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entitled 'National Nuclear Security Administration: Contractors' 
Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled Workforce Are 
Generally Effective' which was released on February 2, 2005.

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Report to Congressional Committees: 

February 2005: 

National Nuclear Security Administration: 

Contractors' Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled 
Workforce Are Generally Effective: 

[Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-164]: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-05-164, a report to congressional committees: 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

Responsibility for ensuring the safety and reliability of the nuclear 
weapons stockpile rests upon a cadre of workers at eight contractor-
operated National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) weapons 
facilities. Many of these workersincluding scientists, engineers, and 
technicianshave critical skills needed to maintain the stockpile. 
About 37 percent of these workers are at or near retirement age, 
raising concern about whether these specialists will have time to pass 
on their knowledge and expertise to new recruits. In this context, you 
asked us to (1) describe the approaches that NNSA, its contractors, and 
organizations with similar workforces are using to recruit and retain 
critically skilled workers; (2) assess the extent to which these 
approaches have been effective; and (3) describe any remaining 
challenges, strategies to mitigate these challenges, and the similarity 
of these challenges and strategies to those of organizations with 
comparable workforces.

We provided NNSA with a draft of this report for its review and 
comment. In oral comments, NNSA agreed with the report.

What GAO Found: 

NNSA contractors have each developed and implemented a multifaceted 
approach to recruit and retain critically skilled workers. These 
approaches are similar to those used by six organizations with 
comparable workforces with whom GAO spoke and consist of combinations 
of activities tailored to meet the specific needs of each facility. 
These activities include offering internships and providing knowledge 
transfer opportunities. NNSA has supported the contractors efforts by, 
for example, providing additional funding to help them recruit workers 
to fill critically skilled positions. 

The efforts of NNSAs contractors to recruit and retain a critically 
skilled workforce have been generally effective. The contractors 
fiscal year 2000 through 2003 data show that all eight facilities have 
maintained the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill its 
current mission. In addition, our review of the workforce planning 
processes of each facility shows that they have incorporated, to 
varying degrees, the five principles GAO has identified as essential to 
strategic workforce planning. Finally, most of the program managers GAO 
spoke with believe their facilities have, and are well poised to 
maintain, the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill their 
mission.

NNSA contractors and the six organizations with comparable workforces 
face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining a critically 
skilled workforce, but are using a number of similar strategies to 
mitigate most of these challenges. These challenges include the amount 
of time it takes new staff to obtain security clearances and a 
shrinking pool of technically trained potential employees. Beyond such 
identifiable challenges, NNSA contractors also face future 
uncertainties, such as the possibility that a new contractor might be 
awarded the contract and shifts in their mission that could affect 
their ability to recruit and retain a critically skilled workforce in 
the future.

Age Distribution of Critically Skilled Workers at NNSA Nuclear Weapons 
Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003: 

[See PDF for image]

[End of figure]

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-164.

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on 
the link above. For more information, contact Robin Nazzaro at 
202-512-6246 or nazzaror@gao.gov.

[End of section]

Contents: 

Letter: 

Results in Brief: 

Background: 

NNSA's Contractors Use Multidimensional Recruiting and Retention 
Approaches Similar to Those Used by Organizations with Comparable 
Workforces: 

Contractors' Approaches for Recruiting and Retaining a Critically 
Skilled Workforce Have Been Generally Effective: 

NNSA Contractors and Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face 
Ongoing Challenges but Have Developed Strategies to Mitigate Most of 
Them: 

Conclusion: 

Agency Comments: 

Appendixes: 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology: 

Appendix II: Critical Skills Performance Measures in NNSA Facilities' 
Performance Evaluation Plans for Fiscal Year 2004: 

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contacts: 

Acknowledgments: 

Tables: 

Table 1: NNSA Facilities' Critically Skilled Workers by Skill Area, 
Fiscal Year 2003: 

Table 2: Critical Skill Replacement Rate at Five NNSA Facilities, 
Fiscal Years 2000 through 2003: 

Table 3: Challenges Facing NNSA Contractors and Sample Strategies to 
Mitigate Them: 

Figures: 

Figure 1: Locations and Functions of NNSA Facilities: 

Figure 2: Number of Defense Program and Critically Skilled Workers at 
NNSA Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003: 

Figure 3: Turnover Rates for Critically Skilled Workers, Fiscal Years 
2000-2003: 

Figure 4: Strategic Workforce Planning Process: 

Letter February 2, 2005: 

Congressional Committees: 

Responsibility for ensuring the continued safety and reliability of the 
several thousand nuclear weapons currently stored at strategic military 
locations or deployed on military aircraft, missiles, or submarines 
rests upon a cadre of scientists, engineers, and technicians--hereafter 
referred to as "critically skilled workers"--within the National 
Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). As of fiscal year 2003, this 
critically skilled workforce numbered approximately 10,200, with about 
37 percent of the workforce older than 51, placing many of these 
workers at or near the NNSA-wide average retirement age of 60 within 
the next 10 years. This raises concerns about whether the exodus of 
these specialists will outpace their replacement and whether the 
specialists will have time to pass on their knowledge and expertise to 
new recruits.

Within the Department of Energy (DOE), NNSA's Office of Defense 
Programs has primary responsibility for ensuring the safety and 
reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile.[Footnote 1] NNSA's 
nuclear weapons complex consists of eight contractor-operated 
facilities: three national laboratories (Lawrence Livermore, Los 
Alamos, and Sandia); four production plants (Kansas City, Pantex, 
Savannah River, and Y-12); and the Nevada Test Site.[Footnote 2] NNSA 
oversees and supports these contractors, whose responsibilities include 
ensuring that the facility can attract and retain the workforce 
required to fulfill the facility's mission. Many of these workers 
possess certain critical skills not readily available in the job 
market, the loss of which could impair the facility's ability to 
maintain the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons. 
While these workers often have advanced degrees in scientific or 
engineering fields, it generally takes an additional 2 to 3 years of 
on-the-job training to achieve the skills necessary to fill a critical 
skills position.

With the end of the Cold War and the declaration of a moratorium on 
nuclear testing in 1992, the Office of Defense Programs' total 
contractor workforce fell from approximately 52,000 in fiscal year 1992 
to approximately 26,000 in fiscal year 2003, through targeted 
downsizing and closing of production facilities. During this time, the 
Office of Defense Programs restructured the nuclear weapons complex to 
focus on a new mission--known as the Stockpile Stewardship Program--to 
maintain the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons 
stockpile indefinitely without nuclear testing. In this test-free 
environment, the ultimate success of the program depends on the expert 
judgment and capabilities of NNSA's critically skilled workforce to 
maintain and assess the condition of the stockpile.

To address concerns about the effect of the shrinking critically 
skilled workforce on NNSA's ability to fulfill its stockpile 
stewardship responsibilities, the National Defense Authorization Act 
for Fiscal Year 1997 established the Commission on Maintaining U.S. 
Nuclear Weapons Expertise (known as the "Chiles Commission") and 
directed it to assess and report to the Congress on, among other 
things, DOE's ongoing efforts to recruit and retain scientific, 
engineering, and technical personnel.[Footnote 3] The Commission's 
report projected that large numbers of retirements over the next few 
years could further erode the experience and expertise of the 
critically skilled workforce.[Footnote 4] The Chiles Commission warned 
that unless DOE acted quickly to recruit and retain its critically 
skilled employees--and sharpen the expertise already available--the 
department could have difficulty ensuring the safety, security, and 
reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons. Although the Chiles 
Commission noted that many DOE officials already understood the 
challenges, it found few initiatives to change in any basic way the 
manner in which these officials approached recruitment, career 
management, or retention.

In this context, you asked us to (1) describe the approaches that NNSA, 
its contractors, and organizations with comparable workforces are using 
to recruit and retain critically skilled workers; (2) assess the 
effectiveness of the NNSA contractors' approaches; and (3) describe any 
ongoing challenges NNSA's contractors face in recruiting and retaining 
this specialized workforce, any strategies they are using to mitigate 
these challenges, and the extent to which such challenges and 
strategies are similar to those of organizations with comparable 
workforces.

To describe the approaches NNSA contractors are using to recruit and 
retain a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with human resource and 
workforce planning managers at each of the eight NNSA nuclear weapons 
complex facilities. Furthermore, we spoke with human resource managers 
from six research and advanced technology organizations with comparable 
workforces to validate the extent to which the ongoing challenges 
identified by NNSA exist in other comparable organizations and to 
gather information on strategies these organizations are using to 
mitigate their challenges.[Footnote 5] We selected organizations with 
similar workforces based on their selection by the Chiles Commission as 
a benchmarking organization; their geographic dispersal; and their 
representation of different high-technology, laboratory, or 
manufacturing industry segments. We also spoke with two industry 
associations representing manufacturing and nuclear materials 
industries to validate whether the challenges cited by these 
organizations were consistent with those noted by other groups in 
similar industries.[Footnote 6]

To assess the effectiveness of the approaches used to recruit and 
retain critically skilled workers, we collected a variety of workforce 
data from each facility, including total numbers of Defense Program and 
critically skilled workers and average ages of these workers broken out 
by job classification, hiring and attrition trends, average retirement 
ages, and forecasted needs for critically skilled workers. To assess 
the reliability of these data, we reviewed relevant documentation, 
interviewed cognizant contractor officials, obtained data from key 
database officials, and reviewed responses to a series of data 
reliability questions covering issues such as data entry, access, 
quality control procedures, and the accuracy and completeness of the 
data. We added follow-up questions whenever necessary. We determined 
that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this 
report. In addition, we conducted structured interviews with 20 
managers in the Stockpile Stewardship Program, including at least 2 
managers at each of the eight facilities, and evaluated each facility's 
workforce planning process using our five principles of strategic 
workforce planning.[Footnote 7] These five principles are (1) involving 
management and employees in developing and implementing the strategic 
workforce plan, (2) determining critical skills needs through workforce 
gap analysis, (3) developing workforce strategies to fill gaps, (4) 
building needed capabilities to support workforce strategies, and (5) 
monitoring and evaluating progress in achieving goals.

To describe the ongoing challenges NNSA contractors face in recruiting 
and retaining a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with contractor 
human resource, workforce planning, and Stockpile Stewardship Program 
managers. We also interviewed human resource representatives at the 
eight organizations with comparable workforces to determine the extent 
to which they face similar challenges and are using similar approaches 
to address their challenges. We conducted our work from February 2004 
through January 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government 
auditing standards. More details on the scope and methodology of our 
review are presented in appendix I.

Results in Brief: 

NNSA contractors, with support from NNSA, have each developed and 
implemented a multifaceted approach to recruit and retain critically 
skilled workers. The contractors' approaches are similar to each others 
and to those used by organizations we contacted with comparable 
workforces and consist of combinations of activities tailored to meet 
the specific needs of individual facilities. These activities are 
primarily aimed at hiring recent college graduates and to a lesser 
extent on hiring mid-career workers. NNSA contractors use a number of 
recruiting activities, including providing internships and other 
educational outreach programs to increase awareness about job 
opportunities at NNSA facilities, monitoring compensation programs to 
maintain competitiveness in the marketplace, and providing professional 
development and knowledge transfer programs to improve retention rates. 
For example, as part of its approach, Sandia National Laboratories 
targets its recruiting efforts by using teams of program managers, 
recruiters, and alumni of graduate programs at 22 strategically 
selected colleges and universities. In addition, Sandia makes over 
1,200 internship positions available annually to both undergraduate and 
graduate-level students. The laboratory also continually monitors its 
salary and benefits packages to ensure that they remain competitive 
with those of similar regional industries. Furthermore, Sandia offers a 
variety of in-house courses and a mentoring program aimed at enhancing 
the transfer of knowledge from more experienced workers to those just 
starting out at the laboratory. Organizations with comparable 
workforces have adopted similar multifaceted approaches to recruit and 
retain their needed workforces, according to officials of the six 
organizations we spoke with. For example, one organization used a 
combination of university recruiting, student co-op and internship 
programs, recruitment bonuses, and competitive compensation packages, 
among other strategies, to recruit and retain its target workforce. For 
its part, NNSA has supported the contractors' efforts to recruit and 
retain their critically skilled workforce by, for example, reviewing 
contractors' salary and benefits packages and providing additional 
funding for internship programs and recruitment bonuses to help the 
contractors recruit workers to fill critically skilled positions.

The efforts of NNSA contractors to recruit and retain a critically 
skilled workforce have been generally effective, according to our 
analysis of contractors' data, our review of contractors' workforce 
planning processes, and information we gathered from stockpile 
stewardship program managers. First, the contractors' workforce data 
for fiscal years 2000 through 2003 show that all eight facilities have 
hired, on average, 69 percent more critically skilled staff in fiscal 
years 2000 through 2003 than retired or left during that period. This 
additional hiring should help ensure that each facility will have 
workers in place who have completed the needed 2 to 3 years of 
training, or are close to doing so, by the time the anticipated future 
retirements occur. Second, our review of the workforce planning 
processes of all eight nuclear weapons facilities shows that they have 
incorporated, to varying degrees, the five principles we have 
identified as essential to strategic workforce planning. Specifically, 
all of the 20 stockpile stewardship program managers said they are 
involved to at least a moderate extent with workforce planning and 
participate in recruiting or retention activities, such as identifying 
and interviewing prospective staff and mentoring newer staff. Each of 
the facilities also has, to some degree, analyzed its workforce, 
identified critical skills needed to achieve current and future goals, 
and determined if and where gaps exist. To fill these identified gaps, 
the facilities have designed and implemented a mix of strategies 
specific to each facility's needs. In addition, the facilities have 
increased their capabilities to support these workforce planning 
strategies by, for example, assigning human resource specialists to 
critical skill areas to help ensure that new staff are being retained. 
To ensure that the facilities' critical skill workforce needs are being 
met, NNSA monitors and evaluates contractor progress by reviewing 
periodic reports and uses these reports, along with other measures, to 
determine the size of the bonus the contractor is eligible for. Third, 
almost all of the 20 stockpile stewardship managers we interviewed 
believe their facilities have, and are well poised to maintain, the 
critically skilled workforce needed to carry out their current mission. 
According to these managers, their facilities have been able to achieve 
this workforce, in part, because they have effective recruiting and 
training programs and a commitment to workforce planning that has 
allowed them to identify their needs.

