Tax Administration
Workforce Planning Needs Further Development for IRS's Taxpayer Education and Communication Unit Gao ID: GAO-03-711 May 30, 2003Strategic workforce planning helps ensure that agencies have the right people with the right skills in the right positions to carry out the agency mission both in the present and future. The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Taxpayer Education and Communication (TEC) unit within its Small Business and Self- Employed Division assists some 45 million small business and self-employed taxpayers. Given the number of taxpayers it is to assist and changes in its priorities and strategies, GAO was asked to determine whether TEC has a workforce plan that conforms to critical elements for what should be in a plan and how it should be developed and implemented.
Although it has existed for more than 2-and-a-half years, TEC does not have a strategic workforce plan that includes certain critical elements. For example, it has not identified gaps between the number, skills, and locations of its current workforce and the workforce it will need in the future, and the strategies to fill gaps. Such a workforce plan for TEC could be developed by IRS, the Small Business and Self-Employed Division, and/or TEC. Small Business and Self-Employed Division officials said that TEC does not have a strategic workforce plan because they focused on creating the division and units such as TEC to begin addressing taxpayer needs, and because they first wanted to gain some experience with TEC as a new unit. IRS and the Small Business and Self-Employed Division are creating a process for developing a workforce plan for TEC that in broad terms would incorporate the critical elements common to workforce planning. However, it is not yet clear whether the workforce plan for TEC will be developed and implemented consistent with these critical elements. For example, IRS and the Small Business and Self-Employed Division have not analyzed the skills that the TEC workforce will need to meet its program goals or outlined the process and data to be used to do these analyses.
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-03-711, Tax Administration: Workforce Planning Needs Further Development for IRS's Taxpayer Education and Communication Unit
This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-03-711
entitled 'Tax Administration: Workforce Planning Needs Further
Development for IRS's Taxpayer Education and Communication Unit' which
was released on June 18, 2003.
This text file was formatted by the U.S. General Accounting Office
(GAO) to be accessible to users with visual impairments, as part of a
longer term project to improve GAO products' accessibility. Every
attempt has been made to maintain the structural and data integrity of
the original printed product. Accessibility features, such as text
descriptions of tables, consecutively numbered footnotes placed at the
end of the file, and the text of agency comment letters, are provided
but may not exactly duplicate the presentation or format of the printed
version. The portable document format (PDF) file is an exact electronic
replica of the printed version. We welcome your feedback. Please E-mail
your comments regarding the contents or accessibility features of this
document to Webmaster@gao.gov.
This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed
in its entirety without further permission from GAO. Because this work
may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the
copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this
material separately.
Report to Congressional Requesters:
United States General Accounting Office:
GAO:
May 2003:
Tax Administration:
Workforce Planning Needs Further Development for IRS's Taxpayer
Education and Communication Unit:
GAO-03-711:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-03-711, a report to Congressional Requesters
Why GAO Did This Study:
Strategic workforce planning helps ensure that agencies have the right
people with the right skills in the right positions to carry out the
agency mission both in the present and future.
The Internal Revenue Service‘s (IRS) Taxpayer Education and
Communication (TEC) unit within its Small Business and Self-Employed
Division assists some 45 million small business and self-employed
taxpayers. Given the number of taxpayers it is to assist and changes
in its priorities and strategies, GAO was asked to determine whether
TEC has a workforce plan that conforms to critical elements for what
should be in a plan and how it should be developed and implemented.
What GAO Found:
Although it has existed for more than 2 and a half years, TEC does not
have a strategic workforce plan that includes certain critical
elements. (See figure below.) For example, it has not identified gaps
between the number, skills, and locations of its current workforce and
the workforce it will need in the future, and the strategies to fill
gaps. Such a workforce plan for TEC could be developed by IRS, the
Small Business and Self-Employed Division, and/or TEC. Small Business
and Self-Employed Division officials said that TEC does not have a
strategic workforce plan because they focused on creating the division
and units such as TEC to begin addressing taxpayer needs, and because
they first wanted to gain some experience with TEC as a new unit.
IRS and the Small Business and Self-Employed Division are creating a
process for developing a workforce plan for TEC that in broad terms
would incorporate the critical elements common to workforce planning.
