Workforce Planning
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Should Strengthen Linkages to Their Strategic Plans and Improve Evaluation Gao ID: GAO-10-413 March 31, 2010GAO and others have shown that successful organizations use strategic workforce planning to help meet present and future mission requirements. Although agency approaches to strategic workforce planning can vary depending on needs and mission, GAO and the Office of Personnel Management have identified six leading principles that workforce planning should address. The Appropriations Committees directed GAO to review workforce planning at the Department of the Interior (Interior), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. GAO examined (1) workforce planning processes used at each agency, (2) the extent to which these processes incorporate the six principles, and (3) how, if at all, the agencies link workforce planning with the annual budget allocation processes. GAO reviewed agencies' workforce plans, strategic plans, and budget documents and interviewed human resources, planning, and budget officials.
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service vary in their approaches to workforce planning. Interior's workforce planning occurs at its eight bureaus, which use departmental guidance to develop their own workforce plans in a generally consistent format. EPA issued an agencywide plan in 2006 that is currently being updated, and the Forest Service has issued annual agencywide workforce plans since 2007. The agencies vary in the extent to which they incorporate the six leading workforce planning principles, but they generally do not link their workforce plans and their strategic plans or monitor and evaluate their workforce planning efforts. The six leading principles and agency actions are as follows: (1) Align workforce planning with strategic planning and budget formulation. The agencies generally do not align their workforce and strategic plans and differ in whether they considered their workforce plans when formulating their budgets. (2) Involve managers, employees, and other stakeholders in planning. The agencies varied in the extent to which they involved top managers and others in developing workforce plans. (3) Identify critical occupations, skills, and competencies and analyze workforce gaps. The agencies have taken some steps to identify mission-critical occupations and competencies, which form the basis for much of the agencies' workforce planning. (4) Develop strategies to address workforce gaps. The agencies have identified some strategies to address certain workforce gaps. (5) Build capacity to support workforce strategies. The agencies varied in the actions they have taken to support workforce planning efforts through the effective use of human capital flexibilities, such as recruitment and retention incentives. (6) Monitor and evaluate progress. The agencies generally have not monitored and evaluated the results of their workforce planning efforts. The agencies do not directly link their workforce planning and budget allocation processes. At Interior, although unit and program officials in some bureaus use workforce plans to distribute staff geographically, the bureaus do not track how program officials use workforce plans to allocate funds. EPA's process for allocating resources involves making annual incremental adjustments to prior year allocations and does not directly link to workforce plans. The Forest Service's budget allocation guidance does not mention workforce planning directly. However, according to Forest Service executive leaders, the agency takes workforce planning information into consideration at the unit and program levels during budget formulation and again during the annual budget allocation process.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director: Team: Phone:GAO-10-413, Workforce Planning: Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Should Strengthen Linkages to Their Strategic Plans and Improve Evaluation
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Report to Congressional Committees:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
March 2010:
Workforce Planning:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Should Strengthen Linkages to
Their Strategic Plans and Improve Evaluation:
GAO-10-413:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-10-413, a report to congressional committees.
Why GAO Did This Study:
GAO and others have shown that successful organizations use strategic
workforce planning to help meet present and future mission
requirements. Although agency approaches to strategic workforce
planning can vary depending on needs and mission, GAO and the Office
of Personnel Management have identified six leading principles that
workforce planning should address. The Appropriations Committees
directed GAO to review workforce planning at the Department of the
Interior (Interior), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
the Department of Agriculture‘s Forest Service. GAO examined (1)
workforce planning processes used at each agency, (2) the extent to
which these processes incorporate the six principles, and (3) how, if
at all, the agencies link workforce planning with the annual budget
allocation processes. GAO reviewed agencies‘ workforce plans,
strategic plans, and budget documents and interviewed human resources,
planning, and budget officials.
What GAO Found:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service vary in their approaches to
workforce planning. Interior‘s workforce planning occurs at its eight
bureaus, which use departmental guidance to develop their own
workforce plans in a generally consistent format. EPA issued an
agencywide plan in 2006 that is currently being updated, and the
Forest Service has issued annual agencywide workforce plans since 2007.
The agencies vary in the extent to which they incorporate the six
leading workforce planning principles, but they generally do not link
their workforce plans and their strategic plans or monitor and
evaluate their workforce planning efforts. The six leading principles
and agency actions are as follows:
* Align workforce planning with strategic planning and budget
formulation. The agencies generally do not align their workforce and
strategic plans and differ in whether they considered their workforce
plans when formulating their budgets.
* Involve managers, employees, and other stakeholders in planning. The
agencies varied in the extent to which they involved top managers and
others in developing workforce plans.
* Identify critical occupations, skills, and competencies and analyze
workforce gaps. The agencies have taken some steps to identify mission-
critical occupations and competencies, which form the basis for much
of the agencies‘ workforce planning.
* Develop strategies to address workforce gaps. The agencies have
identified some strategies to address certain workforce gaps.
* Build capacity to support workforce strategies. The agencies varied
in the actions they have taken to support workforce planning efforts
through the effective use of human capital flexibilities, such as
recruitment and retention incentives.
* Monitor and evaluate progress. The agencies generally have not
monitored and evaluated the results of their workforce planning
efforts.
The agencies do not directly link their workforce planning and budget
allocation processes. At Interior, although unit and program officials
in some bureaus use workforce plans to distribute staff
geographically, the bureaus do not track how program officials use
workforce plans to allocate funds. EPA‘s process for allocating
resources involves making annual incremental adjustments to prior year
allocations and does not directly link to workforce plans. The Forest
Service‘s budget allocation guidance does not mention workforce
planning directly. However, according to Forest Service executive
leaders, the agency takes workforce planning information into
consideration at the unit and program levels during budget formulation
and again during the annual budget allocation process.
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends, among other things, that the agencies establish
mechanisms to monitor and evaluate their workforce planning efforts.
In commenting on a draft of this report, EPA generally agreed with the
recommendations but proposed a modification, and the Forest Service
generally agreed with the report‘s findings and conclusions. Interior
provided a technical comment.
View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-413] or key
components. For more information, contact Anu K. Mittal at (202) 512-
3841 or mittala@gao.gov, or John B. Stephenson at (202) 512-3841 or
stephensonj@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Background:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Vary in Their Approaches to
Workforce Planning:
Agencies Vary in the Extent to Which They Incorporate Leading
Workforce Planning Principles:
Agencies Do Not Directly Link Their Workforce Planning with Budget
Allocation:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix I: Briefing Slides:
Appendix II: Scope and Methodology:
Appendix III: Full-Time Equivalent Employees at Interior, EPA, and the
Forest Service from Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010:
Appendix IV: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by Interior, EPA,
and the Forest Service:
Appendix V: Comments from the Environmental Protection Agency:
Appendix VI: Comments from the Forest Service:
Appendix VII: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
Tables:
Table 1: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at Interior and Its
Eight Bureaus, Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010, as Reported in
Interior's Budgets in Brief for Fiscal Years 2001 through 2011:
Table 2: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at EPA, Fiscal Years
1999 through 2010, as Reported in EPA's Annual Congressional
Justification Reports Fiscal Years 2001 through 2010:
Table 3: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at the Forest
Service, Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010, as Reported in the Forest
Service's Budget Justification Reports for Fiscal Years 2001 through
2010:
Table 4: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified in the Workforce
Plans of Interior's Bureaus, Fiscal Year 2008:
Table 5: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by the Environmental
Protection Agency, as of December 2009:
Table 6: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by the Forest
Service, as of January 2010:
Abbreviations:
EPA: Environmental Protection Agency:
FTE: full-time equivalent:
Interior: Department of the Interior:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
OPM: Office of Personnel Management:
[End of section]
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
March 31, 2010:
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein:
Madam Chairman:
The Honorable Lamar Alexander:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
The Honorable James P. Moran:
Chairman:
The Honorable Michael K. Simpson:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies:
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives:
The ability of federal agencies to achieve their missions and carry
out their responsibilities depends in large part on whether they can
sustain a workforce that possesses the necessary education, knowledge,
skills, and competencies. We and others have shown that successful
public and private organizations use strategic management approaches
to prepare their workforces to meet present and future mission
requirements. Strategic human capital management--which includes
workforce planning--helps ensure that agencies have the talent and
skill mix they need to address their current and emerging human
capital and other challenges, such as long-term fiscal constraints and
changing demographics. Preparing a strategic human capital plan
encourages agency managers and stakeholders to systematically consider
what is to be done, how it will be done, and how to gauge progress and
results. In 2001, we first identified strategic human capital
management as a high-risk area because of the federal government's
long-standing lack of a consistent approach to human capital
management. In 2010, while agencies and Congress have taken steps to
address the federal government's human capital shortfalls, strategic
human capital management remains a high-risk area because of the
continuing need for a governmentwide framework to advance human
capital reform.
Strategic workforce planning addresses two critical needs: (1)
aligning an organization's human capital program with its current and
emerging mission and programmatic goals and (2) developing long-term
strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining staff to achieve
programmatic goals. Agency approaches to such planning can vary with
each agency's particular needs and mission. While different approaches
may be appropriate, we and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
have identified six leading principles that such approaches should
incorporate regardless of the context in which planning is done.
[Footnote 1] Specifically, agencies need to:
* align workforce planning with strategic planning and budget
formulation;
* involve managers, employees, and other stakeholders;
* identify critical occupations, skills, and competencies and analyze
workforce gaps;
* employ workforce strategies to fill the gaps;
* build the capabilities needed to support workforce strategies
through steps to ensure the effective use of human capital
flexibilities;[Footnote 2] and:
* monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving workforce planning
and strategic goals.
In the Explanatory Statement accompanying the Omnibus Appropriations
Act of 2009, the Appropriations Committees expressed concern that
workforce plans for the Department of the Interior (Interior), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of
Agriculture's Forest Service may be outdated and that the agencies may
not have undertaken comprehensive reviews of staffing needs for the
future.[Footnote 3] The Explanatory Statement directed us to review
existing workforce planning processes at these agencies.
As agreed with your offices, this report examines (1) the workforce
planning processes in place at Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service;
(2) the extent to which workforce planning at these agencies
incorporates leading principles that we and OPM have identified; and
(3) how, if at all, these agencies link workforce planning with their
annual budget allocation processes. We briefed your offices on the
preliminary results of our work on December 17 and 18, 2009. As agreed
with your offices, this report provides more detail on the information
we presented at these briefings, and appendix I contains the briefing
slides we provided.
To conduct this review, we examined the current workforce planning
processes at Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service. The periods
reviewed at each agency varied because each agency had developed its
plans at different times. Specifically, at Interior, we reviewed
workforce planning efforts at the eight bureaus from fiscal year 2008,
when the bureaus issued their most current workforce plans, through
December 2009. At EPA, we focused on workforce planning at the
agencywide level from fiscal year 2006 through December 2009 because
the most current workforce plan was issued in 2006. Finally, at the
Forest Service, we focused on agencywide workforce planning from
fiscal year 2007, when the agency established its current workforce
planning process, through December 2009. Because our review focused on
workforce planning at the agencywide or bureau levels, we conducted
limited work at lower-level units, such as regions. We reviewed agency
and bureau workforce plans, strategic plans, budget documents, and
guidance and, in limited cases, documents from other levels in the
organizations, and updated the budget information from the briefing
for this report. We interviewed agency and bureau planning, human
resources, budget, and program officials responsible for these plans.
A more detailed description of our scope and methodology is presented
in appendix II.
We conducted this performance audit from July 2009 through March 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 audit objectives. We believe
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Background:
The three agencies we reviewed--Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service--
have broad missions and differ in organizational structure and
workforce size.[Footnote 4]
Interior's mission is to protect and manage the nation's natural
resources and cultural heritage; provide scientific and other
information about those resources; and honor its trust
responsibilities. To carry out this mission, Interior and its eight
bureaus employ about 70,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees who
account for almost 55 percent of the department's operating budget,
[Footnote 5],[Footnote 6] and over 200,000 volunteers. Interior's
workforce is distributed across about 2,400 locations nationwide, and
the department's regional and field structure varies by bureau. For
fiscal year 2010, Interior received appropriations totaling about $20
billion.[Footnote 7]
EPA's mission is to protect human health and the environment by
leading the nation's environmental science, research, education, and
assessment efforts. The agency consists of 10 regional offices and 13
program offices, and its budget for fiscal year 2010 is $10.3 billion.
Its workforce is made up of approximately 17,000 FTEs. Associated
costs for these 17,000 FTEs constitute about 20 percent of the 2010
budget.[Footnote 8] EPA also employs about 6,000 individuals such as
contractor employees; interns; and Senior Environmental Employment
Program workers, who are at least 55 years old and are not federal
employees, to provide their skills to support environmental programs.
The Forest Service's mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and
productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs
of present and future generations. To do so, the agency manages
approximately 193 million acres of federal land with a fiscal year
2010 budget of about $6.2 billion and approximately 34,000 FTEs
nationwide.[Footnote 9] The agency's employees are located at 155
national forests within nine regions, as well as at other units,
including seven research units. Projected personnel and benefits costs
constitute 60 percent of the Forest Service's budget; the agency also
relies on about 70,000 volunteers.
Appendix III provides information on the number of FTEs at Interior,
EPA, and the Forest Service from fiscal years 1999 through 2010.
