HUMAN CAPITAL

DOD Should Fully 

Develop Its Civilian 

Strategic Workforce 

Plan to Aid Decision 

Makers

Report to Congressional Committees

July 2014

GAO-14-565

United States Government Accountability Office
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-14-565, a report to 

congressional committees

July 2014

HUMAN CAPITAL

DOD Should Fully Develop Its Civilian Strategic 

Workforce Plan to Aid Decision Makers 

Why GAO Did This Study

Strategic workforce planning can help 

DOD determine whether it has the 

civilian personnel with the necessary 

skills and competencies to perform a 

wide variety of duties and 

responsibilities, including missionessential combat-support functions, 

such as logistics and maintenance, 

that traditionally have been performed 

by uniformed military personnel. In 

2006, Congress enacted a requirement 

for DOD to produce strategic workforce 

plans, and GAO first reported on

DOD’s plans in 2008. The National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 

Year 2010 mandates that GAO report 

to Congress on these plans. 

GAO evaluated the extent to which (1) 

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan addressed 

statutory requirements; and (2) DOD’s 

plan is consistent with key strategic 

workforce-planning principles. GAO 

examined DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-

2018 Strategic Workforce Plan and 

associated documents, relevant 

legislation, and key strategic 

workforce-planning principles, and 

interviewed officials from across the 

department involved in producing the 

plan.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that DOD align its 

workforce plans with the budget 

process and other workforce 

management initiatives. DOD 

concurred with GAO’s 

recommendation.

What GAO Found 

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan addressed or partially addressed 27 of the 32 statutory reporting 

requirements and did not address 5 of the requirements. The statute requires 

DOD, for example, to conduct assessments of critical skills and competencies, to 

assess gaps in the workforce, and to assess the appropriate mix of civilian, 

military, and contractor capabilities. DOD has taken steps to address many of its 

reporting requirements since 2008. However, DOD has not yet addressed the 

requirement to assess the appropriate mix of civilian, military, and contractor 

capabilities in its plan, as shown in the table below. GAO previously has made 10 

recommendations regarding statutory compliance covering a range of issues. In 

addition to recommending that DOD conduct the required assessments, GAO 

also has recommended providing clearer guidance for developing the plan and 

enhancing performance measures and is not making further recommendations 

related to statutory compliance at this time.

Extent to Which DOD Addressed Statutory Requirements in Its Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan

Requirements

Workforce Addressed

Partially 

addressed Not addressed

Overall Civilian 3 6 1

Civilian Senior Leader 4 7 1 

Financial Management 1 6 3

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. | GAO-14-565

Note: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan. DOD was statutorily 

required to provide a plan for its overall civilian workforce, as well as separate chapters on its Civilian 

Senior Leader and Financial Management workforces. 

DOD’s strategic workforce plan does not fully incorporate key strategic 

workforce-planning principles. There are six key strategic workforce-planning 

principles, and most are similar to elements of the statutory reporting 

requirements, such as assessing critical skills and competencies. A key principle 

that is not addressed in the statutory requirements is strategic alignment, which 

links workforce strategies to an agency’s mission and goals, and aligns them 

with, among other things, budget formulation. DOD’s 2013-2018 plan noted the 

need to integrate the department’s plan with the budget process but did not 

include specific details and, according to officials, DOD does not have actions 

underway to do so. Further, the plan identified strategies addressing some 

critical-skill staffing gaps, but did not provide specific information on the funding 

required to implement most of these strategies. The plan also did not align with 

recent recruiting, retention, and readiness initiatives to improve the morale of 

DOD’s civilian workforce as reported to congressional defense committees. 

Without aligning its workforce plan with the budget process and management 

workforce initiatives, such as those to address recruiting and retention issues 

associated with declining morale, the department will not be in the best position 

to make informed management and resource decisions about its workforce.

View GAO-14-565. For more information, 

contact Brenda S. Farrell at (202) 512-3604 or 

farrellb@gao.gov.
Page i GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Letter 1 

Background 5

DOD’s Plan Partially Addresses Most Statutory Requirements and 

Does Not Provide Comprehensive Workforce Information for 

Decision Makers 10

DOD’s Strategic Workforce Plan Is Not Consistent with Some Key 

Strategic Workforce-Planning Principles 16

Conclusions 27

Recommendation for Executive Action 28

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 28

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 31

Appendix II DOD’s Functional Communities and Mission-Critical Occupations 35

Appendix III Status of Prior GAO Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning 37

Appendix IV GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Civilian 

Workforce Plan Addresses Statutory Requirements 41

Appendix V Comments from the Department of Defense 52

Appendix VI GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 54

Related GAO Products 55

Contents
Page ii GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Tables

Table 1: Extent to Which DOD Addressed Statutory Requirements 

in Its Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan 10

Table 2: List of DOD’s Functional Communities and Associated 

Mission-Critical Occupations 35

Table 3: Prior GAO Recommendations, Status, and DOD 

Response and Actions Taken 37

Table 4: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Overall 

Civilian Workforce Plan Addresses the Statutory 

Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United 

States Code 41

Table 5: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Civilian 

Senior Leader Workforce Plan Addresses the Statutory 

Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United 

States Code 44

Table 6: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s 

Financial Management Workforce Plan Addresses the 

Statutory Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the 

United States Code 48

Abbreviation

DOD Department of Defense

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the 

United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety 

without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain 

copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be 

necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately.
Page 1 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

July 09, 2014

Congressional Committees

Current budget and long-term fiscal pressures necessitate that federal 

government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DOD), 

operate more strategically and efficiently than ever before, and this 

includes cost-effective management of human-capital policies and 

practices. We have previously reported that strategic workforce 

planning—an integral part of human-capital management—helps 

organizations like DOD determine whether they have personnel with the 

necessary skills and competencies to achieve organizational missions 

and strategic goals.1 For fiscal year 2015, DOD budgeted approximately 

$74 billion for a civilian workforce of approximately 782,000 full-time 

equivalents.2

In 2001, we added strategic human-capital management for all federal 

civilians—including those at DOD—to our High-Risk List because of the 

long-standing lack of leadership commitment in this area.

DOD’s civilian workforce performs a wide variety of duties 

and responsibilities, including mission-essential combat-support 

functions—such as logistics, support, and maintenance—that traditionally 

have been performed by the uniformed military. To successfully address 

such complex challenges as national security, and other evolving national 

issues, it is necessary for DOD to attract and retain skilled personnel. 

Three important elements of workforce planning include determining the 

critical skills and competencies necessary to achieve programmatic goals, 

conducting gap analyses, and developing strategies that are tailored to 

address any identified gaps.

3

 

1

GAO, Human Capital: DOD Needs Complete Assessments to Improve Future Civilian 

Strategic Workforce Plans, 

While the 

Office of Personnel Management, individual agencies such as DOD, and 

Congress have taken important steps over the last few years to better 

position the government to close current and emerging critical skills gaps 

that are undermining agencies’ abilities to meet their vital missions, the 

GAO-12-1014 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 27, 2012).

2

A full-time equivalent is a standard measure of labor that equates to 1 year of full-time 

work, which is defined in terms of labor hours by the Office of Management and Budget 

Circular A-11 each year. 

3

GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263 (Washington D.C.: January 2001).
 

Page 2 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

area remains high risk because more work is needed in implementing 

specific corrective strategies for addressing critical skills gaps and 

evaluating their results.4

Our body of work on strategic workforce planning has shown the

importance of having the right people, with the right skills, doing the right 

jobs, in the right places, at the right time. We first reported on DOD’s 

need for strategic workforce plans for its civilian workforce in 2004, and 

since have published several reports on DOD’s strategic workforce 

plans.5 In February 2008, we found that DOD did not address most 

statutory requirements in its strategic workforce plan, and recommended 

that DOD submit a plan that addresses all the statutory requirements.6

 

4

GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, 

DOD disagreed with our recommendation and stated that its plan 

reflected a centralized enterprise-wide strategic perspective, while 

acknowledging it did not necessarily provide the information specified by 

the law. Subsequently, in February 2009, we found that DOD partially 

addressed each of the statutory requirements that existed then and 

recommended that DOD develop performance plans, to include 

implementation goals and time frames, for its program offices that have 

responsibilities to oversee development of the strategic workforce plan. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation and noted that efforts 

were underway at that time to develop performance plans. More recently, 

in September 2010 and again in September 2012, we found that, 

although DOD had demonstrated some progress in addressing the 

legislative requirements related to its Civilian Human Capital Strategic 

Workforce Plan, several key elements continued to be missing from the 

process—including such elements as competency-gap analyses and 

monitoring of progress. We discuss DOD’s progress on the plan and 

related areas—including DOD’s response and any recommendations 

implemented—in further detail later in this report.

GAO-13-283 (Washington D.C.: February 2013).

5

GAO, DOD Civilian Personnel: Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plan Needed, 

GAO-04-753 (Washington D.C.: June 30, 2004); The Department of Defense’s Civilian 

Human Capital Strategic Plan Does Not Meet Most Statutory Requirements, 

GAO-08-439R (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 6, 2008); Human Capital: Opportunities Exist to 

Build on Recent Progress to Strengthen DOD’s Civilian Human Capital Strategic Plan, 

GAO-09-235 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 10, 2009); Human Capital: Further Actions Needed 

to Enhance DOD’s Civilian Strategic Workforce Plan, GAO-10-814R (Washington, D.C.: 

Sept. 27, 2010); and GAO-12-1014. 

6

GAO-08-439R. 
 

Page 3 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Within the last decade, Congress has passed and amended legislation 

requiring DOD to conduct strategic human capital planning efforts for the 

department’s overall civilian workforce, its Civilian Senior Leader 

workforce, and its Financial Management workforce.7

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 mandates 

GAO to report to congressional defense committees on DOD’s plan within 

180 days of its submission.

Specifically, Section 

115b of Title 10 of the United States Code (Section 115b), enacted in 

October 2009, requires DOD to develop and submit to congressional 

defense committees on a biennial basis a strategic workforce plan to 

shape and improve the department’s civilian workforce, and includes a list 

of specific reporting requirements such as conducting assessments of 

current and future critical skills and competencies of DOD’s civilian 

workforce.

8

To determine the extent to which DOD’s 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan addresses statutory requirements, we evaluated the plan and 

supporting documentation to determine whether the plan addresses, 

partially addresses, or does not address each of the required elements. 

To make these determinations, two GAO analysts independently 

evaluated DOD’s plan, and then met to resolve differences in their 

respective independent analyses. The team subsequently provided the 

consolidated final evaluation to our Office of General Counsel for its 

review of our assessment of the statutory requirements. We then 

discussed the results of our analysis with officials from the Strategic 

Human Capital Planning Office in the Defense Civilian Personnel 

In September 2013, DOD issued its Fiscal 

Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan. This report evaluates the 

extent to which (1) DOD’s latest plan addresses the statutory reporting 

requirements of Section 115b, and (2) DOD’s plan is consistent with key 

strategic workforce-planning principles.

 

7

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-84, § 1108 

(2009) (codified as amended at 10 U.S.C. 115b) codified a previous strategic workforce 

plan requirement that was originally enacted by section 1122 of the National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-163 (2006). This is the last of 

DOD’s Strategic Workforce Plans we are mandated to evaluate. The legislation also 

requires DOD to conduct strategic human-capital planning efforts for the department’s 

acquisition workforce, which DOD addresses in a separate report to Congress.

8

Pub. L. No. 111-84, § 1108 (2009).
 

Page 4 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Advisory Service, within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for 

Personnel and Readiness, who are responsible for developing the plan.

To determine the extent to which DOD’s plan is consistent with key 

strategic workforce planning principles, we compared DOD’s Fiscal Year 

2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan with key principles of effective 

strategic workforce planning.9 Specifically, we selected two key 

principles—aligning workforce planning with strategic planning and 

budget formulation and involving stakeholders, among others, in 

developing, communicating, and implementing the strategic workforce 

plan—that do not overlap with the statutory requirements. Additionally, we 

selected two other key principles—determining the critical skills and 

competencies needed to achieve current and future programmatic results 

and developing strategies that are tailored to address gaps—because 

they are integral to developing a comprehensive strategic workforce plan 

and because we have consistently found that DOD has not yet completed 

actions to address issues related to them. We interviewed officials from 

the Strategic Human Capital Planning Office to obtain information on 

DOD’s approach to strategic workforce planning. We also interviewed 

officials in 3 of DOD’s 22 functional communities to obtain additional 

perspective on their approaches.10

The three communities included (1) the Civilian Senior Leader functional 

community, (2) the Financial Management functional community, and (3) 

the Intelligence functional community. We selected these communities 

because DOD is required specifically to include information about its 

Civilian Senior Leader and its Financial Management workforces in its 

Strategic Workforce Plan, and because our 2012 review of DOD’s 2010 

Strategic Workforce Plan11

 

9

GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce Planning, 

found that the department’s Intelligence 

GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003) and A Model of Strategic Human Capital 

Management, GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002). See also Office of 

Personnel Management, Introduction to the HCAAF Practitioners Guide (September 

2005). These principles were developed based on GAO’s prior reports and testimonies 

examining best practices in strategic human-capital management, review of studies by 

leading workforce-planning organizations, and interviews with officials from the Office of 

Personnel Management and other federal agencies. 