However, it is not yet clear whether the workforce plan for TEC will
be developed and implemented consistent with these critical elements.
For example, IRS and the Small Business and Self-Employed Division
have not analyzed the skills that the TEC workforce will need to meet
its program goals or outlined the process and data to be used to do
these analyses.
What GAO Recommends:
GAO recommends that the IRS Commissioner ensure that the TEC workforce
plan is developed in conformance with the critical elements of what a
plan is to include and how a plan is to be developed and implemented.
The Commissioner provided comments that neither explicitly agreed nor
disagreed with GAO‘s recommendation, but said IRS had an integrated
strategy that addressed issues raised in the report. GAO believes the
strategy is useful but did not provide sufficient detail to ensure the
TEC workforce plan would conform to the critical elements.
[End of section]
United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
May 30, 2003:
The Honorable Olympia Snowe
Chair
Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
United States Senate:
The Honorable Christopher H. Bond
United States Senate:
In all federal agencies, employees are their most important asset in
accomplishing their missions and achieving their goals. The Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA)[Footnote 1] calls for
agencies and their operating divisions to address human capital in the
context of performance management and requires annual performance plans
to describe how agencies will use resources to accomplish their
strategic direction and program goals. As part of human capital
management, strategic workforce planning helps ensure that
organizations have the right number of staff with the right skills and
competencies in the right locations to fulfill their goals both now and
in the future given the strategies they have adopted to carry out their
missions.
Certain critical elements are common in workforce plans and planning
processes across leading private and public organizations: (1)
involving top management and employees in developing and implementing a
workforce plan, (2) analyzing gaps between the workforce that exists
currently and that will be needed in the future, (3) devising
strategies (e.g., hiring or training) to fill workforce gaps, and (4)
evaluating the strategies to ensure that they yield the workforce
needed and to make revisions as necessary.
In an August 2002 report,[Footnote 2] the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration (TIGTA) voiced specific concerns that the
Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) workforce planning documents do not
focus on long-term planning. IRS has assumed overall responsibility for
developing an IRS-wide workforce plan, which its divisions and units
are to support and can supplement with more detailed plans.
Within IRS, the Taxpayer Education and Communication (TEC) unit in the
Small Business and Self-Employed Division (SB/SE)[Footnote 3] were both
created in October 2000 during IRS's reorganization. TEC is to serve
about 45 million small businesses and self-employed taxpayers primarily
through efforts to better educate them about their tax obligations.
Although the other two units in SB/SE combined many organizations and
functions that had existed prior to IRS's reorganization, TEC was a new
unit with new or expanded responsibilities. TEC was to have over 1,200
staff by fiscal year 2002 in 15 major field locations and an annual
budget of over $60 million. Since its inception, TEC has (1) not
reached its staffing level (it had 718 staff as of March 2003), (2)
reduced the number of major field locations to 7, and (3) added
priorities and strategies for providing education and outreach to SB/SE
taxpayers.
Because TEC serves many taxpayers and has had the above changes, you
asked us to determine whether TEC has a workforce plan that conforms to
the critical elements for what should be in a plan and how the plan
should be developed and implemented. To do so, we interviewed IRS
officials and reviewed IRS workforce planning documents, reviewed
guidance by central management agencies such as the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the
critical elements of workforce planning, and reviewed our reports on
human capital management. We did not evaluate the adequacy of TEC's
program goals (or operational priorities).[Footnote 4]
Results in Brief:
Although TEC has existed for more than 2 and a half years, IRS has not
ensured that TEC has a strategic workforce plan that includes the
critical elements of a plan, such as identifying any gaps between the
number, skills, and locations of the current workforce and the
workforce needed in the future, and strategies to fill these gaps.
Without a strategic workforce plan, TEC has less assurance that it has
the necessary workforce to meet its current program goals and to manage
changes in its programs and goals. SB/SE officials said that TEC does
not have a strategic workforce plan because they focused on creating
TEC to address SB/SE taxpayers' needs, and because they first wanted to
have some experience with TEC as a new unit.