Both NNSA contractors and the six organizations with comparable 
workforces we contacted face ongoing challenges in recruiting and 
retaining a critically skilled workforce, but they are using a number 
of similar strategies to mitigate most of these challenges. The first 
immediate challenge cited by human resources and program managers is 
the amount of time it takes newly hired staff to obtain security 
clearances. NNSA contractors said that security clearances have been 
taking from 1 to 2 years and that these delays have prevented new 
employees waiting for a clearance from obtaining needed critical skills 
training and from doing the work for which they were hired. To mitigate 
this challenge, most facilities have been able to place the employees 
on other projects that allow them to gain exposure to unclassified, yet 
cutting edge, work. In addition, contractors pointed to a shrinking 
pool of employees with the needed critical skills caused by a decline 
in the number of students with U.S. citizenship seeking advanced 
degrees or technical training in these skill areas. The laboratories 
have mitigated this challenge by, for example, establishing institutes 
in local high schools that help encourage students to pursue college 
and advanced degrees in technical fields by providing pathways to jobs 
at the laboratories. Organizations with comparable workforces face 
similar challenges and are using similar strategies to mitigate them. 
For example, officials at some of these organizations mentioned the 
time it takes for new workers to obtain security clearances. One 
organization reported mitigating this challenge by hiring staff who 
already possess clearances. Officials of these organizations also cited 
the challenge of a dwindling pool of candidates pursuing education in 
critical skill areas. As NNSA facilities have done, these organizations 
have implemented programs designed to attract younger students and 
encourage them to pursue careers in technical fields.

Beyond such identifiable challenges, each of the eight NNSA facilities 
also face future uncertainties, such as the possibility that a new 
contractor might be awarded the contract to manage and operate the 
facility, budget constraints, and shifts in their mission, that could 
affect their ability to recruit and retain a critically skilled 
workforce in the years ahead. The facilities are cognizant of these 
future uncertainties and have taken some actions to proactively guard 
against them. For example, DOE is currently rebidding the contract at 
Los Alamos. The possibility that a new contractor may not be linked to 
the University of California system may potentially result in early 
retirements and affect the facility's ability to perform its mission. 
To lessen the potential impact, NNSA recently issued an acquisition 
plan requiring bidders on the contract to offer current workers at Los 
Alamos the same level of pension benefits as the current contractor. 
Until this process is completed, it will be difficult to determine how 
Los Alamos' critical skills capabilities would be affected.

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. The 
number of workers and facilities involved in the nuclear weapons 
program has changed since the program began in the early 1940s at 
various locations, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New 
Mexico. Each facility performs a different function, all collectively 
working toward fulfilling NNSA's nuclear weapons related mission. 
Figure 1 shows the locations of the facilities and describes their 
functions.

Figure 1: Locations and Functions of NNSA Facilities: 

[See PDF for image] 

[End of figure] 

Historically, confidence in the safety and reliability of the nuclear 
stockpile derived, in part, from underground live testing of nuclear 
weapons. In 1992, at the end of the Cold War, the United States scaled 
back its operations, ceased live testing of nuclear weapons, and 
adopted the Stockpile Stewardship Program as an alternative to testing. 
The Stockpile Stewardship Program focuses on obtaining a wide range of 
data through nonnuclear tests, computer modeling, experimentation, and 
simulation to make expert judgments about the safety, security, and 
reliability of the nuclear weapons.

The scaling back of operations and the cessation of nuclear testing led 
DOE to reduce its workforce by downsizing existing staff and reducing 
its emphasis on recruiting. The number of defense program workers 
declined by about 50 percent, from a high of about 52,000 in fiscal 
year 1992 to about 26,000 in fiscal year 2003. The remaining workers 
needed to develop skills that were critical to ensure the safety, 
security, and reliability of the nuclear stockpile without conducting 
tests. Also, since the United States was no longer designing and 
producing nuclear weapons, the workers needed to develop new 
surveillance and maintenance skills to detect potential or actual 
defects in the aging weapons and replace components to extend the life 
of the warheads. Currently, the three laboratories report that it takes 
at least 3 years of specialized training and work experience--and 
sometimes more for unique jobs, such as safety engineers--for workers 
to obtain the skills needed to be considered critically skilled. 
According to the four production plants and the Nevada Test Site, it 
takes at least 2 years of specialized training and work experience for 
workers to gain the critical skills necessary to fulfill their mission. 
As of the end of fiscal year 2003, of the nearly 26,000 defense program 
workers, 10,186 were classified as critically skilled. Figure 2 shows 
the total number of defense program workers, as well as the number of 
workers classified as critically skilled, at each of the facilities as 
of the end of fiscal year 2003.

Figure 2: Number of Defense Program and Critically Skilled Workers at 
NNSA Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003: 

[See PDF for image] 

[End of figure] 

NNSA and the contractors broadly categorize their workers by the type 
of work they do. Over 70 percent of all the critically skilled workers 
fall into the engineer, scientist, or technician categories. The 
remaining critically skilled workers perform a diverse set of critical 
job functions. For example, operators operate machines, systems, 
equipment, and plants for the purposes of producing, destroying, and 
storing materials and supplies. The tasks operators perform require a 
high degree of precision, and it often takes several years for 
operators to achieve proficiency. Professional administrative 
positions include health physicists, who develop programs to protect 
personnel from the effects of radiation, and security specialists, who 
develop, conduct, monitor, and maintain security-related programs. 
Crafts workers are involved in fabricating materials and equipment and 
constructing, altering, and maintaining buildings, bridges, pipelines, 
and other structures. It generally takes at least 2 years of training 
and education for crafts workers to obtain the hand or machine skills 
required. NNSA gathers information from the contractors and, twice each 
year, issues reports on certain characteristics of critically skilled 
workers, such as age and vacancy rates. NNSA uses this information to 
monitor the progress of the laboratories in meeting critical skill 
needs. Table 1 shows the numbers of critically skilled workers by skill 
area at each facility for fiscal year 2003.

Table 1: NNSA Facilities' Critically Skilled Workers by Skill Area, 
Fiscal Year 2003: 

Laboratories: Facility: Lawrence Livermore; 
Engineers: 310; 
Scientists: 754; 
Technicians: 249; 
Management: 0; 
Operators: 0; 
Professional administrators: 0; 
Crafts: 59; 
Other[A]: 0; 
Total: 1,372.

Laboratories: Facility: Los Alamos; 
Engineers: 441; 
Scientists: 549; 
Technicians: 441; 
Management: 326; 
Operators: 60; 
Professional administrators: 128; 
Crafts: 41; 
Other[A]: 4; 
Total: 1,990.

Laboratories: Facility: Sandia; 
Engineers: 803; 
Scientists: 649; 
Technicians: 531; 
Management: 403; 
Operators: 8; 
Professional administrators: 71; 
Crafts: 88; 
Other[A]: 0; 
Total: 2,553.

Production plants: Facility: Kansas City; 
Engineers: 562; 
Scientists: 10; 
Technicians: 103; 
Management: 132; 
Operators: 67; 
Professional administrators: 52; 
Crafts: 11; 
Other[A]: 20; 
Total: 957.

Production plants: Facility: Pantex; 
Engineers: 315; 
Scientists: 66; 
Technicians: 236; 
Management: 215; 
Operators: 288; 
Professional administrators: 93; 
Crafts: 33; 
Other[A]: 0; 
Total: 1,246.

Production plants: Facility: Savannah River; 
Engineers: 56; 
Scientists: 14; 
Technicians: 12; 
Management: 15; 
Operators: 0; 
Professional administrators: 1; 
Crafts: 0; 
Other[A]: 0; 
Total: 98.

Production plants: Facility: Y-12; 
Engineers: 560; 
Scientists: 102; 
Technicians: 130; 
Management: 13; 
Operators: 287; 
Professional administrators: 212; 
Crafts: 305; 
Other[A]: 0; 
Total: 1,609.

Test site: Facility: Nevada; 
Engineers: 101; 
Scientists: 53; 
Technicians: 153; 
Management: 36; 
Operators: 4; 
Professional administrators: 2; 
Crafts: 11; 
Other[A]: 1; 
Total: 361.

Facility: Total; 
Engineers: 3,148; 
Scientists: 2,197; 
Technicians: 1,855; 
Management: 1,140; 
Operators: 714; 
Professional administrators: 559; 
Crafts: 548; 
Other[A]: 25; 
Total: 10,186. 

Source: NNSA contractors.

[A] Includes positions classified as general administrative and labor.

[End of table]

By the late 1990s, concerns were raised about the ability of DOE's 
contractors to fulfill the goals of the Stockpile Stewardship Program 
because the workforce had aged, which could potentially leave gaps in 
knowledge as older workers retired. In response, the Congress created 
the Commission on Maintaining United States Nuclear Weapons Expertise, 
commonly known as the Chiles Commission, and mandated that it review 
ongoing DOE efforts to attract scientific, engineering, and technical 
personnel; recommend improvements and identify actions to implement 
these improvements where needed; and develop a plan for recruitment and 
retention within the DOE nuclear weapons complex.

In March 1999, the Chiles Commission reported that the downsizing 
resulting from the change from weapons production to stockpile 
stewardship left a considerably smaller and older contractor workforce. 
Recognizing that the contractors had already lost some of their 
critically skilled workers, the Commission projected that large numbers 
of retirements over the next few years could further erode the 
experience and expertise at the facilities. The Commission warned that 
unless DOE acted quickly to retain and sharpen the expertise already 
available and "recruit, train, retain, and inspire an evolving nuclear 
workforce of great breadth, depth, and capability,"[Footnote 8] DOE 
could have difficulty ensuring the safety and reliability of the 
nation's nuclear weapons.

In addition, the Chiles Commission found that many workers were anxious 
about job security and the nation's commitment to the nuclear weapons 
program in the wake of DOE's downsizing. This anxiety fostered an 
unfavorable environment for recruiting and retaining highly skilled 
workers. In addition, the Commission predicted that recruitment and 
retention of highly skilled workers would become more competitive 
because, in general, only U.S. citizens may obtain the security 
clearances required to work in the nuclear weapons program and 
contractors faced a shrinking pool of U.S. citizens graduating with 
degrees in science and engineering, especially compared with the 
growing pool of non-U.S. citizens graduating with those degrees. 
Furthermore, the Commission found that contractors needed to identify 
their requirements for critically skilled workers early because of the 
time it takes to complete security background checks and for workers to 
gain the experience necessary through specialized or on-the-job 
training. As a result of its review, the Chiles Commission made 12 
recommendations based on its findings at DOE and its review of 
industries with similar workforces. Four of the Commission's 
recommendations focused on improving recruitment, training, and 
retention strategies. Specifically, the Commission recommended that DOE 
and its contractors should (1) establish and implement plans for 
replenishing essential critical skill workforce needs, (2) provide 
contractors with expanded latitude and flexibility in personnel 
matters, (3) expand training and career planning programs, and (4) 
expand the use of former nuclear weapons program employees. In response 
to the Chiles Commission report, Defense Programs developed a point-by-
point action plan to address each of the 12 recommendations.

NNSA's Contractors Use Multidimensional Recruiting and Retention 
Approaches Similar to Those Used by Organizations with Comparable 
Workforces: 

Since the Chiles Commission report was issued, the contractors for 
NNSA's weapons laboratories, production plants, and the Nevada Test 
Site have developed a variety of recruitment and retention approaches, 
blending them to meet their specific critical skill needs. These 
approaches are similar to each others and to those used by 
organizations with comparable workforces. NNSA has supported its 
contractors by clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the 
contractors and providing additional funding to help them recruit 
workers to fill critically skilled positions.

Each Contractor Addresses the Facility's Specific Needs through a 
Combination of Activities: 

NNSA contractors developed multifaceted approaches to recruiting and 
retaining critically skilled workers that primarily focus on hiring 
recent graduates from universities and colleges. These approaches 
include targeted recruitment activities, educational outreach 
programs, competitive compensation and benefits packages, and 
professional development and knowledge transfer programs. Despite the 
array of initiatives used across facilities, the contractors for the 
laboratories and for the production plants have used generally similar 
approaches for recruiting and retaining critically skilled workers.

Focusing Recruitment Efforts for Better Results: 

All the contractors reported that, over the past few years, they have 
refocused their recruiting efforts at universities and other 
educational institutions to improve their chances of recruiting highly 
qualified job candidates in an increasingly competitive job market. 
Whether at a laboratory or production plant, NNSA contractors have done 
this by establishing recruiting teams to work with the faculty in 
scientific and engineering departments to attract highly qualified 
candidates. These recruiting teams generally involve both human 
resources officials and technical recruiters--scientists, engineers, 
technicians, or stockpile stewardship program managers with knowledge 
about the technical needs of the facility. The teams attend recruiting 
fairs, professional workshops, and other similar events. Some of the 
technical recruiters said that their involvement enables them to more 
reliably and quickly assess the job candidates, as well as answer 
questions the candidates have about specific technical programs.