10DOD defines a functional community as employees who perform similar functions; 

functional communities are discussed further in the background section of this report. 

11GAO-12-1014. 
 

Page 5 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

functional community did not provide the mandated workforce 

assessments or plan of action for shaping and improving that workforce. 

We also selected the three communities to better understand how each of 

their plans was developed based on the stated criteria. However, our 

selection of these 3 functional communities does not constitute a 

representative sample of DOD’s 22 functional communities. Thus, while 

the results cannot be projected to all functional communities, they did 

provide us with important insights. We also evaluated DOD’s processes 

for conducting the strategic workforce planning efforts for these three 

functional communities as part of the larger DOD strategic workforce 

plan, including relevant instructions or guidance from the Office of the 

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. We then 

evaluated the data presented in the plan to assess the extent to which 

DOD’s latest plan is consistent with key strategic workforce-planning 

principles; however, we did not assess the underlying accuracy of DOD’s 

data.

We conducted this performance audit from September 2013 to July 2014 

in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 

sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that 

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives. A full discussion of our scope 

and methodology is presented in appendix I.

Section 115b requires that the Secretary of Defense submit to the 

congressional defense committees, in every even-numbered year, a 

strategic workforce plan to shape and improve the civilian employee 

workforce of DOD. The statute assigns overall responsibility for 

developing and implementing the plan to the Under Secretary of Defense 

for Personnel and Readiness. In turn, the Under Secretary has assigned 

responsibility for developing the plan to the Defense Civilian Personnel 

Advisory Service. The plan is required to include, among other things, 

assessments of DOD’s existing and projected civilian workforce, and a 

plan of action to address gaps in critical skills and competencies identified 

in those assessments.

Background

Statutory Requirements 

for DOD’s Strategic 

Workforce Plan
 

Page 6 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Section 115b further requires DOD to include in its strategic workforce 

plan specific information on its Civilian Senior Leader—senior 

management, functional, and technical—workforces. DOD’s senior 

management, functional, and technical workforces consist of five career 

Civilian Senior Leader workforces,12

• Senior Executive Service workforce. Most of the department relies on 

these officials to fill positions with managerial, supervisory, or policy 

advisory responsibilities.

which DOD relies on to operate and 

oversee nearly every activity in the department. These workforces include 

the following:

• Senior Level workforce. These officials fill positions that typically 

require less than 25 percent of their time to be spent on supervisory or 

related managerial responsibilities. Most Senior Level employees are 

in nonexecutive positions whose duties are broad and complex 

enough to be classified above the GS-15 level.

• Senior Technical workforce. These officials perform high-level 

research and development in the physical, biological, medical, and 

engineering science fields.

• Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service workforce. These 

officials fill positions with managerial, supervisory, or policy advisory 

responsibilities in the Intelligence functional community that falls 

within DOD.

• Defense Intelligence Senior Level workforce. These officials fill senior 

positions within DOD’s Intelligence community that require less than 

25 percent of their time to be spent on managerial or supervisory 

responsibilities.

Section 1053 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

201213

 

12This report does not cover limited-term or temporary appointment DOD Civilian Senior 

Leaders, to include: (1) limited-term or temporary appointments within the Senior 

Executive Service; (2) certain temporary appointments of highly qualified experts; and (3) 

certain temporary appointments of scientists and engineers. 

added a requirement for DOD to include specific information on its 

Financial Management workforce in the department’s strategic workforce 

plan. That section requires that DOD include specific steps that the 

department has taken or plans to take to develop appropriate career 

paths for civilian employees in the financial-management field, and 

include a plan for funding improvements in the Financial Management 

workforce of the department through the period of the current Future 

13Pub. L. No. 112-81 (2011).
 

Page 7 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Years Defense Program, including a description of any continuing 

shortfalls in funding available for that workforce. DOD’s 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan is the department’s first plan that is to include 

information addressing this requirement. DOD’s financial-management 

workforce was added to our High-Risk List in 1995.14

Strategic workforce planning is an iterative, systematic process that 

addresses two critical needs: (1) aligning an organization’s human-capital 

program with its current and emerging mission and programmatic goals 

and (2) developing long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and 

retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals. While agencies’ 

approaches to workforce planning vary, key principles of strategic 

workforce planning that should be addressed include the following:

• align workforce planning with strategic planning and budget 

formulation;

• involve top management, employees, and other stakeholders in 

developing, communicating, and implementing the strategic workforce 

plan;

• determine the critical skills and competencies that will be needed to 

achieve current and future programmatic results;

• develop strategies that are tailored to address gaps in number, 

deployment, and alignment of human-capital approaches for enabling 

and sustaining the contributions of all critical skills and competencies;

• build the capability needed to address administrative, educational, 

and other requirements important to support workforce planning 

strategies; and

• monitor and evaluate the agency’s progress toward its human-capital 

goals and the contribution that human-capital results have made 

toward achieving programmatic results.15

With the exception of the first two principles, these principles are similar 

to elements of DOD’s statutory reporting requirements.

 

14GAO, High-Risk Series: An Overview, GAO/HR-95-1 (Washington, D.C.: February 

1995). 

15GAO-04-39. See also Office of Personnel Management, Introduction to the HCAAF 

Practitioners Guide. 

Key Principles of Effective 

Strategic Workforce 

Planning
 

Page 8 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

To conduct strategic human-capital planning efforts for the department’s 

civilian workforce, DOD’s Strategic Human Capital Planning Office used 

functional community categories to group together employees who 

perform similar functions. In some cases, these communities include 

mission-critical occupations. For its 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan, 

DOD identified 22 functional communities and provided information on 30 

of its 32 mission-critical occupations.16

According to DOD’s Strategic Workforce Plan, mission-critical 

occupations are occupations or occupational groups that set direction, 

directly impact, or execute performance of mission-critical functions or 

services. Further, mission-critical occupations are positions key to DOD’s 

current and future mission requirements, as well as those that present 

recruiting and retention challenges. Appendix II shows DOD’s functional 

communities and their associated mission-critical occupations.

DOD’s approach to developing its 

strategic workforce plan includes meetings between functional community 

leadership and officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service, an environmental scan as part of a continuous informationgathering process, and quarterly recruitment and retention data updates 

provided to the functional communities.

We have conducted assessments of DOD’s strategic workforce plans 

since 2008, and our body of work has found that DOD’s efforts to address 

strategic workforce planning requirements have been mixed.17

 

16DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan identified 32 mission-critical 

occupations; however, the plan did not include the Acquisition Functional Community’s 

assessment of its workforce due to that community’s separate reporting requirements.

In our 

February 2009 report, we recommended that the offices responsible for 

addressing DOD’s strategic workforce-planning requirements develop 

performance plans that include establishing implementation goals and 

time frames, measuring performance, and aligning activities with 

resources. DOD has since completed implementation of the actions it had 

underway at that time to develop performance plans. In our most recent 

17For our prior work on DOD’s strategic workforce planning efforts see GAO-12-1014;

Human Capital: Complete Information and More Analyses Needed to Enhance DOD’s 

Civilian Senior Leader Strategic Workforce Plan, GAO-12-990R (Washington D.C.: Sept. 

19, 2012); GAO-09-235; and GAO-08-439R. 

DOD’s Approach to 

Strategic Workforce 

Planning

Prior GAO Work 

Evaluating DOD’s 

Strategic Workforce Plans
 

Page 9 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

report in September 2012 on the department’s overall civilian strategic 

workforce plan,18

• include in the guidance that it disseminates for developing future 

strategic workforce plans clearly defined terms and processes for 

conducting these assessments;

we recommended that DOD

• conduct competency-gap analyses for DOD’s mission-critical 

occupations and report the results;

• establish and adhere to timelines that will ensure issuance of future 

strategic workforce plans in accordance with statutory time frames;

• provide guidance for developing future strategic workforce plans that 

clearly directs the functional communities to collect information that 

identifies not only the number or percentage of personnel in its 

military, civilian, and contractor workforces but also the capabilities of 

the appropriate mix of those three workforces; and

• enhance the department’s results-oriented performance measures by 

revising existing measures or developing additional measures that will 

more clearly align with DOD’s efforts to monitor progress in meeting 

the strategic workforce-planning requirements in section 115b of Title 

10 of the United States Code.

DOD either concurred or partially concurred with the recommendations in 

our September 2012 report, stating that, among other things, the 

department was deliberate in applying lessons learned from previous 

workforce plans and identifying specific challenges and the actions being 

taken to address those challenges to meet statutory planning 

requirements by 2015.

In our September 2012 report on the department’s Civilian Senior Leader 

strategic workforce plan, we recommended that DOD conduct 

assessments of the skills, competencies, and gaps within all five career 

Civilian Senior Leader workforces and report them in DOD’s future 

strategic workforce plans.19

 

18

DOD concurred with our recommendation 

and stated that the department fell short of conducting assessments of 

skills, competencies, and gaps within three of the five Civilian Senior 

Leader workforces as a result of their technical roles in the DOD 

leadership hierarchy, and that, as roles are refined, this work will be 

GAO-12-1014. 

19GAO-12-990R. 
 

Page 10 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

reflected in future plans as appropriate. The status of these and other 

prior recommendations may be found in appendix III.

Our assessment of DOD’s Fiscal Years 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan found that DOD’s plan addresses 8 and partially addresses 19 of the 

32 statutory requirements. The plan does not address 5 of the 32 

statutory requirements. As a result, DOD’s plan does not provide decision 

makers with comprehensive information on DOD’s workforce. The 2013-

2018 plan represents an improvement since 2008 when we found that 

DOD’s 2006-2010 Civilian Human Capital Strategic Workforce Plan did 

not meet six of eight statutory reporting requirements.20

Table 1: Extent to Which DOD Addressed Statutory Requirements in Its Fiscal Year 

2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan

However, since 

2008, Congress has expanded the number and scope of statutory 

requirements for DOD to include, among other things, details about its 

civilian senior-leader and financial-management workforces. Table 1 

provides the results of our analysis of the extent to which DOD’s plan for 

the overall, civilian senior-leader, and financial-management workforces 

addressed the Section 115b statutory requirements.

Requirements

Workforce Addressed Partially Addressed Not Addressed

Overall civilian 3 6 1 

Civilian senior leader 4 7 1 

Financial management 1 6 3 

Total 8 19 5 

Source: GAO’s analysis of DOD data. | GAO-14-565

Note: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan.

Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code requires DOD to 

develop a strategic workforce plan to shape and improve the civilian 

employee workforce of the department, to include specific elements such 

as an assessment of the current critical skills and competencies of the 

civilian workforce; any gaps in the existing or projected workforce; and the 

appropriate mix of civilian, military, and contractor capabilities. DOD also 

 

20GAO-08-439R. 

DOD’s Plan Partially 

Addresses Most 

Statutory 

Requirements and 

Does Not Provide 

Comprehensive 

Workforce Information 

for Decision Makers
 

Page 11 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

was required to identify the specific funding needed to achieve recruiting 

and retention goals, and the funding needed to implement strategies for 

developing, training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian 

employee workforce of the department. In addition to addressing the 

overall civilian workforce, the legislation also requires the department to 

include separate chapters to address the shaping and improvement of 

specific workforces, including: (1) the Civilian Senior Leader workforce 

and (2) the Financial Management workforce. We summarize the results 

of our assessment of DOD’s overall civilian, Civilian Senior Leader, and 

Financial Management workforce plans below. In addition, we provide 

detailed information in appendix IV on the extent to which the 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan addressed the statutory requirements.

With regard to the overall civilian workforce, we found that DOD’s Fiscal 

Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan addresses three of the 

statutory requirements, partially addresses six requirements, and does 

not address one requirement. For example, DOD’s plan addressed the 

requirement to provide an assessment, using results-oriented 

performance measures, of the progress the department has made in 

implementing the plan in the prior year. Specifically, DOD’s plan identified 

six performance measures the department is using to assess progress. 