Workforce Planning and Leading Principles:
People are an agency's most important asset: they affect an agency's
capacity to achieve its mission. In this context, several
organizations, including GAO, have shown that successful organizations
in both the public and private sectors use strategic workforce
planning to prepare their workforces to meet present and future
mission requirements. Preparing a strategic workforce plan encourages
agency managers and stakeholders to systematically consider what is to
be done, when and how it will be done, what skills will be needed, and
how to gauge progress and results.
As we have reported in the past, federal agencies have used varying
approaches to develop and present their strategic workforce plans,
depending on their particular circumstances. For example, an agency
that is faced with the need for a long lead time to train employees
hired to replace those retiring and an increasing workload may focus
its efforts on estimating and managing retirements. Another agency
with a future workload that could rise or fall sharply may focus on
identifying skills to manage a combined workforce of federal employees
and contractors. Regardless of the context in which workforce planning
is done, we and OPM have identified the following six leading
principles that agencies should incorporate in their workforce
planning efforts.
Align their workforce planning with strategic planning and budget
formulation. Workforce planning that is linked to an agency's
strategic goals is one of the tools agencies can use to systematically
identify the workforce needed for the future and develop strategies
for shaping this workforce. Strategic alignment occurs when an
agency's workforce strategies are linked with its mission and goals
and integrated into its strategic plan, performance plan, and budget
formulation.[Footnote 10] Such alignment allows agencies to assess and
understand the extent to which their workforce contributes to
achieving their overarching mission and goals. Among other things,
workforce planning provides the information agencies need to ensure
that their annual budget requests include adequate funds to implement
their human capital strategies, such as recruitment or retention
bonuses, awards, training, student loan repayments, and tuition
assistance.
Involve managers, employees, and other stakeholders. Top leadership
that is engaged in strategic workforce planning can:
* set the overall direction and goals for workforce planning and
provide organizational vision;
* help provide stability as the workforce plan is being developed and
implemented;
* create support within the agency to ensure that planning strategies
are implemented and sustained over time; and:
* help integrate workforce planning efforts with other key management
planning efforts, such as succession planning and information
technology or financial management reforms, to ensure that such
initiatives work together to achieve the agency's goals.
By involving agency managers, supervisors, employees, and other
stakeholders on strategic workforce planning teams, agencies can
develop new synergies that identify ways to streamline processes,
improve human capital strategies, and help the agency recognize and
deal with the potential effect that the organization's culture can
have on the implementation of such improvements.[Footnote 11],
[Footnote 12]
Identify critical occupations, skills, and competencies and analyze
workforce gaps. Agencies need to determine the occupations, skills,
and competencies that are critical to achieving their missions and
goals, as well as to identify any gaps between their current workforce
and the workforce they will need in the future. Identifying mission-
critical occupations, skills, and competencies can help agencies
adjust to changes in technology, budget constraints, and other factors
that alter the environment in which they operate. The scope of
agencies' efforts to identify their mission-critical occupations,
skills, and competencies varies considerably, depending on their
individual needs and interests. Whereas some agencies may decide to
define all the skills and competencies needed to achieve their
strategic goals, others may elect to focus on only those most critical
to achieving their goals. Agencies can also use various approaches to
determine their future needs, such as collecting qualitative
information from interviews with agency executives and managers on the
factors that influence the agencies' capability to acquire, develop,
and retain critical skills and competencies; collecting information
from employee surveys; and determining attrition rates, projected
retirement rates, fluctuations in workload, and geographic and
demographic trends. As agencies estimate the number of employees they
need with specific skills and competencies, they may consider
opportunities to reshape their workforce by re-engineering current
work processes, sharing work among offices within the agency, or
contracting.[Footnote 13]
Employ workforce strategies to fill the gaps. Once agencies have
identified gaps, they need to develop human capital strategies--the
programs, policies, and processes that agencies use to build and
manage their workforces--to close these gaps. These strategies,
tailored to the agencies' unique needs, may include strategies for
hiring, training, staff development, succession planning, performance
management, and the use of human capital flexibilities, among other
things. These flexibilities may include providing early separation and
early retirement incentives, recruitment and retention bonuses,
alternative work schedules, and special hiring authorities to recruit
employees with critical skills.
Build the capabilities needed to support workforce strategies through
steps to ensure the effective use of human capital flexibilities. As
agencies plan how to implement specific workforce strategies that
include human capital flexibilities, they also need to consider other
practices that are important to the effective use of flexibilities.
For example, it is important for an agency to:
* properly train managers and supervisors to identify when
flexibilities can be used and how to use the agency's processes for
ensuring consistency, equity, and transparency;
* hold managers and supervisors accountable for the fair and effective
use of these flexibilities;
* educate employees about how the agency uses human capital
flexibilities; and:
* streamline and improve administrative processes for using
flexibilities and review self-imposed constraints that may be
excessively process oriented.
Monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving workforce planning and
strategic goals. Agencies' monitoring and evaluation of their efforts
to achieve their workforce planning and strategic goals are critical
to effective workforce planning. An agency's evaluation could help
determine whether the agency is meeting its workforce planning goals
and identify the reasons for any shortfalls. For example, a workforce
plan can include measures that indicate whether the agency executed
its hiring, training, or retention strategies as intended and achieved
its goals for these strategies.
Federal Agency Budget Formulation and Allocation:
The federal budget process involves many steps, including the
agencies' formulation of their budget requests and subsequent
allocation of the funds that Congress appropriates to them.[Footnote
14] The federal government assembles an annual budget in a long
administrative process of budget preparation and review. This process
begins one or more years before the budget for a particular fiscal
year is ready to be submitted to Congress. The agencies and their
individual organizational units formulate the budget by reviewing
current operations, program objectives, and future plans, and
preparing budget estimates for upcoming fiscal years. The Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) within the Executive Office of the
President oversees and coordinates formulation of a consolidated
budget request for the federal government, which the President submits
to Congress by the first Monday in February. Congress reviews the
President's budget request and appropriates funds to federal agencies
for specific purposes. Once agencies' funds are appropriated by
Congress and apportioned to them by OMB, it is the responsibility of
the individual agencies to allocate their funds within their agencies
based on OMB and congressional direction.
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Vary in Their Approaches to
Workforce Planning:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service have taken different approaches
to workforce planning. Interior bureaus each receive their own
appropriations and have missions that require workforce plans to be
developed at the bureau level rather than at the departmentwide level.
EPA issued an agencywide workforce plan in fiscal year 2006 that
provided guidance to regional and program offices when developing
their own plans. Since establishing a new approach to agencywide
workforce planning in 2007, the Forest Service has annually developed
agencywide workforce plans using information from its units.
Interior's Workforce Planning Occurs at the Bureau Level:
According to Interior, its eight bureaus were established under
enabling legislation, and each receives its own appropriations and has
missions that require workforce plans to be developed at the bureau
level rather than at the departmentwide level. The Office of the
Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer provided guidance to the bureaus,
in the form of a workforce planning template, on how to prepare
workforce plans for fiscal years 2008 through 2013.[Footnote 15] We
found that the bureau plans generally followed the format described in
the template, which directs bureaus to include the following
information:
* the bureau's mission,
* a description of how the workforce plan is integrated with
Interior's Strategic Plan,
* a description of the bureau's workforce profile,
* the mission challenges facing the bureau,
* the bureau's workforce needs, including contractors and volunteers
as appropriate,
* plans and solutions to meet the bureau's workforce and skill needs,
* resource and investment needs, and:
* any additional information needed to support the bureau's analyses.
Interior officials told us that when the agency issues its revised
strategic plan, for which a proposed framework was out for public
comment in the fall of 2009, the bureaus would revise their workforce
plans to reflect changes in the agency's strategic goals.
EPA's 2006 Workforce Plan Provided Guidance to Regional and Program
Offices for Developing Their Own Plans:
EPA's Office of Human Resources developed EPA's first strategic
workforce plan in fiscal year 2006, with the intent of updating it
after revising the agency's strategic plan. The purpose of the
workforce plan was to provide guidance to regional and program
offices, which are responsible for developing their own plans.
[Footnote 16] The workforce plan projected changes in the agency's
core functions from 2005 through 2008. For example, the plan estimated
that there would be a reduced emphasis on the core function of
developing regulations but an increased emphasis on other functions,
such as homeland security and research and development. However, the
plan does not include information on contractors because OMB did not
provide explicit instructions to include them, according to EPA
officials.[Footnote 17] The plan has not been updated since 2006, but
agency officials told us that they expect a new workforce plan will be
completed after EPA develops its next strategic plan in 2010.
Forest Service Annually Issues a 5-Year Agencywide Workforce Plan
Using Standard Information from Its Regions, Stations, and Other Units:
The Forest Service began its current agencywide workforce planning
process in fiscal year 2007 with the creation of its Workforce
Planning and Program Analysis Branch. In leading the agency's
workforce planning, this branch annually develops an analysis of the
agency's workforce and issues a 5-year plan for the agency's permanent
workforce; agency officials told us that the analyses and plans are
posted on the agency's Web site and were announced through a letter to
certain leaders.[Footnote 18] In October 2009, the branch also began
to produce certain workforce-related statistics on a monthly basis,
which officials told us the branch plans to summarize quarterly.
[Footnote 19]
The annual workforce analysis provides information on the composition
of the agency's workforce nationwide. The workforce analyses and plans
do not include information on contractors; agency officials told us
that this information is not included because the Forest Service
cannot accurately track the FTE hours of contractors. According to the
5-year workforce plan for 2009 through 2013, the 5-year plan
complements the analysis by identifying occupation-specific hiring,
diversity, and competency needs across the agency, and by serving as a
guide for the agency's recruitment, succession planning, and training
programs, among other things. In addition, the agency's workforce
plans for 2008 through 2012 and 2009 through 2013 include
recommendations for agency actions in a variety of workforce planning
areas.
The plans are based on information collected from the Forest Service's
24 units--including each of the agency's nine regions, seven research
stations, and several Washington offices--using standardized
templates.[Footnote 20] According to workforce planning officials, the
units are not required to include temporary employees in the
information provided via their templates. These templates collect
information in five areas: (1) reorganization or consolidation; (2)
training and succession planning; (3) sourcing options;[Footnote 21]
(4) workforce adjustments, such as buyouts and early-out retirements;
and (5) recruitment for professional, administrative, and technical
occupations that are considered mission-critical. Some sub-units, such
as national forests, may also complete workforce planning templates
that feed into the larger planning effort. While the Forest Service
has agencywide workforce planning analyses and plans, the agency
considers workforce planning to be the responsibility of unit-level
managers. Therefore, field units--such as regions and forests--are
primarily responsible for workforce planning and may conduct their own
additional workforce planning activities.[Footnote 22]
Agencies Vary in the Extent to Which They Incorporate Leading
Workforce Planning Principles:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service differ in the extent to which
they have incorporated the six leading workforce planning principles,
but they generally do not link their workforce plans to their
strategic plans and do not monitor and evaluate their workforce
planning efforts. With regard to linking workforce plans to budget
formulation, the Forest Service recently began to formally link the
two, but Interior and EPA do not. The three agencies vary in the
extent to which they involve top managers and others in developing
workforce plans. The agencies have all taken some steps to analyze
their workforce, including identifying mission-critical occupations,
which form the basis for much of the agencies' workforce planning.
With regard to addressing workforce gaps, such as gaps in staffing
levels, critical skills, and competencies, all three agencies
identified some strategies or initiatives that are either under way or
being considered. The three agencies vary in the actions they have
taken to support their workforce planning efforts through the
effective use of human capital flexibilities.
Agencies Generally Did Not Align Workforce and Strategic Plans and
Differ in Whether They Link Workforce Plans with Budget Formulation:
At Interior, workforce plans for three of its eight bureaus (Bureau of
Land Management, Indian Affairs, and the U.S. Geological Survey)
describe how they link to one or more departmentwide mission goals
identified in the department's strategic plan and analyze the
department's workforce needs in these areas. For example, the Bureau
of Land Management's workforce plan links to four of Interior's
strategic mission goals--Resource Protection, Resource Use,
Recreation, and Serving Communities--and the workforce plan includes
an appendix that describes the bureau's current workforce profile and
makes projections out to fiscal year 2013 for each goal. Similarly,
Indian Affairs identifies the Serving Communities mission goal in its
workforce plan and focuses on its Safe Indian Communities and Indian
Education initiatives in fulfilling this mission. In contrast, other
bureaus' workforce plans state that they were linked to Interior's
strategic plan, and in one case identified specific mission goals, but
none explicitly align their workforce planning effort and analysis
with such goals. While three of the bureaus' plans illustrate explicit
linkages to strategic mission goals, none of the eight bureaus' plans
describe links to specific outcome measures. However, Interior's
strategic plan contains three workforce-related outcomes, including
one on the percentage of skill gaps that are closed across the
department's workforce. Additionally, while the bureaus' workforce
plans generally do not include formal links to the budget formulation
process, we found that bureaus generally requested funds in their
fiscal year 2010 budget justifications to implement elements of their
workforce plans. Specifically, bureaus requested funding in areas of
workforce planning policy and administration, as well as leadership
development, equal employment opportunity offices, and succession
planning. For example, the Fish and Wildlife Service requested $12.65
million, and received $13.15 million, for its youth and careers in
nature program, designed to reach out to young people to encourage
them to enter public service as natural resource professionals.