At the laboratories, technical recruiters bring valuable contacts to 
the recruitment process, having already established working or 
professional relationships with faculty and students at various 
colleges and universities. Some of the contractor officials stated that 
these contacts enable the technical recruiters to evaluate potential 
job candidates before they apply for jobs. The type and depth of the 
relationships vary, but many have been built from joint research 
efforts, adjunct teaching at local universities, or similar 
collaborations. According to human resource officials, these 
relationships have proven extremely valuable in identifying and 
recruiting high quality students for internships, fellowships, post-
doctoral appointments, and full-time positions. For example, Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory, which the University of California 
operates under contract, collaborates with several of the University of 
California college campuses. The laboratory sponsors and partially 
funds joint research efforts involving both faculty and students. In 
addition, many laboratory scientists have access to faculty and 
students through teaching segments of science or math classes. 
According to Lawrence Livermore officials, these collaborations have 
resulted in productive recruitment opportunities.

All three laboratories also indicated that their relationships with 
colleges and universities have served as a key component of recruitment 
plans. Contractors use these relationships, as well as their reviews of 
past recruitment successes and comparisons of critical skill needs with 
course curricula, to target specific colleges and universities for 
recruitment. For example, on the basis of an initial analysis of its 
collaborative research efforts, Sandia narrowed its list of places to 
recruit to 22 universities. The laboratory further prioritized those 
universities according to four key variables: academic quality, 
research investment, past recruitment successes, and diversity of 
students. According to Sandia officials, this approach has allowed 
Sandia to effectively meet its critical skill needs.

Similar to the laboratories, the production plants also use technical 
recruiters in their efforts to recruit critically skilled workers, 
focusing on recent graduates from high schools, technical schools, 
community colleges, and universities. While these recruitment efforts 
have been fruitful, many of the contractors at NNSA's production plants 
and at the Nevada Test Site have also relied on recruiting mid-career 
workers to fill other critical skill positions because of the level of 
expertise that these positions need. For example, the Pantex plant has 
sought out mid-career workers to fill key critical skills positions, 
such as production technicians. Pantex has partnered with the Amarillo 
Community College and the Texas Workforce Center to develop a range of 
technical courses, from 6 weeks to 6 months long, that generates 
trained production technicians. Most of these trainees are currently 
employed elsewhere locally. While trainees cover all course costs, 
Pantex offers each graduating technician an interview for employment, 
which allows the plant to fill vacancies with the most qualified 
graduates. As of July 2004, Pantex officials stated that the year-old 
program has graduated 70 participants and that they plan to hire 24 
production technicians this spring.

In addition, a manager who works for the contractor operating the 
Nevada Test Site said that about 15 percent of his new hires must come 
on board with at least 10 years' work experience to perform the 
required work. He noted that, given the demands placed on the 
contractor to conduct experiments developed by the weapons laboratories 
and record the resulting data, he cannot always wait the 3 to 4 years 
required for inexperienced new hires to obtain their security 
clearances and gain the skills necessary to perform the work. Some 
production plants have addressed this issue by recruiting at 
professional or trade association meetings and seeking out experienced 
workers from other NNSA facilities that are being downsized or closed, 
such as the Rocky Flats production facility, located outside 
Denver.[Footnote 9]

Providing Educational Outreach: 

The NNSA contractors, primarily the laboratories, provide a wide range 
of programs including postdoctoral positions, internships, 
fellowships, and summer employment to attract and develop critically 
skilled workers. According to the contractors, educational programs at 
the facilities further the education of participants, increase 
awareness of the facilities as places of employment, and develop pools 
of potential job candidates. The contractors reported that these 
programs are a significant source of new hires. Contractors may offer 
full-time positions to program participants who already have earned 
degrees by the time they complete their program participation; program 
participants without degrees may apply for full-time positions at the 
facilities after graduating.

The laboratories typically hire a greater proportion of graduates with 
Ph.D. and master's degrees than the production facilities and the test 
site do--about 62 percent of the critically skilled workers at the 
laboratories have postgraduate degrees, in contrast with about 18 
percent of the critically skilled workers at the production plants and 
the test site. Laboratory officials said they offer a variety of 
graduate-level and post-doctoral programs in an effort to recruit and 
retain workers with the level of education needed. For example, Sandia 
offers about 1,200 internships each year, generally evenly split 
between undergraduate and graduate students. Many of the interns return 
to the facility for successive internships, allowing them to gain 
additional skills and creating a pipeline of future job candidates for 
the laboratory. Generally, the laboratory converts about 15 percent of 
its interns to full-time positions each year. In addition to 
internships, Sandia also offers fellowships, sometimes partnering with 
professional societies such as the National Physical Sciences 
Consortium, which awards fellowships to U.S. citizens pursuing graduate 
study in the physical sciences. Similarly, Lawrence Livermore 
instituted the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Postdoctoral 
Fellowship Program in 1998. The laboratory typically receives 300 to 
400 applications a year for three to five fellowships. Since the 
program's inception, the laboratory has appointed 15 fellows, 6 of whom 
have been converted to full-time employees. The laboratory has also 
hired about 40 other workers who were identified from the fellowship 
applicant pool.

In addition to the shorter term recruiting approach of offering 
internships and fellowships, the laboratories have also adopted a 
longer-term strategy for developing candidates to fill future critical 
skill needs. All of the laboratories offer educational outreach 
programs that seek to promote basic science, math, and engineering at 
local middle and high schools. The contractors cited their concern with 
statistics that show shrinking pools of U.S. students graduating with 
science and math degrees as a reason for these programs. The programs 
range from organizing informal school activities to offering 
specialized curricula, or academies, at local schools. In one program, 
Sandia partners with professional societies and industry to create a 
pool of potential technicians in photonics and optical engineering, 
which are considered critical skill areas at the laboratory and certain 
industries and include work with lasers, fiber optics, and various 
optical systems. Sandia's program begins at the middle school level by 
exposing students to science and math and encouraging them to pursue 
careers in those fields. At the high school level, the program recruits 
the most promising students to participate in the Photonics Academy, 
which offers a 4-year packaged curriculum and coursework in science and 
math and the opportunity for an internship at Sandia. Students can 
pursue their education in photonics and optical engineering at the 
Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute or the University of New 
Mexico. According to Sandia officials, the program has become very 
successful, and other entities, including the State of New Mexico, have 
begun to establish similar programs to promote careers in scientific 
and mathematical disciplines.

While the laboratories offer a more extensive variety of internship and 
fellowship programs, the production plants have also established 
educational programs that help the facilities recruit critically 
skilled workers. For example, Pantex has partnered with Texas Tech 
University and other universities to promote student work programs in 
an effort to encourage students to pursue educations in areas related 
to science and engineering, such as mathematics, physics, materials 
science, and nuclear engineering. Pantex officials said that 40 
students participated in the student work programs in fiscal year 2003.

Maintaining Competitiveness: 

NNSA's contractors at the laboratories, production plants, and test 
site all cited the opportunity to do a variety of challenging and 
cutting-edge work as their most important assets in competing against 
industry to attract critically skilled workers. Many of the facilities, 
particularly the laboratories, perform work unrelated to the nuclear 
weapons program for customers other than NNSA. For example, the Los 
Alamos National Laboratory performs advanced research in such areas as 
medical technology, genetics, space sciences, and nanoscience, which 
involves using machines and their components to do research on a 
molecular level. NNSA laboratories participate in the Laboratory 
Directed Research and Development program, which allows them to use up 
to 6 percent of their budgets to fund basic research selected on their 
scientific and technical merits. Similarly, NNSA production plants can 
set aside up to 2 percent of their budgets through the Plant-Directed 
Research and Development program, for basic science research that is 
competitively awarded in areas to be determined by the facilities' 
directors. Contractor officials noted that these research funds have 
helped to attract and retain workers. For example, the Savannah River 
plant is using some of its research dollars to fund unclassified 
hydrogen research. Savannah River officials anticipate that the 
opportunity to contribute to a growing area of important work will 
attract new workers and help retain current workers.

The contractors also noted that the cutting-edge nature of the work 
done in the nuclear weapons program, particularly work relating to 
elements of the Stockpile Stewardship Program, offers many challenges 
in basic science research that are unique to NNSA facilities. 
Contractor recruiters said that they use the cutting-edge nature of 
this work as an incentive to attract workers to critical skill 
positions during recruitment events. For example, a manager who works 
for the contractor operating the Nevada Test Site stated that the 
opportunity to perform sophisticated measurements and capture data 
during stockpile stewardship program experiments, some of which have 
never been done before, is a major factor in attracting engineers for 
critical skill positions.

In addition to the nature of the work, all the contractors noted the 
importance of being able to offer salaries and other forms of 
compensation and benefits to remain competitive with industry and other 
government entities for highly skilled workers. The contractors said 
they have adopted some changes to their compensation or benefits 
programs as a result of comparing their programs with those of 
industry. For example, laboratories, production facilities, and the 
test site have considered such options as bonuses for critically 
skilled new hires; bonuses to retain critically skilled workers; 
various forms of bonuses, such as lump-sum payments and stock options; 
increased base salaries in specialty areas; and awards and recognition 
programs. To be more competitive in attracting critically skilled 
workers, some contractors have also begun providing day care 
facilities, flexible work hours, and fitness centers to improve 
workers' quality of life.

Providing Professional Development and Knowledge Transfer 
Opportunities: 

All of the contractors reported having developed or enhanced their 
professional development programs and knowledge transfer opportunities 
in an effort to attract and train new workers, retrain current workers 
to fill certain critical skill positions, and help retain the current 
workforce. Most of the professional development programs provide 
benefits to workers to further their training or education. Some 
programs may provide an avenue for attending professional workshops or 
conferences; others may help workers earn a bachelor's, master's, or 
doctoral degree. For example, Sandia offers the One Year On Campus 
program as a hiring tool for prospective employees. This program allows 
the employee to pursue a nonthesis master's degree over an 18-month 
period. Sandia will pay the full tuition and fees for the degree, as 
well as paying the participant a partial salary and full benefits 
during the program's duration.

Similarly, the production plants offer professional development 
programs. For example, Pantex pays the educational expenses for workers 
to earn bachelor's or master's degrees in areas relevant to work 
performed at the plant. Workers pursue their degrees through community 
colleges or long-distance learning opportunities, such as 
correspondence courses or Internet-based education. Furthermore, 
Pantex and Amarillo Community College have partnered with Texas Tech 
University, situated about 2 hours away, to offer evening or weekend 
courses taught by Texas Tech professors. Pantex also has a fellowship 
program that allows employees to take leave from work and return to 
school full-time, while still earning a salary, if they commit to 
working for Pantex for an agreed-upon time after completing the degree. 
According to Pantex officials, their professional development program 
is one key tool used to attract and retain workers. They also noted 
that many technicians take advantage of the opportunities offered to 
earn degrees in engineering.

In addition, all the facilities offer knowledge transfer programs, such 
as training programs led by senior workers and mentoring programs. For 
example, the Los Alamos National Laboratory offers the Theoretical 
Institute for Thermonuclear and Nuclear Studies program, which Los 
Alamos officials describe as a 3-year, highly intensive training 
program taught by senior scientists. According to Los Alamos officials, 
completing the program is comparable to earning a Ph.D. Although not 
required as a condition of employment, participating in the program is 
highly encouraged, and managers see it as an opportunity for workers to 
improve their technical knowledge. Through Sandia's Weapons Intern 
Program, individuals participate in a 1-year technically oriented work 
study program designed to accelerate the development of engineers and 
scientists in understanding stockpile stewardship tools, processes, and 
techniques. Most facilities also offer mentoring programs that pair new 
hires with senior workers to assist with on-the-job training and other 
aspects of working at the facility. For example, the Y-12 plant has a 
mentoring and job rotation program that pairs new hires with senior 
workers for the first 6 months of employment, during which time the new 
hires rotate among several job assignments. A second phase of the 
program identifies technical workers in the early to middle stages of 
their careers for rotation through assignments to further their 
professional development.

Organizations with Comparable Workforces Use Recruiting and Retention 
Approaches Similar to Those Used by NNSA Contractors: 

As with NNSA, officials we contacted at organizations with comparable 
workforces explained that they relied on a mixture of recruitment and 
retention approaches that best addresses their needs. The approaches 
they described paralleled those used by NNSA contractors and included 
focusing their recruitment efforts, providing educational outreach 
programs, assessing their compensation packages to ensure that they 
remain competitive, and providing professional development programs.

Officials from these organizations utilize strategies to target 
universities that result in hiring top workers. Many of the 
organizations described efforts to develop networks with faculty and 
students, some based on collaborative research programs. For example, 
officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory noted that the laboratory 
recruits at 52 universities, but selects 20 to 30 each year as the top 
priorities for their recruitment efforts, on the basis of specific 
criteria. The criteria include comparing the laboratory's critical 
skill needs to course curricula, as well as targeting the universities 
with which the laboratory has a collaborative research effort.

Many of the officials at organizations with similar workforces also 
mentioned relying upon educational outreach programs, internships, and 
fellowships as a way of addressing their recruitment and retention 
needs. These programs can promote interest in basic science and math to 
younger students at local schools, increase the awareness about 
employment opportunities at the organization among universities and 
professional societies, and serve as a means to develop staff who may 
eventually be hired full time at the facility. For example, an official 
at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory stated that the laboratory 
implements several programs intended to engage students at local 
schools in math and science activities. One such program allows high 
school students to shadow employees at the laboratory. The laboratory 
also offers fellowships and cooperative work programs for students at 
various universities. Some of the participating students are offered 
full-time positions at the laboratory once their education is complete.

Officials at each of the organizations noted the importance of being 
competitive in order to attract the workers with the required skills. 
Most of the officials cited challenging work as one of the key 
incentives to attract new workers. The officials also cited competitive 
salaries and benefits as being crucial to recruiting and retaining 
their workers, and several noted that they compared their compensation 
and benefits packages with those of competing organizations. The 
officials cited examples of other benefits that help in their 
recruiting and retention efforts, such as providing signing bonuses, 
paying for relocation expenses, and offering recognition and awards 
programs.

