	Background

To ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear  weapons stockpile, NNSA relies on contractors who manage and operate  government-owned laboratories, production plants, and a test site. NNSA and Its M&O Contractors Use Multifaceted Strategies to Recruit, Develop, and Retain Their Workforces

NNSA and its M&O contractors have developed and implemented  multifaceted strategies to recruit, develop, and retain both the federal and  contractor workforces needed to preserve critical capabilities in the  enterprise. NNSA focuses on attracting early career hires with competitive  pay and development opportunities, and the agency is reassessing future  enterprisewide workforce needs. M&O contractors’ strategies vary from  site to site, but each site focuses on maintaining competitive  compensation packages. NNSA generally relies on two key programs to  develop its critically skilled workforce––one that identifies needs and  another that identifies the qualifications necessary to meet them. NNSA is also undertaking a comprehensive  reassessment to ascertain future federal workforce requirements. Their development efforts vary in approach but are  also site specific and face some challenges––particularly in preserving  underground nuclear testing skills. NNSA Monitors Key Human Capital Metrics to Assess the Effectiveness of Strategies to Maintain Critically Skilled Workforces

To assess the effectiveness of its strategies for recruiting, developing,  and retaining the NNSA staff and M&O contractors needed to preserve  critical skills in the nuclear security enterprise, NNSA monitors key human  capital metrics, including the length of time to hire employees and  attrition. NNSA Monitors Key Human Capital Metrics for Its Staff

To assess the effectiveness of its strategies for recruiting, developing,  and retaining the federal workforce with the requisite critical skills to  support and oversee M&O contractors, NNSA focuses on monitoring two  key metrics—the length of time it takes them to hire an employee and its  attrition rates—and tracks employees’ progress toward completing the  required training and certifications through the TQP. M&O contractors  assess key human capital metrics, but these metrics do not have  standardized definitions. According to NNSA  officials, these metrics vary from site to site, but generally provide the  same key information, including acceptance rates for offers of employment, which are benchmarked  on a site-specific basis but are typically around 80 percent; attrition rates, both for retirement and non-retirement reasons, which  are also benchmarked on a site-specific basis; pay comparability—whether salaries are competitive with peer benefits comparability––whether benefits are competitive with peer ability to fill a critical skills position within a certain number of days–– usually 48 to 90 days. For example, one  of the M&O contractors’ key metrics—acceptance rates for offers of  employment—may not be consistently measured across the enterprise. NNSA and Its M&O Contractors Face Challenges in Recruiting, Retaining, and Developing Their Workforces

NNSA and its M&O contractors face challenges in recruiting, retaining,  and developing their workforces and are using several tools to address  these challenges. NNSA and Its M&O Contractor Work Environments, Site Locations, and High Costs of Living Pose Recruiting Challenges

Officials from NNSA site offices and M&O contractor work sites reported  that their secure work environment and location make recruitment of  advanced science and technology candidates more challenging. Staff typically need to acquire and  maintain high-level clearances and must often work in secure areas that  prohibit the use of personal cell phones, personal e-mail, and social  media. Isolation. Further complicating NNSA’s recruiting efforts is the demand for qualified  candidates in the private sector as well, and private sector jobs may offer  a work environment that many candidates may find more desirable. Shortages of qualified candidates. National laboratory officials told us that a large percentage of students  graduating from top science, technology, and engineering programs are  foreign nationals. Streamlined hiring and security clearance processes. Building a pipeline of critically skilled employees. Without this information, NNSA’s ability to monitor the effectiveness of its  and its M&O contractors’ strategies to recruit, develop, and retain the  workforces needed to preserve critical skills may be hindered. In  particular, without common enterprisewide definitions of human capital  performance metrics, NNSA may not be able to collect consistent and  comparable M&O contractor human capital data across all eight sites in  the enterprise. Recommendation for Executive Action