EPA's workforce plan is not clearly aligned with the agency's
strategic plan or budget formulation. The workforce plan does not show
how FTEs, skills, and locations will be aligned with the strategic
plan or budget. Only one page in the workforce plan refers to the
strategic plan, and the plan has no references to the budget.
Furthermore, we found the strategic plan and the 2009 through 2014
Strategic Plan Change Document for Public Review do not refer to the
workforce plan and the budget only briefly refers to the workforce
plan in the fiscal year 2010 Congressional Justification. The 2006
through 2011 strategic plan included a human capital section for each
of the five strategic goals that identified some future staff skill
needs and, in some cases, recruiting strategies to fill those gaps,
but it did not include any expected measurable workforce outcomes.
Furthermore, the strategic plan included a discussion of strategies,
including human capital, that applied to more than one goal. However,
the human capital section of the plan did not include the expected
measurable workforce outcomes. In 2005, we reported that EPA's process
for budgeting and allocating resources did not fully consider the
agency's workload, either for specific statutory requirements such as
those included in the Clean Water Act or the broader goals and
objectives in the agency's strategic plan.[Footnote 23] We reported
that any efforts made by the agency to develop a more systematic
process would be hampered by the lack of comprehensive and accurate
workload data.
The Forest Service has not clearly aligned its workforce plans and
strategic plan for fiscal years 2007 through 2012;[Footnote 24]
however, the agency has recently begun to formally link workforce
planning and budget formulation. The Forest Service's workforce plans
for 2008 through 2012 and for 2009 through 2013 state that they link
to goal 5 in the agency's strategic plan--"Maintain Basic Management
Capabilities of the Forest Service"--but we found that this statement
is the only reference in the plans to specific strategic
goals.[Footnote 25] In addition, OPM's Human Capital Assessment and
Accountability Framework, which provides guidance to agencies on human
capital management and planning, indicates that agencies should
integrate workforce planning into their strategic plans. However, we
found that workforce planning is not fully integrated into the Forest
Service's strategic plan. Specifically, for each goal, the plan
identifies the following elements: an overall outcome, objectives,
performance measures and targets, and means and strategies for
accomplishing the goal. While most of the means and strategies for
accomplishing goal 5 of the strategic plan are associated with
workforce planning, neither the objectives nor the performance
measures and targets for goal 5 are linked to workforce planning.
Forest Service workforce planning officials told us that linkage has
not occurred because the current strategic plan was developed in 2006,
before the agency's Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch and
the current agencywide workforce planning process were established in
2007. The officials said that the Forest Service will be developing
its next strategic plan during fiscal year 2010 and that they will be
involved in this process, although the specific nature of this
involvement has not yet been determined.
With regard to linking workforce plans to budget formulation, the
Forest Service began to formally link the two in 2008 through its
Budget Performance Integration initiative. This initiative involves
developing business plans that provide guidance to the agency on
implementing each of the goals in the strategic plan. According to
agency officials, the business plans deal with the direction the
budget should take and are used in formulating the agency's budget
requests. Starting with the fiscal year 2011 budget formulation
process, which began in October 2008, officials from the Workforce
Planning and Program Analysis Branch participated in the business plan
development. At that time, the Forest Service also aligned the timing
of the workforce planning and budget cycles, according to agency
officials. By doing this, the teams developing the business plans
would have workforce planning information for use in developing the
business plans, according to agency officials. Our review of the
fiscal year 2011 business plans indicated that these business plans
incorporated workforce planning information. Specifically, among other
things, the plans identified workforce-related trends that can hinder
the agency's ability to meet its strategic goals, as well as workforce
development needs that require support from the Forest Service's Human
Resources Management office.
Agencies Vary in the Extent to Which They Involve Top Management and
Others in Developing Workforce Plans:
To develop their workforce plans, most Interior bureaus involve top
management, and some bureaus assemble teams of senior managers and
program staff, as well as officials responsible for human resources
and budgets. However, it is unclear whether the bureaus consistently
involve employees and other stakeholders. For example, the Bureau of
Reclamation directed its Managing for Excellence Team to develop the
bureau's workforce plan. The team included high-level officials,
managers, and staff from each of the bureau's regions and offices. It
also solicited public and stakeholder feedback at a public meeting in
September 2006. In addition, the Bureau of Land Management's plan was
a collaborative effort among the bureau's Human Capital Management
Team in the Washington Office; field committee; human resource
officers; and leadership in the state offices, centers, and the
Washington Office. Officials from other bureaus told us that they use
feedback from employee surveys and provide employees an opportunity to
comment on the draft plans. For example, the Fish and Wildlife Service
held listening sessions and surveyed employees to obtain their views.
The director's office also sent an e-mail to all employees to inform
them of the workforce planning process, and the Human Resource Office
provided information to employees on the planning process.
EPA human resource officials told us that top managers were involved
in developing the agency's workforce plans and selected employees were
involved to some extent. In addition, EPA officials said the agency
had extensive union involvement with the implementation of the plan,
particularly assessments of the competencies of mission-critical
occupations. However, officials said consultation with the unions in
the selection of mission-critical occupations would be inappropriate,
as the mission of the unions does not impart any relevant expertise on
this question. Furthermore, EPA officials stated that formal union
engagement is not relevant to describe the level and extent that EPA
involved management and staff, and the agency does not believe union
involvement, in contrast to management and employee involvement, in
the development of workforce plans would be appropriate or useful.
Officials from the union representing the majority of EPA's bargaining
unit said their union was not involved in assessing competencies and
that they should have been involved in developing the workforce plan.
Executive leaders at the Forest Service have generally not been
involved in setting the direction for the workforce plan,[Footnote 26]
and selected employees were involved to some extent. The executive
leaders we spoke with were also not familiar with the plan, including
its recommendations. Nevertheless, they expressed their support for
agencywide workforce planning efforts and were concerned about how the
agency plans to handle specific workforce planning issues, such as
succession planning and diversity. Employee involvement in developing
the agencywide plan occurs through small teams in the Forest Service's
24 units that are responsible for completing the templates used to
develop the plan. According to officials from the Workforce Planning
and Program Analysis Branch, each Forest Service unit's workforce team
must include at least the unit leader, such as the regional forester
or station director, who is responsible for ensuring completion of the
unit's template; the unit's civil rights representative; a budget
officer; and a human resources liaison. In addition, employees at some
sub-units, such as the national forests, may be involved in completing
templates.
Agencies Have Taken Some Steps to Analyze Their Workforce:
Interior:
At Interior, bureaus have taken an array of actions to analyze their
workforce, an essential step to achieve their missions and goals.
Specifically:
* Workforce plans for each bureau identify mission-critical
occupations, although the plans vary in the extent to which the
occupations are categorized. For example, some plans identify bureau-
specific, mission-critical occupations, while others, such as the
Bureau of Land Management, also include Interior-wide and OPM mission-
critical occupations. In its analysis, the Bureau of Land Management
identifies expected changes because of attrition and retirement and
evaluates its need to expand the pool of staff to meet future
workforce needs.
* All the bureaus identify workforce challenges in their workforce
plans to a varying extent. Some bureaus provide specific challenges
critical to their mission. For example, Indian Affairs thoroughly
details, among others, the challenges it faces in confronting
increasing drug use and violence in Indian communities and recommended
approaches to addressing these challenges. Other bureaus describe
broader short-and long-term mission challenges, such as the loss
through retirement of valuable institutional knowledge at the Fish and
Wildlife Service and the use of new technologies to monitor
environmental change.
* Most bureaus identify workforce gaps, such as gaps in leadership or
talent. For example, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement identifies gaps that could result because almost half of
its workforce will be eligible for retirement in 2013. Additionally,
the bureau plans to identify skill gaps and use tools like relocation
and retention allowances to promote position retention.
* Some bureaus identify needed competencies and skill levels. For
example, the U.S. Geological Survey identifies both needed
competencies, such as working collaboratively and effectively
addressing problems, and skill levels ranging from entry level to
senior science and management levels.
* Some bureaus identify positions to streamline or eliminate, although
they are not required to do so. For example, the Bureau of
Reclamation's plan includes "position elimination factor"
calculations, which considered succession rates and critical skill and
competency needs, resulting in the potential to eliminate 159
positions in the 12 to 36 months following the creation of the plan.
* Some bureaus consider diversity, as well as generational needs, in
their workforce plans. For example, the National Park Service plan
states that accomplishing its goals requires the service to have a
diverse, highly skilled workforce. Accordingly, the plan tracks
employee diversity through numerous workforce characteristics,
including race, gender, and disability status. The U.S. Geological
Survey uses generational analysis to develop employee programs, such
as family-friendly programs and alternative work schedules, to meet
the expectations of the younger workforce and attract and retain
quality employees who will move into higher-level positions.
EPA:
EPA has identified competency gaps in its mission-critical
occupations. In preparation for the 2006 strategic workforce plan, EPA
conducted a series of interviews with senior agency officials that
focused on the current and future missions of their respective offices
and their core missions and major work areas. The agency analyzed the
results of the interviews to identify the mission-critical occupations
and the skills and competencies needed for those occupations. In 2006,
the agency identified 19 such occupations. Among the 19 occupations,
agency officials considered the highest-priority occupations to be (1)
information technology specialists, (2) human resource specialists,
(3) Senior Executive Service leaders, (4) grant specialists, (5)
contract specialists, and (6) toxicologists. By 2009, EPA had
completed competency assessments for 12 priority mission-critical
occupations. According to the agency's 2009 Human Capital Management
Report, these assessments did not generally identify any significant
competency gaps, which indicated a seasoned, professional workforce
well-positioned to meet mission requirements.
However, we have reported that EPA has not comprehensively analyzed
its workload and workforce since the late 1980s to determine the
optimal numbers and distribution of staff agencywide. In 2001, we
reported that an organization within EPA deployed its workforce on the
basis of outdated workload models and did not consider current
workload information such as the increased role states assumed over
the years in environmental enforcement.[Footnote 27] In 2005, we
reported that EPA's process for allocating resources involved making
annual incremental adjustments and relied primarily on historical
precedent. We also reported that EPA did not have a system in place to
conduct a review of the nature or distribution of its current
workload, which has changed over time as EPA has taken on new
responsibilities under the Clean Water Act and other laws and the
states have gradually assumed a greater role in the day-to-day
implementation of key aspects of this workload. We specifically
recommended in 2005 that EPA focus its efforts on a ground-level
assessment and (1) identify key workload indicators that drive
resource needs, (2) ensure that relevant data are complete and
reliable, and (3) use the results to inform the agency's resource
allocations. In 2008, we noted that the agency's approach in its
operating plan for allocating its workforce among its regional offices
had not substantially changed since our 2001 and 2005
reports.[Footnote 28] In 2009, EPA officials told us the only workload
analysis that they had conducted in recent years was an examination of
the workload for the Superfund program completed in 2008. The
resulting report said it remained a challenge to manage the
expectations for the Superfund program under the allocation of
personnel at the time. One finding in the report was that, "—given the
allocation of work years, the time required to complete the remedial
portion of the program for national priority sites was likely to be in
excess of 70 years and well beyond the expected planning horizon for
many sites." Officials stated that they used the analysis in some
instances to divert efforts from administrative functions to
implementation of the cleanup program, share work among regions, and
plan programs. However, the analysis was not used for a centrally
managed reallocation effort by the office that manages the Superfund
program.
In responding to our 2008 correspondence, EPA stated that it
recognized the need to improve its ability to understand and quantify
the relative workload of its component organizations and to make
allocation decisions based on those assessments. Toward that end, the
agency said that it is committed to improving its analytical
capabilities and examining appropriate measures of workload to support
the resource allocation process. In part, as a response to our
recommendations, EPA officials said that they issued a contract in
2009 to explore better ways to assess staff levels for workload
shifts. In 2010, the contractor is to survey selected EPA officials to
determine the current workload and workforce alignment for functions
in six areas: (1) regulatory development, (2) scientific research, (3)
enforcement, (4) financial management, (5) environmental monitoring,
and (6) permitting.[Footnote 29]
Forest Service:
The Forest Service has analyzed its workforce and identified mission-
critical occupations, and it has taken preliminary steps to identify
needed competencies and workforce gaps. Each year since 2007, the
Forest Service has conducted a detailed analysis of workforce data in
six areas: (1) workforce demographics, such as diversity, attrition,
hiring, and the temporary workforce; (2) organizational management,
including information on trends related to the budget, how work is
assigned, and how organizations and positions are arranged at various
levels; (3) recruitment; (4) training and succession planning; (5)
workforce adjustments; and (6) sourcing options. In addition, the
Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch has identified 74
mission-critical occupations. These occupations include 30
professional occupational series, such as general biology and
forestry; 22 administrative series, such as program and budget
analysts; and 22 technical series, such as forestry and hydrology
technicians. The Forest Service's field unit leaders--including
regional foresters, station directors, and others--have had
opportunities to review and comment on the list of these 74
occupations. However, the agency's executive leaders have not yet had
a role in reviewing the mission-critical occupations identified,
although workforce planning officials told us that these leaders will
review the list for the 2011 workforce planning cycle. Using
agencywide information, the Forest Service has identified agencywide
gaps in certain mission-critical occupations--for example, the
workforce plan for 2009 through 2013 identified shortages in
contracting and archeology.