IRS and SB/SE are creating a process for developing a workforce plan
for TEC that in broad terms would incorporate the critical elements
common to workforce planning by leading private and public
organizations. However, it is not yet clear whether the workforce plan
for TEC will be developed and implemented consistent with these
critical elements. For example, IRS and SB/SE have not analyzed the
skills that the TEC workforce will need to meet its program goals or
outlined the process and data to be used for these analyses. In
developing and implementing a strategic workforce plan for TEC, IRS and
SB/SE will have to meet challenges, such as gathering reliable data on
the skills that the current workforce has and the future workforce that
TEC will need.
Given the uncertainty about how the strategic workforce plan for TEC
will be developed, we recommend that the IRS Commissioner ensure that
the TEC workforce plan is developed in conformance with the critical
elements for what a plan is to include and how it is to be developed
and implemented.
In a letter dated May 28, 2003, the Commissioner of the IRS provided
comments that neither explicitly agreed nor disagreed with GAO's
recommendation. However, the Commissioner said he believed IRS had a
set of integrated strategies that address the issues raised in our
report. Although the steps the Commissioner listed as the integrated
strategies are useful, we did not see sufficient detail in the material
IRS provided on these steps during our review to be assured that the
TEC workforce plan would be sufficiently developed and implemented in
accordance with the critical elements. (See p. 13 for a discussion of
agency comments, which are reprinted in app. I.):
Background:
SB/SE was formed to address various issues affecting small business and
self-employed taxpayers, such as filing tax returns and paying taxes.
SB/SE's strategic goals include increasing compliance and also reducing
burden among SB/SE taxpayers. As part of SB/SE, TEC is to use various
strategies, including providing education, outreach, assistance, and
other services, to support SB/SE taxpayers in understanding and
complying with tax laws. IRS created TEC in response to concerns that
IRS should better balance such services with its enforcement efforts.
In serving taxpayers, TEC is to partner with government agencies, small
business groups, tax practitioner groups, and other stakeholders that
could advance its education and outreach efforts. To meet an overall
goal of increasing voluntary compliance, TEC's four program goals or
priorities are to combat abusive tax schemes, reduce taxpayer burden,
promote electronic filing, and negotiate agreements with SB/SE
taxpayers on specific ways to voluntarily comply with tax laws.
Recent events underscore the importance of human capital management and
strategic workforce planning. For example, we designated strategic
human capital management as a governmentwide, high-risk area in January
2001, and it was also placed at the top of the President's Management
Agenda in August 2001. In addition, OMB and OPM have made efforts to
improve human capital management and strategic workforce
planning.[Footnote 5]
Critical Elements in Workforce Planning:
The goal of strategic workforce planning is to ensure that the right
people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time.
Agency approaches to workforce planning can vary with their particular
needs and missions. Nevertheless, looking across existing successful
public and private organizations, certain critical elements recur as
part of a workforce plan and workforce planning process. Although
fluid, this process starts with setting a strategic direction that
includes program goals and strategies to achieve those goals and flows
through the critical elements to evaluating the workforce plan. Figure
1 uses a simple model to show these critical elements and their
relationships to the agency's overall strategic direction and goals.
Figure 1: A Simplified Model of Critical Elements to Include in the
Workforce Planning Process:
[See PDF for image]
Note: Workforce planning is a continual process that involves
interaction among the critical elements and may reshape how the
workforce accomplishes its work and achieves the agency's mission in
the future.
[End of figure]
Before developing a workforce plan, an agency first needs to set a
strategic direction and program goals. Setting a strategic direction
and program goals is part of the general performance management
principles that Congress expects agencies to follow under GPRA. A
workforce plan should be developed and implemented to help fulfill the
strategic direction and program goals.[Footnote 6] The critical
elements of what this plan should include and how it should be
developed follow.
Involvement of management and employees: Involving various staff (from
the top to the bottom) cuts across the other critical elements.
Involving staff in all phases of workforce planning can help improve
the quality of the plan because staff are directly involved with the
daily operations. Further, vetting proposed workforce strategies to
management and those most affected by those decisions can build support
for the plan and facilitate obtaining the resources needed to implement
the plan and meet program goals. Establishing a communication strategy
that involves various staff can create shared expectations and a clear
reporting process about the workforce plan.