Finally, officials at most of the organizations said they use a variety 
of professional development programs and cited their importance in 
recruiting and retention efforts. Similar to NNSA facilities, the other 
organizations have programs that pay for educational expenses for 
obtaining a bachelor's or master's degree. For example, the Applied 
Physics Laboratory, a division of the Johns Hopkins University, offers 
on-site master's degrees through the university in six different 
subject areas. The information taught in these subject areas directly 
applies to the Applied Physics Laboratory's research. Moreover, senior 
staff at the laboratory are given the opportunity to teach some of the 
courses.

NNSA Supports Contractors' Efforts by Clarifying Roles and 
Responsibilities and Providing Additional Funding: 

NNSA has supported the contractors' efforts to recruit and retain their 
critically skilled workforce in a couple of ways. NNSA has worked with 
the contractors to clarify the roles and responsibilities of its 
contractors and has provided additional funding to help the contractors 
obtain workers to fill critically skilled positions.

NNSA Has Clarified Contractors' Roles and Responsibilities: 

In response to Chiles Commission concerns regarding systemic problems 
with DOE management and policies that hindered recruitment and 
retention efforts, NNSA has reorganized to streamline contract 
oversight. In December 2002, NNSA reorganized to move its operational 
oversight from its regional-based operations offices to facility-based 
site offices. By eliminating its operations offices and setting up site 
offices, NNSA removed a layer of management and placed the contracting 
officers, a crucial element of the oversight process, closer to the 
contractors for which they have oversight responsibility. Also, NNSA 
consolidated business and technical support functions, including 
support for human resources and contracting issues, to a single service 
center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[Footnote 10]

In addition, NNSA has worked with the contractors to clarify and act on 
programs proposed by the contractors intended to improve their ability 
to recruit and retain critically skilled workers. Each contract 
references DOE Order 350.1 and contains Appendix A, which set forth 
certain contractor human resource management policies and which 
describe, among other things, the types of programs that the 
contractors can charge to the contract. These contract elements lay out 
the flexibility afforded the contractors in making changes to 
compensation and benefits programs to be more competitive. Certain 
types of changes, such as a variable pay program, require approval by 
NNSA. Many of the contractors acknowledged that NNSA responded quickly 
to clarify and act on proposed programs. For example, in July 2000, Los 
Alamos reported to NNSA that it had difficulty recruiting computer 
scientists and that the turnover rate for these workers was twice that 
of other workers. Los Alamos proposed to improve its recruitment and 
retention efforts by increasing the base salaries of the computer 
scientists and offering other benefits, such as hiring bonuses and 
relocation expenses. In August 2000, after a series of meetings and 
correspondences between NNSA and Los Alamos, NNSA approved Los Alamos' 
request to increase the base salaries of computer scientiests and to 
offer them hiring bonsues. However, NNSA denied Los Alamos' request to 
approve the relocation benefits.

In addition to describing the types of programs that the contractors 
can charge to the contracts for human resources management programs, 
DOE Order 350.1 also requires that DOE periodically review contractor 
studies of how their compensation and benefits programs compare with 
those of other organizations to ensure the programs are reasonable. In 
April 2004, we reported that contractor studies regarding benefits did 
not cover all sites and were inconsistent from one contractor location 
to another, calling into question the validity and comparability of the 
results.[Footnote 11] NNSA officials told us they have contracted with 
a human resources consultant on a new benefits valuation study. This 
study compares the laboratories' benefits against those of market 
competitors, using such data as pension and health care programs, 
vacation, and disability. NNSA officials plan to use the results of the 
study to assess the contractors' benefits programs, including the 
reasonableness of benefits and the contractors' requests for increases 
in benefits. NNSA plans to commission a second benefits valuation study 
on two production plants and the test site. Also, NNSA officials 
indicate that they are working with the contractors to develop a common 
methodology to assess their compensation programs. NNSA plans to use 
the results of this analysis to assess the contractors' compensation 
programs, including the reasonableness of the programs and the 
contractors' requests for increases in compensation.

NNSA Has Provided Contractors with Additional Funding: 

In recognition of the need to ensure contractors can meet their 
critical skill requirements, NNSA has provided additional funding for 
the three laboratories through the Laboratory Critical Skills 
Development Program. This program is designed to encourage the 
laboratories to identify projected gaps in critical skills and develop 
programs that attract potential candidates at an early age to fill 
those gaps. The program is also designed to be flexible, allowing the 
laboratories to submit proposals to NNSA for the funds. The proposals 
vary considerably, some targeting middle school or high school, while 
others target college-age students. Some of the proposals include 
summer school opportunities, internships and fellowships, or more 
formal education programs in high school or college. NNSA provided 
$4.35 million for fiscal year 2004, a decrease from fiscal year 2003 
funding of about $0.23 million. The program also requires that the 
contractor running each laboratory match NNSA's funding on a one-to-one 
basis and track success of the program.

An official at Sandia reported that, at first, line management did not 
support the Critical Skills Development Program, particularly because 
of the matching funds requirement. However, the program has become very 
successful and is seen as a means of recruiting critically skilled 
workers at a lower cost than in the past. In fiscal year 2003, Sandia 
converted 20 student participants to full-time staff from such programs 
as College Cyber Defenders Institute, Microsystems and Engineering 
Sciences Applications Institute, Materials Science Research Institute, 
and National Collegiate Pulsed Power Research Institute. According to 
Sandia officials, the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program 
has become so popular that, collectively, line managers fund their 
share of the program at 2.5 times NNSA's one-to-one matching 
requirement.

Contractors' Approaches for Recruiting and Retaining a Critically 
Skilled Workforce Have Been Generally Effective: 

The efforts of NNSA's contractors to recruit and retain a critically 
skilled workforce have been generally effective, according to our 
analysis of the contractors' data, our review of the contractors' 
workforce planning processes, and information gathered from stockpile 
stewardship program managers.

Data Generally Demonstrate Hiring Levels Are Sufficient to Offset 
Current and Anticipated Attrition: 

Contractors' data on critical skill positions indicate that the eight 
facilities have experienced low turnover rates and that the average age 
of critically skilled workers is expected to remain steady or decrease 
at almost all of the facilities. The data also demonstrate that most 
facilities have been hiring at a level sufficient to offset current and 
anticipated attrition. However, some facilities have limited or no data 
available on the number of new critically skilled workers hired because 
their method of organizing their critically skilled workforce, which is 
different from the ways the other facilities organize these employees, 
makes data on new hires difficult to collect.

Facilities Have Experienced Low Turnover and the Average Age of 
Critically Skilled Workers Is Generally Steady: 

Contractors' data show that turnover rates for critically skilled 
workers have been low. Of the 10,186 positions across the eight nuclear 
weapons facilities classified as critically skilled as of the end of 
fiscal year 2003, only 2 percent were vacant at any point during the 
year. From fiscal years 2000 through 2003, the turnover rate for 
critically skilled workers across facilities--including both 
retirement and non-retirement related job termination--was 3.92 
percent.[Footnote 12] The highest turnover for this time period was 
5.35 percent at the Nevada Test Site, and the lowest turnover was .067 
percent at Savannah River (see fig. 3).

Figure 3: Turnover Rates for Critically Skilled Workers, Fiscal Years 
2000-2003: 

[See PDF for image] 

[End of figure] 

The average age of critically skilled workers across the complex has 
remained relatively steady since the end of 2001, at approximately 47 
years of age. According to NNSA program managers, this is the result of 
a steady increase in the average age at the production plants, and a 
counterbalancing steady decrease at the laboratories and test site. For 
example, among the laboratories, NNSA has projected the trend in the 
average age of critically skilled workers to be decreasing for Sandia 
and Los Alamos, and remaining flat for Lawrence Livermore through 2005. 
Among the production plants, NNSA is projecting that the average age 
will decrease at Kansas City, increase at Savannah River, and hold 
steady at Pantex and Y-12 through 2005. NNSA also projects the average 
age at the Nevada Test Site to be decreasing through 2005. While the 
overall average age across the nuclear weapons complex has been holding 
steady, NNSA program managers believe that the average age will 
decrease starting in 2006, when staff at or beyond retirement age who 
had remained at the facilities to, among other things, train newer 
workers in critical skill areas, begin to leave the facility.

Most Facilities Have Hired a Sufficient Number of Staff with Critical 
Skills to Meet Current and Near Future Needs: 

Table 2 shows that for fiscal years 2000 through 2003, five NNSA 
facilities for which data were available hired, on average, 94 percent 
more critically skilled staff than they needed to replace because of 
retirements or other separations (i.e., for every one critically 
skilled worker who separated, the facilities hired 1.94 people). These 
facilities adopted this hiring pattern to maintain the critically 
skilled workforce needed to fulfill the current mission of the 
Stockpile Stewardship Program, to make up for past hiring shortages, 
and to proactively plan for the next 10 years, when as much as 39 
percent of the current workforce is or will soon be eligible to retire.

Table 2: Critical Skill Replacement Rate at Five NNSA Facilities, 
Fiscal Years 2000 through 2003: 

Facility: Nevada Test Site; 
Total critical skill separations: 72; 
Total critical skills hires: 195; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 2.71.

Facility: Sandia; 
Total critical skill separations: 438; 
Total critical skills hires: 866; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 1.98.

Facility: Y-12; 
Total critical skill separations: 278; 
Total critical skills hires: 543; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 1.95.

Facility: Kansas City; 
Total critical skill separations: 108; 
Total critical skills hires: 192; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 1.78.

Facility: Pantex; 
Total critical skill separations: 198; 
Total critical skills hires: 326; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 1.65.

Facility: Total; 
Total critical skill separations: 1,094; 
Total critical skills hires: 2,122; 
Critical skills replacement rate: 1.94. 

Source: NNSA contractors.

Note: Because Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Savannah River do not 
hire, or hire limited numbers, directly into critical skill positions, 
data are not available on the number of new workers hired to fill these 
positions.

[End of table]

The human resource managers at many of the facilities stressed the 
importance of bringing in new staff early enough to take advantage of 
knowledge transfer opportunities before more experienced workers 
retire. While most of the critically skilled hires have advanced 
degrees, these workers often require additional, job-specific training 
because of the specialized and often classified nature of work in the 
nuclear weapons complex. Furthermore, the managers pointed out that it 
has been taking 1 to 2 years on average for new hires to obtain 
security clearances. In order for the new hire to be cleared and 
trained to take on critical work when the experienced staff member 
leaves, it is useful for the new staff member to be hired 2 to 3 years 
ahead of the retirees' anticipated departure.

To compensate for recent attrition, an aging workforce, and an 
increasing number of critical skill positions, the Nevada Test Site has 
been hiring at a greater rate than any of the other facilities in 
recent years--2.71 new staff were hired for every 1 that left. With an 
average retirement age of approximately 62 and approximately 30 percent 
of its workforce over the age of 55, the facility has been planning 
ahead to replace staff who are expected to retire in the near future, 
according to site officials. They believe the rate at which the 
facility has been hiring will ensure that the workforce will maintain 
the skills necessary to complete its mission. Sandia has also been 
hiring aggressively over the past 4 years, bringing in almost twice the 
number of critical skill hires needed to replace critical skill workers 
who separated during that period. According to human resource officers, 
the laboratory had recently fallen behind in its efforts to replace 
critically skilled workers who retired or left the facility for other 
reasons. As a result, Sandia embarked on an aggressive hiring effort to 
replace these needed critical skill workers. Human resource managers 
stated that their efforts have been successful and that future hiring 
will more closely match the number of separating critical skill 
workers, assuming no significant programmatic changes.

Y-12 has also hired almost twice the workers needed to replace those 
who left. Human resource managers at Y-12 stated that they decided to 
take this course of action so that the facility would have the 
necessary critically skilled workers in place prior to the anticipated 
retirements of experienced workers. The average retirement age for 
critically skilled workers at Y-12 is approximately 59 years, and 364 
of its critically skilled workers as of fiscal year 2003, or about 23 
percent, are over the age of 55. Furthermore, human resource managers 
stated that the job market for many of the critical skill positions 
required at Y-12 is relatively good at the moment; therefore, the 
facility is trying to stay ahead of the perceived future market crunch 
by bringing these highly skilled workers into Y-12 now. Similarly, 
Kansas City has recently been hiring more critically skilled workers 
than needed to replace those leaving--1.78 workers for every 1 
departing. According to human resource managers, this hiring was done 
so the facility would be better positioned to meet its future needs in 
the Stockpile Life Extension Program--a component of Defense Programs 
that is focused on maintaining and refurbishing existing nuclear 
weapons. Because of anticipated retirements in the next decade, the 
contractor has estimated that it has a 5-year window in which to ensure 
that essential knowledge gets transferred from experienced employees to 
newer staff so that the facility will be able to fulfill the program's 
mission. Pantex has also been hiring at elevated levels--bringing in 
1.65 new hires for every employee who left--in order to replace 
departing critically skilled employees due to retirements or other 
separations and to accomplish its expanding work. For example, in 
fiscal year 2007, the facility will need to increase its cadre of 
critically skilled technicians and operators by over 50 positions, 
which reflects a growth of about 4 percent, when it takes on new 
responsibilities in the Stockpile Life Extension Program.

While these facilities reported that they generally have the critically 
skilled workers needed, they pointed out that isolated gaps exist for 
specific positions at some facilities and efforts are ongoing to fill 
these openings. For example, Y-12 mentioned the high market demand for 
metallurgists and fire protection engineers as posing a challenge in 
hiring for these positions. The Nevada Test Site, whose turnover rates 
have exceeded 10 percent in 1 year, has had difficulty retaining the 
number of critically skilled crafts people needed, in part because it 
is competing with the building construction industry in Las Vegas. The 
site officials we interviewed said that they are continuing to overcome 
these workforce challenges and believe they will be able to fill these 
positions in the years to come; however, they acknowledge that this 
will require extra effort and emphasis.