The Forest Service has also taken some steps to identify needed
competencies for its workforce at all levels but has not yet
identified competency gaps. Specifically, the agency has identified
the following types of competencies:
* "Foundational" competencies. These consist of competencies in two
areas--"managing self," which applies to all employees and includes
such competencies as continual learning and interpersonal skills, and
"managing projects," which applies to certain managers and includes
team building and accountability.[Footnote 30]
* "Leadership" competencies. These apply to supervisors, managers, and
executives and consist of a variety of competencies in four areas--
leading organizations and managing people, programs, and
performance.[Footnote 31] Specific competencies include conflict
management, financial management, strategic thinking, and facilitating
performance.
* "Technical" competencies. These competencies apply to specific
occupational series. The Forest Service has identified technical
competencies for 24 of its 74 mission-critical occupations. In
addition, the agency has identified technical competencies for eight
occupational series that are not mission-critical because, according
to agency officials, these series have direct relationships to other
mission-critical occupations. According to an official from the Forest
Service's Center of Learning, the center is also working on
identifying technical competencies for other occupational series.
Although the Forest Service intends to complete this process for all
mission-critical occupations, according to agency officials, it does
not have a plan for doing so or a strategy to set priorities for
addressing additional occupational series.
While the Forest Service has not yet inventoried the competencies of
its current employees, and therefore cannot yet identify its
competency gaps, an official with the Center of Learning told us that
the agency is preparing to launch pilot efforts to assess the
foundational and leadership competencies of staff in certain grade
levels and occupational series.
Appendix IV provides information on the mission-critical occupations
identified by Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service.
Agencies Identify Some Strategies to Address Workforce Gaps:
At Interior, the bureaus' workforce plans identify a range of
strategies to address workforce gaps, such as the use of recruitment
and other incentives, training, and succession planning. In terms of
recruitment, some bureaus engage in targeted recruitment to attract a
skilled, diverse workforce. For example, at Indian Affairs, the bureau
works with the tribes and tribal schools and colleges to recruit
qualified applicants. In addition, Indian Affairs' recruitment efforts
target Native American veterans to fill law enforcement positions, an
occupation where the bureau has experienced significant shortages of
qualified applicants. Bureaus also use incentive programs to attract
and retain highly skilled and qualified employees, although officials
in some bureaus said there was seldom enough money for such
incentives. For example, the Minerals Management Service uses
incentives such as student loan repayments and recruitment and
relocation bonuses to help make its openings competitive with the
private sector. Bureaus also use training and succession planning to
fill workforce gaps. In one instance, the Minerals Management Service
paid for an employee's college education to obtain the skills it
needed and help retain the employee. The Bureau of Land Management's
Executive Leadership Team endorsed the creation of a leadership
excellence program as a succession planning strategy to develop new
leaders. Although all bureaus identify strategies to fill gaps, the
extent to which the bureaus' workforce plans identify how the bureaus
will track the implementation of the strategies is unclear. For
example, the National Park Service's workforce plan identifies goals
and steps to develop and implement a comprehensive leadership
management strategy, but it does not address how the bureau will track
progress toward implementing the strategy.
EPA officials said they have closed competency gaps on the six highest-
priority, mission-critical occupations using recruitment,
restructuring, succession planning, training, and mentoring. None of
the gaps were large, according to EPA's 2009 Human Capital Management
Report to OPM. For example, the agency stated that among contract
specialists, the gaps were what EPA termed "medium level gaps" in such
competencies as teamwork and project management. For another mission-
critical occupation, information technology specialists, the
competencies that were improved included risk management and network
security. In the same 2009 report to OPM, EPA said it found no gaps in
the competencies for the next six priority mission-critical
occupations (chemists, biologists, physical scientists, economists,
attorneys, and health scientists). Consequently, EPA estimated in the
2008 President's Management Agenda Human Capital Green Book that there
were no gaps in 62 percent of its mission-critical occupations once
the gap analysis and actions to fill gaps were completed on the first
twelve mission-critical occupations. While EPA's efforts are a step in
the right direction, efforts to close the gaps will remain incomplete
without the comprehensive workload and workforce analysis that we
recommended in our prior reports, as discussed earlier.
The Forest Service has established several leadership development
programs and is developing and implementing several other agencywide
initiatives to address workforce gaps. According to an agency
official, these leadership development programs are central to its
succession planning and include, among other things, a Senior Leader
program and a Middle Leader program, for which a pilot was recently
completed. The Forest Service is also developing a 5-year recruitment
strategy and annual implementation plan, but these are in draft form,
and specific responsibilities for implementing this strategy have not
yet been assigned. The agency's Center of Learning is developing
national strategies to identify and address workforce gaps through its
training, employee development, and succession planning initiatives.
For example, a Center of Learning official told us that the center is
developing and beginning to pilot test a method to identify and
deliver targeted training to address any employee competency gaps that
may be identified. The Center of Learning is also designing a 5-year
implementation plan for its training, development, and succession
planning programs. In addition to these efforts, the agency's civil
rights office is developing a national diversity strategy.
Agencies Vary in the Actions They Have Taken to Support Workforce
Planning and Implementation:
At Interior, bureaus vary in the extent to which they (1) train
managers and provide them with guidance on how to use human capital
flexibilities and (2) streamline processes for hiring employees and
administering incentive awards. For example, managers at the U.S.
Geological Survey are educated on recruitment, retention, and
relocation flexibilities during the Supervisory Challenge training
class, and the bureau reviews these flexibilities with managers when
advertising vacancies. Additionally, the U.S. Geological Survey
provides guidance and education on the full range of available
flexibilities through the eastern region manager's toolkit, on its
Intranet, and at various management conferences. With regard to
streamlining processes, the Fish and Wildlife Service implemented
OPM's USA Staffing in October 2007 to address hiring challenges,
provide timely responses to questions, and assess applicants with
multiple levels of review and screening, among other things.[Footnote
32] In addition to USA Staffing, Fish and Wildlife Service officials
also told us they are working to further improve the hiring process by
automating the creation of position descriptions. Finally, some
bureaus have developed guidance and delegated the use of human capital
incentives to field and regional managers.
EPA officials told us the agency supported workforce planning by
providing guidance to its regional and program offices on how to
develop their individual workforce plans, assess mission-critical
competencies, and develop training to address competency gaps.
Consequently, human resource officers at various levels of the
organization receive training on available flexibilities, according to
EPA's Acting Deputy Director, Office of Human Resources. In addition,
the acting deputy director said information on these policies is
available agencywide on the EPA Intranet. Also, most flexibilities are
covered by guidance and forms used by the agency's hiring managers.
Furthermore, human capital objectives are included in Senior Executive
Service performance contracts, according to the acting deputy director.
According to the Forest Service's workforce plan for 2009 through 2013
and 2009 workforce analysis, the Forest Service has underused
recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives. According to Forest
Service human resources officials, the Human Resources Management
office is collecting data on these incentives, which it may use to
develop improved guidance for managers on how to use them. The Forest
Service provides employees with information about the variety of human
capital flexibilities available, such as work-life programs and
incentive awards, through several means, including the agency's
Intranet and a monthly human resources newsletter. Officials told us
that the agency is also considering how to streamline its
communications and improve management's knowledge of available
flexibilities. While information on flexibilities has been provided,
managers, such as regional foresters, are not formally held
accountable--for example, through their performance expectations--for
fair, transparent, or effective use of the agency's various
flexibilities, according to Forest Service officials.
Agencies Generally Do Not Monitor and Evaluate Progress in Workforce
Planning:
Workforce plans for three of Interior's bureaus--the Bureau of Land
Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement--describe the steps that would be
used to measure the outcomes of the workforce strategies they
implement. For example, the Bureau of Land Management states in its
workforce plan that it would report progress on both a quarterly
basis, and on an annual basis, to determine if the actions taken are
changing trends in its workforce. Additionally, the bureau's plan
states that the bureau will analyze results from OPM's Fiscal Year
2008 Federal Human Capital Survey to determine whether it is making
progress in becoming a "Best Place to Work."[Footnote 33] The Bureau
of Land Management's workforce plan also states that the bureau will
update the plan as needed to ensure it is relevant and reflects
Interior's and the bureau's strategic goals and objectives; however,
bureau officials could not provide us with any progress reports or an
updated plan. Management teams at the U.S. Geological Survey also use
OPM's Federal Human Capital Survey, in addition to a bureau-specific
survey called the Organizational Assessment Survey, to evaluate
organizational excellence, develop strategies, and identify actions to
advance Interior's strategic plan. According to the survey, from 2002
to 2007, the bureau experienced an 8-percent increase in employees'
perceptions of the U.S. Geological Survey as a rewarding place to
work. The workforce plans of the remaining five bureaus do not discuss
steps that could be used to measure their progress in implementing the
various strategies they have identified.
EPA has not comprehensively monitored and evaluated the results of its
workforce planning efforts, including whether its workforce planning
contributes to the agency's strategic planning goals. Since 2007, EPA
has focused more on evaluating the workforce planning efforts of its
10 regions, rather than its 13 program offices. However, according to
agency officials, EPA has annually collected information on workforce
planning from regions and program offices for reports to OPM. We found
that a comprehensive agencywide evaluation was incomplete, since a
compilation of the data call for 2007 showed that many offices did not
respond to all of the questions they were asked.
The Forest Service does not have a process to implement the
recommendations in its agencywide workforce plans and has not
established a process to evaluate its workforce planning.
Specifically, the Forest Service does not have a process to
communicate the workforce plans' recommendations, assign
responsibilities or establish time frames for implementing them, or
track their implementation. For example, the 2009 through 2013 plan
includes a recommendation that the leadership determine the optimum
number of employees necessary to meet the agency's mission and
objectives, but the leaders we contacted had limited knowledge about
this plan or its recommendations. Furthermore, for some of the plans'
recommendations, it is not clear who is responsible for implementing
them. For example, the 2009 through 2013 plan recommends developing an
agency mentoring protocol but does not specify who or what
organization would be responsible for doing this. We also found that
the Forest Service has not evaluated its workforce planning, except to
request a study to evaluate its diversity initiatives. Specifically:
* The Forest Service's Annual Performance Report for fiscal year 2008
did not analyze the contributions of workforce planning toward
achieving the agency's strategic goals because workforce planning is
not fully integrated into the agency's strategic plan.[Footnote 34]
* Although the agencywide workforce plans and analyses indicate that
measurement systems and metrics to track workforce planning
accomplishments are in place, we found that the Workforce Planning and
Program Analysis Branch had not established such a process; however,
it recognizes it needs to do so. Furthermore, the workforce plans
state that the Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch will
track the agency's progress in implementing the recommendations made
in the workforce plans, but we found that the branch has not yet
started this activity.
* The Forest Service has not evaluated specific workforce planning
efforts, such as its recruitment strategies and plans or training and
employee development programs. However, an official told us that the
Center of Learning was developing an evaluation of its Senior Leader
Program.
* The Forest Service recently requested that the National Academy of
Public Administration evaluate the agency's diversity initiatives,
with the goals of identifying which programs are (1) operating
effectively, (2) achieving moderate success, or (3) ineffective and
should be eliminated. The resulting report, issued in 2009,[Footnote
35] stated that the Forest Service was unable to provide adequate
program data, metrics, and cost data needed for the evaluation
requested; however, the academy offered several recommendations for
strengthening the Forest Service's diversity initiatives.
Agencies Do Not Directly Link Their Workforce Planning with Budget
Allocation:
Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service have not directly linked their
workforce planning efforts with their budget allocation processes.
Specifically, we found that the Interior bureaus' workforce plans do
not systematically link to budget allocation processes, and the
bureaus generally do not track how program officials use these plans
to allocate funds. However, officials in some bureaus reported that
unit and program officials use workforce plans to distribute staff
geographically, share skills within the bureau, or adjust workloads to
match available funding. For example, the Fish and Wildlife Service is
developing a competency inventory to determine how it can borrow
resources across the service's regions and offices to respond to
changes in the funding it receives. Such a competency inventory could
enable the Fish and Wildlife Service to, for example, temporarily
relocate a hydrologist from one region to another to meet a pressing
need that was not funded.
At EPA, the agency does not directly link workforce planning with its
annual budget allocation process. EPA's process for allocating
resources involves making annual incremental adjustments and relies
primarily on historical precedent. Specifically, the agency bases
budget decisions on marginal changes to prior year budgets that occur
in response to (1) direction from OMB and Congress and (2) spending
caps imposed by EPA management. EPA officials said the agency recently
provided funds for additional FTEs and associated payroll to support
significant enhancements to EPA's High Production Volume Chemicals
Program, but they did not provide other examples that would indicate a
significant departure from their incremental approach.