Workforce gap analysis: Analyzing whether gaps exist between the
current and future workforce needed to meet program goals is critical
to ensure proper staffing. The workforce plan should assess these gaps,
to the extent practical, in a fact-based manner. The absence of fact-
based analyses can undermine an agency's efforts to identify and
respond to current and emerging challenges.[Footnote 7] Thus, the
characteristics of the future workforce should be based on the specific
skills and numbers of staff that will be needed to handle the expected
workload. The analysis of the current workforce should identify how
many staff members have those skills and how many are likely to remain
with the agency over time given expected losses due to retirement and
other attrition. The workforce gap analyses can help justify budget and
staffing requests by connecting the program goals and strategies with
the budget and staff resources needed to accomplish them.
* Workforce strategies to fill the gaps: Developing strategies to
address any identified workforce gaps creates the road map to move from
the current to the future workforce needed to achieve the program
goals. Strategies can involve how the workforce is acquired, developed
and trained, deployed, compensated, motivated, and retained. Agencies
need to know their flexibilities and authorities when developing the
strategies, and to communicate the strategies to all affected
parties.[Footnote 8]
* Evaluation of and revisions to strategies: Evaluating the results of
the workforce strategies and making any needed revisions helps to
ensure that the strategies work as intended. A key step is developing
performance measures as indicators of success in attaining human
capital goals and program goals, both short-and long-term. Periodic
measurement and evaluation provides data for identifying shortfalls and
opportunities to revise workforce plans as necessary.[Footnote 9] For
example, an evaluation may indicate whether the workforce plan
adequately considered barriers to achieving the goals, such as
insufficient resources to hire and train the full complement of staff
identified as necessary by the workforce gap analysis.
Across the critical elements of a workforce plan, data collection and
analysis provide fundamental building blocks. Having reliable data is
particularly important to doing the workforce gap analysis. Early
development of the data provides a baseline by which agencies can
identify current workforce problems. Regular updating of the data
enables agencies to plan for improvements, manage changes in the
programs and workforce, and track the effects of changes on achieving
program goals.
Status of Workforce Planning at IRS:
IRS issued an Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) section for internal review
and comment in March 2003, and IRS expects to finalize it in June 2003.
The section outlines a strategic workforce planning system and model,
and discusses the roles and responsibilities of IRS and its divisions
in this system.
For example, IRS is to be responsible for developing the strategic
workforce plan across IRS and for analyzing current and future
workforce needs. The divisions are to be responsible for providing
requested data to IRS's workforce planning office and for translating
the IRS-wide plan into their operations. Thus, a strategic workforce
plan for a unit within a division could be developed by IRS, the
division, or the unit. If developed by the division or unit, the
workforce plan is to be consistent with IRS-wide strategic and
workforce plans.
Objective, Scope, and Methodology:
Our objective was to determine whether TEC has a workforce plan that
conforms to the critical elements for what should be in a plan and how
it should be developed and implemented. To meet this objective, we:
* reviewed human capital literature--including OPM's Human Capital
Assessment and Accountability Framework--as well as workforce planning
models at OPM, OMB, and IRS, among others;
* reviewed TIGTA and GAO reports on human capital and workforce
planning;
* reviewed IRS and SB/SE documents on their strategic program plans,
the plan that guided TEC's creation and initial staffing, and the
annual TEC staffing plan as well as IRS's draft IRM section on
strategic planning and workforce analyses (section 6.251) as of March
2003; and:
* interviewed SB/SE and TEC officials on their goals, strategies, and
staffing plans as well as IRS and SB/SE Workforce Council officials to
determine their purposes, activities, time lines, and challenges.
We conducted our work at IRS and SB/SE headquarters from February 2003
through April 2003 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. We did not attempt to analyze the adequacy of any
analyses done to develop a workforce plan for TEC or the program goals
and strategies. The Commissioner of IRS provided comments on a draft of
this report, which are discussed in the "Agency Comments and Our
Evaluation" section and are reprinted in appendix I.
TEC Has Not Had a Strategic Workforce Plan and Questions Remain on How
This Plan Will Be Developed and Implemented:
Since its inception in October 2000, TEC has operated with short-term
staffing plans that do not meet the critical elements of what a
strategic workforce plan should include and how it should be developed.