To improve NNSA’s ability to monitor the effectiveness of its strategies–– and its M&O contractors’ strategies––to recruit, develop, and retain the  workforces needed to preserve critical skills in the enterprise, we  recommend that the Administrator of NNSA take the following action:  As it develops its Enterprise Modeling Consortium and other  enterprisewide systems for tracking M&O contractor human capital  performance metrics, NNSA should consider developing standardized  definitions across the enterprise, especially across M&O contractors, to  ensure they gather consistent data using human capital metrics with  consistent, uniform definitions.
Why GAO Did This Study

NNSA has primary responsibility for ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the nations nuclear weapons stockpile. NNSA carries out these activities at three national labs, four production sites, and one test sitecollectively known as the nuclear security enterprise. Contractors operate these sites under management and operations (M&O) contracts. The enterprise workforces often possess certain critical skills that can only be developed through a minimum of 3 years of experience working in a secure, classified environment.
Because NNSA could have difficulty maintaining the critically skilled workforces necessary to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nations nuclear weapons, GAO was asked to examine: (1) strategies NNSA and its M&O contractors use to recruit, develop, and retain critically skilled workforces; (2) how NNSA assesses the effectiveness of these strategies; and (3) challenges in recruiting, retaining, and developing this specialized workforce and efforts to mitigate these challenges. GAO reviewed NNSAs and its M&O contractors human capital documents and interviewed officials.

What GAO Found

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its M&O contractors have developed and implemented multifaceted strategies to recruit, develop, and retain both the federal and contractor workforces needed to preserve critical skills in the enterprise. NNSAs recruiting and retention efforts for its federal staff focus on attracting early career hires with competitive pay and development opportunities. Its development efforts generally rely on two key programs to develop its critically skilled workforceone that identifies needs and another that identifies the qualifications necessary to meet them. For strategic planning purposes, NNSA is also undertaking a comprehensive reassessment and analysis of staffing requirements to ascertain future federal workforce requirements. M&O contractors recruitment and retention strategies vary from site to site, but each site focuses on maintaining competitive compensation packages. Their development efforts vary in approach and scope and face some challengesparticularly in preserving underground nuclear testing skills.
To assess the effectiveness of its ownand its M&O contractorsstrategies for recruiting, developing, and retaining the workforces needed to preserve critical skills, NNSA monitors key human capital metrics. NNSA focuses on two key metrics in assessing its own strategiesthe time it takes to hire a new employee and its attrition rates. To assess the effectiveness of its contractors strategies, NNSA monitors key human capital metrics using data that M&O contractors collect, including acceptance rates, attrition rates, comparability of pay and benefits with peer institutions, and the ability to fill a critical skills position within a certain number of days. M&O contractors assess key human capital performance measures, but these metrics do not have standardized definitions. For example, one of the M&O contractors key metricsacceptance rates for offers of employmentmay not be consistently measured across the enterprise. Without this information, NNSAs ability to monitor the effectiveness of its and its M&O contractors strategies to recruit, develop, and retain the workforces needed to preserve critical skills may be hindered. In particular, without common enterprisewide definitions of human capital performance metrics, NNSA may not be able to collect consistent and comparable data across all eight sites in the enterprise.
The enterprises work environments and site locations pose recruiting challenges, and NNSA and its M&O contractors face shortages of qualified candidates, among other challenges. For example, staff must often work in secure areas that prohibit the use of personal cell phones, e-mail, and social media, which is a disadvantage in attracting younger skilled candidates. In addition, many sites are geographically isolated and may offer limited career opportunities for candidates spouses. Critically skilled positions also require security clearancesand therefore U.S. citizenshipand a large percentage of students graduating from top science, technology, and engineering programs are foreign nationals. The pool of qualified candidates is also attractive to high technology firms in the private sector, which may offer more desirable work environments. NNSA and its M&O contractors are taking actions to address these challenges where possible, including streamlining hiring and security clearance processes and taking actions to proactively identify new scientists and engineers to build a pipeline of critically skilled candidates.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that NNSA consider developing standardized definitions for human capital metrics across the enterprise to ensure NNSA and its M&O contractors gather consistent contractor data. NNSA concurred with GAOs recommendation.