Data on Critically Skilled New Hires Are Limited for Three Facilities 
because They Generally Do Not Hire Staff Directly into Critical Skills 
Positions: 

Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Savannah River generally bring in 
new staff to supply a pipeline of qualified workers to fill future 
critical skills openings, rather than assigning new hires to fill a 
specific current or future critical skills position. Because of this, 
these facilities have little or no information on the number of new 
critically skilled workers hired. For example, Lawrence Livermore is 
organized as a matrix system in which a worker's designation as 
"critically skilled" changes depending on the work he or she is doing 
and the amount of time spent doing that work. Lawrence Livermore 
defines a position as a critical skill position, in part, by the amount 
of time the worker spends doing Defense Program work, with the minimum 
requirement for this designation being 25 percent of the time. At any 
given point, there is a core set of Defense Program positions 
classified as "critical skills" positions and a set of workers filling 
those positions. However, there are also a number of other workers with 
skills that would qualify them for a critical skill position, but who 
are presently doing work for other missions of the laboratory. While 
not categorized as "critically skilled" at that moment, these workers 
are able to fill critical skill position openings when they arise and 
provide depth to the pipeline of qualified critical skill workers.

The arrangement is somewhat similar at Savannah River, where workers 
are hired into the facility's pipeline of employees who can fill 
critical skill positions when needed. In fiscal year 2003, there were 
698 Defense Program workers at the facility, 98 of whom were 
categorized as critically skilled. When any of these workers leave, 
Savannah River fills the opening with a worker possessing the needed 
critical skills, but who has been working in another area of the 
facility. Los Alamos also depends upon its internal pipeline to a great 
extent to fill critical skill needs, as well as conducting limited 
hiring of new staff from outside the facility. In fiscal year 2003, Los 
Alamos filled 631 critical skill positions. Of these, 550 were filled 
via development of internal candidates, with the remaining 81 being 
hired from outside this internal pipeline. This distribution is partly 
reflected in the data showing that Los Alamos had hired fewer new staff 
to fill critical skill positions than had separated from the facility 
(i.e., 0.79 new workers hired for every 1 separating).

Facilities Have Incorporated Key Strategic Workforce Planning 
Principles to Varying Degrees: 

While NNSA defines the mission of each facility, the contractor is 
responsible for determining what resources are needed to meet that 
mission, including the type and number of critically skilled workers 
needed. To ensure that they will be in a position to meet their future 
critical skill needs, all eight nuclear weapons facilities have 
incorporated to some degree into their planning processes the five key 
principles we have identified as essential to strategic workforce 
planning: (1) involving management and employees in developing and 
implementing the strategic workforce plan, (2) determining critical 
skill needs through workforce gap analysis, (3) developing workforce 
strategies to fill gaps, (4) building needed capabilities to support 
workforce strategies, and (5) monitoring and evaluating progress in 
achieving goals.[Footnote 13] (See fig. 4.) 

Figure 4: Strategic Workforce Planning Process: 

[See PDF for image] 

[End of figure] 

Managers and Employees Are Involved in the Planning Process: 

All of the 20 stockpile stewardship program managers said that they are 
involved with workforce planning to at least a moderate extent at their 
facilities. Their involvement encompasses a variety of activities, 
including identifying current and future critical skill needs, 
identifying and recruiting candidates for employment, and helping to 
retain current employees through training and mentoring.

All of the eight NNSA contractors undertake annual reviews of their 
critical skill needs, with managers playing a key role in this 
assessment. For example, managers at Sandia, as part of the facility's 
annual Strategic Capabilities Assessment, are responsible for 
identifying workforce skills required and developing projections of the 
number and type of staff needed to meet their mission. These managers 
are also asked to identify any increases or decreases in future 
staffing levels that may result from programmatic changes and any staff 
who may require specific training to ensure they will be prepared to 
handle upcoming segments of work. The information gathered from the 
managers during the Strategic Capabilities Assessment process is used 
to develop a facilitywide hiring plan that ultimately guides Sandia's 
recruiting efforts. At Los Alamos, managers prepare annual workforce 
reviews that identify present and future capabilities of the workforce, 
including critical skills. These reviews provide an opportunity for 
managers to identify both strengths and gaps in the capabilities needed 
to achieve programmatic missions. Each review considers, among other 
items, projections of upcoming retirements, succession planning, 
recruitment goals and approaches, plans for replacing the lost skills, 
and mentoring and training needs. While these workforce reviews are 
comprehensive and help map out workforce needs, they have not yet been 
used to develop an overall hiring plan for Los Alamos; however, human 
resource managers said that they plan to begin to do this by the end of 
fiscal year 2006.

In addition, almost all of the 20 stockpile stewardship managers said 
that they participate in recruiting efforts to at least a moderate 
extent. Program managers identify the critical skill positions needing 
to be filled; recruit on campus; and interview prospective candidates 
when they visit the laboratory, production plant, or test site. For 
example, division managers at the Kansas City plant identify critical 
skill needs and process the necessary request forms to fill those 
needs. These requests are aggregated by the human resource department 
and used to inform the plant's college recruiting efforts where 
applicable. Managers are also involved in campus recruiting. For 
example, Y-12 sends line managers, not human resource personnel, out to 
campuses to recruit. This helps Y-12 develop a better relationship with 
the schools and faculty and provides students with an opportunity to 
interact with the managers with whom they may one day be working, 
according to the human resource officials. Managers also play a primary 
role in interviewing candidates who visit their facility, and many make 
the final selections. For example, as part of Los Alamos' just-in-time 
recruiting efforts, prospective candidates visit the laboratory and 
undergo a day of interviews with different program managers for 
multiple positions. At the end of the visit, the managers decide which 
of the candidates are best suited to fill the needs identified and make 
them offers.

Management involvement with workforce planning also continues after the 
candidate is hired, through involvement with training and mentoring 
programs that help ensure the facility will be able to retain the 
critically skilled employees needed. For example, Pantex offers in-
house educational and other programs to promote continuous professional 
development and improvement of the plant's knowledge base. New 
personnel at Pantex receive training to qualify as production 
technicians from seasoned employees at the facility, after which these 
newly trained technicians are assigned to work under the direction of 
other experienced personnel who continue with on-the-job training. In 
addition, some the facilities place a premium on the value of mentoring 
as a means to ensure that needed knowledge transfer takes place. For 
example, at Savannah River, once scientists and engineers reach a 
certain level of management, they are required to mentor newer staff in 
order to be considered for any future advancement. At Lawrence 
Livermore, formal and informal mentoring by experienced personnel, 
including retirees, is a key part of the learning process. These 
mentoring activities include reanalysis of past nuclear events and 
comparisons of the effectiveness of different experiments. According to 
contractor management, in some cases, these exercises have been able to 
produce fresh insights for the entire program. Lawrence Livermore, as 
well as some other facilities, relies upon a corps of retired workers 
to pass along knowledge to newer staff and to archive their knowledge 
through documentation and videotaped interviews to preserve it for 
future generations of workers.

Facilities Have Determined Critical Skills Needed to Achieve Current 
and Future Goals through Workforce Gap Analysis: 

All NNSA facilities have analyzed their workforce, including assessing 
the skills of the current employees, identifying the current and future 
critical skills needed, and determining if and where any gaps exist. 
For example, associate directors at Lawrence Livermore, with the 
assistance of human resource staff, annually evaluate employee 
capabilities, look at what resources are needed to support existing and 
anticipated future programs, perform a gap analysis, and develop 
projections. In doing this analysis, the associate directors consider 
the approximate attrition based on recent trends, the number of 
employees the laboratory would like to have as backup to meet 
anticipated critical skill needs for the next 3 years, anticipated 
future needs based on likely program changes and budget projections, 
and the training and mentoring needed for staff to be prepared to fill 
anticipated critical skill needs.

Program and human resource managers at Pantex conduct detailed 
workforce planning annually to ensure that the needed skills are 
available at the right time as workload and demographic changes occur. 
As part of this planning process, the managers analyze positions to 
ensure that they are properly designated as critical or noncritical. 
The workforce planning team at Pantex then works with managers across 
the organization to determine the number of critically skilled workers 
needed in each area to meet the projected workload over several years. 
In doing so, the planning team considers new work and skills that may 
be required in the future. The workforce planners obtain data on the 
skills of the current employee workforce, review production estimates 
to determine what workforce skills will be needed to meet production 
goals, and assess the degree to which the skills required by the future 
workload line up with the current baseline of critically skilled 
employees. This analysis is rolled up and reported in Pantex's annual 
"Critical Skills Program Status Report." According to human resource 
managers, this report serves as the basis for planning for, filling, 
and maintaining critical skills in the future.

At Y-12, workforce planning can be broken down into two categories 
based on the planning horizon--long range or near term. Long-range 
workforce planning includes developing a 10-year comprehensive site 
plan, which is revised annually and contains a brief discussion of the 
workforce needs. Long-range planning also involves developing a 10-year 
baseline plan, which breaks down in more detail the information 
contained in the comprehensive site plan, including the specific number 
of workers needed for each position for the next 10 years. Finally, 
each suborganization within Y-12 prepares workforce planning reports 
that ultimately get rolled up to form the facilitywide workforce plan. 
Near term planning involves creating a workforce plan that includes the 
production schedule for the next 3 years, including the staff levels 
needed to meet production goals. These workforce plans are reviewed 
three to four times annually to ensure that adequate resources are 
available and that workforce capacity is appropriate to meet near-term 
workforce needs. Management conducts a gap analysis on these short-term 
estimates and determines what skills are needed. In addition, the Y-12 
plant conducted a reorganization process over the past year that has 
compared the skills of the current workforce with the future needs of 
the facility and moved people around accordingly. Once the 
reorganization is complete, the plant will again reassess the workforce 
and skills needed to identify any remaining gaps or shortages in 
workforce skills.

Facilities Have Developed and Implemented Strategies to Fill Gaps: 

As gaps between the skills of the current workforce and the skills 
needed to fulfill the mission are identified, each facility has 
developed strategies to address these specific gaps. Because each 
facility is unique in mission, geographic location, and required skill 
sets, there is no standard approach that the facilities can use to 
address their gaps. Rather, each has developed strategies that help 
them identify, recruit, and retain the critically skilled employees 
needed at each facility. For example, all three laboratories, as part 
of the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program, have initiated a 
series of projects or institutes that provide training and research 
experience to precollege, undergraduate, and graduate students in 
critical skill fields relevant to the laboratory. One such institute in 
use by all three laboratories--the College Cyber Defenders Institute--
is focused on addressing the national shortage of trained people and 
lack of formal university programs that prepare students for a career 
in cyber security. Other programs are focused more specifically on the 
needs of a particular laboratory. For example, the Computer System 
Administrator Development Initiative at Los Alamos is designed to 
recruit students who are enrolled in area colleges and universities and 
who want to develop their skills as a computer systems administrator, a 
critical resource need at the laboratory.

The production plants have also implemented strategies that directly 
address some critical skill needs identified by their workforce gap 
analyses. For example, to help meet its need for production technicians 
and to ensure that candidates under consideration for this position 
have the basic technical skills that will be transferable to various 
weapons programs once they are hired, Pantex requires that each 
candidate successfully complete a Pantex Job Skills Development Program 
available through the local community college. A similar strategy is 
under way at Y-12. To help address its need for nuclear engineers, Y-12 
has been working closely with South Carolina State University to 
develop a nuclear engineering program that will enable the university 
to supply Y-12 with needed graduates in this critical area. Y-12 
managers currently serve on the university's advisory board and visit 
the campus several times each year to work closely with faculty in 
developing the program.

The Nevada Test Site finds itself in a unique position regarding its 
workforce planning activities. The site's primary mission was to be 
able to conduct underground nuclear tests to ensure the reliability of 
the nuclear stockpile. However, with the 1992 moratorium on testing and 
a Presidential directive that the United States must be able to resume 
nuclear testing with as little as 18 months' notice, the Nevada Test 
Site is faced with the unique challenge of maintaining testing skills 
without being able to conduct actual nuclear tests. To help maintain 
the critical skills required for testing, the site has a workforce of 
engineers to support the three weapons laboratories in research and 
development engineering on advanced diagnostic tests and in their 
subcritical tests (tests that do not produce a nuclear reaction) 
associated with the Stockpile Stewardship Program and other special 
projects. This allows the Nevada Test Site to maintain critical 
diagnostic skills related to testing and evaluate the strengths and 
weaknesses in testing methods they will need to apply in the event that 
the facility begins testing again. In addition to on-the-job training 
to maintain diagnostic skills among engineers, the Nevada Test Site is 
developing a set of training classes geared toward junior employees. 
These classes will be led by the engineers who used to develop 
diagnostics at the site for underground testing and will help preserve 
critical knowledge about testing from being lost.

Facilities Have Built the Capabilities to Support Workforce Planning 
Strategies: 

Each of the nuclear weapons facilities increased their capabilities to 
support the critical skill workforce planning strategies by augmenting 
administrative support to implement these strategies, utilizing 
technological planning tools, and increasing the use of educational and 
financial incentives that help recruit and retain critically skilled 
staff. For example, Sandia has established a Nuclear Weapons Strategic 
Management Unit to manage the work, products, processes, and people 
needed to accomplish the laboratory's mission. Similarly, the Planning, 
Scheduling, and Integration division at Pantex oversees all workforce 
planning tasks and has created a detailed flowchart defining how 
workforce planning takes place at the facility and at what stages 
different stakeholders, such as division managers or human resource 
officials, become involved to ensure that the critical skill needs are 
being met. Alternatively, Los Alamos is piloting a program in one of 
its divisions that is designed to enhance the retention of critically 
skilled staff. As part of this program, a human resource manager is 
deployed full time to a division at the laboratory to help ensure that 
the students participating in the internship or co-operative program 
are given a high quality experience, increasing the likelihood that 
they will want to stay on at the laboratory full time after graduating. 
This specialized human resource manager also helps ensure that the 
student will be a good fit for the laboratory in the long run and 
worthy of continued investment and training in critical skill areas.