IRS and SB/SE are taking steps to develop a strategic workforce plan
that will include TEC. However, questions remain about how the critical
elements will be developed and implemented for TEC.
TEC Does Not Have a Workforce Plan That Includes the Critical Elements:
TEC does not have a strategic workforce plan that includes the critical
elements, such as analyses of the workforce gaps and strategies.
Without such a workforce plan, TEC has less assurance that it has the
necessary workforce to meet its current program goals and to manage
changes in its programs and goals. IRS and SB/SE officials said that
TEC does not have a strategic workforce plan because of the effort in
creating the division and its units such as TEC to meet SB/SE taxpayer
needs. These officials said this effort has been a significant
undertaking, which delayed the workforce planning. SB/SE officials also
said that they needed to have some experience with TEC as a new unit
and some data on its new TEC workforce before developing a strategic
workforce plan for TEC.
Since its inception, TEC has operated under two types of staffing plans
that did not use the critical elements of a workforce plan. One plan
was developed prior to TEC's creation in October 2000 to guide the
hiring and allocation of 1,209 full-time positions for TEC.[Footnote
10] The other plan annually allocates the number of TEC staff to its
various locations, functions (e.g., partnership outreach or marketing
service) and four priorities (e.g., combat abusive tax schemes and
promote electronic filing). Although both plans reflect analyses of the
number of TEC staff by location, these plans did not address what a TEC
workforce plan should include under the critical elements. For example,
the plans did not identify any gaps in the workforce needed, any
strategies to fill the gaps, or any measures for evaluation purposes.
IRS and SB/SE Are Developing a Workforce Plan for TEC, but Questions
Remain:
Recognizing the need for workforce planning, both IRS and SB/SE are
developing strategic workforce plans and a planning process for TEC and
other IRS entities that broadly reflect the critical elements. However,
questions remain because of the lack of details on how any workforce
plan for TEC will address the critical elements.
IRS and SB/SE each convened workforce planning councils, consisting of
executives and human capital managers, to oversee the development of a
strategic workforce plan that would include TEC. IRS started its
council in the fall 2001 at the direction of the IRS commissioner. SB/
SE started its council in February 2003 to create a more detailed
workforce plan for TEC and its other units than would be provided in
the IRS-wide plan.
Our review of IRS and SB/SE documents showed that they both intend to
use the critical elements of strategic workforce planning. These
documents include models and discussion that reference the critical
elements. For example, these models refer to elements such as analyzing
the gap in the workforce and developing strategies to reduce the
workforce gap.
Although IRS and SB/SE are taking steps to develop a strategic
workforce plan for TEC, these steps have not yet produced enough
details to specify how the critical elements will be developed and
implemented for TEC. IRS and SB/SE officials said that they recognize
the need to further define how the strategic workforce plan will be
developed and implemented over time.
For example, the degree to which top management and employees will be
involved in developing and implementing the workforce plan for TEC is
not yet clear. The draft IRM section refers to their involvement but
does not provide details on the extent and nature of their involvement.
As for identifying any workforce gaps at TEC, it is not clear what
analyses will be done. As of April 2003, neither IRS nor SB/SE has
analyzed the type of TEC workforce needed in the future to meet program
goals or the skills of the current TEC workforce. Both types of
analyses are needed to determine the gap between the current TEC
workforce and the workforce needed in the future. Nor is it clear how
and when these analyses will be done. SB/SE officials said that given
resource limitations, they have not done the necessary workforce
analyses for TEC or developed an implementation schedule for when the
analyses would be done.
As of April 2003, IRS or SB/SE analyses have dealt with other workforce
issues. While useful, the analyses do not address the TEC workforce gap
in terms of the skills needed now or in the future to meet program
goals, particularly newer ones such as promoting electronic filing or
negotiating voluntary compliance agreements. For example,
* IRS has analyzed 12 mission-critical positions in terms of potential
losses (e.g., retirement) from the current number of positions. These
analyses have not focused on TEC because the analyses, as well as the
eventual IRS-wide workforce plan, are intended to be done at a high
level with minimal references to TEC.[Footnote 11]
* SB/SE asked officials in TEC and its other units in February 2003 to
use a checklist to self-assess their current workforce and planning
capabilities against OPM criteria. SB/SE has not indicated how it will
verify and use the subjective check marks made by the officials to
determine workforce gaps in TEC, particularly in skills needed.