Finally, at the Forest Service, budget allocation guidance documents
do not mention workforce planning directly. However, according to its
executive leaders, the agency links workforce planning with budget
allocation to some extent. Specifically, these officials said that
this linkage begins during the agency's budget formulation process at
the unit and program levels and continues during the annual budget
allocation process. As part of the agency's budget formulation
process, units provide information to executive leaders on their
unit's capabilities to meet programmatic and strategic goals. Although
these "capability responses" do not necessarily explicitly link to
workforce planning, executive leaders told us that the units and
individual programs take workforce capabilities into account in
preparing these capability responses.[Footnote 36] After the Forest
Service leadership proposes its annual budget allocation, the units
have an opportunity to revisit their capability responses in providing
feedback on the proposed budget allocation. However, they added, the
final allocation is mostly based on historical levels and represents
only limited, incremental shifts from the previous year. Major changes
must be planned several years in advance through the budget
formulation process. Moreover, Forest Service officials told us that
the agency does not typically have a need to shift people and dollars
between budget line items from year to year and has the flexibility to
address some needs through temporary employees and contractors.
Conclusions:
With a total of about 121,000 employees nationwide, as well as
contractors and volunteers, Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service face
a daunting challenge: to effectively manage their workforces to
achieve their agencies' missions. To their credit, the agencies have
begun to focus attention on the need to use strategic workforce
planning to carry out current programs and to address new and emerging
tasks. Although the agencies continue their efforts to better
incorporate the principles for workforce planning, their efforts have
particularly fallen short in two of the six leading principles that we
and others have identified as important to effective workforce
planning: (1) aligning the agency's workforce plan with its strategic
plan and (2) monitoring and evaluating their workforce planning
efforts. Until Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service more clearly
align their workforce plans with their strategic plans and monitor and
evaluate their progress, they are at risk of not having the
appropriately skilled workforce they need to effectively achieve their
missions.
Furthermore, specifically at the Forest Service, we found that the
agency has developed and issued annual workforce plans that contain
important information about current and emerging workforce issues and
has identified a variety of recommendations to address these issues.
However, the agency has not fully taken advantage of these efforts
because it has not communicated the recommendations or assigned
responsibility for implementing them, nor has it established time
frames for implementation. We believe that without appropriate
processes for communicating, implementing, and tracking these
recommendations, the agency may miss opportunities to address the
workforce needs identified in the plans and will not be able to ensure
that appropriate steps have been taken.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To ensure that Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service more fully
incorporate leading workforce planning principles into their workforce
planning efforts, we recommend that the Secretary of the Interior, the
Administrator of EPA, and the Secretary of Agriculture, through the
Chief of the Forest Service, take the following two actions:
* Incorporate into their agency's workforce plans clear and explicit
links between the workforce plans and the strategic plan, and describe
how the workforce plans will help the agency achieve its strategic
goals.
* Establish mechanisms that their agency can use to monitor and
evaluate the effectiveness of its workforce planning efforts,
particularly in achieving the agency's strategic goals.
To further capitalize on the Forest Service's existing workforce
planning efforts, we also recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture,
through the Chief of the Forest Service, establish processes for (1)
communicating the recommendations in the agency's annual 5-year
workforce plans; (2) assigning responsibility and establishing time
frames for implementing the recommendations; and (3) tracking
implementation of the recommendations.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided a draft of this report to Interior, EPA, and the Forest
Service for their review and comment. Interior provided a technical
comment, which we incorporated into our report.
In commenting on the report draft, EPA recognized the need to continue
to address its human capital issues in carrying out its mission to
protect human health and the environment. However, EPA stated that we
did not fully illustrate the tools that it uses to manage its
workforce effectively and that it would welcome the opportunity to
work further with us to provide specific examples. During the course
of our review, we had many discussions with EPA officials regarding
EPA's workforce management activities, and we believe that our report
accurately reflects EPA's overall activities to manage its workforce.
With respect to our recommendations, EPA agreed with the principles
underlying our recommendations, but disagreed with a word in one
recommendation. Specifically, EPA suggested removing the word
"explicit" from our recommendation that the agencies incorporate into
their workforce plans clear and explicit links between their workforce
plans and strategic plan. As we pointed out in the draft report, EPA
referred to the strategic plan only once in its 2006 strategic
workforce plan. We have not made this change to the recommendation
because we continue to believe that EPA needs to provide more explicit
links between its workforce plan and the goals of its strategic plan.
Regarding our recommendation that the agencies establish mechanisms
for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of workforce planning
efforts, EPA asked for specific examples of mechanisms used by other
federal agencies. During the course of our review, we provided EPA
with a copy of our report describing leading principles of workforce
planning, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic
Workforce Planning, and referred officials to other related GAO
reports. EPA also pointed out that its strategic plan included
sections that identified future staff skill needs and recruiting
strategies. We added EPA's comments to our report.
EPA also stated that it evaluates agency workforce planning efforts in
a program approved by OPM, and that it disagreed with our statement
that it does not directly link workforce planning with its annual
budget process, and provided one example in which it has done so.
[Footnote 37] We did not revise the report in response to these
comments because (1) EPA's evaluation did not include all regions and
program offices and therefore was not comprehensive, and (2) our
analysis indicates that EPA's workforce planning process and budget
allocation are not clearly linked, although there may be some
individual cases in which linkages may exist. In addition, EPA took
issue with our statement that the agency is at risk of not having an
appropriately skilled workforce to effectively achieve its mission if
it does not more clearly align the workforce with strategic planning.
EPA cited its history of mission success and high marks received from
OMB and OPM on strategic human capital management. While we recognize
that EPA has made progress, our past work has called for improvements
in EPA's workforce management activities that have not yet been fully
implemented. We continue to believe that further improvements are
necessary to link EPA's strategic planning with workforce planning to
better ensure the agency has the right number of people, with the
right skills, at the right locations to ensure the success of its
mission. EPA also provided other technical comments, which we
incorporated as appropriate. EPA's comments on our report draft are
provided in appendix V.
The Forest Service generally agreed with the report's findings and
conclusions and stated that it has begun working on some aspects of
one of our recommendations. Specifically, the Forest Service stated
that it is working on communicating the Forest Service's workforce
plans' recommendations and assigning responsibility for their timely
implementation. The Forest Service also provided technical comments,
which we incorporated, as appropriate. The Forest Service's comments
on our report draft are provided in appendix VI.
We are sending copies of this report to interested congressional
committees; the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture;
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Chief of the
Forest Service; and other interested parties. In addition, the report
will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov].
If you or your staffs have questions about this report, please contact
us at (202) 512-3841 or mittala@gao.gov or stephensonj@gao.gov.
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff who
made key contributions to this report are listed in appendix VII.
Signed by:
Anu K. Mittal:
Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
Signed by:
John B. Stephenson:
Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Briefing Slides:
Workforce Planning at Interior, EPA, and Forest Service:
Briefing to the Subcommittees on Interior, Environment, and Related
Agencies:
Committees on Appropriations:
U.S. Senate:
House of Representatives:
December 2009:
This briefing is based on preliminary information and is subject to
revision.
Background:
Public Law 111-8 ” Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 mandates GAO to
review workforce planning processes.
Strategic workforce planning:
* Aligns an organization's human capital program with its current and
emerging mission and programmatic goals and;
* Develops long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and
retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals.
Human capital included on GAO's high-risk list since 2001 as a cross-
cutting federal government issue.
Background - Interior:
Mission: To protect and manage the nation's natural resources and
cultural heritage; provide scientific and other information about
those resources; and honor its trust responsibilities.
FY 2010 budget request: $18.2 billion and an estimated $14.0 billion
in receipts.
Workforce consists of:
* About 67,000 full-time equivalent employees, and employees make up
almost 55% of budget.
* Over 200,000 volunteers.
About 2,400 locations across 8 bureaus; regional/field structure
varies by bureau.
Background - EPA:
Mission: To protect human health and the environment by leading the
nation's environmental science, research, education, and assessment
efforts.
FY 2010 budget request: $10.5 billion.
Workforce:
* About 17,000 full-time equivalent employees.
* These employees constitute about 20% of the 2010 budget.
* About 6,000 contract employees.
10 regions and 13 program offices.
Background - Forest Service:
Mission: To sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the
nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and
future generations.
FY 2010 budget request: $6.1 billion.
Workforce:
* About 34,000 full-time equivalent employees.
* Projected personnel and benefits costs constitute 60% of agency's
budget.
* About 70,000 volunteers.
Objectives:
1. What workforce planning processes are in place at Interior, EPA,
and the Forest Service?
2. To what extent does workforce planning at Interior, EPA, and the
Forest Service incorporate leading principles identified by GAO and
the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)?
3. How do Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service link workforce
planning with their annual budget allocation processes?
Scope and Methodology:
Scope:
* Interior”departmentwide and bureau-specific workforce planning
efforts since fiscal year 2008.
* EPA”-agencywide workforce planning since 2006.
* Forest Service”-agencywide workforce planning since 2007.
* Focused on highest organizational level; limited work at the
regional and field levels.
Methodology:
* Reviewed agencywide workforce plans budget documents, and guidance
and, in limited cases, at other levels in f he organizations.
* Interviewed planning, human resources, budget and program officials
responsible for these plans.
Based on prior GAO work, OPM guidance, a literature search, and
discussions with government officials and others knowledgeable about
workforce planning, we identified six GAO and OPM principles for
evaluating workforce planning:
1. Align workforce planning with strategic plan and budget.
2. Involve management, employees, and others.
3. Analyze the workforce, determine critical skills and competencies,
and identify gaps.
4. Develop and. implement strategies to address gaps in the workforce,
including critical skills and competencies.
5. Build capacity to support workforce strategies.
6. Monitor and evaluate progress.
We conducted this performance audit from July 2009 to December 2009 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Objective 1: Interior Workforce Planning:
No current departmentwide workforce plan.
Delegated workforce planning to bureaus.
Bureaus use departmental guidance provided by the Office of the Chief
Human Capital Officer to develop their plans, and plans were generally
presented in a consistent format.
* A description of the bureau's mission and how the workforce plan is
integrated with Interior's strategic plan.
* A profile of the bureau's workforce and a discussion of the bureau's
mission challenges and workforce needs.
* A discussion of plans and solutions to meet workforce and skill
needs and resources required to meet these needs.
Objective 1: EPA Workforce Planning:
Issued an agencywide workforce plan in 2006 developed by the Office of
Human Resources.
* Plan projected changes in core functions for 2005-2008.
* EPA is working on updating the plan.
* EPA issued a contract to explore better ways to assess staff levels
for shifts in the workload.
* Plan provides guidance to regional and program offices, which are
responsible for developing their plans.
Regional and program offices' workforce planning was beyond the scope
of our work.
Objective 1: Forest Service Workforce Planning:
Current agencywide workforce planning process began in 2007.
* Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch leads process.
* 5-year agencywide workforce plan updated annually using standard
templates completed by 24 units.
* Annual workforce analysis provides information on composition of
agency's workforce nationwide.
Field units”such as regions and national forests”are primarily
responsible for workforce planning, but they are outside the scope of
our work.
Objective 2: Principle 1: Align Workforce Planning with Strategic Plan
and Budget Formulation:
Interior:
Three of 8 bureaus link workforce plans to one or more of Interior
strategic goals, and none link plans to specific outcome measures.
Bureaus generally request funds to implement their workforce plans
when they formulate their budgets.
EPA:
EPA could not demonstrate that the workforce plan is clearly aligned
with the strategic plan or the budget.Workforce plan does not show how
FTEs, skills, and locations will be aligned with the strategic plan or
budget.
Forest Service:
Workforce plan and FY 2007-2012 Forest Service strategic plan not
clearly aligned. Workforce planning branch staff to participate in
development of agency‘s next strategic plan. Agency began to link
workforce planning with budget formulation during FY 2011 budget
process.
Objective 2: Principle 2: Involve Management, Employees, and Others in
the Workforce Plan:
Interior:
Most bureaus involved top management when developing workforce plans,
but it is less clear whether they consistently involved employees and
other stakeholders.
EPA:
Top managers involved in developing workforce plans, and some
employees participated to some extent.
Forest Service:
Generally, executive leadership not involved in setting overall
direction for agencywide workforce plan and has limited knowledge of
plan. Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch leads process to
develop the plan. Employees involved through small teams that complete
the units‘templates used to develop the plan.
Objective 2: Principle 3: Analyze the Workforce, Determine Critical
Skills and Competencies, and Identify Gaps:
Interior:
Most bureaus identified mission-critical occupations (MCOs), gaps,
challenges, and needed competencies or skill levels, and some
identified occupations to streamline or eliminate.
EPA:
Agency is identifying competency gaps in MCOs:
* Identified 19 MCOs among 200 occupations.
* Identified competency gaps for 12 priority MCOs.
EPA has not comprehensively analyzed its workload and workforce in
more than 20 years to determine the optimal number and distribution of
staff agencywide.
Forest Service:
Detailed annual workforce analysis conducted since 2007; some steps
taken to identify competencies and occupation gaps.
* Identified 74 MCOs that much of agency‘s workforce planning is based
on, but executive leadership has not reviewed these.
* Established technical competencies for three MCOs, as well as
general leadership competencies. Developing process to identify gaps
for these.
* 2009-2013 workforce plan identified shortages in some MCOs (e.g.,
contracting and archeology).
Objective 2: Principle 4: Develop and Implement Strategies to Address
Gaps in the Workforce, Including Critical Skills and Competencies:
Interior:
All bureaus identified strategies managers may use to fill gaps, but
not all track whether these strategies are used.
EPA:
EPA officials stated that agency closed competency gaps on 6
occupations using recruitment, restructuring, succession planning,
training, and mentoring.
