The model emphasizes that successful  strategic human capital management requires the integration of human  capital approaches with strategies for accomplishing organizational  missions and program goals. Such integration allows the agency to ensure  that its core processes efficiently and effectively support mission-related  outcomes. Selected Agencies Took Actions to Integrate Human Capital Approaches with Organizational Missions

The executive branch agencies we reviewed took a range of actions as part  of efforts to integrate human capital approaches with strategies for  achieving organizational missions. In  addition, the agency leaders and human capital leaders jointly have  employed human capital professionals and agency line managers to share  the accountability for successfully integrating human capital approaches  into the planning and decision making of the agencies. As an  advocate for human capital initiatives, council members are to ensure that  activities in the agency reflect the human capital strategic plan. Human Capital Leaders Have Taken Actions to Transform Human Capital Organizations

High-performing organizations treat strategic human capital management  as fundamental to effective overall management. The strategic consultant component serves as a strategic partner, change  agent, and consultant to agency managers. The occupation  is in transition from valuing narrowly focused specialists to requiring  generalists, who have all the skills necessary to play an active role in  helping to determine the overall strategic direction of the organization. Agency leaders  included human capital leaders in key agency strategic planning and  decision making. Working together, agency leaders and human  capital leaders have employed human capital professionals and agency line  managers to share accountability for successfully integrating strategic  human capital considerations into agency planning and decision making. We asked these experts to identify federal  agencies that they believed had taken actions to improve the integration of  their strategic human capital management functions. We selected six agencies—the Federal Emergency  Management Agency, the General Services Administration, the Internal  Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard,  and the U.S. Geological Survey—to identify examples of human capital  integration actions.
Why GAO Did This Study

Successful strategic human capital management requires the integration of human capital approaches with strategies for accomplishing organizational missions and program goals. Such integration allows the agency to ensure that its core processes efficiently and effectively support mission-related outcomes. Based on the recommendations of various human capital experts, GAO identified six executive branch agencies that had taken key actions to integrate their human capital approaches with their strategic planning and decision making. The agencies were the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the General Services Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Geological Survey. These key actions may prove helpful to other agencies as they seek to ensure that their human capital approaches are aligned with their program goals.

What GAO Found

The executive branch agencies GAO reviewed have taken key actions to integrate their human capital approaches with their strategies for accomplishing organizational missions and to shift the focus of their human capital office from primarily compliance activities to consulting activities. Agency leaders included human capital leaders in key agency strategic planning and decision making and, as a result, the agencies engaged the human capital organization as a strategic partner in achieving desired outcomes relating to the agency's mission. Human capital leaders took actions to transform the agencies' human capital organizations by establishing clear human capital strategic visions, restructuring their organizations, and improving the use of technology to free organizational resources. Human capital leaders also promoted a transition to a larger strategic role for human capital professionals with their focus being more on consulting rather than compliance activities. The human capital profession is in transition from valuing narrowly focused specialists to requiring generalists, who have all the skills necessary to play an active role in helping to determine the overall strategic direction of the organization. Jointly, agency leaders and human capital leaders are having human capital professionals and agency line managers share the accountability for successfully integrating strategic human capital considerations into agency strategic planning and decision making.