* No analyses have been provided to justify plans for fiscal year 2004
to hire 250 additional staff in TEC to combat abusive tax schemes and
to not hire any additional staff to address three other TEC goals. IRS
and SB/SE workforce officials had told us that the 250 staff estimate
came from the budget and finance staff in SB/SE. In a subsequent
meeting during May 2003, TEC and SB/SE officials said that IRS has
decided against any staff expansion in TEC due to other budget
considerations.
Finishing the analyses of TEC workforce gaps is important for the rest
of the workforce plan. The other two critical elements involving
strategies and evaluation cannot be finished until IRS and SB/SE know
the specific needs of the current and future TEC workforces.
As IRS and SB/SE officials develop and implement a workforce plan for
TEC, major challenges are likely to arise. For example, these officials
cited the challenge of balancing daily operational demands with the
capacity to forecast workforce needs in terms of staff numbers, skills,
and locations. Another challenge is gathering reliable data on the
attrition, retirement, and skills of the current workforce to do
analyses that are critical to workforce planning. IRS and SB/SE
officials also pointed to budget fluctuations that could limit their
strategies to close gaps in the workforce needed by TEC over time. For
example, the budget may be insufficient to replace losses of TEC
workforce skills due to retirement. Finally, they said that if the
workforce plan could adversely affect current TEC employees, dealing
with employee unions to address the concerns could be a challenge. We
have reported on these and other challenges that any agency faces in
doing successful workforce planning.[Footnote 12]
Conclusions:
As discussed in our previous reports, and echoed by OPM and OMB
guidance, a strategic workforce plan enables an agency to identify gaps
in its current and future needs, select strategies to fill the gaps,
and evaluate the success of the plan to make revisions that may be
needed to better meet program goals. Such a workforce plan does not yet
exist for TEC. Without such a plan, TEC is less likely to have the
right number of staff with the right skills in the right places at the
right time to address its priorities. Further, it is difficult to
justify budget and staffing requests if the workforce needs are not
known.
IRS and SB/SE have started taking steps to develop a strategic
workforce plan for TEC based on the critical elements under OPM and OMB
guidelines, and our guidelines for what a plan is to include and how it
is to be developed and implemented. However, IRS and SB/SE have not yet
identified many details on how the plan for TEC will incorporate the
elements. Without these details, we cannot be certain that the critical
elements will be used and contribute to the program goals.
Recommendation for Executive Action:
Given the uncertainty on how the workforce plan for TEC will be
developed and implemented, we recommend that the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue ensure that the workforce plan for TEC be developed in
conformance with the critical elements for what a plan should include
and how a plan should be developed and implemented.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We requested comments on a draft of this report from IRS. The
Commissioner of Internal Revenue provided written comments in a letter
dated May 28, 2003. (See appendix I.) These comments neither explicitly
agreed nor disagreed with our recommendation to ensure that a workforce
plan for TEC is developed in conformance with the critical elements of
what a plan should include and how it should be developed and
implemented.
The Commissioner did say that IRS strongly endorses the development of
a strategic workforce plan and that IRS has made progress on this
effort, listing eight steps that have been taken. The Commissioner also
said that the steps were a set of integrated strategies that reflect
IRS's commitment to improve its workforce planning efforts and that
they addressed the issues raised in our report. To the extent that IRS
had told us about how these steps contributed to a workforce plan for
TEC, our report discusses them when we describe IRS's efforts to create
such a plan using the critical elements. Although we believe that these
steps are useful, we made our recommendation because we did not see
enough details to be assured that a workforce plan for TEC would be
sufficiently developed and implemented in accordance with the critical
elements.
We are encouraged that IRS strongly endorses development of a strategic
workforce plan. We look forward to seeing a workforce plan for TEC.
As we agreed with your staff, unless you publicly release the contents
of this report earlier, we will not distribute it until 30 days after
its issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to the
Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and
Entrepreneurship. We will also send copies to the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue and other interested parties. We will make copies
available to others on request. In addition, the report will be
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
This report was prepared under the direction of Thomas Short, Assistant
Director. Other major contributors include Catherine Myrick and Grace
Coleman. If you have any questions or would like additional
information, please contact me at (202) 512-9110 or brostekm@gao.gov or
Thomas Short at (202) 512-9110 or www.shortt@gao.gov.