These measures include, among others, (1) the percentage of workforce 

planning key milestones completed by each functional community, then 

aggregated across all communities; (2) the percentage difference 

between actual workforce levels and target workforce levels for the 

mission-critical occupations; and (3) the number of mission-critical 

occupations for which competency models will be developed and 

deployed by September 2014.

By contrast, DOD’s overall civilian plan partially addresses, among 

others, the requirements to assess the department’s critical skills and 

competencies of both the existing and future workforces. We found that 

DOD assessed its critical skills by identifying and providing information on 

the mission-critical occupations. However, DOD’s plan did not include 

competency assessment information for most of the workforces. In 

subsequent discussions, DOD officials told us that, as of April 2014, the 

department had completed competency models for the current missioncritical occupations, but had not yet completed the assessments of the 

competencies associated with those occupations and, therefore, could 

not include the required assessments in the plan. Those officials also told 

us that they intend to include the results of these assessments in future 

strategic workforce plans.

Overall Civilian Workforce
 

Page 12 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Finally, DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan does not address the 

requirement to include an assessment of the appropriate mix of military, 

civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities. According to the plan, in 

fiscal year 2012 the department initiated a pilot study of the process to 

assess capabilities being delivered by the federal government career 

civilian workforce, military personnel, and contract support for three 

mission-critical occupations. Although the plan discussed the existence of 

this pilot program, it did not provide the actual assessment of those 

occupational series’ mix of capabilities, as directed by the requirement. At 

the time of our review, Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service 

officials told us that the plan did not include specific information on the 

results of the pilot because the program was being reevaluated during the 

fiscal year 2014-2019 Strategic Workforce Plan cycle and will be updated 

for future reporting. According to the plan, the department’s goal is to 

assess a broad range of mission-critical occupation capabilities by fiscal 

year 2016, but the department did not provide further details on these 

plans, such as interim milestones or the number of mission critical 

occupations it intends to assess.

With regard to the Civilian Senior Leader workforce, we found that DOD’s 

2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan addresses four of the statutory 

requirements, partially addresses seven requirements, and does not 

address one requirement. For example, DOD’s plan addresses the 

requirement to include specific strategies for developing, training, 

deploying, compensating, motivating, and designing career paths and 

career opportunities. Specifically, DOD’s plan identified the department’s 

effort to revise the scope of its Defense Executive Advisory Board21

 

21The Department of Defense Executive Advisory Board is a board of Senior Executive 

Service leaders and general and flag officers across the components that advises the 

Deputy Secretary of Defense and other DOD senior leaders on the policy and 

management of Senior Executive Service career executives, as established by DOD 

Directive 1403.03, The Career Lifecycle Management of the Senior Executive Service 

Leaders Within the Department of Defense (Oct. 25, 2007).

to 

help the department maintain the caliber of its Senior Executive Service 

leadership. In addition, the plan discussed efforts by the department to 

promote diversity and interest among civilian employees to join the 

executive ranks.

Civilian Senior Leader 

Workforce
 

Page 13 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

However, we found that the Civilian Senior Leader plan partially 

addresses, among others, the requirements to assess the critical skills 

and competencies of the current and future workforces because the plan 

only provided competency information for the Senior Executive Service. 

More specifically, the plan provided information on the 16 Office of 

Personnel Management government-wide competencies and 2 DODspecific competencies for the Senior Executive Service, which includes 

strategic thinking, leveraging diversity, and developing others, among 

others. The department’s plan did not, however, provide an assessment 

of the critical skills needed by the Civilian Senior Leader workforce, which 

is also a part of the statutory requirement. In addition, DOD’s Civilian 

Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses the requirement to 

assess critical skill and competency gaps because, while it did include 

information on the process used for assessing gaps in its Senior 

Executive Service workforce, it did not include similar gap information for 

the other Civilian Senior Leader workforces.

Finally, the Civilian Senior Leader plan also does not address the 

requirement to include an assessment of the appropriate mix of military, 

civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities. Although the plan provided 

a breakdown of the projected requirements for each of the department’s 

Civilian Senior Leader workforce categories through fiscal year 2018, and 

also stated that the department may use military personnel, among 

others, to fill gaps in its Civilian Senior Leader workforce, it did not 

discuss any requirements for the department’s senior military personnel. 

The plan further stated that there is little to no need for a contractor 

workforce at the Civilian Senior Leader workforce level.

With regard to the Financial Management workforce, we found that 

DOD’s 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan addresses one, partially 

addresses six, and does not address three of the statutory requirements. 

For example, DOD’s plan addresses the requirement to include specific 

steps that the department has taken or plans to take to develop 

appropriate career paths for its workforce, among other things. The plan 

outlined six major milestones for developing the enterprise-wide financial 

management career paths, beginning, for example, with collecting the 

component-specific career paths.

Consistent with the other two plans, however, we found that DOD’s 

Financial Management workforce plan partially addresses the 

requirements to assess the critical skills and competencies of the current 

and future workforces. Although the plan identified 4 of the community’s 

Financial Management 

Workforce
 

Page 14 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

13 occupational series as mission-critical occupations, which DOD 

considers its critical skills, and identified the projected trends associated 

with those occupational series due to retirement, the plan did not provide 

an assessment of the overall Financial Management workforce’s 23 

competencies. According to officials, this information was not included in 

the plan because the community did not begin to conduct its competency 

assessments until April 2014 and the results of the assessments are not 

expected to be available until July 2014.

Additionally, the plan partially addresses the requirement to include 

specific strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, and 

motivating the workforce to address gaps in critical skills and

competencies, as well as the program objectives and funding for those 

strategies. We found that, although the plan included a specific strategy 

for, among other things, developing and training the Financial 

Management workforce, the plan did not identify the funding needed for 

this strategy. The plan stated only that the community coordinated 

funding needs with DOD’s components and that these funding needs 

were included in the fiscal year 2014 President’s Budget. Although not 

included in the plan, officials from the Comptroller’s office told us that they 

realigned approximately $13 million to $14 million per year across the 

fiscal year 2014-2018 Future Years Defense Program to address training 

shortfalls and to provide funding for additional web-based course 

development. Officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service told us that they did not include specific cost information for a 

majority of the goals and strategies because strategy information comes 

from the functional communities and, in some cases, each service 

implements the identified goals and strategies, as needed, and builds any 

resultant costs into their individual budgets. However, the information we 

obtained separately from the Financial Management functional 

community, if included in the plan, would have contributed toward DOD’s 

ability to meet this statutory requirement.

The Financial Management workforce plan also does not address the 

requirement to include an assessment of civilian, military, and contractor 

capabilities. As noted above, the department took preliminary steps to 

assess its workforce mix capabilities through a pilot program; however, 

the financial management mission-critical occupations were not included 

as part of that pilot program, and details of the program were not included 

as part of DOD’s plan. According to the plan, the community focused 

primarily on the civilian Financial Management workforce and, therefore, 

only provided demographic information on civilians in the mission-critical 

occupations. The plan did not, however, provide similar demographic and 
 

Page 15 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

projected target data for the military portion of the Financial Management 

workforce, nor did it address the statutory requirement to provide an 

assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor 

personnel capabilities.

According to officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service responsible for the overall Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan, the department did not address all requirements because 

the plan comprises individual submissions from each of the 22 functional 

communities and the communities are at different stages in the planning 

process. In addition, officials also told us that the department tried to 

provide a consistent level of information for each workforce and, in some 

cases, omitted available information—such as information on specific 

workforces—that would address some of the statutory requirements. 

DOD officials also stated that some requirements were not addressed in 

the Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan because additional 

efforts are ongoing to address those requirements and the requirements 

will be reported on in future iterations of the plan.

The department provided its own self-assessment as part of the plan in 

which it rated its progress addressing the statutory requirements, and 

found that further work was needed to assess its critical competencies 

and appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor workforce 

capabilities. Without ensuring that all statutorily required information is 

included in the strategic workforce plan, DOD risks producing a plan that 

does not effectively address the department’s needs and will not aid the 

decision-making process for total workforce management. Although DOD 

has not met all statutory requirements in its strategic workforce plan, we 

are not making recommendations at this time because we previously 

recommended that DOD include these requirements in the plan, as 

discussed in additional detail in appendix III. We will continue to monitor 

DOD’s progress in implementing these recommendations.
 

Page 16 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

DOD has not fully incorporated key strategic workforce-planning 

principles into the development of its strategic workforce plan. 

Specifically, although DOD has begun to take steps that are consistent 

with these key principles, we found that the department’s plan was not 

fully aligned with the budget process or the department’s other strategic 

workforce-management initiatives—such as those to address recruiting, 

retention, and readiness issues—and did not involve stakeholders within 

its Intelligence functional community. Further, DOD has begun to conduct 

competency-gap assessments, which may help them in implementing the 

key principles. However, DOD’s plan did not include a complete 

assessment of the competencies that will be needed to achieve current 

and future programmatic results nor strategies tailored to address gaps in 

the critical competencies needed to achieve those results.

DOD’s strategic workforce plan is not fully aligned with the budget 

process or the department’s other strategic workforce-management 

initiatives. While this practice is not part of DOD’s statutory reporting 

requirements, key practices in human-capital management identify 

strategic alignment—which occurs when an agency’s workforce strategies 

are linked with its mission and goals, and integrated into its strategic plan, 

performance plan, and budget formulation—as one of six leading 

principles for effective strategic workforce planning.22 In addition, 

according to one model of strategic human-capital management for 

federal agencies to use when designing their human-capital management 

plans, the highest level of strategic integration and alignment occurs 

when an agency considers human-capital initiatives or refinements in light 

of both changing organizational needs and the demonstrated successes 

or shortcomings of its human capital efforts.23

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan is missing key 

funding information that would facilitate DOD’s budget decisions because 

it is not aligned to the budget process. DOD’s plan identified 31 strategies 

Further, according to that 

model, the human-capital needs of the organization and new initiatives or 

refinements to existing human-capital approaches should be reflected in 

strategic workforce-planning documents.

 

22GAO-04-39; and Office of Personnel Management, Introduction to the HCAAF 

Practitioners Guide. 

23GAO-02-373SP. 

DOD’s Strategic 

Workforce Plan Is Not 

Consistent with Some 

Key Strategic 

Workforce-Planning 

Principles

DOD’s Strategic 

Workforce Plan Is Not 

Fully Aligned with the 

Budget Process or Other 

Strategic WorkforceManagement Initiatives
 

Page 17 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

for addressing workforce gaps, but did not provide specific information on 

the funding required—an important element in budget planning 

decisions—to implement most of these strategies. Only 1 of the 31 

strategies—developed by the Intelligence functional community and 

identified in the plan—provided detailed information on the amount of 

funding required to implement the strategy. However, for some strategies, 

DOD’s plan stated that funding was, among other things, at the discretion 

of the DOD components or to be included in component budgets. For 

other strategies, DOD’s plan stated that additional funding may be 

necessary. In each case where funding information was not provided, the 

plan provided no additional detail on the amount of funding needed to 

implement the strategies.

Furthermore, the importance of DOD aligning its workforce plan with other 

strategic workforce initiatives is demonstrated in a December 2013 letter 

that DOD provided to the congressional defense committees.24

We recognize that DOD’s letter to the congressional defense committees 

on this matter was sent after its strategic workforce plan was provided to 

Congress. We note, however, that the steps outlined in DOD’s letter are 

targeted at minimizing the declining morale of the department’s civilian 

workforce. The strategic workforce plan includes recruitment, retention, 

and development strategies aimed specifically at addressing gaps in 

critical skills within the department’s functional communities. However, 

without aligning the steps DOD describes in its letter to congressional 

That letter 

outlined steps the department is taking to minimize any negative effect on 

the morale of its civilian workforce and long-term consequences on 

recruiting and retention due to DOD’s implementation of civilian furloughs 

conducted during the summer of 2013. DOD’s letter stated the morale of 

the civilian workforce had been declining for a number of reasons, 

including the furloughs, and stated that the department expected future 

furloughs and budget uncertainties to further this downward trend. The 

department also stated it anticipates that these issues will factor heavily 

into employees’ decisions about when to depart, as well as individuals’ 

decisions about when to apply for positions within the department, which 

will have an effect on recruiting, retention, and readiness.

 

24We reported on DOD’s implementation of furloughs for its civilian workforce in 2013 in 

GAO, Sequestration: Comprehensive and Updated Cost Savings Would Better Inform 

DOD Decisionmakers If Future Civilian Furloughs Occur, GAO-14-529 (Washington, D.C.: 

June 17, 2014). 
 

Page 18 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

defense committees with its strategic workforce plan, DOD may lack 

assurance that these efforts will support its overall strategic workforceplanning goals including, for example, how it will address gaps.