Gap closure efforts did not include workload analyses as a step toward
examining the optimal distribution of the workforce to meet its
strategic goals.
Forest Service:
Developing national strategies to address workforce gaps, such as:
* 5-year recruitment strategy and annual implementation plan,
* 5-year training and development plan,
* process to identify and deliver competency-based training to address
individual employee gaps, and;
* diversity strategy.
Objective 2: Principle 5: Build Capacity to Support Workforce
Strategies:
Interior:
Bureaus vary in their efforts to inform managers on how to use human
capital flexibilities, streamline administrative processes, and
develop clear guidance.
EPA:
Agency uses human capital flexibilities such as rotation opportunities
for employees and a student loan repayment program.
Forest Service:
Agency collecting data that may be used to provide guidance on using
recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives, which the most
recent workforce plan and analysis state have been underutilized.
Managers not formally held accountable for use of human capital
flexibilities.
Objective 2: Principle 6: Monitor and Evaluate Progress:
Interior:
Few bureaus described how they plan to measure the outcomes of
workforce strategies or whether the strategies helped to achieve their
strategic goals.
EPA:
EPA has evaluated most of the regions and several other offices since
fiscal year 2007, but has not comprehensively reviewed how or whether
its workforce planning contributes to the achievement of strategic
planning goals.
Forest Service:
Forest Service recognizes the need to evaluate workforce planning but
has not established an evaluation process.
Limited steps taken to implement workforce plan‘s recommendations.
Objective 3: Interior Workforce Planning and Budget Allocation:
* Bureau workforce plans generally do not state that they will be used
to inform budget allocation decisions.
* Bureaus generally do not track how program officials use workforce
plans to allocate funds.
* Officials in some bureaus use workforce plans to distribute staff
geographically, share needed skills, or adjust workloads to match
available funding.
* Workforce planning not clearly connected to budget allocation.
* Budget decisions are based on marginal changes to prior year budgets
and occur in response to (1) direction from OMB and Congress and (2)
spending caps imposed by EPA management.
* Budget allocation guidance documents do not clearly link to
workforce planning.
* According to executive leaders, workforce planning has been
indirectly linked to annual budget allocation process through budget
formulation at field and program levels.
* Forest Service began to more systematically link agencywide
workforce plan with budget formulation during FY 2011 budget process.
* Incremental changes in budget allocations occur from year-to-year,
but major changes must be planned years in advance.
[End of section]
Appendix II: Scope and Methodology:
This appendix details the methods we used to examine workforce
planning at the Department of the Interior (Interior), the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Forest Service, an
agency within the Department of Agriculture. We were asked to describe
(1) the workforce planning processes in place at these agencies, (2)
the extent to which workforce planning at these agencies incorporates
leading principles we and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
identified, and (3) how, if at all, these agencies link workforce
planning with their annual budget allocation processes. Our review
focused on workforce planning at the highest levels within these
agencies, and the time periods reviewed at each agency varied as noted
below.
Based on prior GAO work, OPM guidance, a literature search, and
discussions with government officials and others knowledgeable about
workforce planning, we identified six leading principles for
evaluating workforce planning:
* align workforce planning with strategic planning and budget
formulation;
* involve managers, employees, and other stakeholders;
* identify critical occupations, skills, and competencies and analyze
workforce gaps;
* employ workforce strategies to fill the gaps;
* build the capabilities needed to support workforce strategies
through steps to ensure the effective use of human capital
flexibilities;[Footnote 38] and:
* monitor and evaluate progress toward achieving workforce planning
and strategic goals.
Interior:
To identify the workforce planning processes in place at Interior, we
reviewed the workforce plans developed by each of Interior's eight
bureaus, which are primarily responsible for workforce planning at the
department. The bureaus' plans had been developed since 2007, when the
department's current policies, practices, and guidance became
effective. These plans covered fiscal year 2008 through December 2009.
Specifically, we reviewed the following workforce plans:
* Bureau of Land Management Human Capital Workforce Plan, FY 2008-2013;
* Reclamation, Managing Water in the West, Workforce and Succession
Plan, FY 2008-2012;
* Indian Affairs Workforce Plan, 2008-2013;
* Minerals Management Service Human Capital Workforce Plan, 2008-2013;
* National Park Service Workforce Management Plan, Developing, Valuing
and Sustaining a World Class Workforce, FY 2008-2013;
* Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Workforce Plan,
FY 2008-FY 2013;
* U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service FY 2008-2013 Workforce Plan; and:
* USGS Workforce Plan, FY 2008-2013.
We also reviewed the departmental guidance provided to the bureaus by
the Office of the Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer to help them
prepare these workforce plans, and interviewed human resources and
budget officials at Interior and its eight bureaus.
We then compared the workforce plans and related documents for each of
the bureaus to the leading principles for workforce planning to
determine how, if at all, the principles had been adopted. In addition
to the workforce plans, we reviewed Interior's current strategic plan,
GPRA Strategic Plan, Fiscal Year 2007-2012, U.S. Department of the
Interior to determine links between the workforce plans and the
department's strategic goals, and reviewed its fiscal year 2010 budget
justifications to identify requests for funds to implement workforce
strategies. We supplemented our comparison of documents with
interviews with human resources and budget officials who were
responsible for carrying out the bureaus' workforce planning and
budget formulation efforts.
To determine how, if at all, Interior links workforce planning with
its annual budget allocation process, we reviewed the bureaus'
workforce plans and fiscal year 2010 budget justifications and
interviewed bureau officials responsible for workforce planning and
budgeting.
EPA:
To determine the existing workforce processes at EPA, we reviewed
relevant agency documents, such as its 2006 strategic workforce plan,
reports to OPM, and EPA's budget documents. In addition, we reviewed
GAO reports and EPA Office of the Inspector General reports on
workforce planning issued since 2000. We examined workpapers of the
EPA Office of the Inspector General while its review of workforce
planning was ongoing. We interviewed agency officials, particularly
those responsible for human resources and budget issues.
To determine the extent to which EPA incorporates leading principles,
we focused on the six leading principles developed by GAO and OPM for
effective strategic workforce planning. We examined documents such as
EPA's 2006 strategic workforce plan; the agency's annual human capital
reports to OPM; EPA's 2010 budget, 2009 and 2010 performance plans,
and the 2006 through 2011 strategic plan; and the 2009 through 2014
Strategic Plan Change Document for Public Review. Also we interviewed
agency officials responsible for workforce planning and the budget
issues. As part of our examination of EPA's identification of
workforce gaps, we reviewed its 2008 Superfund workload study. We
interviewed Superfund program officials and officials from two
regions, recommended by EPA, about their views on workforce planning
for their specific areas in light of the 2008 workload study. We
provided written questions to the agency's human resource and budget
offices requesting written responses on how they follow each of the
leading principles and reviewed their responses. As part of our
examination of employee participation in workforce planning, we
interviewed officers of the American Federation of Government
Employees, which represents the majority of agency employees.
To determine how, if at all, EPA links workforce planning with its
annual budget allocation processes, we reviewed relevant workforce
planning documents, budgets, and the agency's strategic plan. In
addition, we interviewed agency officials responsible for workforce
planning and the budget.
Forest Service:
To address our first and second objectives for the Forest Service, we
reviewed the agency's annual workforce analyses and 5-year workforce
plans developed since the formation of its Workforce Planning and
Program Analysis Branch in 2007. Specifically, we reviewed the
agencywide workforce plans for 2008 through 2012 and 2009 through
2013; 2007 and 2008 workforce analyses, as well as the draft 2009
analysis; and the agency's workforce planning guide. To gather
additional information, we went to the Forest Service's Albuquerque
Service Center, where we conducted interviews with officials from the
agency's Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch responsible
for the agencywide analyses and plans, Forest Service human resources
officials, and other agency officials. In addition, we interviewed a
human resources official at the Department of Agriculture. To enhance
our understanding of the role of the field and other units in
agencywide workforce planning, we reviewed several examples of the
unit-level workforce templates used to develop the agencywide plan and
interviewed officials from two such units--the Chief Financial Officer
and a regional office.
To further address our second objective for the Forest Service, we
reviewed the agency's strategic plan for fiscal years 2007 through
2012; budget-related documents; drafts of the 5-year recruitment
strategy and annual recruitment plan; drafts of the training and
development strategy and 5-year plan; and other information obtained
from officials responsible for training and development, recruiting,
civil rights and diversity, and employment policy, including human
capital flexibilities. In addition, we interviewed strategic planning
and budget officials; six of the eight members of the agency's
Executive Leadership Team, including the Associate Chief, Chief
Financial Officer, and the agency's four deputy chiefs; and an
official responsible for developing the agency's employee development
and training efforts. To evaluate the Forest Service's agencywide
workforce planning, we then analyzed the information gathered and
compared it to the leading principles for workforce planning we and
OPM previously identified.
To address our third objective for the Forest Service, we reviewed the
agency's guidance documents on allocating the fiscal year 2009 budget
for the following areas: National Forest System, Business Operations,
Forest and Rangeland Research, State and Private Forestry, and
Wildland Fire Management. We also reviewed the fiscal year 2010 budget
request and the fiscal year 2011 business plans developed during the
Budget Performance Integration process for each of the agency's
strategic goals. In addition, we conducted interviews with the Forest
Service's workforce planning, strategic planning, and budget
officials; the agency's Associate Chief; and the four deputy chiefs
responsible for budget allocation.
We conducted this performance audit from July 2009 through March 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 audit objectives. We believe
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
[End of section]
Appendix III: Full-Time Equivalent Employees at Interior, EPA, and the
Forest Service from Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010:
Table 1: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at Interior and Its
Eight Bureaus, Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010, as Reported in
Interior's Budgets in Brief for Fiscal Years 2001 through 2011:
Organizational unit: National Park Service;
Fiscal year: 1999: 19,918;
Fiscal year: 2000: 19,808;
Fiscal year: 2001: 20,289;
Fiscal year: 2002: 20,505;
Fiscal year: 2003: 20,574;
Fiscal year: 2004: 20,399;
Fiscal year: 2005: 20,485;
Fiscal year: 2006: 20,056;
Fiscal year: 2007: 19,832;
Fiscal year: 2008: 20,301;
Fiscal year: 2009: 20,991;
Fiscal year: 2010: 21,922.
Organizational unit: Bureau of Land Management;
Fiscal year: 1999: 9,841;
Fiscal year: 2000: 9,938;
Fiscal year: 2001: 10,373;
Fiscal year: 2002: 10,916;
Fiscal year: 2003: 11,219;
Fiscal year: 2004: 11,136[A];
Fiscal year: 2005: 10,958;
Fiscal year: 2006: 10,668;
Fiscal year: 2007: 10,577[B];
Fiscal year: 2008: 10,626;
Fiscal year: 2009: 10,834;
Fiscal year: 2010: 11,107.
Organizational unit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
Fiscal year: 1999: 8,117;
Fiscal year: 2000: 8,360;
Fiscal year: 2001: 8,530;
Fiscal year: 2002: 8,908;
Fiscal year: 2003: 9,248;
Fiscal year: 2004: 9,345;
Fiscal year: 2005: 9,170;
Fiscal year: 2006: 8,910;
Fiscal year: 2007: 8,749;
Fiscal year: 2008: 8,704;
Fiscal year: 2009: 8,925;
Fiscal year: 2010: 9,400.
Organizational unit: Indian Affairs;
Fiscal year: 1999: 9,343;
Fiscal year: 2000: 9,241;
Fiscal year: 2001: 9,407;
Fiscal year: 2002: 9,667;
Fiscal year: 2003: 9,617;
Fiscal year: 2004: 9,712;
Fiscal year: 2005: 9,664;
Fiscal year: 2006: 9,233;
Fiscal year: 2007: 8,731;
Fiscal year: 2008: 8,404;
Fiscal year: 2009: 8,265;
Fiscal year: 2010: 8,451.
Organizational unit: U.S. Geological Survey;
Fiscal year: 1999: 9,482;
Fiscal year: 2000: 9,417;
Fiscal year: 2001: 9,527;
Fiscal year: 2002: 9,611;
Fiscal year: 2003: 9,448;
Fiscal year: 2004: 9,002;
Fiscal year: 2005: 8,920;
Fiscal year: 2006: 8,578;
Fiscal year: 2007: 8,368;
Fiscal year: 2008: 8,355;
Fiscal year: 2009: 8,482;
Fiscal year: 2010: 8,596.
Organizational unit: Bureau of Reclamation;
Fiscal year: 1999: 5,786;
Fiscal year: 2000: 5,632;
Fiscal year: 2001: 5,609;
Fiscal year: 2002: 5,634;
Fiscal year: 2003: 5,721;
Fiscal year: 2004: 5,750;
Fiscal year: 2005: 5,731;
Fiscal year: 2006: 5,630;
Fiscal year: 2007: 5,510;
Fiscal year: 2008: 5,344;
Fiscal year: 2009: 5,352;
Fiscal year: 2010: 5,224.
Organizational unit: Departmental Offices and Departmentwide Programs;
Fiscal year: 1999: 2,079;
Fiscal year: 2000: 2,457;
Fiscal year: 2001: 2,561;
Fiscal year: 2002: 2,693;
Fiscal year: 2003: 2,829;
Fiscal year: 2004: 3,035[A];
Fiscal year: 2005: 3,294[C];
Fiscal year: 2006: 3,451;
Fiscal year: 2007: 3,524[B];
Fiscal year: 2008: 3,514;
Fiscal year: 2009: 3,569;
Fiscal year: 2010: 3,680.