Michael Brostek
Director, Tax Issues:
Signed by Michael Brostek:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Comments from the Internal Revenue Service:
COMMISSIONER:
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE WASHINGTON, D.C.
20224:
May 28, 2003:
Mr. Michael Brostek
Director,
Tax Issues
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20548:
Dear Mr. Brostek:
We reviewed the draft GAO report titled, Tax Administration: Workforce
Planning Needs Further Development for IRS's Taxpayer Education and
Communication Unit (GAO-03-711), dated May 2003.
We strongly endorse the development of a strategic workforce plan and
have made progress on this effort. Using a Workforce Planning model
based on the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) guidance, we have:
* Convened a Workforce Planning Council comprised of top managers from
Small Business/Self Employed (SB/SE) and Taxpayer Education and
Communication (TEC) to ensure leadership involvement in the process.
* Performed a self-assessment of the current state of human capital in
SB/SE including TEC, using the Human Capital Assessment and
Accountability Framework (HCAAF). HCAAF is an integrated approach to
human management developed by three federal oversight agencies: The
Office of Management and Budget, The Office of Personnel Management and
the General Accounting Office.
* Developed clear links between the SB/SE Strategic Plan and the
workforce planning effort, using the HCAAF "Six Standards For
Success.":
* Identified and clearly linked SB/SE programs and initiatives to our
SB/SE Strategic Plan to allow us to address the gaps we identified in
our human capital assessment. The programs and initiatives include:
* Succession Planning:
* Career Pathing:
* Accelerated Training Programs:
* New Retention Strategies:
* Employee Satisfaction Surveys:
* Quality of Work Life Programs.
* Performed extensive data analysis of the SB/SE workforce including
TEC. Demographic data, attrition rates, migration rates, retirement
eligible rates were analyzed.
* Begun to develop a workforce plan to match our workforce's current
state with the anticipated future state, in order to bridge job
competency gaps and replace lost talent.
* Committed to completing the workforce plan by October 1, 2003, as one
of our Strategic Plan deliverables.
* Published a corporate level Workforce Analysis Report and Multi-Year
Staffing Plan (03-07) in April 2003 that included SB/SE tax
specialists.
We believe this set of integrated strategies reflects our commitment to
improve our workforce planning efforts and addresses the issues raised
in your report.
I would be happy to provide additional information about our progress.
If you need more information, please contact Robert Hunt, Director,
Taxpayer Education and Communication, at (202) 283-2627.
Sincerely,
Mark W. Everson:
Signed for Mark W. Everson
[End of section]
GAO's Mission:
The General Accounting Office, the audit, evaluation and investigative
arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its
constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and
accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO
examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and
policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance
to help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding
decisions. GAO's commitment to good government is reflected in its core
values of accountability, integrity, and reliability.
Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony:
The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no
cost is through the Internet. GAO's Web site (www.gao.gov) contains
abstracts and full-text files of current reports and testimony and an
expanding archive of older products. The Web site features a search
engine to help you locate documents using key words and phrases. You
can print these documents in their entirety, including charts and other
graphics.
Each day, GAO issues a list of newly released reports, testimony, and
correspondence. GAO posts this list, known as "Today's Reports," on its
Web site daily. The list contains links to the full-text document
files. To have GAO e-mail this list to you every afternoon, go to
www.gao.gov and select "Subscribe to daily E-mail alert for newly
released products" under the GAO Reports heading.
Order by Mail or Phone:
The first copy of each printed report is free. Additional copies are $2
each. A check or money order should be made out to the Superintendent
of Documents. GAO also accepts VISA and Mastercard. Orders for 100 or
more copies mailed to a single address are discounted 25 percent.
Orders should be sent to:
U.S. General Accounting Office 441 G Street NW, Room LM Washington,
D.C. 20548:
To order by Phone: Voice: (202) 512-6000 TDD: (202) 512-2537 Fax: (202)
512-6061:
To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs:
Contact:
Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov
Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470:
Public Affairs:
Jeff Nelligan, Managing Director, NelliganJ@gao.gov (202) 512-4800 U.S.