To address these issues, DOD stated that the department continues to 

focus on its strategic workforce-planning efforts that include strategies 

identified and carried out by the functional communities aimed to recruit, 

retain, motivate, and develop the present and future civilian workforce. 

However, DOD officials stated during this review that the recruiting, 

retention, and workforce development strategies outlined in the 

department’s strategic workforce plan are developed by the individual 

functional communities and are implemented and funded as appropriate 

primarily at the component level. Therefore, these strategies do not 

constitute a department-wide approach to addressing morale, 

recruitment, and retention issues related to past or future furloughs or 

budget uncertainties. Further, as our analysis of DOD’s current strategic 

workforce plan shows, DOD has not completed its competency or 

competency-gap assessments to know where it should target its efforts, 

nor did its plan include the funding required to carry out such strategies.

DOD’s strategic workforce plan currently is not fully aligned with the 

budget process or other workforce initiatives because there is no 

requirement for DOD’s plan to be aligned with these other efforts. 

Additionally, there is not a common understanding of how the 

department’s strategic workforce plan will be or should be used within the 

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. 

Officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service, who have 

overall responsibility for DOD’s strategic workforce plan, told us they do 

not envision the plan being linked to other strategic workforce efforts, but 

added that they believe the workforce planning process itself has value 

for those involved in the development process.

In contrast, officials from the Total Force Requirements and Sourcing 

Policies Directorate within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense 

for Personnel and Readiness told us that the strategic workforce plan in 

its current form is more useful as a source of demographic information on 

the department’s civilian workforce than as a strategic document intended 

to guide workforce decisions. These officials further stated that the plan 

would be more useful as a strategic document if certain actions were 

taken, such as aligning the strategic workforce plan with the DOD budget 

process, among other things. In addition, although the plan states that 

DOD intends to align it with the DOD budget and total force–management 

processes, it did not include specific details or time frames for doing so. 
 

Page 19 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

According to officials with the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service, they have been unable to make progress on these efforts 

because of a lack of information and challenges in coordinating with other 

offices within DOD. These officials further stated that they do not foresee 

these challenges being resolved before the department issues its next 

strategic workforce plan. Our analysis of the Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan in particular indicates that without fully aligning 

DOD’s strategic workforce plan with the budget process and management 

workforce initiatives, such as those to address recruiting, retention, and 

readiness issues associated with declining morale, the department will 

not be in the best position to make informed management and resource 

decisions about its workforce.

What we found in our analysis of the Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan is in line with a body of work we have conducted in recent 

years examining other DOD strategic workforce efforts, which found that 

not aligning the plan with other strategic workforce initiatives is a longstanding issue within DOD. These include workforce-sizing decisions and 

total force–management efforts.

• In July 2012, we testified on our observations of DOD’s planning for 

its civilian workforce requirements and reported on DOD’s efforts 

since the 1990s to reduce its civilian workforce. Specifically, we found 

that these efforts did not focus on taking a strategic approach to its 

workforce downsizing and reshaping efforts, which resulted in 

imbalances to the shape, skills, and retirement eligibility of its 

workforce.25

 

25GAO, DOD Civilian Workforce: Observations on DOD’s Efforts to Plan for Civilian 

Workforce Requirements, 

We found that this was especially true of the civilian 

acquisition workforce, which from September 1989 to September 

1999 was reduced by almost 47 percent. This rate of reduction 

substantially exceeded that of the rest of the DOD workforce. We 

concluded that 11 consecutive years of downsizing produced serious 

imbalances in the skills and experience of the highly talented and 

specialized civilian acquisition workforce, putting DOD on the verge of 

a retirement-driven talent drain. Moreover, we found that the lack of 

an adequate number of trained acquisition and contract-oversight 

personnel has, at times, contributed to unmet expectations and placed 

DOD at risk of potentially paying more than necessary.

GAO-12-962T (Washington, D.C.: July 26, 2012). 
 

Page 20 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

• In January 2013, we reported on DOD’s efforts to implement its selfimposed cap on its civilian workforce levels, and found that the 

department had not completed its competency-gap assessments—

identifying gaps in the existing or projected civilian workforce that 

should be addressed to ensure the department has continued access 

to needed critical skills and competencies.26 As a result, we 

concluded that information on competency gaps was unavailable to 

help inform decision making about DOD’s civilian workforce when 

implementing the cap. We also concluded that a fully developed 

workforce plan, with all completed gap assessments, would help DOD 

make informed decisions about reducing its workforce and develop 

strategies to mitigate skill shortages that affect achieving the mission. 

As a result, we recommended that DOD involve functional community 

managers and use information from its critical skill and competencygap assessments as they are completed to make informed decisions 

for future changes to the workforce and that it document its strategies. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation and stated that it 

aligns its workforce, both in size and structure, to mission 

requirements and justifies the current size and possible reductions or 

increases to the workforce based on mission workload rather than 

competency or skill gaps needed to deliver capabilities. However, we 

concluded in that report that DOD is not in a position to justify the size 

of its workforce until it has fully addressed its statutory requirement to 

identify areas of critical-skill and competency gaps within the civilian 

workforce. At the time of our current review, DOD maintained its 

civilian workforce cap, and, in addition, section 955 of the National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 201327

 

26GAO, Human Capital: Critical Skills and Competency Assessments Should Help Guide 

DOD Civilian Workforce Decisions, 

required the 

Secretary of Defense to ensure that the civilian and service contractor 

workforces are appropriately sized to support and execute the 

National Military Strategy, taking into account military personnel and 

force-structure levels, and to develop an efficiencies plan for those 

workforces. Section 955 further requires that the efficiencies plan 

achieve savings in total funding of the civilian and service contractor 

workforces that are not less than certain savings achieved from 

reductions in military end strength over a 6-year period, subject to 

certain exceptions.

GAO-13-188 (Washington D.C.: Jan. 17, 2013).

27Pub. L. No. 112-239 (2013).
 

Page 21 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

• In May 2013, we reported on DOD’s total force–management efforts 

and found that DOD had taken some steps to improve its 

understanding and management of its total workforce, but it had not 

assessed the appropriate mix of its military, civilian, and contractor 

personnel capabilities in its strategic workforce plan as required by 

law.28 We concluded that the department was hampered in its ability 

to make more-informed strategic workforce mix decisions, which are 

crucial to meeting DOD’s statutory responsibility to manage its total 

workforce. We recommended that DOD revise its existing workforce 

policies and procedures according to current statutory requirements in 

Section 129a of Title 10 of the United States Code as well as 

regulatory requirements set forth in the Office of Federal Procurement 

Policy’s September 2011 policy letter to address the (1) determination 

of the appropriate workforce mix, and (2) identification of critical 

functions. DOD partially concurred and stated that the department’s 

strategic workforce plan is an integral tool in informing policies and 

procedures for retention, recruitment, and accession planning and 

helps inform the demographic makeup of its civilian personnel 

inventory. DOD also stated that the department justifies its workforce 

size based on mission workload, rather than competency or skills 

gaps. However, we concluded in that report that DOD is required by 

law to establish policies and procedures that require the use of the 

strategic workforce plan when making determinations of the 

appropriate mix of total workforce personnel necessary to perform its 

mission, and to include in the strategic workforce plan an assessment 

of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel 

capabilities. As of May 2014, DOD has not taken action to implement 

these recommendations.

DOD’s approach to developing its Fiscal Years 2013-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan did not fully involve stakeholders within the Intelligence 

functional community to help ensure statutorily required information is 

included. While this kind of stakeholder involvement is not statutorily 

required, a key principle of effective strategic workforce planning is to 

involve top management, employees, and other stakeholders in 

developing, communicating, and implementing strategic workforce 

plans.29

 

28GAO, Human Capital: Additional Steps Needed to Help Determine the Right Size and 

Composition of DOD’s Total Workforce, 

In addition, federal internal-control standards state that decision 

GAO-13-470 (Washington D.C.: May 29, 2013).

29GAO-04-39. 

DOD’s Approach to 

Developing Its Plan Did 

Not Fully Involve 

Stakeholders within Its 

Intelligence Functional 

Community
 

Page 22 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

makers need complete and relevant information to manage risk 

associated with achieving objectives, such as those outlined in strategic 

plans.30

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan did not fully 

involve some stakeholders within the Intelligence functional community 

throughout the development of the plan, which resulted in the omission of 

key stakeholder input. Specifically, during the strategic workforce 

planning process, the Intelligence functional community compiled 

workforce information on its one mission-critical occupation—the 0132 

Intelligence series—and the two senior-leader workforces over which the 

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence has oversight—

the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and the Defense 

Intelligence Senior Level workforces. DOD relies on these two seniorleader workforces to oversee key activities within the defense intelligence 

community. The Defense Intelligence functional community includes 

personnel in intelligence occupations from the military departments as 

well as the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, 

the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Office, and the department’s Defense Intelligence civilian senior-leader 

workforces—Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and Defense 

Intelligence Senior Level.

DOD is required to include information on the two Intelligence Civilian 

Senior Leader workforces in its strategic workforce plan. According to 

Intelligence functional community managers, they provided information on 

these two workforces to the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service. 

However, our review found disparities between the level of detail of the 

information provided and the information that was incorporated in the 

strategic workforce plan about these two workforces. For example, the 

strategic workforce plan included one paragraph of descriptive 

information on both categories of defense intelligence senior-leader 

workforces in the Senior Executive Service workforce plan. In contrast, 

the Intelligence functional community provided detailed information on the 

Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and Defense Intelligence 

Senior Level workforces to the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service for inclusion in the strategic workforce plan. This information 

 

30GAO, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government, GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1

(Washington, D.C.: November 1999). 
 

Page 23 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

included details that would have supported an assessment of the critical 

skills and competencies, among other things, of the defense intelligence 

civilian senior-leader workforces, which is required by law to be included 

in DOD’s strategic workforce plan. However, the Defense Civilian 

Personnel Advisory Service did not fully incorporate this information on 

the workforces’ critical skills and competencies into the final version of 

DOD’s strategic workforce plan.

During the course of our review, we discussed these disparities with 

officials from both the Intelligence functional community and the Defense 

Civilian Personnel Advisory Service to try to determine the cause of the 

missing information. According to officials from the Defense Civilian 

Personnel Advisory Service, the office revised and omitted select 

information provided by the Intelligence functional community on defense 

intelligence civilian senior-leader workforces, but they believed the level 

of detail provided was sufficient to address the statutory requirements. 

However, our assessment of the information raises questions as to 

whether the officials responsible for the Civilian Senior Leader strategic 

workforce plan checked these omissions against the statutory reporting 

requirements, and if not, as a result excluded key information from the 

strategic workforce plan on defense intelligence civilian senior-leader 

workforces that was statutorily required.

In our discussions, officials within the Intelligence functional community 

responsible for the initial development of this required information and 

officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service were 

unclear as to why, in the final coordination of the plan, all stakeholders 

from the Intelligence functional community were not involved in helping to 

ensure the inclusion of key statutorily-required information. In subsequent 

discussions, officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service stated that they would be vigilant of such omissions during the 

development of future plans to help ensure all available, statutorily 

required information is included and that all appropriate stakeholders are 

involved in the development and review processes.
 

Page 24 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan did not include 

completed competency-gap assessments or strategies for addressing 

critical competency gaps. A leading principle of effective strategic 

workforce planning is that agencies should determine the critical skills 

and competencies that will be needed to achieve current and future 

programmatic results and develop strategies tailored to address gaps and 

human-capital conditions in critical skills and competencies that need 

attention.31 Although we found that DOD has taken steps to determine the 

critical skills needed by the department through the identification of its 

mission-critical occupations, our evaluation of DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-

2018 Strategic Workforce Plan found that the department has not 

completed its competency and competency-gap assessment or included 

strategies to address competency gaps based on such assessments.32

In 2004, we recommended, and DOD partially concurred, that the 

department develop workforce strategies to fill the identified skills and 

competency gaps.33 Additionally, in 2012, we recommended DOD 

conduct competency-gap assessments for its mission-critical occupations 

and report the results.34

Furthermore, our analysis of three functional communities’ strategic 

workforce plans found that the Intelligence and Financial Management 

functional communities have not completed their competency-gap 

DOD concurred with our recommendation and 

stated in its agency comments that competency gaps would be assessed 

in the future. To date, however, the department’s strategic workforce plan 

has only included strategies that address staffing gaps—which are aimed 

at addressing gaps in the critical skills, but not the critical competencies, 

needed in a workforce—within its mission-critical occupations.

 

31GAO-04-39. These leading principles of effective strategic workforce planning are 

consistent with Section 115b statutory requirements for DOD’s strategic workforce plan, 

which require DOD to, among other things, provide assessments of the critical skills and 

competencies of the existing and future civilian employee workforces, as well as any gaps 

identified and strategies to mitigate those gaps. 

