Through an  interagency structure, USTR coordinates trade policy, resolves  disagreements, and frames issues for presidential decision. USTR Could Benefit from Greater Commitment to Strategic Human Capital Principles in Its Human Capital Leadership and Planning

USTR does not follow key strategic human capital principles in its human  capital leadership and planning. Second,  while USTR performs an interagency leadership and coordination mission  that it cannot achieve without the participation and support of other trade  agencies, it has not undertaken formal strategic human capital planning to  mitigate the risks inherent in its dependency on interagency resources. Third, USTR’s human capital planning efforts have been primarily focused  on short-term responses to trade negotiating needs identified in its 2-year  budget planning process; it has not conducted ongoing parallel efforts to  analyze the organization’s longer term workforce needs to ensure its  continued capacity to achieve its mission. In fact, the senior human  capital management post has not been filled for over 1½ years. One result of USTR’s lack of  strategic planning for these critical interagency resources is that it does not  have a systematic method to account for potential changes in other  agencies’ resources that might impact its ability to achieve its mission. USTR managers  have stressed the importance of certain individual skills needed to advance  USTR’s mission, such as the ability to effectively interact within the  interagency trade policy framework. However, USTR employees not  subject to agencywide standards are instead held accountable for a range  of expectations that vary among USTR offices according to specific  assignments. The system should include the following elements, tailored to its  small size and unique role:  filling its senior human capital management positions with human  capital professionals who will significantly contribute to strategic  planning and decision making,   developing an interagency resource planning method with appropriate  participation from key agency stakeholders,   undertaking strategic workforce planning in order to optimize its  workforce’s continued capacity to achieve its mission,  improving its ability to utilize data for measuring the effectiveness of  human capital approaches in support of its mission and goals,  determining if additional use of available pay and hiring flexibilities  would better position USTR to hire and retain experts, and   developing agencywide performance criteria for staff to align  management expectations with critical organizational goals. Specifically, we (1) reviewed USTR’s commitment to strategic human  capital leadership and planning and (2) analyzed to what extent USTR has  used human capital tools to address its workforce challenges. Comments from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

The following are GAO’s comments on USTR’s letter dated November 10,  2005.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has a unique role in coordinating trade policy, resolving disagreements, and framing issues for presidential decision through an interagency trade policy process. In recent years, USTR's increased workload from numerous new regional and bilateral free trade agreement negotiations and a new round of multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization has raised concerns about its human capital strategy. GAO examined whether USTR is pursuing an effective human capital strategy that supports the ability of its workforce to accomplish its mission. Specifically, GAO (1) reviewed USTR's commitment to strategic human capital leadership and planning and (2) analyzed to what extent USTR has used human capital tools to address its workforce challenges.

What GAO Found

USTR could benefit from greater use of strategic human capital management principles in leadership and planning, considering that its small size and interagency trade leadership and coordination role give it a unique responsibility to lead the trade agenda. First, USTR has not sustained the leadership resources for human capital; for example, the top human capital management post has not been filled for over 1 1/2 years. Second, USTR has not undertaken formal strategic human capital planning to mitigate the risks inherent in its dependency--as a "networked organization"--on interagency resources to achieve its mission. Therefore, it does not have a method to account for changes in other agencies' resources that might impact its ability to achieve its mission. Third, USTR has focused its human capital planning efforts primarily on short-term responses to trade negotiating needs identified in its 2-year budget planning process; it has not conducted ongoing parallel efforts to analyze longer-term workforce needs. USTR's efforts to address its specific workforce challenges could benefit from greater use of human capital tools. First, USTR could use more of the existing federal human capital flexibilities to better tailor its human capital approaches to organizational needs. Although the agency has used and benefited from some special hiring and pay authorities, such as the use of higher-than-minimum salary offers, it has yet to take advantage of others, such as retention bonuses. Second, while USTR prides itself on being a results-oriented agency, most USTR staff are not subject to agencywide performance expectations linked to organizational goals. While managers have stressed the importance of certain individual skills needed to advance USTR's mission, most staff are held accountable to a range of expectations that vary among offices.