Some facilities have also used technology to better link critical skill 
planning to hiring activity. For example, Sandia developed a Web-based 
application called the HR Graphalyzer that enables the human resource 
personnel to analyze human resource data graphically. One component of 
this application, the Enhanced Staff Planning Tool, helps the divisions 
design a hiring program that more accurately represents facility needs, 
factoring in the specific organization's current headcount, current age 
and years of service distribution, and history of internal employee 
movement. The application is able to project separations (both 
retirement and nonretirement) on the basis of historical trends using 
the organization's age and years of service distributions. It also 
equalizes hiring over 2 years in order to avoid swings in recruiting 
and hiring efforts from year to year. One of the main benefits of this 
system is that it helps the human resource department to more 
accurately identify the number of workers with specific skills who are 
needed. In addition, some facilities use human resource information 
databases to help them better manage the flow of the critical skills 
workforce. For example, Pantex uses a database that maintains 
information on individual skills of the current staff and whether the 
individual currently fills a critical skill position. This database is 
updated annually and critical skill positions are reviewed in light of 
the current mission and workload, helping the facility ensure that it 
is meeting those workforce and mission needs. Contractors have also 
used technology to assist with their recruiting efforts. For example, 
Kansas City implemented a Web-based resume-sourcing tool that allows 
the facility to post detailed job descriptions of open positions on the 
Internet, increasing exposure to prospective candidates.

Some facilities have offered incentives to help recruit and retain 
critically skilled staff, including offering educational programs and 
providing workplace flexibilities. For example, Kansas City's Technical 
Fellowship Program is an internal program designed to train and develop 
associates for future critical skill positions. The facility has also 
identified a number of workplace flexibilities that have helped it 
remain competitive in attracting new staff, including signing bonuses, 
retention bonuses, and employee referral fees. Furthermore, the Kansas 
City plant has provided housing stipends to student interns who were 
relocating to the Kansas City area. The Y-12 facility has adopted 
similar strategies, focusing on employee development through 
companywide training, education, and job rotation programs that help 
the new hire get wider exposure and training to different aspects of 
the facility. Y-12 also recently modified its relocation policy and now 
provides new hires with an up-front sum of money to help with moving 
expenses. The intent of this change was to help the facility stay 
competitive with other industries in the area. Similarly, Lawrence 
Livermore has tried to stay abreast of market trends and has offered 
incentives to successfully compete for employees including hiring 
bonuses, employee referral bonuses, relocation packages, and benefits 
and compensation packages. Furthermore, it has instituted work-life 
programs such as flexible schedules, expanded day care facilities, and 
other on-site services, including dry cleaning and a fitness center, to 
keep Lawrence Livermore an appealing place to work.

NNSA Has Monitored and Evaluated Contractor Progress in Meeting 
Critical Skills Workforce Needs: 

NNSA has continually monitored and evaluated contractor progress 
through annual, semi-annual, and monthly reviews. As part of their 
annual Performance Evaluation Plans in fiscal year 2004, each NNSA 
facility was responsible for meeting one or more performance measures 
related to critical skills management. Before the start of each new 
fiscal year, NNSA and the contractor negotiate these plans, which 
establish the expectations for the coming fiscal year and serve as the 
basis for evaluating how well the contractor has met the goals of the 
contract. At the end of the fiscal year, NNSA prepares a Performance 
Evaluation Review, evaluating the contractor's performance on the 
objectives set out in the Performance Evaluation Plan. This final 
overall assessment of how well the performance evaluation measures were 
met, including those dealing with the critical skill needs at the 
facility, provides the basis for any financial awards given to the 
contractor. (See app. II for a summary of the performance measures 
related to critical skills for each facility.) 

Semiannually, each facility reports to NNSA headquarters on a set of 
predefined metrics related to recruiting and retention. Among the 
metrics used to assess performance are the number of job offers and 
acceptances for critical skills positions, age statistics for the 
current critical skills population, and percentage of critical skill 
positions vacant. Retention indicators include attrition rates of 
critical skill employees as compared with other Defense Program 
employees and total number of departures of critical skills employees. 
According to NNSA Office of Defense Program officials, two of these 
performance metrics--average age of the critical skills workforce and 
the percentage of critical skill vacancies--are good indicators of the 
overall success of the contractors in recruiting, developing, and 
retaining critical skills employees.

On a monthly or quarterly basis, the contractors report to NNSA 
representatives metrics related to meeting critical skill needs. NNSA 
site managers conduct monthly reviews with the contractor managers to 
check progress on meeting the performance objectives that have been 
laid out for the contractors and briefly discuss the status of critical 
skill positions. During these meetings, the contractors are also free 
to discuss any other issues adversely affecting their ability to reach 
their critical skills goals, such as concerns about clearance delays or 
salary competitiveness. While many of these metrics tracked each month 
may be based on the actual performance measures established under the 
contract, others may be tracked because of their close connection to 
maintaining a critically skilled workforce. For example, at Y-12, 
reports are issued monthly on an established set of performance metrics 
for hiring, retention, and turnover, but also for college recruiting 
plans, career fair activities, and information regarding involuntary 
reductions-in-force at other facilities and how these reductions affect 
hiring at Y-12.

In addition to monitoring contractors' overall progress in meeting 
critical skill performance measures, some facilities also track 
progress on specific programs designed to help recruit and retain 
critically skilled workers. For example, all the proposals for projects 
initiated through the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program 
include milestones, goals, objectives, success measures, and evaluation 
criteria. Follow-on funding for these projects is dependent on how well 
these criteria are being met. In addition, NNSA monitors how well money 
spent as part of the Plant Directed Research and Development program is 
helping retain critically skilled staff at production plants.

Most Managers Believe Their Current Workforce Is Sufficient to Fulfill 
Their Facility's Mission: 

Of the 20 stockpile stewardship program managers we interviewed at the 
eight NNSA facilities, 15 believe that their critically skilled 
workforce is currently sufficient to fulfill their facility's mission. 
Although this belief was widely held, the factors these managers cited 
as helping their facility achieve a sufficient critical skills 
workforce varied. Among the factors most commonly cited were the 
strength of the recruiting programs, the quality of work performed at 
the facility, and their facility's commitment to training and 
development. For example, of the managers who believe their critically 
skilled workforce is currently sufficient, some commented that the 
recruiting programs are effective in attracting highly qualified new 
and experienced workers to their facilities. They also mentioned that 
their facility performs work that is technically challenging, 
interesting, and of national importance, making it an appealing place 
to work. These managers also said that their facilities have made a 
commitment to training and development, ensuring the transfer of 
knowledge from experienced employees to new workers and allowing many 
staff to be trained in areas of critical importance to the mission. 
Some of the five managers who felt the current critical skills 
workforce was insufficient to meet their facilities' missions expressed 
concern that the current pool of qualified, technically trained 
candidates is inadequate to meet the facility's specific needs. At some 
sites, the candidates with specific skills and training are simply not 
readily available in the market and managers commented that there are 
few students entering professions applicable to certain critical skill 
needs.

Stockpile stewardship managers we interviewed were less confident 
overall in their facility's ability to fulfill its future critical 
skills needs; however, the majority still felt the critical skills 
workforce would be sufficient over the next 10 years to fulfill the 
facility's mission. Twelve of the 20 program managers we spoke with 
believe their critical skills workforce would be sufficient in the 
future, 3 believe it will be insufficient, while 5 were unsure. The 12 
managers who felt their critical skills workforce would be sufficient 
over the next 10 years cited a number of contributing factors, 
including the exciting mission of the facility, the strength of the 
recruiting programs, and a focus on training and developing employees. 
In addition, a number of these managers also mentioned the facility's 
workforce planning efforts as essential. For example, one manager said 
her facility's efforts enabled the managers to identify, understand, 
and plan for future critical skill needs.

Of the three managers who felt that the critical skills workforce will 
be insufficient to fulfill the mission over the next 10 years, two 
mentioned concerns about the budget and the likelihood that a 
substantial number of critically skilled workers would retire in the 
next 10 years. These managers said that budget shortfalls would make 
workforce planning difficult. Budget limitations can affect the number 
of staff who can be employed at any one time, limiting the amount of 
knowledge transfer that can occur between experienced staff and those 
new to the facility, both of whom might be holding the same position 
while this training and development takes place. In addition, because 
it can take as long as 5 years for new staff members to receive 
clearances and be fully trained on the critical elements of their jobs, 
the impending retirements could influence the transfer of critical 
knowledge if these experienced workers retire before new staff are 
brought in and trained in these skills. The five remaining managers 
expressed uncertainty about whether their facility would be able to 
maintain the critical skills workforce needed in the future. Most 
expressed guarded optimism that their facility would be able to find 
the needed skilled workers; however, they mentioned a number of factors 
that could still hamper their ability to do so. In addition to the 
budget uncertainty and impending retirements mentioned by other 
managers with concerns about future workforce preparedness, some of 
these managers cited uncertainty about their facility's future mission 
and a shrinking pool of qualified candidates to fill future openings. 
One manager commented that shifts in the mission, such as a reduction 
of laboratory-directed research and development being done, could limit 
the amount of exciting work being performed at the facilities, making 
employment there less appealing to potential candidates and, 
consequently, planning for future skill needs more difficult. The five 
managers also expressed concern about the availability of technically 
trained workers to fill future critical skills positions. According to 
one manager, competition remains high for certain graduates with 
particular training and educational background and whether this 
competition will continue in the future is uncertain.

NNSA Contractors and Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face 
Ongoing Challenges but Have Developed Strategies to Mitigate Most of 
Them: 

NNSA contractors face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining a 
critically skilled workforce and are using a number of strategies to 
mitigate them. Additionally, organizations with comparable workforces 
are facing similar challenges and are using similar strategies to 
mitigate those challenges. Beyond their challenges, NNSA contractors 
face future uncertainties that could affect their ability to recruit 
and retain a critically skilled workforce in the years ahead.

NNSA Contractors Have Developed, and Actively Share, Strategies to 
Mitigate Ongoing Challenges: 

NNSA contractors most commonly cited four challenges to recruiting and 
retaining a critically skilled workforce: the amount of time it takes 
to obtain security clearances, a declining pool of potential employees, 
the undesirability of certain facilities because of the area's high 
cost of living, and the undesirability of certain facilities because 
they are in locations that many potential new hires consider 
unattractive. Table 3 shows the facilities that cited each of the four 
challenges and provides sample strategies that some NNSA contractors 
are using to mitigate them.

Table 3: Challenges Facing NNSA Contractors and Sample Strategies to 
Mitigate Them: 



Challenge: Time to obtain security clearances; 
Laboratories: Lawrence Livermore: Yes; 
Laboratories: Los Alamos: Yes;  
Laboratories: Sandia: Yes; 
Production facilities: Kansas City: Yes; 
Production facilities: Pantex: Yes; 
Production facilities: Savannah River: Yes; 
Production facilities: Y-12: Yes; 
Test site: Nevada: Yes; 
Sample strategies: 
* Provide employees with meaningful work in other areas of the 
facility; 
* Hire skilled employees from downsized DOE facilities.

Challenge: Declining pool of potential employees; 
Laboratories: Lawrence Livermore: Yes; 
Laboratories: Los Alamos: Yes; 
Laboratories: Sandia: Yes; 
Production facilities: Kansas City: Yes; 
Production facilities: Pantex: Yes; 
Production facilities: Savannah River: Yes; 
Production facilities: Y-12: Yes; 
Test site: Nevada: Yes; 
Sample strategies:
* Develop programs to encourage U.S. students to pursue technical 
careers; 
* Develop university relations; 
* Utilize skilled staff from other NNSA programs; 
* Develop training programs to meet specific facility needs.

Challenge: High cost of living; 
Laboratories: Lawrence Livermore: Yes; 
Laboratories: Los Alamos: Yes; 
Laboratories: Sandia: Yes; 
Production facilities: Kansas City: No; 
Production facilities: Pantex: No; 
Production facilities: Savannah River: No; 
Production facilities: Y-12: No; 
Test site: Nevada: Yes; 
Sample strategies:
* Offer incentives such as signing and relocation bonuses; 
* Offer relocation support.

Challenge: Unattractive location; 
Laboratories: Lawrence Livermore: No; 
Laboratories: Los Alamos: Yes; 
Laboratories: Sandia: Yes; 
Production facilities: Kansas City: Yes; 
Production facilities: Pantex: Yes; 
Production facilities: Savannah River: No; 
Production facilities: Y-12: No; 
Test site: Nevada: Yes; 
Sample strategies:
* Offer incentives such as signing and relocation bonuses; 
* Focus on recruiting individuals local to the area. 

Source: NNSA.