32DOD also defines a competency as an observable, measurable pattern of knowledge, 

abilities, skills, and other characteristics that individuals need in order to successfully 

perform their work. See DOD Instruction 1400.25, Volume 250, DOD Civilian Personnel 

Management System: Volume 250, Civilian Strategic Human Capital Planning (SHCP)

(Nov. 18, 2008).

33GAO-04-753. 

34GAO-12-1014. 

DOD’s Plan Did Not 

Include Complete 

Competency-Gap 

Assessments or Strategies 

for Addressing Critical 

Competency Gaps
 

Page 25 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

assessments or developed strategies for addressing competency gaps in 

their workforces. In regard to the Civilian Senior Leader functional 

community, DOD’s strategic workforce plan provided information on 

competencies for one of the five categories of Civilian Senior Leader 

workforces—the Senior Executive Service. Our analysis of these three 

functional communities’ strategic workforce plans suggests that additional 

attention is needed in DOD’s approach to strategic workforce planning to 

fully address our prior recommendations with regard to critical skill and 

competency assessments.

The Intelligence functional community has identified broad competencies 

for its one mission-critical occupation—the 0132 Intelligence series—but 

further progress in competency development and assessment for its 

workforce will not be complete until the community develops a common 

standard for titling occupational specialties (e.g., Human Intelligence and 

Signals Intelligence) within its 0132 Intelligence series workforce. 

According to Intelligence functional community officials and the 

Intelligence community’s own workforce plan, eight broad competencies 

have been identified for its mission-critical occupation.35

The Financial Management functional community is currently in the 

process of developing a strategy that, in part, addresses its workforce’s 

skills and competencies and is scheduled to assess the competencies of 

its mission-critical occupations. The strategy being developed—the 

Financial Management Certification Program—is a program that is 

However, 

competency assessments and gap assessments cannot be completed 

until the community completes development of standard civilian 

intelligence job titles for occupational specialties within the Intelligence 

series mission-critical occupation. Officials from the Intelligence functional 

community told us they are coordinating with relevant stakeholders within 

the defense intelligence community and the Defense Civilian Personnel 

Advisory Service on an occupational titling standard to address this issue. 

Those officials also stated that efforts are underway and it may take up to 

2 years to complete the development of the occupational titling standard. 

Once the standard is developed, competency models for each 

occupational specialty within the intelligence series will be further 

developed for the workforce, according to officials.

 

35These eight competences are cyber intelligence, all-source analysis, geospatial 

intelligence, signals intelligence, counterintelligence, human intelligence, analysis and 

production, and collection management.

Intelligence Functional 

Community

Financial Management 

Functional Community
 

Page 26 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

expected to consolidate multiple Financial Management workforce 

development efforts across the department into a mandatory program to 

educate, train, and certify both civilian and military financial management 

personnel. In addition, competency assessments for the Financial 

Management functional community’s mission-critical occupations were 

scheduled to begin using an enterprise-wide competency assessment 

tool from April 7 to April 25, 2014, and extended the assessment period 

through May 9, 2014. The results of this assessment were not yet 

available to the functional community, and officials stated that they would 

receive the results from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service 

by July 2014. At the time of our review, officials from the Office of the 

Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) were waiting for the Defense Civilian 

Personnel Advisory Service to analyze the competency-assessment data. 

According to DOD, this effort, which included key financial-management 

and leadership competencies, will enable the community to assess and 

close the gaps between current capabilities and the competencies 

required by DOD’s future Financial Management workforce.

The strategic workforce plan for DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader functional 

community—a cross-cutting workforce that includes personnel from the 

Senior Executive Service and Senior Level workforces, among others—

identifies the competencies of its Senior Executive Service workforce but 

does not include information on the competencies and competency 

assessments of its other Civilian Senior Leader workforces.36

 

36In November 2010, we reported on DOD’s requirements determinations of its civilian 

leader workforce. See GAO, Human Capital: Opportunities Exist for DOD to Enhance Its 

Approach for Determining Civilian Senior Leader Needs,

The 

department’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan provides information 

on Office of Personnel Management–and DOD-specific competencies for 

DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce. However, the plan does not 

include information on the competencies and competency assessments 

for its Senior Level and Senior Technical workforce. According to the plan 

and officials responsible for the development of the Civilian Senior Leader 

strategic workforce plan, these senior-leader workforces are specialized 

in nature and they are evaluated primarily on the technical or functional 

competencies found within their specific occupational series. The plan 

also does not provide information on the competency and competency 

assessments for the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and 

Defense Intelligence Senior Level workforces. Furthermore, the plan does 

GAO-11-136 (Washington, D.C.: 

Nov. 4, 2010). 

Civilian Senior Leader 

Functional Community
 

Page 27 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

not identify any specific strategies for addressing competency gaps for 

the Civilian Senior Leader workforces, though it does identify some 

minimal competency gaps for its senior executive service workforce.

Because we previously recommended that DOD conduct competencygap analyses as part of our 2004 and 2012 reports, we are not making 

new recommendations to address this issue in this report. We continue to 

believe that our prior recommendations have merit and would improve 

DOD’s strategic workforce plan. We will continue to monitor DOD’s efforts 

to address our prior recommendations.

In this time of budgetary and fiscal constraint, a strategic workforce plan 

that includes relevant and complete workforce analyses and associated 

plan of action is crucial for DOD to effectively and efficiently manage all of 

its civilian workforces. Since our first report in 2008 on DOD’s strategic 

workforce plan, we have consistently reported that DOD has made 

progress in addressing strategic workforce planning requirements. In that 

time, however, we have also identified consistent issues in DOD’s efforts 

to develop its plan, such as the department not assessing and reporting

on mission-critical competencies and gaps. We recognize the effort that 

DOD is putting forth to include this information in its recurring strategic 

workforce plans and address all mandated strategic workforce planning 

requirements. However, without ensuring that all statutorily required 

information is included in the strategic workforce plan, DOD risks 

producing a plan that does not effectively address the department’s 

needs and will not aid the decision-making process for total workforce 

management. As a result, we continue to believe that DOD should fully 

implement our past recommendations on including all required 

information.

While this is the last of DOD’s strategic workforce plans we are mandated 

to evaluate, we believe that, moving forward, it is important for DOD to 

continue its efforts to complete development of its strategic workforce 

plans to help ensure that the department has the right people, in the right 

place, at the right time. This type of workforce planning can also help 

DOD focus limited resources on those human-capital programs that most 

affect their ability to accomplish the department’s wide array of missions. 

However, until DOD aligns its strategic workforce plan with the budget 

process and other strategic management initiatives, such as those to 

address recruitment, retention, and readiness issues, both DOD and 

congressional decision makers may not have visibility over the areas 

most in need of attention. Through greater alignment, DOD can help to 

Conclusions
 

Page 28 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

better ensure that its strategic workforce plan appropriately addresses the 

human-capital challenges of the future and better contributes to the 

agency’s efforts to meet its missions and goals.

To help ensure that decision makers and Congress have the necessary 

information to provide effective oversight of DOD’s civilian workforce and 

that the strategic workforce plan can be used effectively, we recommend 

that the Secretary of Defense direct the Office of the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Personnel and Readiness align DOD’s strategic workforce 

plan with the budget and management workforce initiatives, such as 

those to address recruiting, retention, and readiness issues associated 

with declining morale among its civilian workforces.

We provided a draft of this report to DOD for comment. In written 

comments, DOD concurred with our recommendation. DOD’s comments 

are reprinted in their entirety in appendix V. 

DOD concurred with our recommendation to align the department’s 

strategic workforce plan with the budget and management workforce 

initiatives, such as those to address recruiting, retention, and readiness 

issues associated with declining morale among its civilian workforces. We 

are encouraged that DOD recognizes the importance of linking its 

strategic workforce plan with the budget and other management 

workforce initiatives.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional 

committees, the Secretary of Defense, and the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Personnel and Readiness. In addition, this report is available 

at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov. 

Recommendation for 

Executive Action

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation
 

Page 29 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

If you or your staff have any questions regarding this report, please 

contact me at (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov. Contact points for our 

Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on 

the last page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to 

this report are listed in appendix VI.

Brenda S. Farrell

Director

Defense Capabilities and Management
 

Page 30 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

List of Committees

The Honorable Carl Levin

Chairman

The Honorable James M. Inhofe

Ranking Member

Committee on Armed Services

United States Senate

The Honorable Richard J. Durbin

Chairman

The Honorable Thad Cochran

Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Defense

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

The Honorable Howard P. “Buck” McKeon

Chairman

The Honorable Adam Smith

Ranking Member

Committee on Armed Services

House of Representatives

The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen

Chairman

The Honorable Pete Visclosky

Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Defense

Committee on Appropriations

House of Representatives
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 31 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

To determine the extent to which the Department of Defense’s (DOD) 

Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan addressed the statutory 

requirements of Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code, we 

evaluated DOD’s 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan and supporting 

documentation to determine the degree to which the plan addresses, 

partially addresses, or does not address each of the required elements. 

Using a scorecard methodology, we assigned a rating of “addresses” if all 

elements of a legislative requirement were cited, even if specificity and 

details could be improved upon. We assigned a rating of “partially 

addresses” if an assessment or plan of action did not include all of the 

elements of a legislative requirement. A rating of “does not address” was 

assigned when elements of a characteristic were not explicitly cited or 

discussed or any implicit references were either too vague or too general 

to be useful. To make this determination, two GAO analysts 

independently evaluated and scored each element in DOD’s plan, and 

then met to resolve any differences in their respective independent 

analyses. When different initial ratings were given by the two analysts, 

they met to discuss and resolve the differences in their respective 

scorecards. In addition, our Office of General Counsel reviewed the 

team’s completed analysis.

We then discussed the results of our analysis with officials from the 

Strategic Human Capital Planning Office and the Defense Civilian 

Personnel Advisory Service, within the Office of the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Personnel and Readiness, who are responsible for 

developing the plan. We also discussed the results of our assessment 

with officials from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for 

Intelligence and the Office of the Undersecretary (Comptroller) who serve 

as the functional community managers for the Intelligence functional 

community and the Financial Management functional community, 

respectively. Officials from the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory 

Service have responsibility for the Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan.

To determine the extent to which DOD’s strategic workforce plan is 

consistent with key strategic workforce planning principles, we compared 

DOD’s 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan to key principles of effective 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 32 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

strategic workforce planning.1

We also analyzed DOD’s plan and interviewed officials from the Strategic 

Human Capital Planning Office to obtain information on DOD’s approach 

to strategic workforce planning. We also reviewed our prior work on 

DOD’s other strategic workforce initiatives and determined the extent to 

which the department tied those efforts to its strategic workforce plan. In 

addition, we interviewed officials responsible for the processes used by 3 

of DOD’s 22 functional communities to obtain additional perspective on 

their approaches. The three communities included (1) the Civilian Senior 

Leader functional community; (2) the Financial Management functional 

community; and (3) the Intelligence functional community. We selected 

these three functional communities because DOD is required specifically 

to include information about its Civilian Senior Leader and its Financial 

Management workforces in its Strategic Workforce Plan. We also 

selected the Intelligence functional community because our 2012 review 

of DOD’s 2010 Strategic Workforce Plan

Specifically, we selected two key 

principles—aligning workforce planning with strategic planning and 

budget formulation and involving stakeholders, among others, in 

developing, communicating, and implementing the strategic workforce 

plan—that do not overlap with the statutory requirements. Additionally, we 

selected two other key principles—determining the critical skills and 

competencies needed to achieve current and future programmatic results 

and developing strategies that are tailored to address gaps—because

they are integral to developing a comprehensive strategic workforce plan 

and we have consistently found that DOD has not yet completed actions 

to address issues related to them.

2

 

1

GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce Planning, 

found that the department’s 

Intelligence community did not provide the mandated workforce 

assessments or plan of action for shaping and improving that workforce. 

We selected the three communities to better understand how each of 

their plans was developed based on the stated criteria. However, our 

GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003); A Model of Strategic Human Capital 

Management, GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002). See also Office of 

Personnel Management, Introduction to the HCAAF Practitioners Guide (September 

2005). These principles were developed based on GAO’s prior reports and testimonies 

examining best practices in strategic human-capital management, review of studies by 

leading workforce-planning organizations, and interviews with officials from the Office of 

Personnel Management and other federal agencies. 