General Accounting Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149 Washington, D.C.
20548:
FOOTNOTES
[1] Pub. L. No. 103-62.
[2] Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Expansion of the
Workforce Planning Process Would Increase Opportunities to Identify and
Address Staffing Risks, Reference Number: 2002-10-154 (Washington,
D.C.: August 2002).
[3] SB/SE's three operating units are TEC, Customer Account Services,
and Compliance.
[4] IRS's system includes an alignment of unit, division, and IRS
strategic goals. TEC has operational priorities that are commonly
thought of as program goals. For clarity, we refer to TEC's operational
priorities as program goals that are to link to and support SB/SE's
program goals.
[5] Based on an OMB standard on strategic human capital management, OPM
issued its Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework in
October 2002, which lists six "Human Capital Standards for Success,"
including one on workforce planning.
[6] See U.S. General Accounting Office, A Model of Strategic Human
Capital Management, GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2002), and
Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and Transformation: Lessons Learned
for a Department of Homeland Security and Other Federal Agencies,
GAO-03-293SP (Washington, D.C.: November 2002).
[7] See U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: Strategic
Human Capital Management, GAO-03-120 (Washington, D.C.: January 2003).
[8] See U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures:
Using Balanced Expectations to Manage Senior Executive Performance,
GAO-02-966 (Washington, D.C: Sept. 27, 2002).
[9] Strategic workforce plans are similar to an agency's strategic
plans under GPRA in that both types of plans include strategies for
achieving annual and long-term goals and are linked to the strategic
goals. See U.S. General Accounting Office, Managing for Results;
Strengthening Regulatory Agencies Performance Management Practices,
GAO/GGD-00-10 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 28, 1999).
[10] For various reasons such as budget and recruitment difficulties,
and program goal changes, TEC has not filled all these authorized
positions and had 718 staff on board as of March 2003. TEC also has
received 13 additional positions by assuming responsibility in November
2001 for promoting electronic filing.
[11] Most of the analyses combine the tax specialist position with the
tax resolution representative and tax compliance officer positions.
Distinctions are important because the skills for these positions vary.
Furthermore, the analyses do not break out the tax specialists who work
in TEC from elsewhere in IRS.
[12] See U.S. General Accounting Office, Acquisition Workforce: Status
of Agency Efforts to Address Future Needs, GAO-03-55 (Washington, D.C.:
Dec. 18, 2002).
GAO's Mission:
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
exists to support Congress in meeting its constitutional
responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability
of the federal government for the American people. GAO examines the use
of public funds; evaluates federal programs and policies; and provides
analyses, recommendations, and other assistance to help Congress make
informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO's commitment to
good government is reflected in its core values of accountability,
integrity, and reliability.
Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony:
The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no
cost is through the Internet. GAO's Web site ( www.gao.gov ) contains
abstracts and full-text files of current reports and testimony and an
expanding archive of older products. The Web site features a search
engine to help you locate documents using key words and phrases. You
can print these documents in their entirety, including charts and other
graphics.
Each day, GAO issues a list of newly released reports, testimony, and
correspondence. GAO posts this list, known as "Today's Reports," on its
Web site daily. The list contains links to the full-text document
files. To have GAO e-mail this list to you every afternoon, go to
www.gao.gov and select "Subscribe to e-mail alerts" under the "Order
GAO Products" heading.
Order by Mail or Phone:
The first copy of each printed report is free. Additional copies are $2
each. A check or money order should be made out to the Superintendent
of Documents. GAO also accepts VISA and Mastercard. Orders for 100 or
more copies mailed to a single address are discounted 25 percent.
Orders should be sent to:
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street NW,
Room LM Washington,
D.C. 20548:
To order by Phone:
Voice: (202) 512-6000:
TDD: (202) 512-2537:
Fax: (202) 512-6061:
To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs:
Contact:
Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov
Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470:
Public Affairs:
Jeff Nelligan, managing director, NelliganJ@gao.gov (202) 512-4800 U.S.
General Accounting Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149 Washington, D.C.
20548:
