DOD Assessed Skills and Competencies for a Majority of Its Mission- Critical Occupations, but the Assessments Varied Widely

Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code requires that DOD’s  strategic workforce plan include an assessment of the critical skills and  competencies of the existing civilian-employee workforce and DOD, in  response to that requirement, assessed to varying degrees the existing  critical skills and competencies for 21 of its 22 mission-critical  occupations. DOD is also required to report on the critical skills and competencies that  will be needed in its future workforces. The  National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 repealed this  requirement, and enacted section 115b of Title 10 of the United States  Code. DOD Did Not Assess the Appropriate Mix of Military, Civilian, and Contractor Personnel Capabilities

DOD, in its 2010-2018 workforce plan, did not include an assessment of  the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel or an  assessment of the capabilities of each of these workforces. For  example, a February 2005 DOD directive states that missions shall be  accomplished using the least costly mix of personnel (military, civilian,  and contract) consistent with military requirements and other needs of the  department. In the meantime, the functional communities did not provide all required  information, in part, because the department did not request it. DOD Developed Results-Oriented Performance Measures to Assess Progress, but These Measures Do Not Fully Align with Congressional Reporting Requirements

DOD developed five performance measures to assess progress in  implementing its strategic workforce plan, and the measures generally  align with the department’s goals. Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code requires DOD to  include in its 2010-2018 strategic workforce plan an assessment of,  among other things, gaps in the existing and future civilian workforce that  should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued access  to the critical skills and competencies, and the appropriate mix of military,  civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities. Further, while DOD officials  have stated that they do not have the necessary tools in place to conduct  gap analyses across the board, the department has not reported the  results of any gap analyses that it has conducted nor provided reporting  timeframes for conducting remaining gap analyses; this situation  diminishes the plan’s utility as a workforce planning document. Finally, where DOD has identified  performance measures and indicated progress toward the goals of the  strategic plan, those measures are not, in all cases, aligned with DOD’s  congressionally mandated reporting requirements; also, the measures do  not provide detail about how DOD plans to meet those requirements,  making it difficult for DOD to demonstrate progress. To enhance the information that DOD provides Congress in its strategic  workforce plan, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the  Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to provide  guidance for developing future strategic workforce plans that clearly  directs the functional communities to collect information that identifies not  only the number or percentage of personnel in its military, civilian, and  contractor workforces but also the capabilities of the appropriate mix of  those three workforces. We first reported on DOD’s  strategic workforce planning for its civilian workforce in 2004. DOD partially concurred with our second recommendation that DOD  conduct gap analyses for DOD’s mission-critical occupations and report  on the results, and, when managers cannot conduct such analyses,  report a timeline for providing these assessments. However, we reported that  DOD is required to include an assessment of competency gaps in its  existing and future civilian employee workforces, and that our analyses  found that DOD’s functional community managers reported conducting  gap assessments for only 8 of DOD’s 22 mission-critical occupations. However, our analysis did find that DOD  continues to struggle to meet its statutory reporting requirements. We also met with functional  community managers in the information technology, financial  management, logistics, and law enforcement communities to determine  how each of these communities conducted their strategic workforce  planning and how coordination occurred between the various levels of  DOD. To determine the extent to which DOD assessed existing and future  critical skills, competencies, and gaps in its civilian workforce, we  reviewed information and data contained in DOD’s 2010-2018 strategic  workforce plan to identify which of the functional communities completed  these assessments, the methods and tools that the functional  communities used to conduct the assessments, and the extent to which  the functional communities reported the results of their assessments. To determine the extent to which DOD assessed its progress in  implementing its strategic workforce plan by using results-oriented  performance measures, we reviewed DOD’s 2010-2018 strategic  workforce plan to identify the performance measures DOD chose to  assess its implementation of its plan. DOD Civilian Workforce: Observations on DOD’s Efforts to Plan for  Civilian Workforce Requirements. Human Capital: Opportunities Exist for DOD to Enhance Its Approach for  Determining Civilian Senior Leader Workforce Needs.
Why GAO Did This Study

As of June 2012, DOD reported a full-time civilian workforce of about 780,000 personnel. According to DOD, about 30 percent of its civilian workforce and 60 percent of its civilian senior leaders will be eligible to retire by March 31, 2015. Such potential loss may result in significant skill gaps. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 requires GAO to submit a report on DOD's 2010-2018 strategic civilian workforce plan. In response, GAO determined the extent to which DOD identified critical skills, competencies, and gaps; assessed its workforce mix; and measured progress in implementing its strategic workforce plan. GAO analyzed DOD's strategic workforce plan and supporting documents, and met with managers of four functional communities within the civilian personnel community (information technology, financial management, logistics, and law enforcement), because they represent the three largest and the one smallest of the functional communities, to determine how they conducted their strategic workforce planning.

What GAO Found

Over the last decade, Congress has passed legislation requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct human capital planning efforts for the department's civilian workforce. Specifically, section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code, enacted in October 2009, requires DOD to develop and submit to congressional defense committees a strategic workforce plan to shape and improve the department's civilian workforce. Among other things, the law requires DOD to report on the mission-critical skills, competencies, and gaps in its existing and future civilian workforces; the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities; and the department's progress in implementing its strategic workforce plan using results-oriented performance measures. While DOD has addressed some of its reporting requirements to some extent, it has not addressed others.
DOD, to varying degrees, assessed the existing and future critical skills and competencies for 21 of the 22 occupations that it has identified as mission critical, but conducted competency gap assessments only for 8 of these 22 occupations. In some but not all cases, DOD provided details about skills and competencies. However, it did not report the results of any of its gap analyses for its mission-critical occupations.
DOD did not assess the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor workforces or provide an assessment of the capabilities of each of these workforces. Only two of the civilian community managers who provided input presented data on all three workforces. The remaining nine community managers provided data only on military and civilian personnel. DOD guidance requires, among other things, that DOD missions be accomplished with the least costly mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel, consistent with military requirements and other needs of the department.
DOD assessed progress in implementing its strategic workforce plan by using newly developed measures that contain characteristics of valid results-oriented performance measures, but these measures are not aligned with DOD's statutory reporting requirements. For example, although DOD is required to conduct gap analyses and assess its workforce mix, it is unclear how the measures that DOD developed will help to address these requirements.
The input to DOD's strategic workforce plan on critical skills and competencies varied, in part, because the reporting template that DOD sent to its civilian personnel community managers did not contain sufficient detail and clear definitions. Also, the template did not provide departmental expectations for conducting gap analyses or communicate clear guidance for reporting on workforce mix assessments. Without sufficiently detailed guidance to help ensure complete reporting, input into future plans will continue to vary and the plan's usefulness as a workforce planning document will be diminished. Further, in those cases where DOD's performance measures are not aligned with its congressionally mandated reporting requirements, it is difficult for DOD to demonstrate progress against those requirements.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommendations include that DOD issue clearer guidance for assessing its skills and competencies, conduct and report on gap analysis of mission-critical occupations, clarify its guidance for assessing workforce mix issues, and enhance its performance measures to align with congressionally mandated reporting requirements. DOD concurred or partially concurred with GAO's recommendations. While DOD raised some issues about the need for further actions, GAO continues to believe that DOD's workforce planning could be enhanced.