2

GAO, Human Capital: DOD Needs Complete Assessments to Improve Future Civilian 

Strategic Workforce Plans, GAO-12-1014 (Washington D.C.: Sept. 27, 2012). 
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 33 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

selection of these three functional communities does not constitute a 

representative sample of DOD’s 22 functional communities. Thus, while 

the results cannot be projected to all functional communities, they did 

provide us with important insights. For each of the three functional 

communities selected, we reviewed GAO and Office of Personnel 

Management guidance regarding strategic workforce planning, and 

compared DOD’s current approach to developing and integrating 

functional community–specific information into its Strategic Workforce 

Plan against that guidance.3

We also evaluated steps taken by DOD for identifying and obtaining 

strategic workforce-planning data; processes for conducting the strategic 

workforce-planning efforts for specific functional communities as part of 

the larger DOD strategic workforce plan; and instructions or guidance 

from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 

Readiness conducting such steps and processes. For all three functional 

communities, we met with the respective functional community 

managers4

We conducted this performance audit from September 2013 to July 2014 

in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 

sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

to determine how key terms and concepts were applied during 

the development of their respective community’s appendix. We also 

discussed DOD’s strategic planning approach with officials from the 

Strategic Human Capital Planning Office and the Defense Civilian 

Personnel Advisory Service, within the Office of the Under Secretary of 

Defense for Personnel and Readiness, as well as officials from the Total 

Force Requirements and Sourcing Policies Directorate also within the 

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. 

We then evaluated the data presented in the plan to assess the extent to 

which DOD’s latest plan is consistent with key strategic workforceplanning principles; however, we did not assess the underlying accuracy 

of DOD’s data.

 

3

GAO-04-39, GAO-02-373SP, and Office of Personnel Management, Introduction to the 

HCAAF Practitioners Guide. 

4

Functional community managers are responsible for monitoring the strategic humancapital planning efforts for their respective communities, including workforce forecasting, 

competency assessment, and strategy development. 
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 34 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that 

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives. 
Appendix II: DOD’s Functional Communities 

and Mission-Critical Occupations

Page 35 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

The Department of Defense (DOD) uses a functional-community 

construct and functional-community categories to group together 

employees who perform similar functions. Mission-critical occupations are 

those occupations that are critical to the success of meeting the DOD 

mission within its functional communities. For the Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan, the department expanded its functional 

community construct from 12 functional communities to 22 functional 

communities and from 24 mission-critical occupations to 32 missioncritical occupations. Table 2 identifies the department’s functional 

communities and mission-critical occupations.

Table 2: List of DOD’s Functional Communities and Associated Mission-Critical 

Occupations

22 functional communities 32 mission-critical occupations (series)

Acquisitiona Contracting Series (1102)

Quality Assurance Series (1910)

Facility Engineering and 

Management

N/Ab

Engineering (Non-Construction) Nuclear Engineering Series (0840)

Computer Engineering Series (0855)

Environmental Management N/Ab

Logistics Logistics Management Series (0346)

Inventory Management Series (2010)

Traffic Management Series (2130)

Supply Program Management Series (2003)

Equipment Services Series (1670)

Transportation Operations Series (2150)

General Supply Series (2001)

Transportation Specialist Series (2101)

Safety and Public Safety Explosive Safety Series (0017)

Safety and Public Safety Series (0018)

Fire Protection and Prevention Series (0081)

Science and Technology Computer Science Series (1550)

Administrative Support N/Ab

Education N/Ab

Human Resources Human Resources Management Series (0201)

Law Enforcement Criminal Investigating Series (1811)

Manpower N/Ab

Appendix II: DOD’s Functional Communities 

and Mission-Critical Occupations
Appendix II: DOD’s Functional Communities 

and Mission-Critical Occupations

Page 36 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

22 functional communities 32 mission-critical occupations (series)

Medical Psychology Series (0180)

Social Work Series (0185)

Medical Officer Series (0602)

Nurse Series (0610)

Pharmacist Series (0660)

Social Science N/Ab

Financial Management Financial Administration Series (0501)

Accounting Series (0510)

Auditing Series (0511)

Budget Analysis Series (0560)

Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Series (0130)

Information Technology Information Technology Management Series (2210)

Intelligence Intelligence Series (0132)

Security Security Administration Series (0080)

Legal N/Ab

Public Affairs N/Ab

Senior Executive Service Crosscutting

Source: DOD. | GAO-14-565

Notes: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan.

a

DOD did not include the Acquisition functional community’s assessment in its Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan.

b

Denotes an emerging functional community. For the emerging functional communities added in the 

Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan, the department did not identify any mission-critical 

occupations.
Appendix III: Status of Prior GAO 

Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning

Page 37 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

In prior reports on the Department of Defense’s (DOD) strategic 

workforce-planning efforts, we made several recommendations for 

executive action to improve DOD’s strategic workforce plan and the 

department’s approach to strategic workforce planning. We consider a 

recommendation open if DOD has not taken or has not completed actions 

to address a recommendation. We consider a recommendation closed–

implemented once DOD has taken action to satisfy the intent of the 

recommendation. We consider a recommendation closed–not 

implemented if the intent of the recommendation has not been satisfied or 

circumstances have rendered the recommendation invalid. We are 

continuing to monitor DOD’s efforts to address these recommendations. 

Table 3 summarizes our recommendations, DOD’s response to our 

recommendations, and what actions, if any, DOD has taken to address 

them.

Table 3: Prior GAO Recommendations, Status, and DOD Response and Actions Taken

GAO report and relevant recommendations

Status of recommendation

(per GAO) DOD response and actions taken

Human Capital: Additional Steps Needed to Help 

Determine the Right Size and Composition of 

DOD’s Total Workforce, GAO-13-470 (May 29, 

2013)

Recommendation: We recommended that DOD 

revise its existing workforce policies and 

procedures according to current statutory 

requirements in Section 129a of Title 10 of the 

United States Code, as well as, regulatory 

requirements set forth in the Office of Federal 

Procurement Policy’s September 2011 policy letter 

to address the (1) determination of the appropriate 

workforce mix, and (2) identification of critical 

functions.

Open DOD partially concurred with this recommendation 

and stated in its agency comments that DOD 

Directive 1100.4 was undergoing revision and 

entering the formal issuance process. Further, 

DOD stated that the updated directive would 

authorize and direct the revision of the instruction. 

DOD determined that it did not need to take any 

additional action to address this recommendation.

Additionally, according to the DOD Fiscal Year 

2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan, DOD 

initiated a pilot study in fiscal year 2012 to identify 

a process to assess the capability delivered by the 

federal government career civilian workforce, 

military personnel, and contractor support. The 

pilot study involved three high-risk mission-critical 

occupations—Nursing, Fire Protection and 

Prevention, and Contracting. During our review, 

DOD officials also told us that the pilot is currently 

being reevaluated and will be discussed in the 

upcoming fiscal year 2014-2019 DOD strategic 

workforce plan.

Appendix III: Status of Prior GAO 

Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning
Appendix III: Status of Prior GAO 

Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning

Page 38 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

GAO report and relevant recommendations

Status of recommendation

(per GAO) DOD response and actions taken

Human Capital: Critical Skills and Competency 

Assessments Should Help Guide DOD Civilian 

Workforce Decisions, GAO-13-188 (Jan. 17, 2013)

Recommendations: We recommended that DOD

(1) involve functional community managers and to 

the extent possible, use information from gap 

assessments of its critical skills and competencies 

as they are completed to make informed decisions 

for possible future reductions or justify the size of 

the force that it has; and

(2) document its efforts to strategically manage its 

civilian workforce and maintain critical skills and 

competencies for future reductions.

Open DOD partially concurred with both 

recommendations and stated in its agency 

comments that competency-gap assessments 

were evolving, and that it expected to have a 

workforce plan that responded to the statutory 

requirements, to include competency-gap 

analyses, by 2015.

However, according to the DOD Fiscal Year 2013-

2018 Strategic Workforce Plan, the development 

and assessment of competencies and 

identification of competency gaps for the majority 

of the workforce will require several workforce 

planning cycles to fully implement and fully meet 

the intent of section 115b of Title 10 of the United 

States Code requirements. At the time the plan 

was released, DOD had completed competency 

models for 21 of the 32 mission-critical 

occupations identified in the plan. Subsequently, 

DOD officials told us in April 2014 that they have 

completed competency models for all currently 

identified mission-critical occupations.

Defense Workforce: DOD Needs to Better Oversee 

In-sourcing Data and Align In-sourcing Efforts with 

Strategic Workforce Plan, GAO-12-319 (Feb. 9, 

2012)

Recommendation: We recommended that DOD 

better align the data collected on in-sourcing with 

the department’s strategic workforce plans and 

establish metrics with which to measure progress in 

meeting any in-sourcing goals.

Open DOD partially concurred with this recommendation 

and stated in its agency comments that it has 

worked to align in-sourcing and strategic 

workforce planning efforts and that in-sourcing is 

one of the many tools available to help close 

competency gaps and meet strategic workforce 

planning goals. DOD further stated that insourcing should not be limited to areas identified 

in strategic workforce plans.

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan did not contain any references to DOD’s insourcing efforts and, in follow-up discussions on 

our recommendations, an official from the Office 

of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel 

and Readiness stated that DOD had not taken any 

action in response to this recommendation. The 

official stated that DOD and GAO have a 

difference of opinion on the purpose of DOD’s 

strategic workforce plans—that having the right 

skill sets (the purpose of strategic planning) is 

different from the mix of military, civilian, and 

contractors in the workforce (which relates to insourcing). The official also stated that having the 

right skill sets and having the right mix do not 

relate to each other, and therefore the department 

had not followed GAO’s recommendation to align 

its reporting on the two efforts. However, as noted 

in our work, by statute DOD is required to assess 

the appropriate mix of skills (military, civilian, and 

contractor) and include such an assessment in its 

strategic workforce plan.
Appendix III: Status of Prior GAO 

Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning

Page 39 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

GAO report and relevant recommendations

Status of recommendation

(per GAO) DOD response and actions taken

Human Capital: DOD Needs Complete 

Assessments to Improve Future Civilian Strategic 

Workforce Plans, GAO-12-1014 (Sept. 27, 2012)

Recommendations: We recommended that DOD

(1) include in the guidance that it disseminates for 

developing future strategic workforce plans clearly 

defined terms and processes for conducting 

assessments of critical skills and competencies, 

and gaps for the existing and future civilian 

workforces;

(2) conduct competency-gap analyses for DOD’s 

mission-critical occupations and report the results 

and, when managers cannot conduct such 

analyses, we recommended that DOD report a 

timeline in the strategic workforce plan for providing 

these assessments;

(3) establish and adhere to timelines that will 

ensure issuance of future strategic workforce plans 

in accordance with statutory time frames;

(4) provide guidance for developing future strategic 

workforce plans that clearly directs the functional 

communities to collect information that identifies 

not only the number or percentage of personnel in 

its military, civilian, and contractor workforces but 

also the capabilities of the appropriate mix of those 

three workforces; and

(5) enhance the department’s results-oriented 

performance measures by revising existing 

measures or developing additional measures that 

will more clearly align with DOD’s efforts to monitor 

progress in meeting the strategic workforceplanning requirements in section 115b of Title 10 of 

the United States Code.

Open DOD concurred with our first recommendation and 

partially concurred with the remaining four 

recommendations. DOD responded in its agency 

comments that our recommendations simply 

restated areas for improvement that the 

department had already identified in its plan, and 

which had already been implemented since the 

plan was published. However, we responded that 

these issues were not new and that, since we 

began our work reviewing DOD’s strategic 

workforce planning efforts for its civilian workforce, 

we had reported mixed results and continued to 

believe that corrective action is needed.

Subsequently, in May 2013, officials from the 

Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service who 

are responsible for developing DOD’s strategic 

workforce plan stated that recommendations

made in this report would be addressed in DOD’s 

Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan, 

which was submitted to Congress in September 

2013. However, our current assessment of DOD’s 

Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan 

shows that work remains to be done, particularly 

in regard to competency-gap analyses.

Human Capital: Complete Information and More 

Analyses Needed to Enhance DOD’s Civilian 

Senior Leader Strategic Workforce Plan, 

GAO-12-990R (Sept. 19, 2012)

Recommendation: We recommended that DOD 

conduct assessments of the skills, competencies, 

and gaps within all five career Civilian Senior 

Leader workforces and report them in DOD’s future 

strategic workforce plans.

Open DOD concurred with our recommendation and in 

its agency comments acknowledged that the 

department fell short of conducting assessments 

of skills, competencies, and gaps within three of 

the five Civilian Senior Leader workforces—Senior 

Level, Senior Technical, and Defense Intelligence 

Senior Level—as a result of their technical roles in 

DOD leadership hierarchy. DOD also stated that, 

as these roles are refined, this work will be 

reflected in future strategic workforce plans, as 

appropriate.

DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan did not include information on the 

assessment of the critical skills, competencies, 

and gaps in all five Civilian Senior Leader 

workforces (see app. IV).
Appendix III: Status of Prior GAO 

Recommendations Related to Strategic 

Workforce Planning

Page 40 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

GAO report and relevant recommendations

Status of recommendation

(per GAO) DOD response and actions taken

Human Capital: Opportunities Exist to Build on 

Recent Progress to Strengthen DOD’s Civilian 

Human Capital Strategic Plan, GAO-09-235 (Feb. 

10, 2009)

Recommendation: We recommended that DOD

(1) develop a performance plan that includes 

establishing implementation goals and time frames, 

measuring performance, and aligning activities with 

resources;

(2) develop a performance plan that establishes 

implementation goals and timeframes, measuring 

performance, and aligning activities with resources; 

and

(3) incorporate, in future updates to its strategic 

human capital plan, strategies for addressing 

factors that could significantly affect DOD civilian 

workforce plans—including contractor roles and the 

effect contractors have on requirements for DOD’s 

civilian workforce.

Closed–implemented for 

recommendations (1) and 

(2); 

Closed–not implemented for 

recommendation (3)

DOD partially concurred with our 

recommendations. DOD responded in its agency 

comments that the program office responsible for 

developing the department’s strategic workforce 

plan was only recently established at the time and 

that these efforts were in progress. The 

department also stated that it had strategies in 

place to address recruitment and retention needs 

arising from factors affecting the DOD workforce 

and it would more closely align these causal 

factors so linkages would be clearly evident.

Subsequent follow up on these recommendations 

found that, with regard to the first two 

recommendations, DOD—in its fiscal year 2010-

2018 update to the strategic workforce plan—

included goals and time frames for its strategic 

workforce-planning capabilities, such as 

identifying lessons learned to improve data 

collection, forecasting and workforce analysis, and 

implementation of the plan in order to fully meet 

statutory strategic planning requirements. With 

regard to the third recommendation, we reported 

that DOD’s Fiscal Year 2010-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan did not address specific factors 

that could significantly affect DOD’s civilian 

workforce plan.

Our review of DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan found that DOD has 

established performance measures intended to 

assess the department’s progress in implementing 

a strategic workforce plan that meets the statutory 

requirements. 

The Department of Defense’s Civilian Human 

Capital Strategic Plan Does Not Meet Most 

Statutory Requirements, GAO-08-439R (Feb. 6, 

2008)

Recommendation: We recommended that DOD 

submit to Congress a civilian human-capital 

strategic plan that addresses all statutory 

requirements in section 1122(b) of the National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 and 

this be included in DOD’s next submission, which 

was due in March 2008.

Closed–not implemented DOD disagreed with our recommendation and, in 

its comments, stated that the department planned 

to include more documents in its required March 

2008 report. DOD also described several ongoing 

efforts to conduct workforce planning and analysis 

and that the department planned to take actions to 

improve its management of civilian human-capital 

planning. However, we responded that these other 

ongoing efforts were not submitted as part of 

DOD’s human-capital strategic plan and, 

therefore, did not meet the statutory requirements.

The findings of our review of DOD’s Fiscal Year 

2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan indicate that 

DOD has not yet submitted a strategic workforce 

plan that addresses all statutory requirements.

Source: GAO analysis of GAO and DOD data. | GAO-14-565
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 41 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

This appendix provides our assessment of the extent to which the 

Department of Defense’s (DOD) Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic 

Workforce Plan for its overall civilian workforce, civilian senior-leader 

workforce, and financial-management workforce address statutory 

requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code in the 

following three tables.1

Table 4: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Overall Civilian Workforce Plan Addresses the Statutory 

Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code

Overall civilian workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

1. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies of the existing civilian employee workforce 

of the department and projected trends in that workforce based on expected losses due to 

retirement and other attrition [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. DOD’s plan discussed 

30 mission-critical occupations, which according to DOD officials constitute the department’s critical skills for 

its workforce.a The plan provided data on projected trends due to retirement for the mission-critical 

occupations. DOD developed a forecasting tool, using RAND’s initial forecast tool as a prototype, to forecast 

future workforce efforts based on Office of the Secretary of Defense Functional Community Manager–

submitted workforce targets The plan does give a caveat for its data and trends by saying that the forecasts in 

the plan should be viewed as describing a point in time and are subject to change due to the significant 

budget cuts the department is experiencing. 

The department’s plan did not, however, include competency assessments for all mission-critical occupations. 

More specifically, the plan included a table that identified 20 mission-critical occupations for which 

competency models had been developed, and an additional 10 that were ready for development. The plan did 

not provide further information on when development of these 10 competency models would be completed or 

when the assessments would be conducted.

◐

2. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies that will be needed in the future within the 

civilian employee workforce by the Department of Defense to support national security 

requirements and effectively manage the department during the five-year period corresponding to 

the current Future Years Defense Program [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(A)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. DOD’s plan discussed 

30 mission-critical occupations in total, which according to DOD officials constitute the department’s critical 

skills for its future workforce.b The department provided data, including projected targets, for the missioncritical occupation workforces for the 5-year period corresponding to the Future Years Defense Program.

The department’s plan did not, however, include competency assessments needed in the future for all 

mission-critical occupations. More specifically, the plan included a table that identified 20 mission-critical 

occupations for which competency models had been developed, and an additional 10 that were ready for 

development.

◐

 

1

To meet our mandated requirement to report on DOD’s 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce 

Plan we provided our assessment of DOD’s compliance with the statutory requirements to 

congressional defense committees on March 26, 2014. 

Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the 

Extent to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce 

Plan Addresses Statutory Requirements
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 42 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Overall civilian workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

3. An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected civilian employee workforce of the 

department that should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued access to the 

critical skills and competencies it needs [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(D)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. DOD’s workforce plan 

included some evidence of gap analyses for DOD’s 30 mission-critical occupations. However, in many cases 

while DOD included information on gaps in its critical skills (or staffing gaps within its mission-critical 

occupations), it did not include information on gaps in the competencies that are needed within each of the 

mission-critical occupations. According to officials, in October 2013, the department began using a Defense 

Competency Assessment Tool to support competency-gap analysis reporting at the DOD enterprise, 

functional community, and component levels. As the competency models are developed and are loaded into 

the tool, the department will be able to proceed with further competency-gap analyses. The content will be 

loaded and retained in the Defense Competency Assessment Tool for validation, gap assessment, and 

enterprise management. Officials further stated their intention to address the requirement for competency 

assessments over the next 2 years and to include this information in DOD’s fiscal year 2016 plan.

◐

4. An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities, 

as determined under the total force management policies and procedures established under 10 

U.S.C. § 129a [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan does not address this requirement because DOD did not 

include an assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities.

DOD’s plan did, however, state that the department is continuing to develop a systematic and iterative 

approach to meeting the requirements of section 115b by incorporating a Total Force Mix capabilities 

assessment approach in alignment with DOD’s Rolling Wave Maturity Model. This approach uses existing 

statutorily required data sets and tools, such as the inventory of contracted services and the data compiled in 

response to the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act.

Further, as part of its iterative approach, in fiscal year 2012 the department initiated a pilot study of the 

process to assess capabilities being delivered by the federal government career civilian workforce, military 

personnel, and contract support. The initial pilot study was limited to the three mission-critical occupation 

series that DOD has identified as high risk (Nurse, Fire Protection and Prevention, and Contracting). At the 

time of our review, Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service officials told us that the pilot was being 

reevaluated during the fiscal year 2014-2019 Strategic Workforce Plan cycle and will be refreshed for future 

reporting. Officials also told us that the department’s goal is to assess a broad range of mission-critical 

occupation capabilities by fiscal year 2016 but they did not provide interim milestones.

o 

5. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific recruiting and 

retention goals, especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies, including the 

program objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals and the funding needed 

to achieve such goals [10 U.S.C. §115b(b)(2)(A)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan included 

recruiting and retention goals, program objectives, and funding information, as appropriate, for 13 of the 30 

mission-critical occupations. However, with regard to some recruiting and retention goals, the plan only stated 

that funding was at the discretion of the components or funding may be necessary, but did not provide a 

specific estimate. 

◑
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 43 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Overall civilian workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

6. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific strategies for 

developing, training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian employee workforce of 

the department, including the program objectives of the department to be achieved through such 

strategies and the funding needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. According to the plan, 

DOD identified a total of 31 strategies to address the department’s recruitment and retention gaps and issues. 

DOD further categorized these strategies into eight groupings including training/certification programs, 

recruitment/hiring flexibilities, and employee career mapping, among others. Although DOD’s plan provided 

details about strategies’ program objectives, it provided specific cost/funding information associated with its 

specific strategy to address gaps in its workforce for only one mission-critical occupation. In contrast, for other 

strategies the plan only stated, for example, that funding was at the discretion of the components or funding 

may be necessary if training was required, but did not provide a specific estimate.

◑

7. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies including any incentives necessary to 

attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies identified [10 

U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. DOD’s workforce plan 

identifies’ incentives needed to attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the identified skills and 

competencies. DOD’s plan provided enterprise-level information on the department’s use of recruitment, 

retention, and relocation incentives and the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program. For example, DOD 

identified incentive use, including the number of actions and associated average dollars, for each functional 

community. The plan also stated that such incentives and programs are especially useful for DOD in 

recruiting new employees, relocating current employees, or retaining employees with unusually high or 

unique qualifications or who fulfill a special need. However, without having completed all competency 

assessments and gap analyses, the plan does not clearly identify how the identified incentives address 

necessary critical skills and competencies.

◑

8. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes any legislative changes that 

may be necessary to achieve its recruiting and retention goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(F)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan addresses this requirement. DOD’s workforce plan 

identified legislative changes that may be necessary to help achieve the identified recruiting and retention 

goals set forth in the plan. For example, the Intelligence functional community described a potential legislative 

change to address a critical skill gap in its intelligence mission-critical occupation. The described legislative 

change would request relief from certain restrictions on civilian hiring to allow the Defense Security Service to 

hire additional personnel to address workload issues for that workforce. In some cases, the plan identified 

that no changes were necessary or were otherwise not applicable. 

●

9. An assessment, using results-oriented performance measures, of the progress of the department 

in implementing the strategic workforce plan under this section during the previous year [10 

U.S.C. § 115b(b)(3)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan addresses this requirement. The plan included a chapter 

entitled “Monitor Progress” which outlines six overarching results-oriented performance measures intended to 

assess the department’s progress in implementing a strategic workforce plan that meets the statutory 

requirements. Using three of these measures, the department tracked progress made from fiscal year 2010 

through 2012. These measures included, for example, (1) workforce-planning key milestones, (2) end 

strength versus targets, and (3) competency-model development and deployment. In addition, DOD also 

added a performance measure to the plan to track progress toward developing an approach to assessing 

appropriate workforce mix. According to the plan, of the six performance measures identified, the department 

fully met three measures, partially met two measures, and was still assessing progress on the remaining 

measure.

●
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 44 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Overall civilian workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

10. Any additional matters the Secretary of Defense considers necessary to address. [10 U.S.C. § 

115b(b)(4)]

Comments: DOD’s overall civilian workforce plan addresses this requirement. The plan did not include any 

additional matters that the Secretary of Defense considered necessary to address in the plan. According to 

DOD officials, the Secretary of Defense did not refer any additional matters to the Defense Civilian Personnel 

Advisory Service to address in the plan, meaning that the Secretary of Defense did not consider there to be 

any additional matters that needed to be addressed. Therefore, we assessed this requirement as addressed.

●

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. | GAO-14-565

Legend:

●= Addressed—workforce plan discussed all aspects of the statutory requirement

◑= Partially Addressed—workforce plan discussed some aspects of the statutory requirement

O = Not Addressed—workforce plan did not discuss any aspects of the statutory requirement

Notes: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan.

a

DOD did not include the Acquisition functional community’s assessment in its Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

Strategic Workforce Plan. Therefore, for the purposes of this report, we evaluated the information 

provided on the 30 mission-critical occupations that were included in DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 

plan.

b

Additional information on the four Financial Management workforce mission-critical occupations is 

included in table 3.

Table 5: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader Workforce Plan Addresses the Statutory 

Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code

Civilian Senior Leader workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

1. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies of the existing civilian employee workforce 

of the department and projected trends in that workforce based on expected losses due to 

retirement and other attrition [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

provided information on DOD’s assessment of the competencies of the department’s Senior Executive 

Service workforce. The plan, however, did not discuss an assessment of the critical skills for the Civilian 

Senior Leader workforce. Further, the plan did not provide any information on assessments of the 

department’s Senior Level, Senior Technical, Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, and Defense 

Intelligence Senior Level workforces. While the plan did include information about the projected rates of 

retirement for the Senior Executive Service, Senior Level, and Senior Technical workforces through fiscal 

year 2018, it did not include similar information for the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service and 

Defense Intelligence Senior Level workforces.