Organizational unit: Minerals Management Service;
Fiscal year: 1999: 1,745;
Fiscal year: 2000: 1,771;
Fiscal year: 2001: 1,743;
Fiscal year: 2002: 1,732;
Fiscal year: 2003: 1,701;
Fiscal year: 2004: 1,717;
Fiscal year: 2005: 1,651[C];
Fiscal year: 2006: 1,641;
Fiscal year: 2007: 1,600;
Fiscal year: 2008: 1,600;
Fiscal year: 2009: 1,643;
Fiscal year: 2010: 1,708.
Organizational unit: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement;
Fiscal year: 1999: 645;
Fiscal year: 2000: 636;
Fiscal year: 2001: 627;
Fiscal year: 2002: 617;
Fiscal year: 2003: 595;
Fiscal year: 2004: 567;
Fiscal year: 2005: 542;
Fiscal year: 2006: 528;
Fiscal year: 2007: 528;
Fiscal year: 2008: 525;
Fiscal year: 2009: 516;
Fiscal year: 2010: 515.
Organizational unit: Total, Interior;
Fiscal year: 1999: 66,956;
Fiscal year: 2000: 67,260;
Fiscal year: 2001: 68,666;
Fiscal year: 2002: 70,283;
Fiscal year: 2003: 70,952;
Fiscal year: 2004: 70,664;
Fiscal year: 2005: 70,415;
Fiscal year: 2006: 68,694;
Fiscal year: 2007: 67,419;
Fiscal year: 2008: 67,373;
Fiscal year: 2009: 68,577;
Fiscal year: 2010: 70,603.
Source: Interior's Budgets in Brief for fiscal years 2001 through 2011.
Notes: Totals for fiscal years 1999 through 2009 are actuals, and
totals for fiscal year 2010 are estimates. Some columns do not sum due
to rounding.
Departmental Offices and Departmentwide Programs includes full-time
equivalent employees at Office of the Secretary, Central Utah Project,
Office of Insular Affairs, Office of the Solicitor, Office of
Inspector General, Office of Special Trustee for American Indians,
Wildland Fire Management, Payments in Lieu of Taxes, Central Hazardous
Materials Fund, Natural Resource Damage Assessment, Working Capital
Fund/Franchise Fund, National Business Center, and National Indian
Gaming Commission.
[A] The 2006 budget proposed to transfer management of the Central
Hazardous Materials Fund from the Bureau of Land Management to
Departmental Offices. Interior adjusted its staffing data from fiscal
year 2004 on to reflect this change.
[B] The 2009 budget moved the Wildland Fire Management appropriation
from the Bureau of Land Management to Departmentwide Programs.
Interior adjusted its staffing data from fiscal year 2007 on to
reflect this change.
[C] The Interior Franchise Fund was transferred in 2006 to the
National Business Center. Interior adjusted its staffing data from
fiscal year 2005 on to reflect this change.
[End of table]
Table 2: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at EPA, Fiscal Years
1999 through 2010, as Reported in EPA's Annual Congressional
Justification Reports Fiscal Years 2001 through 2010:
Fiscal year: 1999[A]: 18,366.2;
Fiscal year: 2000: 17,670.0;
Fiscal year: 2001: 17,558.1;
Fiscal year: 2002: 17,590.4;
Fiscal year: 2003: 17,621.4;
Fiscal year: 2004[B]: 17,610.9;
Fiscal year: 2005[B]: 17,494.6;
Fiscal year: 2006: 17,354.6;
Fiscal year: 2007: 17,071.9;
Fiscal year: 2008: 16,916.4;
Fiscal year: 2009[A]: 17,252.1;
Fiscal year: 2010[C]: 17,384.3.
Source: EPA Annual Congressional Justification Reports for fiscal
years 2001 through 2010.
[A] Enacted budget data were the only data available for this year.
[B] Obligation budget data were the only data available for this year.
[C] Budget data were the only data available for this year.
[End of table]
Table 3: Number of Full-Time Equivalent Employees at the Forest
Service, Fiscal Years 1999 through 2010, as Reported in the Forest
Service's Budget Justification Reports for Fiscal Years 2001 through
2010:
Fiscal year: 1999: 34,366;
Fiscal year: 2000: 34,079;
Fiscal year: 2001: 35,390;
Fiscal year: 2002: 36,704;
Fiscal year: 2003: 35,547;
Fiscal year: 2004: 37,648;
Fiscal year: 2005: 36,631;
Fiscal year: 2006: 34,907;
Fiscal year: 2007: 33,912;
Fiscal year: 2008: 33,623;
Fiscal year: 2009: 33,705;
Fiscal year: 2010[A]: 33,601.
Source: Forest Service Budget Justifications for fiscal years 2001
through 2010.
Note: Full-time equivalent (FTE) employees for fiscal years 1999
through 2009 are actual FTEs.
[A] Number of FTEs included in the 2010 President's Budget Request.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix IV: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by Interior, EPA,
and the Forest Service:
Table 4: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified in the Workforce
Plans of Interior's Bureaus, Fiscal Year 2008:
Bureau: Bureau of Land Management;
Mission-critical occupations: 20 mission-critical occupations: civil
engineer, contracting specialist, forester, general biologist,
geologist, human resource specialist, human resource assistant,
hydrologist, information technology specialist, land law examiner, law
enforcement criminal investigator, law enforcement ranger, leadership
positions, mining engineer, park ranger, petroleum engineer, petroleum
engineering tech, purchasing agent, realty specialist, and wildlife
biologist.
Bureau: Bureau of Reclamation;
Mission-critical occupations: 5 mission-critical occupations: biology,
electrician, engineering, information technology management, and plant
mechanic[A].
Bureau: Indian Affairs;
Mission-critical occupations: 26 mission-critical occupations:
archeology, civil engineering, contract specialist, correctional
officer, criminal investigating, education and training technician,
education and vocational training, engineering technician,
environmental protection specialist, forestry, general biological
science, geology, human resources management specialist, hydrology,
information technology management, legal instruments examining,
management and program analysis, miscellaneous administration and
program, police, program management, rangeland management, range
technician, realty, safety and occupational health management, social
work, and wildlife biology[B].
Bureau: Mineral Management Service;
Mission-critical occupations: 7 mission-critical occupations:
accountants/auditors, contracting specialists, geologists, human
resources specialists, information technology specialists, Minerals
Revenue Management business specialists, and petroleum engineers.
Bureau: National Park Service;
Mission-critical occupations: 4 mission-critical occupations: contract
specialists, human resources management, information technology, and
park rangers/law enforcement and interpretation.
Bureau: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement;
Mission-critical occupations: 13 mission-critical occupations:
accountant, auditor, biological scientist, civil engineer, contract
specialist, financial specialist, geologist, human resources
specialist, hydrologist, information technology specialist, mining
engineer, physical scientist, and reclamation specialist.
Bureau: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
Mission-critical occupations: 11 mission-critical occupations: civil
engineer, contracting specialist, education specialist, general
biologist, geologist, human resources specialist, hydrologist,
information technology, park ranger, realty specialist, and wildlife
biologist.
Bureau: U.S. Geological Survey;
Mission-critical occupations: 12 mission-critical occupations: budget
analysts, civil engineers, contract specialists, financial
specialists, general biologist, geographers, geologists, human
resources specialists, hydrologists, information technology
specialists, leadership, and wildlife biologists.
Source: Interior's bureaus' workforce plans.
[A] The Bureau of Reclamation also identified six high-priority
occupations to include in its workforce plan: education specialist,
geologist, hydrologist, park ranger, realty specialist, and wildlife
biologist.
[B] Indian Affairs also identified 16 important occupations to include
in its workforce plan: accounting technician, engineering equipment
operating, facility management, general business and industry, general
education and training, irrigation system operation, laboring, legal
assistance, maintenance mechanic, miscellaneous clerk and assistant,
motor vehicle operating, office automation clerical and assistance,
secretary, security guard, social services, and training instruction.
[End of table]
Table 5: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by the Environmental
Protection Agency, as of December 2009:
Mission-critical occupations:
19 mission-critical occupations: accountants/auditors, attorneys,
biologists, chemists, contract specialists, ecologists, economists,
environmental engineers/mechanical engineers, environmental protection
specialist, financial specialists, geneticists, grants specialists,
health scientists, human resources specialists, information
technology, leaders, physical scientists, public affairs/information
specialists, and toxicologists.
Source: EPA.
[End of table]
Table 6: Mission-Critical Occupations Identified by the Forest
Service, as of January 2010:
Type of occupational series: Professional;
Mission-critical occupations: 30 mission-critical occupations:
accountant, archeology, biological science student trainee, botany,
chemistry, civil engineer, contracting, ecology, economist, education
and vocational training, education services, engineering and
architecture student trainee, entomology, fisheries biologist,
forestry, general biology, general engineer, geology, hydrology,
landscape architecture, land surveying, meteorology, nurse, plant
pathology, physical science, range management, social science, soil
science, statistician, and wildlife biologist.
Type of occupational series: Administrative;
Mission-critical occupations: 22 mission-critical occupations:
administrative officer, budget analyst, civil rights, criminal
investigating, financial administration and program, miscellaneous
administration and program, general arts and information, general
business, general inspection investigation and compliance, human
resources management, information technology specialist, line manager,
manpower development, program analyst, public affairs, realty,
recreation specialist, safety and occupational health management,
support services, telecommunications, transportation operations, and
transportation specialist.
Type of occupational series: Technical;
Mission-critical occupations: 22 mission-critical occupations:
accounting technician, aircraft operations, biological science
technician, cartographic technician, compliance inspection and
support, electronics, engineering technician, forestry technician,
forestry technician (fire), general arts and information, general
business, general clerk, hydrological technician, office automation,
human resources assistant, physical science technician, procurement,
purchasing, range technician, recreation aid and assistant, social
service, and supply clerk.
Source: Forest Service, Workforce Planning and Program Analysis Branch.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix V: Comments from the Environmental Protection Agency:
United States Environmental Protection Agency:
Office Of Administration And Resources Management:
Washington, D.C. 20460
March 22 2010:
Ms. Anu Mittel:
Mr. John B. Stephenson:
Directors, Natural Resources and Environment:
U.S. Government Accountability Office:
Room 2T23:
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548:
Dear Ms. Mittal and Mr. Stephenson:
Thank you for the opportunity to review the U.S. Government
Accountability Office's (GAO's) draft report entitled "Interior, EPA,
and the Forest Service Should Strengthen Linkages to Their Strategic
Plans and Improve Evaluation" (GAO-10-413). We have enclosed comments
for your consideration.
We recognize that EPA must continue to address the human capital needs
of its workforce to remain positioned for success as we pursue our
vital mission of protecting human health and the environment. The
Agency agrees with the principles underlying GAO's recommendations;
however, we request that GAO consider refining the specifics of the
recommendations. We have proposed suggested modifications to the
recommendations and also provided clarification on the complexities of
implementing an effective workforce planning process.
We appreciate the opportunity to comment on this draft report.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Craig E. Hooks:
Assistant Administrator:
Enclosure:
[End of letter]
EPA's Comments on GAO's Draft Report:
"Interior, EPA, and the Forest Service Should Strengthen Linkages to
Their Strategic Plans and Improve Evaluation" (GA0-10-413):
General Comment:
EPA uses a number of effective workforce planning tools not reflected
in this report. The draft report also does not illustrate fully the
tools EPA, already utilizes to manage its workforce effectively. We
would welcome an opportunity to work further with GAO to incorporate a
more accurate depiction with specific examples of EPA's efforts in
these areas.
Recommendation Comments:
Page 31, Recommendation: "Incorporate into their workforce plans clear
and explicit links between the agency's workforce plans(s) and its
strategic plan, and describe how the workforce plan will help them
achieve their strategic goals."
We recommend deleting "explicit" from the recommendation. EPA's
organizational structure is appropriately decentralized to meet the
needs of different regions and different Agency goals. Our workforce
is also varied, i.e., EPA does not have large groups of employees
performing identical work, such as the Transportation Security Agency,
for example. As a result, much of EPA's workforce planning must be
done at the "local" level to be effective. This workforce planning is
driven by strategic objectives; however, they are detailed objectives
appropriate for the lower levels of the organization. Through the
Agency's budget and organizational and employee performance planning
processes, these detailed objectives cascade from those in the
Agency's strategic plan. These processes are the best mechanisms to
document the flow from higher level objectives to more detailed
organizational objectives, and workforce planning is most-
appropriately managed and documented at the detailed level. While the
Agency's workforce planning is driven by Strategic Goals, requiring
additional documentation would impose a burden with no benefit.
Page 31, Recommendation: "Establish mechanisms that the agencies can
use to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their workforce
planning efforts, particularly in achieving the agency's strategic
goals."
EPA would welcome specific examples of such mechanisms utilized by
other Federal Government organizations that we could add to our
current evaluation mechanisms.