[End of table]

Regarding the time it takes to obtain security clearances, most of 
NNSA's contractors said Q-level security clearances--the level needed 
for most critical skills positions--have been taking from 1 to 2 years 
to process, delaying new employees' ability to obtain on-the-job 
training for the classified work for which they were hired. To obtain 
new employee clearances, contractors submit background paperwork to the 
Albuquerque Service Center for processing.[Footnote 14] The Service 
Center uses the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to conduct 
background investigations. The Service Center reviews the investigation 
files provided by OPM, conducts follow-up interviews when necessary, 
and makes the final decisions on clearances. The manager of NNSA's 
Personnel Security Division at the Albuquerque Service Center, who has 
responsibility for security clearance issues, said that Q-level 
clearances have been taking, on average, just under 1 year; however, he 
also acknowledged that in some cases these clearances are taking as 
long as 2 years to complete. Because an employee without a clearance 
cannot take part in classified work, the extended clearance reviews 
have delayed the beginning of the employees' on-the-job classified 
critical skills training needed to be designated as fully critically 
skilled. Without this training, employees cannot begin doing the work 
for which they were hired. According to contractor human resource 
officials and stockpile stewardship managers, employees can become 
frustrated and discouraged in the face of these delays.

While NNSA contractors are not able to directly address the time it 
takes to process security clearances because responsibility for the 
investigation and final determination lies elsewhere, they have 
developed strategies to mitigate the effects of these delays. Several 
contractors stated that they try to reduce the negative effects of 
waiting for clearances by providing new employees with meaningful, 
unclassified work. For example, Y-12 offers a program in which new 
employees waiting for a clearance can rotate through areas of the plant 
that do not require a clearance, learning about different departments 
that relate to the job they were hired to perform. The Savannah River 
plant plans to place new employees waiting for a security clearance in 
its soon-to-be-completed hydrogen technology laboratory being 
developed at a nearby site. Although the laboratory was not built 
specifically to address clearance delays, working there will benefit 
staff waiting for clearances by (1) providing an avenue for them to 
gain experience in areas relevant to the work they will perform once 
the clearance is obtained and (2) allowing them to work on cutting-edge 
projects in an unclassified setting. This opportunity should help 
reduce some of the frustration newly hired employees and the facility 
management associate with clearance delays. Some facilities have also 
taken advantage of downsizing at such DOE facilities as Rocky Flats. By 
hiring critically skilled employees who have Q-level clearances, the 
facilities can both avoid the delays associated with the security 
clearance process and retain critical skills already within the nuclear 
weapons complex. While hiring these experienced NNSA contractor 
employees has been useful, their numbers will decrease when Rocky Flats 
is closed and the downsizing of other NNSA facilities is completed.

In addition to the amount of time it takes to obtain security 
clearances, most of NNSA's contractors also face the ongoing challenge 
of recruiting from a declining pool of technically skilled potential 
employees. First, contractors said this pool has shrunk because fewer 
students with U.S. citizenship are seeking advanced degrees or 
technical training in areas such as science and engineering. Because 
most critical skill positions require a Q-level clearance and U.S. 
citizenship is a primary consideration for such a clearance, NNSA 
contractors must locate U.S. citizens with the needed critical skills. 
Second, some contractors said they face a lack of qualified technicians 
in specific skill areas. For example, Pantex mentioned having 
difficulty finding enough qualified production technicians, and Los 
Alamos cited difficulties in finding skilled technicians who have 
nuclear weapons manufacturing experience or who are trained in using 
radiological gloveboxes--sealed containers that feature built-in 
gloves for handling radiological material.

To address the declining pool of technically skilled workers, most of 
the facilities have developed programs to attract U.S. citizen students 
earlier in their high school and undergraduate years and encourage them 
to pursue careers in technical fields. For example, under the 
Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program, the three weapons 
laboratories have established programs involving local high schools and 
universities that encourage students to pursue college and advanced 
degrees in technical fields and provide a pipeline of workers for 
future job opportunities at the laboratory. Additionally, some 
contractors have focused on improving their relationships with 
universities as a way to address the challenge of a declining pool. 
Sandia, for example, established its Campus Executive Program to 
develop a more coordinated and comprehensive recruiting effort at 
targeted universities. The program's recruiting teams, composed of 
researchers, recruiters, program alumni, and affiliated faculty, use 
existing relationships at colleges and universities to attract 
technically trained U.S. citizens. Contractors have also found a source 
of critically skilled employees in other NNSA programs operating at the 
same site. For example, the Defense Program division of Savannah River 
has been able to pick up critically skilled employees from the 
facility's Environmental Management segment as it is being shut down. 
The advantage of hiring these staff is that they are already trained in 
critical skill areas relevant to Defense Program work and have their 
security clearances, which allows them to hit the ground running. 
Finally, some contractors have developed their own training programs to 
meet their facilities' specific skills needs as a way of mitigating the 
shortage of qualified technicians in needed skill areas. For example, 
Pantex established its Job Skills Development Program in partnership 
with Amarillo Community College and the Texas Workforce Center to help 
meet the facility's need for production technicians. The program trains 
and qualifies a local workforce of production technicians from which 
Pantex can recruit potential employees. Like Pantex, Los Alamos has 
developed a program to address one of its specific needs. The Glovebox 
Technician Pipeline Program develops college-educated technicians with 
basic skills in radiological glovebox technology. Los Alamos began the 
program in 2003 and expects it to produce a small pool of technically 
skilled graduates available for full-time employment.

The third ongoing challenge cited by some NNSA contractors is that 
their location is geographically undesirable because of the high cost 
of living. Some contractors stated that the high cost of living in the 
area where their facility is located makes recruitment and retention of 
critically skilled employees more difficult. This was the case with 
Lawrence Livermore, which is located in the San Francisco Bay area. To 
address cost of living issues, contractors have used such employee 
incentives as offering signing and relocation bonuses to assist with 
relocation expenses. Some contractors have also offered potential 
employees support by helping them find housing or learn about the 
community.

The fourth ongoing challenge cited by NNSA contractors is that their 
location hinders recruiting efforts because it is perceived as being an 
unattractive area to live in or as being remote. For example, 
contractor officials at the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, report 
that they have trouble recruiting and retaining critically skilled 
workers. Pantex officials indicated that some workers are attracted to 
larger urban environments. To address concerns about locations that may 
be perceived as being unattractive, some facilities have also offered 
signing and relocation bonuses. Other facilities focus on recruiting 
individuals who are from the local area. For example, Y-12 targets 
universities in the surrounding geographic area because candidates are 
more likely to accept positions near where they live or attend school. 
Similarly, Pantex focuses on universities in west Texas, Oklahoma, and 
New Mexico to recruit engineering candidates.

As NNSA contractors have developed strategies to mitigate recruiting 
and retention challenges, they have used a variety of methods to share 
those strategies among themselves. One method for sharing information 
is to use the human resource specialists at the Albuquerque Service 
Center as a conduit. NNSA recently consolidated most of its contractor 
human resource staff, who were previously located at each of the NNSA 
facilities, in a central location at the Albuquerque Service Center. 
Six of the eight nuclear weapons complex facilities currently have 
human resource specialists located at the service center.[Footnote 15] 
Because the specialists are now centrally located, they are able to 
obtain a broader perspective by taking advantage of each others' 
knowledge about the activities of different contractors. For example, 
Los Alamos adopted a tool from Lawrence Livermore--a "deliverables 
matrix"--that is used to help track the reports it submits periodically 
to NNSA on a number of subjects, including critical skill management. 
The Los Alamos contractor learned of this tool from its human resource 
specialist, who learned of it from his Lawrence Livermore counterpart 
at the service center.

In addition to using the service center as a conduit for sharing 
strategies, NNSA contractors are using a variety of other avenues. For 
example, contractors exchange ideas at periodic meetings such as the 
annual compensation managers meeting and DOE's annual human resource 
conference, which features sessions dedicated to discussing critical 
skill recruitment and retention and sharing best practices. Moreover, 
NNSA's plants participate in quarterly meetings, which allow them to 
discuss lessons learned in recruiting and retaining critically skilled 
employees. Partnerships among the facilities also promote strategy 
sharing. For example, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore coordinate 
their recruiting efforts under the Recruitment Coordination Cost 
Efficiency Initiative. In addition, the four production plants have 
developed a Senior Scientist Network for sharing information on nuclear 
weapons complex recruitment and retention problems and strategies. 
Additionally, Savannah River and Los Alamos engage in an employee 
exchange program that allows them to temporarily exchange staff with 
specific knowledge about tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen 
that both facilities work with.

Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face Similar Challenges and 
Have Implemented Similar Strategies: 

Human resource officials from organizations with comparable workforces 
identified challenges similar to those faced by NNSA contractors in 
recruiting and retaining a critically skilled workforce. For example, 
most human resource officials from these organizations cited the amount 
of time it takes newly hired staff to obtain security clearances as 
being a challenge. These officials said that security clearances for 
new employees have been taking from 11 to 18 months, but they believe 
they have been able to lessen the impact of these delays by, for 
example, providing new employees with meaningful, nonclassified work to 
do while awaiting clearances. Additionally, one of these organizations-
-the Applied Physics Laboratory--addresses the problems associated with 
clearance delays by seeking staff who already have clearances. Much as 
NNSA seeks already cleared and trained individuals from nuclear weapons 
complex facilities that are closing or downsizing, the Applied Physics 
Laboratory targets Web sites and job fairs that specialize in 
attracting individuals who already have security clearances.

Most human resource officials from organizations with comparable 
workforces also cited the declining pool of technically skilled workers 
as a challenge. Like NNSA, these organizations said they have a smaller 
group of candidates from which to recruit because there are fewer 
technically trained U.S. citizens available in the marketplace and 
fewer U.S. citizens working toward graduate degrees in engineering and 
science. To mitigate this challenge, most of these organizations have 
developed programs, such as internships, to encourage students to 
pursue careers in science and engineering. Some of these programs are 
designed to expose high school students to the opportunities that exist 
in these technical fields, while others are intended to encourage 
college students to pursue graduate degrees in these areas. In one such 
program, offered by the Naval Research Laboratory, students spend 8 
weeks working full-time with scientists and engineers actively engaging 
in research and planning, participating in special program seminars, 
and writing and presenting a final research paper. Similarly, the 
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory offers a program that allows high 
school students to shadow its employees.

Finally, human resource managers at two organizations with comparable 
workforces cited the challenge of recruiting staff to work in an area 
that has a high cost of living, similar to the difficulty expressed by 
NNSA contractors with staffing facilities in the San Francisco Bay 
area. Some organizations with comparable workforces have implemented 
strategies similar to those used by NNSA contractors to mitigate this 
challenge as well. For example, Exelon offers signing bonuses to help 
offset the cost of relocation, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory 
offers its new employees support in finding a neighborhood in which to 
live and helps employees' spouses find work.

Future Uncertainties Could Affect NNSA's Ability to Maintain a 
Critically Skilled Workforce: 

In addition to facing ongoing challenges, NNSA contractors face a 
number of uncertainties the outcomes of which could affect their 
ability to maintain a critically skilled workforce into the future. 
These outcomes hinge on events and decisions over which NNSA 
contractors generally have little control. The contractors are 
therefore less able to develop strategies for addressing these 
uncertainties. For example, some NNSA contractors believe that they 
will face increased competition for science and engineering candidates, 
as well as other critically skilled employees, if the job market 
improves, since these workers will have more employment choices. Such 
increased competition would hinder the contractors' ability to recruit 
and retain the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill the 
facility's mission, according to some contractors. Some of the programs 
designed to provide early exposure of college students to NNSA 
facilities through, for example, the Laboratory Critical Skills 
Development Program, will help to increase the chance that future 
candidates will be aware of and consider employment opportunities 
within the nuclear weapons complex.

Some NNSA contractors also stated that their ability to maintain their 
critically skilled workforce into the future could be affected by 
budget and funding limitations, which could hinder workforce planning. 
These contractors said that the budget process, specifically the timing 
of the budget cycle and the uncertainty of budget reauthorizations, 
makes it difficult to bring in new job candidates when they are needed. 
The Nevada Test Site, for example, said budget shortfalls in its 
Experimentation Support division resulted in the termination of seven 
or eight employees in 2003, making it difficult for the division to 
maintain the workforce needed. The contractors stated that budget 
uncertainty also hinders their ability to bring on new staff in time to 
be trained by, and gather essential knowledge from, experienced staff 
who are near retirement. Some facilities have implemented knowledge 
retention initiatives designed to archive weapons data by, among other 
means, interviewing experienced weapons subject matter experts, to 
mitigate the effects of retirement timing.

In addition, some NNSA contractors expressed concern about the number 
of their employees who are, or will be soon eligible, for retirement. 
If a large number of these employees chose to retire at one time, the 
facilities may not be able to ensure that critical knowledge is passed 
along to the newest generation of nuclear weapons workers. In general, 
the contractors felt that they were in a position to overcome the 
challenge imposed by anticipated future retirements, but some indicated 
that the uncertain outcome of future events could alter the impact of 
these retirements. According to contractor human resource officials, 
one issue that could influence the pace of future retirements is the 
contract rebidding process currently underway at Los Alamos. DOE 
announced that it will place the Los Alamos contract up for bid in 2005 
and the Lawrence Livermore contracts up for bid some time after 
September 30, 2007, for the first time since their establishment. The 
current contractor for both of these facilities is the University of 
California. One concern about rebidding the contract is that it could 
be awarded to a new contractor that may provide a less attractive 
pension benefit package or may not bring some of the education 
advantages workers receive as employees of the University of 
California. These concerns could potentially result in multiple early 
retirements and affect a facility's ability to perform its mission if 
the contract changes hands. NNSA may have mitigated some of these 
concerns when it issued an acquisition plan in September 2004 that 
required potential bidders on the contract to offer current workers at 
Los Alamos the same level of pension benefits as the current 
contractor. Furthermore, a different contractor may want to reassess 
the recruiting and retention strategies that will be used, such as the 
university recruiting program or fellowships offered, to ensure that 
they reflect any affiliations the new contractor may have. This could 
impact the contractor's access to particular skill sets. Until this 
process is completed, it will be difficult to determine how Los 
Alamos's critical skills capabilities are affected or whether this same 
issue will arise with future contract rebids.

