report (February
2010).
[5] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-271] (Washington, D.C.: January
2009).
[6] GAO, Human Capital: Opportunities Exist to Build on Recent
Progress to Strengthen DOD's Civilian Human Capital Strategic Plan,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235] (Washington, D.C.:
Feb. 10, 2009); and The Department of Defense's Civilian Human Capital
Strategic Plan Does Not Meet Most Statutory Requirements, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-439R] (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 6,
2008).
[7] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235].
[8] In November 2008, DOD established the program management office to
develop and monitor overall civilian workforce trends, competency
assessments, and gap analyses associated with its strategic workforce
planning efforts. Similarly, in October 2008, DOD established the
executive management office to oversee DOD's efforts concerning talent
management, succession planning, and other issues associated with the
strategic workforce planning for the senior leader workforce.
[9] Pub. L. No. 111-84 § 1108(a) (2009). This act incorporated
reporting requirements from the fiscal year 2006, fiscal year 2007,
and fiscal year 2008 National Defense Authorization Acts, established
some new requirements, and repealed the previous legislation.
[10] Our body of work has consistently defined a workforce gap
analysis as referring to gaps in critical skills and competencies. See
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235]; DOD Civilian
Personnel: Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plans Needed, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-753] (Washington, D.C.: June 30,
2004); Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and
Development Efforts in the Federal Government, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-893G] (Washington, D.C.: July
2003); and A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-02-373SP] (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15,
2002).
[11] Department of Defense, Report on the Strategic Human Capital Plan
for Civilian Employees of the Department of Defense 2006-2010
(Washington, D.C., March 2010). DOD subsequently submitted its report
on the acquisition workforce, Department of Defense, The Defense
Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy, (Washington, D.C., April
27, 2010). The plan is referred to as an appendix to the overall human
capital plan. Additionally, the FY 2006 NDAA required DOD's 2009
update to the Civilian Human Capital Strategic Workforce Plan to be
submitted on March 1, 2009.
[12] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235].
[13] The Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy plan provided
summary information on DOD's acquisition human capital management
efforts, as well as information by military department, selected
defense agencies, and 8 of the 13 functional career fields that
constitute 90 percent of the defense acquisition workforce. We
assessed key sections of the plan, which covered defense acquisition
workforce strategies, analytics, and initiatives, and appendixes that
covered the contracting and production quality and manufacturing
career fields; the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Defense Contract
Management Agency workforces; and acquisition career paths, critical
acquisition functions, and defense acquisition workforce awards. We
reviewed the appendixes related to the other career fields included in
the strategy--such as business (cost estimating and financial
management), information technology, and life cycle logistics--but did
not assess them for the purposes of this report.
[14] Specifically, we relied on previous data reliability assessments
from [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-753] and DOD
Personnel: Documentation of the Army's Civilian Workforce-Planning
Model Needed to Enhance Credibility, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-1046] (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 22,
2003). We also conducted interviews with responsible agency officials
concerning the completeness and reliability of data presented in the
strategic workforce plan.
[15] Functional community managers are appointed by their respective
under secretaries and are responsible for monitoring the strategic
human capital planning efforts for their respective communities,
including workforce forecasting, competency assessment, and strategy
development.
[16] We reviewed the FY 2010 NDAA and identified 14 elements within
the legislation applicable to the civilian workforce which were used
to conduct our assessment of DOD's strategic workforce plan.
[17] DOD has identified 24 enterprisewide mission-critical
occupations; 22 of these occupations are associated specifically with
the overall civilian workforce and are discussed in the strategic
workforce plan, while, the remaining 2 are acquisition-related
occupations--contracting and quality assurance--and are discussed in
the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Strategy (published as a
separate report).
[18] According to our 2009 report, DOD officials stated that
enterprisewide mission-critical occupations are used in DOD's updated
strategic plan to refer to both critical skills and competencies. GAO-
09-235.
[19] We reviewed the FY 2010 NDAA and identified 15 elements within
the legislation applicable to the senior leader workforce which were
used to conduct our assessment of DOD's senior leader workforce plan.
[20] We reviewed the FY 2010 NDAA and identified 16 elements within
the legislation applicable to the acquisition workforce which were
used to conduct our assessment of DOD's acquisition workforce plan.
[21] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-753].
[22] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235].
[23] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-235]; Results-
Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and
Organizational Transformation, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/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/products/GAO/GGD-96-118] (Washington, D.C.: June
1996).
[24] Pub. L. No. 101-510 § 1202(a) (1990) (codified, as amended, at 10
U.S.C. § 1721(a), (b))(2010).
[25] Specifically, we relied on previous data reliability assessments
from [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-753] and
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-1046].
[26] GAO expects to issue the report for this ongoing work in October
2010.
[27] Specifically, we analyzed three chapters--which covered defense
acquisition workforce strategies, analytics, and initiatives--and key
supporting appendixes that cover career fields such as: contracting,
and production quality and management; and separate strategic
workforce plans for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Defense Contract
Management Agency workforces; along with the separate appendices
discussing Acquisition Career Paths, Critical Acquisition Functions,
and Defense Acquisition Workforce Awards.
[28] The acquisition workforce plan is available at [hyperlink,
https://acc.dau.mil/acquisitionworkforce].
[End of section]
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