Other Comments:
Page 14, regarding the statement: "Furthermore, we found the strategic
plan and the 2009 through 2014 Strategic Plan Change Document for
Public Review do not refer to the workforce plan and the budget only
briefly refers to the workforce plan in the fiscal year 2010
Congressional Justification. The 2006 through 2011 strategic plan
occasionally referred to workforce needs for some strategic goals, but
it did not include any expected measurable workforce outcomes."
In the 2006-2011 strategic plan, the Agency included a human capital
section in each of the five strategic goal chapters that identifies
future staff skill needs and, in some cases, recruiting strategies to
fill those gaps.
Page 27, regarding the statement: "EPA has not comprehensively
monitored and evaluated the results of its workforce planning efforts,
including whether its workforce planning contributes to the agency's
strategic goals."
EPA evaluates Agency workforce planning efforts as a formal part of
its Human Capital Audit and Assessment Program. This Program, approved
by OPM, includes assessments of each of the five areas of the Human
Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework (HCAAF), including
workforce planning.
Page 29, regarding the statements: "At EPA, the agency does not
directly link workforce planning with its annual budget allocation
process....spending caps imposed by EPA management".
EPA does consider needs based on Agency workforce planning in its
annual budget process. For example, in the FY 2010 Budget, based on
the priorities outlined by the Administrator, the Agency added FTE and
associated payroll to support significant enhancements to EPA's High
Production Volume Chemicals Program. In the FY 2011 Budget,
recognizing the need to strengthen climate change efforts, the Agency
added FTE and associated payroll to support work on greenhouse gas
emission standards. Also, in the FY 2011 Budget, the Agency reduced
FTE and associated payroll in the RCRA waste management program as the
Agency plans to scale back headquarters resources for voluntary
programs including WasteWise, Green Highways, and Pay-As-You-Throw.
Page 30-31, regarding the statement: "Until Interior, EPA, and the
Forest Service more clearly align their workforce plans with their
strategic plans and monitor and evaluate their progress, they are at
risk of not have the appropriately skilled workforce they need to
effectively achieve their mission."
EPA continues to adapt to the changing face of environmental and human
health protection as the economy and society evolve. Key to the
continuation of our innovation and adaptability is an approach that
provides our managers with the flexibility to plan and implement
workforce strategies that support their responsibilities and
accountability under the Agency's Strategic Plan. In January 2008, OMB
and OPM determined that EPA met the government-wide HCAAF standards
when EPA achieved a "Green" status score for the Strategic Management
of Human Capital under the President's Management Agenda. This is
certainly an indicator of success. EPA believes its continued
commitment to strengthening its workforce and leveraging human capital
accomplishments will allow the Agency to accomplish its mission.
[End of section]
Appendix VI: Comments from the Forest Service:
United States Department of Agriculture
Forest Service:
Washington Office:
1400 Independence Avenue, SW:
Washington, DC 20250:
File Code: 1380-11380-1:
Date: March 22, 2010:
Anu K. Mittal:
Director, Natural Resources and Environment:
Government Accountability Office:
441 G Street NW:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Ms. Mittal:
Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) draft report, GAO-10-413, "Workforce
Planning, Interior, EPA and the Forest Service Should Strengthen
Linkages to Their Strategic Plans and Improve Evaluation." The Forest
Service has reviewed the report and generally agrees with the findings
and conclusions. The draft report includes two recommendations for
further action:
* Incorporate into their workforce plans clear and explicit links
between the agency's workforce plan(s) and its strategic plan, and
describe how the workforce plan will help them achieve their strategic
goals.
* Establish mechanisms that the agencies can use to monitor and
evaluate the effectiveness of their workforce planning efforts,
particularly in achieving the agency's strategic goals.
Furthermore, the audit conveys that while the agency has developed and
issued annual workforce plans that contain important information about
current and emerging workforce issues and has identified a variety of
recommendations, the agency has not taken advantage of these efforts.
The Forest Service is working on communicating the recommendations and
assigning responsibility for the timely implementation of the
recommendations. With these elements in place, the agency will be in a
position to capitalize on these opportunities that address our
workforce needs.
If you have any questions, please contact Donna M. Carmical, Chief
Financial Officer, at 202-205-1321 or dcarmical@fs.fed.us.
Sincerely,
Signed by: [Illegible], for:
Thomas L. Tidwell:
Chief:
cc: Sandy T Coleman, Robin Bailey, Ronald Banegas, Valerie Harwood:
[End of section]
Appendix VII: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contacts:
Anu K. Mittal, (202) 512-3841 or mittala@gao.gov John B. Stephenson,
(202) 512-3841 or stephensonj@gao.gov:
Staff Acknowledgments:
In addition to the contacts named above, Andrea Wamstad Brown
(Assistant Director), Edward Kratzer (Assistant Director), Cheryl
Williams (Assistant Director), Krista Breen Anderson, Stephen Cleary,
Laura Erion, Michael J. Hanson, Caryn Kuebler, Robin M. Nazzaro,
Cheryl Peterson, Daniel Semick, Rebecca Shea, Carol Herrnstadt
Shulman, Gregory Wilmoth, and Rebecca Yurman made key contributions to
this report.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic
Workforce Planning, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-39]
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003). OPM, which developed its Human
Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework in conjunction with
the Office of Management and Budget and GAO, issued the final
regulations for this framework in April 2008 (73 FR 23012-23049).
[2] Human capital flexibilities represent the policies and practices
that an agency has the authority to implement in managing its
workforce--for example, work-life programs, monetary incentives and
awards, and special hiring authorities. See GAO, Human Capital:
Effective Use of Flexibilities Can Assist Agencies in Managing Their
Workforces, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-2]
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 6, 2002).
[3] Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, Committee Print of the House
Committee on Appropriations, Pub. L. No. 111-8 (2009).
[4] Interior and the Forest Service have similar missions on some of
the lands they manage.
[5] The eight bureaus are the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of
Reclamation, Indian Affairs, Minerals Management Service, National
Park Service, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Geological Survey.
[6] An FTE consists of one or more employed individuals who
collectively complete 2,080 work hours in a given year. Therefore,
both one full-time employee and two half-time employees equal one FTE.
[7] For fiscal year 2010, Interior estimates the department will
collect about $9.7 billion in receipts from mineral leases on onshore
and offshore federal lands and various fees. A portion of receipts
offset federal appropriations and a portion is disbursed to states and
Indian tribes.
[8] However, in recent prior years, employees constituted generally
about 30 percent of the budget. The fiscal year 2010 budget of $10.3
billion was higher than any EPA budget since 1999, when budgets ranged
from $7.5 to $8.4 billion. Besides funding for employees, other
portions of the budget went for grants, trust funds, and
infrastructure financing.
[9] According to agency officials, the number of FTEs includes
approximately 29,000 permanent full-time employees, as well as the
Forest Service's temporary employees, which typically total
approximately 17,000 each year.
[10] An agency's strategic plan establishes an agencywide vision that
guides workforce planning and investment activities. The Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-62 (1993), among
other things, requires agencies to prepare strategic plans and annual
performance plans that articulate goals for the upcoming fiscal year
that are aligned with their long-term strategic goals.
[11] Stakeholders may include employee unions, congressional staff,
and officials from other federal agencies, among others.
[12] The organization's culture refers to the underlying assumptions,
beliefs, values, attitudes, and expectations generally shared by an
organization's members.
[13] Federal agencies sometimes use private sector contractors to
deliver services to citizens. In July 2009, the administration called
for agencies to develop workforce plans that consider all the
functions for which the agency is responsible and performance by all
sectors of the workforce--not just federal employees.
[14] For a detailed description of the federal budget process, see
GAO, A Glossary of Terms Used in the Federal Budget Process, Appendix
I: Overview of the Development and Execution of the Federal Budget,
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-734SP] (Washington,
D.C.: September 2005).
[15] With the exception of the Bureau of Reclamation's workforce plan,
which covers fiscal years 2008 through 2012, the time frames of the
other seven bureau plans are consistent with this guidance and cover
fiscal years 2008 through 2013.
[16] Regional and program office workforce planning was beyond the
scope of our work.
[17] EPA officials said they will be providing more information on non-
FTEs in the next workforce plan as part of OMB's Acquisition and
Contracting Improvement Plans and Pilots announced in December 2009.
[18] These leaders comprised the agency's regional foresters, station
directors, Director of the Northeastern Area, Director of the
International Institute of Tropical Forestry, deputy chiefs, and
Washington Office directors.
[19] For example, these statistics include the percentage of permanent
employees eligible to retire; total attrition; the number of employees
that have completed certain courses or are enrolled in certain
leadership development programs; the number of employees at grade
levels 14 or 15 or within the Senior Executive Service; the percentage
of permanent positions or new hires that are filled by women,
veterans, persons with certain disabilities, or African American,
Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, or Hispanic employees; and
the number or percentage of new employees hired through sources
outside the federal government.
[20] The 24 units include the following: Northern Region (Region 1);
Rocky Mountain Region (Region 2); Southwestern Region (Region 3);
Intermountain Region (Region 4); Pacific Southwest Region (Region 5);
Pacific Northwest Region (Region 6); Southern Region (Region 8);
Eastern Region (Region 9); Alaska Region (Region 10); Rocky Mountain
Research Station; Northern Research Station; Pacific Northwest
Research Station; Pacific Southwest Research Station; Forest Products
Laboratory; Southern Research Station; International Institute of
Tropical Forestry; Northeastern Area; Office of the Chief; Business
Operations; National Forest System; Chief Financial Officer; Research
and Development; State and Private Forestry; and Law Enforcement and
Investigations.
[21] These options are supplements to the permanent workforce, such as
volunteers.
[22] Workforce planning activities at the units were outside the scope
of this review.
[23] GAO, Clean Water Act: Improved Resource Planning Would Help EPA
Better Respond to Changing Needs and Fiscal Constraints, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-721] (Washington, D.C.: July 22,
2005).
[24] Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture Forest
Service Strategic Plan: FY 2007-2012 (July 2007).
[25] Forest Service, Forest Service Workforce Plan 2008-2012 (Feb. 29,
2008) and Forest Service Workforce Plan 2009-2013 (Sept. 26, 2008).
[26] The Forest Service's Executive Leadership Team, which we refer to
as the agency's executive leaders, comprises the Chief of the Forest
Service; Associate Chief; Chief of Staff; Chief Financial Officer; and
the Deputy Chiefs of Business Operations, National Forest System,
Research and Development, and State and Private Forestry.
[27] GAO, Human Capital: Implementing an Effective Workforce Strategy
Would Help EPA to Achieve Its Strategic Goals, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-01-812] (Washington, D.C.: July 31,
2001).
[28] GAO, EPA's Execution of Its Fiscal Year 2007 New Budget Authority
for the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Program in the Regional
Offices, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-1109R]
(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 26, 2008).
[29] In 2010 and 2011, the contractor is to compare EPA's data for
each function with comparable functions at other agencies. For
example, EPA officials said the contractor might compare EPA's
permitting function with that of the Corps of Engineers and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and EPA regulatory
development with the Food and Drug Administration and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to EPA officials, a
similar effort by a previous contractor to compare EPA's overall
workload assessment efforts was unable to provide actionable
information due to the difficulty of comparing workload assessments at
agencies with different missions, statutory mandates, and core
functions. EPA officials said they expect their current effort to be
more successful because it focuses on particular core functions that
can be compared with similar functions at other agencies.
[30] According to a Forest Service official, these "foundational"
competencies are based on OPM guidance.
[31] According to a Forest Service official, these "leadership"
competencies are based on OPM guidance.
[32] USA Staffing is a Web-based system that automates the public
sector staffing process through Web-enabled software that automates
the recruitment, assessment, referral, and notification processes.
[33] The Federal Human Capital Survey is a tool that measures
employees' perceptions of whether, and to what extent, conditions
characterizing successful organizations are present in their agencies.
Survey results provide insight into the challenges agency leaders face
in ensuring the federal government has an effective civilian workforce
and how well they are responding.
[34] The Forest Service's fiscal year 2008 Annual Performance Report
is contained in the agency's 2010 budget justification. The report
presents the plans and accomplishments that contribute to the agency's
strategic goals and objectives. It analyzes program performance at the
strategic goal level and serves as the agency's Government Performance
and Results Act Annual Performance Report for fiscal year 2008.
[35] National Academy of Public Administration, A Report by a Panel of
the National Academy of Public Administration for the USDA Forest
Service: A Program Review of Diversity Strategic Initiatives
(Washington, D.C., 2009).
[36] In addition, as previously noted, the Forest Service began to
formally link agencywide workforce planning with budget formulation
during the formulation of the fiscal year 2011 budget process--
specifically, by involving the Workforce Planning and Program Analysis
Branch in the budget formulation process and aligning the timing of
the workforce planning and budget cycles.
[37] EPA also referred to two examples of changes in FTEs among its
many programs in its fiscal year 2011 budget request, but we described
an agency's budget allocation in our report as a process that occurs
after Congress appropriates the funds and OMB apportions them. This
process has not occurred for fiscal year 2011.
[38] Human capital flexibilities represent the policies and practices
that an agency has the authority to implement in managing its
workforce--for example, work-life programs, monetary incentives and
awards, and special hiring authorities. See GAO, Human Capital:
Effective Use of Flexibilities Can Assist Agencies in Managing Their
Workforces, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-2]
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 6, 2002).
[End of section]
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