Finally, some NNSA contractors expressed concern that unexpected 
mission changes could affect their ability to recruit and retain 
individuals with needed critical skills. These facilities stated that 
unexpected changes in their long-term missions could make it difficult 
to plan for future skill needs and prevent them from obtaining the 
right mix of critical skills during recruiting. For example, one 
manager said it was critical for his facility to be responsive to 
programmatic changes, but to maintain that responsiveness they must 
have a mix of critically skilled workers who meet the needs of the 
current mission, as well as the needs required by a shift in the 
mission. A manager at another facility said he finds it difficult to 
plan for future skill needs because the NNSA mission for his facility 
is not stable in the short term. Furthermore, in 2001, President Bush 
announced his intent to significantly reduce the nation's total 
operationally deployed nuclear weapons force by 2012. This could have 
ramifications in terms of the types and numbers of critically skilled 
workers required to meet this reduction and to ensure the safety and 
reliability of the remaining weapons in the stockpile. NNSA is guarding 
against the effects of this mission shift by continuing an advanced 
concepts program to enable scientists and engineers at the nuclear 
weapons laboratories to retain critical skills and to provide the 
United States with means to respond to new, unexpected, or emerging 
threats in a timely manner.

Conclusion: 

While NNSA contractors have been generally effective in recruiting and 
retaining the critically skilled workforce needed currently, are well 
poised to maintain the critically skilled workforce that will be needed 
in the near future, and have successfully mitigated many of the 
challenges they have already faced, the future will almost certainly 
bring additional challenges and uncertainties the contractors will need 
to continue to stay aware of and address. Although some of these 
challenges may be outside the contractors' immediate control--such as 
changes in economic conditions or shifts in NNSA's mission--the test 
that lies ahead for these contractors will be in identifying these new 
challenges early and developing strategies to mitigate them wherever 
possible. In order for the nuclear weapons facilities to be able to 
locate and employ the critically skilled workforce needed to ensure the 
safety and reliability of the stockpile, NNSA and its contractors will 
need to remain vigilant and focused in their recruiting and retention 
efforts, as well as anticipate, and appropriately plan for, future 
critical skill needs and shortages.

Agency Comments: 

We provided NNSA with a draft of this report for its review and 
comment. In oral comments, NNSA agreed with the report.

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Energy; the 
Director, Office of Management and Budget; and other interested 
parties. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In 
addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site 
at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov].

If you or your staffs have any questions, please call me at (202) 512-
3841. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III.

Signed by: 

Robin M. Nazzaro: 
Director, Natural Resources and Environment: 

List of Congressional Committees: 

The Honorable John Warner: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Carl Levin: 
Ranking Minority Member: 
Committee on Armed Services: 
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Ike Skelton: 
Ranking Minority Member: 
Committee on Armed Services: 
House of Representatives: 

The Honorable Ted Stevens: 
The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
United States Senate: 

Honorable C.W. Bill Young: 
Honorable John P. Murtha: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
House of Representatives: 

[End of section]

Appendixes: 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology: 

As part of our overall approach to examine the National Nuclear 
Security Administration (NNSA) contractors' ability to recruit and 
retain the critically skilled workforce needed to maintain the safety 
and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile, we visited six of the 
eight nuclear weapons complex facilities--Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National 
Laboratories, the Kansas City Plant, the Pantex Plant, and the Y-12 
Plant. The remaining two sites--the Savannah River Site and the Nevada 
Test Site--have the smallest number of critically skilled workers and 
we conducted extensive telephone interviews with human resource and 
workforce, planning managers at these facilities. We also sent each 
facility a standard set of interview questions and received responses 
from each facility.

As part of our review of the contractors' efforts, we interviewed a 
nonprobability sample of 20 managers from all eight 
facilities.[Footnote 16] We requested names of at least two managers in 
the Stockpile Stewardship Program from the human resource managers at 
each facility. We then conducted structured interviews with these 
managers, either in person or by telephone. In particular, we discussed 
the managers' involvement in recruiting, retaining, and planning for 
workforce needs at the facility. We also gained their perspective on 
the ongoing recruiting and retentions challenges their facilities face 
and whether they felt their facility would be able to maintain the 
critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill their mission.

To describe the approaches NNSA contractors are using to recruit and 
retain a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with human resource 
managers at each of the eight NNSA nuclear weapons complex facilities. 
Specifically, we discussed the approaches the facilities use to recruit 
and retain a critically skilled workforce and the ways in which NNSA 
has supported the contractors' efforts. We also reviewed documentation 
of the recruitment and retention approaches used at each facility, 
including human resource managers' responses to our written request for 
specific information. In addition, we interviewed NNSA officials at 
headquarters, the site offices for most of the facilities, and the NNSA 
Service Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We discussed with these 
officials the ways in which they have supported contractors' efforts to 
recruit and retain their critically skilled workforce. To assess the 
similarities of approaches used by organizations with comparable 
workforces, we spoke with human resource representatives from six 
research and advanced technology organizations with comparable 
workforces to determine the extent to which these industries use 
recruiting and retention approaches similar to those used by NNSA. 
These organizations are as follows: 

* Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland: a division of the 
Johns Hopkins University, operates specialized research and test 
facilities;

* Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts: an 
independent laboratory that contracts with a number of government 
agencies;

* Exelon Corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois: an energy 
service provider;

* Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California: operated by the 
California Institute of Technology for the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration;

* Lockheed Martin Corporation headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland: a 
major federal government contractor; and: 

* Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.: operated by the Navy.

We also spoke with two industry associations representing manufacturing 
and nuclear materials industries--the National Association of 
Manufacturing and Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. We 
selected these eight organizations based on the following criteria: 
their selection by the Chiles Commission as benchmarking organizations; 
their geographic dispersal; and their representation of different high 
technology, laboratory, or manufacturing industry segments. We reviewed 
the Chiles Commission report and determined it was methodologically 
sound enough for the purposes of this report.

To assess the effectiveness of the approaches used to recruit and 
retain critically skilled workers, we collected a variety of workforce 
data from each facility, including total numbers of Defense Program and 
critically skilled workers and average ages of these workers broken out 
by job classification, hiring and attrition trends, average retirement 
ages, and forecasted needs for critically skilled workers. To assess 
the reliability of these data, we reviewed relevant documentation, 
interviewed cognizant contractor officials, and obtained reponses from 
key database officials to a series of data reliability questions 
covering issues such as data entry, access, quality control procedures, 
and the accuracy and completeness of the data. Follow-up questions were 
added whenever necessary. We determined that the data were sufficiently 
reliable for the purposes of this report. In addition, we obtained 
documentation of each facility's workforce planning process and 
evaluated that process using our five principles of strategic workforce 
planning.[Footnote 17] These five principles are (1) involving 
management and employees in developing and implementing the strategic 
workforce plan, (2) determining critical skills needs through workforce 
gap analysis, (3) developing workforce strategies to fill gaps, (4) 
building needed capabilities to support workforce strategies, and (5) 
monitoring and evaluating progress in achieving goals. We also 
interviewed human resource managers at each facility to determine the 
kinds of recruiting and retention strategies they have implemented to 
support their workforce planning processes. To determine the extent to 
which NNSA monitors and evaluates contractor progress we interviewed 
NNSA site officials responsible for performance management, as well as 
each facility's human resource managers. Finally, we analyzed the 
responses of stockpile stewardship managers to our structured interview 
to determine whether the managers believe their facility had and could 
maintain the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill their 
mission, the reasons for these beliefs, and the extent to which the 
managers are involved in the workforce planning process.

Regarding the ongoing challenges that NNSA contractors face in 
recruiting and retaining a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with 
human resource, workforce planning, and stockpile stewardship program 
managers. Specifically, we discussed ongoing recruitment and retention 
challenges, strategies used to mitigate those challenges, and future 
uncertainties that may affect the facilities' abilities to recruit and 
retain the critically skilled workers needed. To further identify any 
remaining challenges and uncertainties, we reviewed the contractors' 
responses to our written questions. To assess the extent to which the 
remaining challenges, and the strategies used to mitigate these 
challenges, are similar to those of organizations with comparable 
workforces, we spoke with human resource representatives from the six 
research and advanced technology organizations with comparable 
workforces and the two industry associations.

We conducted our work from February 2004 through January 2005 in 
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

[End of section]

Appendix II: Critical Skills Performance Measures in NNSA Facilities' 
Performance Evaluation Plans for Fiscal Year 2004: 

NNSA facility: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; 
Los Alamos National Laboratory. 
Performance measure: 
Utilize University of California strengths to recruit, retain, 
and develop the workforce basis; 
* Recruit and retain a skilled and diverse workforce that meets the 
laboratories' long-range core and critical skills requirements by 
implementing a human resource strategy that leverages student programs 
and University of California relationships.

NNSA facility: Sandia National Laboratories; 
Performance measure: 
Sandia management focuses on renewal and retainment of its workforce 
and the transfer of knowledge to ensure the future of the Nuclear 
Weapons Complex such that it can continue to perform its mission for 
the nation in the future years; 
* Sandia implements a comprehensive program for workforce planning and 
diversity that includes recruitment, training, and knowledge transfer 
necessary to meet the long-range core and critical skills requirements.

NNSA facility: Kansas City Plant; 
Performance measure: 
Demonstrate effective workforce planning to assure the current and 
future workforce critical skills, including technical, program/project 
managers and administrative personnel, are adequate to meet future 
workforce skills needs and are consistent with contract performance.

NNSA facility: Pantex Plant; 
Performance measure: 
Develop and exercise critical skills, capabilities, and personnel; 
* Fill planned critical skill vacancies calculated from the latest 
biannual report "Maintenance of Nuclear Weapons Expertise Data for NNSA 
Performance Metrics." 
* Maintain planned staffing in critical skill personnel calculated from 
the latest biannual report "Maintenance of Nuclear Weapons Expertise 
Data for NNSA Performance Metrics." 
Complete required training and qualification of critical skill 
personnel with appropriate clearance and/or PAP.

NNSA facility: Savannah River Plant; 
Performance measure: 
Focus Area - Technical Capability; 
* Knowledge preservation; 
* Engineering qualifications; 
* Filled critical skill positions.

NNSA facility: Y-12 Plant; 
Performance measure: 
BWXT Y-12 will take measures to ensure that the critical skills needed 
to support the Y-12 workload are available and fully trained or in a 
training program to ensure ability to perform duties as required in the 
future; 
* The critical skills database is complete and updated on a quarterly 
basis to consistently provide accurate numbers of vacant critical 
skills positions; 
* Programs are in place to continually replenish the pipeline of new 
critical skills employees and ensure the appropriate development 
programs are available to allow the new employees to perform critical 
duties.

NNSA facility: Nevada Test Site; 
Performance measure: Demonstrate improvement in the following emphasis 
areas selected from the Project Management Body of Knowledge; 
* Improve Critical Skills Management: 
Identify critical skills of project managers and ensure they possess 
the requisite skills to successfully perform defined tasks.

Source: NNSA.

[End of table]

[End of section]

Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contacts: 

Ms. Robin Nazzaro (202) 512-6246: 
Richard Cheston (202) 512-6951: 

Acknowledgments: 

In addition to those named above, Elizabeth Erdmann, Robert Sanchez, 
and Corrie Burtch made key contributions to this report. Also 
contributing to this report were Nancy Crothers, Judy Pagano, and 
Katherine Raheb.

(360429): 

FOOTNOTES

[1] The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Pub. 
L. No. 106-65,  3211) created NNSA as a separately organized agency 
within DOE.

[2] In addition to its main facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sandia 
National Laboratories has a satellite facility in Livermore, 
California.

[3] Pub. L. No. 104-201,  3162, 110 Stat. 2843 (1996), as amended by 
Pub. L. No. 105-85,  3163, 111 Stat. 2049 (1997).

[4] "Report of the Commission on Maintaining United States Nuclear 
Weapons Expertise: Report to the Congress and Secretary of Energy, 
Pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Acts of 1997 and 1998" 
(Washington, D.C.: March 1, 1999).

[5] The six research and advanced technology organizations are the 
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the 
Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, the Naval 
Research Laboratory, the Exelon Corporation, and the Lockheed Martin 
Corporation.

[6] The two industry associations are the National Association of 
Manufacturing and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. 

[7] GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 
Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).

[8] Chiles Commission Report, 1999.

[9] The Rocky Flats site began operations in 1952, manufacturing 
plutonium components for nuclear weapons until 1989, when operations 
were suspended because of environmental problems. The plant never 
resumed work and is scheduled for closure in 2006, once environmental 
cleanup and building dismantlement activities have been completed. 

[10] Although the reorganization has resulted in improved 
communications and contract management, we reported in June 2004 that 
uncertainties with the reorganization still remain, particularly 
regarding NNSA's ability to exercise effective oversight in the wake of 
NNSA downsizing. See GAO, National Nuclear Security Administration: Key 
Management Structure and Workforce Planning Issues Remain as NNSA 
Conducts Downsizing, GAO-04-545 (Washington, D.C.: June 25, 2004).

[11] See GAO, Department of Energy: Certain Postretirement Benefits for 
Contractor Employees Are Unfunded and Program Oversight Could Be 
Improved, GAO-04-539 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 15, 2004).

[12] Critical skill workforce data and/or separation data were not 
available from Los Alamos for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 or from 
Lawrence Livermore for fiscal year 2000.

[13] See GAO-04-39.

[14] The Albuquerque Service Center does not process security 
clearances for the Savannah River plant.

[15] Two facilities, Savannah River and Y-12, have human resource 
specialists located on site.

[16] Results from nonprobability samples cannot be used to make 
inferences about a population, because in a nonprobability sample some 
elements of the population being studied have no chance or an unknown 
chance of being selected as part of the sample.

[17] See GAO-04-39.

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