◑
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 45 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Civilian Senior Leader workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

2. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies that will be needed in the future within the 

civilian employee workforce by the Department of Defense to support national security 

requirements and effectively manage the Department during the five-year period corresponding 

to the current Future Years Defense Program [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 

115b(b)(1)(A)] 

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

provided information on the 16 Office of Personnel Management government-wide competencies and 2 DODspecific competencies for the Senior Executive Service. DOD assessed these competencies for its Senior 

Executive Service workforce in fiscal year 2012. These competencies include strategic thinking, leveraging 

diversity, and developing others, among others. The department completed proficiency-level definitions and 

behavioral illustrations for each of these competencies and has consolidated that information into a guide for 

human-resource officials and civilian senior executives. The plan, however, did not discuss an assessment of 

the critical skills for the Civilian Senior Leader workforce. Further, while the plan provided this information on 

competencies for its Senior Executive Service workforce, it did not provide similar information for its Senior 

Level, Senior Technical, Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, and Defense Intelligence Senior 

Level workforces. The plan also did not clearly indicate whether these critical competencies correspond to the 

current Future Years Defense Program.

◑

3. An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected civilian employee workforce of the 

department that should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued access to the 

critical skills and competencies it needs [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 

115b(b)(1)(D)] 

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. DOD 

discussed the process used for assessing gaps in its Senior Executive Service workforce. Preliminary 

assessment results indicate minimal competency gaps, with the largest gaps being in teambuilding, 

influencing and negotiating, technology management, and influencing others. DOD did not, however, include 

any information on the department’s Senior Level and Senior Technical workforces. According to DOD, these 

two workforces are highly developed and specialized and, as a result, they do not assess these workforces in 

the same manner as the Senior Executive Service. DOD also did not include any information on assessments 

of gaps in the department’s Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service or Defense Intelligence Senior 

Level workforces.

◑

4. An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities, 

as determined under the total force management policies and procedures established under 10 

U.S.C. § 129a [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)] 

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan does not address this requirement because the 

plan did not identify the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities. The plan 

did, however, provide a breakdown of the projected requirements for each of the department’s Civilian Senior 

Leader workforce categories through fiscal year 2018, and also stated that the department may use military 

personnel, among others, to fill gaps in its Civilian Senior Leader workforce. However, the plan did not 

discuss any requirements for the department’s senior military personnel. The plan further stated that there is 

little to no need for a contractor workforce at the Civilian Senior Leader workforce level.

o
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 46 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Civilian Senior Leader workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

5. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific recruiting and 

retention goals, especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies, including the 

program objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals and the funding needed 

to achieve such goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(A)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

discussed the process DOD uses to address gaps in the competencies in its Senior Executive Service 

workforce and how that process is used for recruiting and retention, but the plan did not include specific 

recruiting and retention goals. This process also did not include the Senior Level and Senior Technical 

workforces. Further, while the plan stated that DOD funded approximately $949,000 towards executive 

development and coaching, it was not immediately clear how these actions addressed recruiting and 

retention issues and the plan did not identify whether or how much funding will be needed in the future. The 

plan also did not include a discussion of the department’s Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service or 

Defense Intelligence Senior Level workforces.

◑

6. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific strategies for 

developing, training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian employee workforce of 

the department, including the program objectives of the department to be achieved through such 

strategies and the funding needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) 

referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

described the process and framework used to improve and develop the Senior Executive Service workforce. 

The plan also stated that information from the process will assist the department in closing gaps as more data 

are obtained. In addition, the plan discussed the department’s comprehensive approach to training and 

development for executives and provided examples that address critical leadership competencies. The plan 

did not include any information on the funding needed to implement such strategies. Further, the plan did not 

include any information on specific strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, and 

motivating the department’s Senior Level, Senior Technical, Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, 

or Defense Intelligence Senior Level workforces.

◑

7. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies including any incentives necessary to 

attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies identified [10 

U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)] 

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

stated a significant method of incentivizing Senior Executive Service is to offer individual career and 

developmental opportunities and geographic assignment preferences. The plan also stated that recruiting for 

the Senior Level and Senior Technical workforces is a government-wide concern and DOD is engaged in a 

White House Initiative to address this issue. The plan, however, did not provide information on incentives 

necessary to attract or retain Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service or Defense Intelligence Senior 

Level workforces.

◑

8. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies including any changes in the number of 

personnel authorized in any category of personnel listed in subsection (f)(1)a or in the acquisition 

workforce that may be needed to address such gaps and effectively meet the needs of the 

department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(D)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan addresses this requirement. The plan stated that in 

fiscal year 2013 DOD completed implementation of changes to the number of personnel in its Civilian Senior 

Leader workforces based on the results of the department’s 2011 efficiency initiative. Additionally, projections 

in the plan show changes to the number of personnel in each category of DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader 

workforce through fiscal year 2018. DOD’s acquisition workforce is addressed in a separate plan.

●
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 47 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Civilian Senior Leader workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

9. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies including any changes in resources or in 

the rates or methods of pay for any category of personnel listed in subsection (f)(1)a or in the 

acquisition workforce that may be needed to address inequities and ensure that the department 

has full access to appropriately qualified personnel to address such gaps and meet the needs of 

the Department [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(E)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan partially addresses this requirement. The plan 

stated that the department has performance-management systems in place to help ensure compensation for 

its Senior Executive Service, Senior Level, and Senior Technical workforces. DOD did not, however, provide 

any information related to the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service or Defense Intelligence Senior 

Leader workforces. DOD’s acquisition workforce is addressed in a separate plan.

◑

10. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes any legislative changes that 

may be necessary to achieve its recruiting and retention goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(B) 

referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(F)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan addresses this requirement. The plan provided 

information on a proposed legislative change that would require DOD to report only on its Senior Executive 

Service and Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, while the appropriate functional community would 

report on Senior Level and Senior Technical workforces. The proposal also seeks to eliminate the 

requirement to report on contractors for the senior-leader workforce.

●

11. Specific strategies for developing, training, deploying, compensating, motivating, and designing 

career paths and career opportunities [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan addresses this requirement. The plan identified the 

department’s effort to revise the scope of its Defense Executive Advisory Board.b This effort, according to the 

plan, will help the department maintain the caliber of its Senior Executive Service leadership, and will include 

a review of the board’s charter. In addition, the plan discussed efforts by the department to promote diversity 

and interest among civilian employees to join the executive ranks.

●

12. Specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to ensure that such workforce is 

managed in compliance with the requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 129 and the policies and procedures 

established under 10 U.S.C. § 129a [10 U.S.C. § 115b(c)(2)(D)]

Comments: DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader workforce plan addresses this requirement. According to the plan, 

Section 129 of Title 10 of the United States Code requires that DOD’s civilian personnel be managed solely 

on the basis of (1) workload required to carry out the functions and activities of the department, (2) the funds 

made available each fiscal year to the department and (3) the total force management policies and 

procedures established under section 129a of Title 10 of the United States Code. DOD’s plan stated that the 

department requires two specific sets of actions. First, manpower officials determine the department’s 

workforce requirements based on mission requirements, workload, and prescribed performance objectives. 

Second, the plan states that components are expected to review required resources annually and report their 

requirements to maintain current Senior Executive Service, Senior Level, and Senior Technical workforce 

allocations on a biennial basis, ranking all requirements by priority in relation to DOD’s mission and justifying 

funding for these positions.

●

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. | GAO-14-565

Legend:

●= Addressed—workforce plan discussed all aspects of the statutory requirement

◑ = Partially Addressed—workforce plan discussed some aspects of the statutory requirement

O = Not Addressed—workforce plan did not discuss any aspects of the statutory requirement

Notes: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan.
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 48 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

a

This reference likely should be read as referring to subparagraph (g)(1), which, prior to recent 

statutory amendments, was designated as subparagraph (f)(1). The current subsection (f) has no 

subparagraph (1).

b

The Department of Defense Executive Advisory Board is a board of Senior Executive Service 

leaders and general and flag officers across the components that advises the Deputy Secretary of 

Defense and other DOD senior leaders on the policy and management of Senior Executive Service 

career executives, as established by DOD Directive 1403.03, The Career Lifecycle Management of 

the Senior Executive Service Leaders Within the Department of Defense (Oct. 25, 2007).

Table 6: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent to Which DOD’s Financial Management Workforce Plan Addresses the Statutory 

Requirements in Section 115b of Title 10 of the United States Code

Financial Management workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

1. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies of the existing civilian employee workforce 

of the department and projected trends in that workforce based on expected losses due to 

retirement and other attrition [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

DOD identified 4 of the community’s 13 occupational series as mission-critical occupations that, according to 

DOD officials, constitute the critical skills for the existing Financial Management workforce. The community 

also identified the projected trends associated with those workforces due to retirement. Further, the 

community provided charts identifying projected targets for each mission-critical occupation through fiscal 

year 2017.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) also led an initiative that established a common 

taxonomy for competencies for individual financial-management occupations. This initiative resulted in the 

identification of 23 enterprise-wide financial-management competencies, which, according to the plan, are the 

critical knowledge, skills, and abilities that financial personnel need to meet the 21st-century national security 

mission. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) documented the 23 enterprise-wide 

competencies in a 2011 memorandum. According to officials in the Comptroller’s office, the office considers 

these competencies valid until a refresh is required—currently scheduled for fiscal year 2015. In addition, the 

community aligned the enterprise-wide competencies with the community’s existing mission-critical 

occupations and non-mission-critical occupations. For example, the financial administrative series has five 

competencies that are specific to that occupational series, including financial-management analysis, decision 

support, and financial reporting, among others, while one—financial stewardship—is an enterprise-wide 

competency for the entire financial-management community. Although not specifically stated in the plan, 

according to officials, DOD conducted competency assessments for the Financial Management functional 

community’s mission-critical occupations from April 7 to May 9, 2014, using the Defense Competency 

Assessment Tool. According to officials, the results of this assessment will be available by July 2014. 

However, we determined that DOD partially addressed this requirement because the assessment was not 

complete at the time of our review and the plan did not include details or the results of such an assessment of 

the community’s current critical competencies.

◑
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 49 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Financial Management workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

2. An assessment of the critical skills and competencies that will be needed in the future within the 

civilian employee workforce by the Department of Defense to support national security 

requirements and effectively manage the department during the five-year period corresponding 

to the current Future Years Defense Program [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 

115b(b)(1)(A)] 

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

The Financial Management functional community identified four mission-critical occupations that constitute 

the workforce’s critical skills, conducted a workforce analysis, and provided forecasts specifically for those 

four workforces for the 5 out-years.

In addition, the Comptroller-led initiative to establish a common taxonomy for competencies for individual 

financial-management occupations resulted in the identification of 23 enterprise-wide financial-management 

competencies. The Comptroller documented the 23 enterprise-wide competencies in a memorandum that, 

according to officials, the office considers to be valid until a refresh is required. In addition, the community 

aligned the enterprise-wide competencies with the existing mission-critical occupations and non-missioncritical occupations. As previously stated, DOD conducted an assessment of mission-critical occupation’s 

competencies from April 7 to May 9, 2014. The results of this assessment will likely enable DOD to determine 

if it has identified the right competencies for this community for the next 5 years. According to officials, the 

results of this assessment will be available by July 2014. However, we determined that DOD partially 

addressed this requirement because the assessment is not complete and the plan did not include details or 

the results of such an assessment of the community’s future critical competencies.

◑

3. An assessment of gaps in the existing or projected civilian employee workforce of the 

department that should be addressed to ensure that the department has continued access to the 

critical skills and competencies it needs [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 

115b(b)(1)(D)] 

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

The plan included information on staffing gap analyses for the community’s four mission-critical occupations, 

using fiscal year 2012 workforce data. The Financial Management functional community requested these 

data from 36 DOD organizations. The functional community’s forecasts found that what the plan 

characterized as small gaps in the Financial Administration series and the Auditing series would close during 

the fiscal year 2013-2018 time frame. For example, the plan stated that the Financial Administration series 

had the largest gap of 5.9 percent. The plan further stated that the functional community did not identify any 

significant gaps in the Accounting series and Budget Analysis series.

However, while the Financial Management functional community’s plan discusses these staffing gaps, it did 

not include competency-gap analyses for its mission-critical occupations or for the entire Financial 

Management workforce. According to officials from the Comptroller’s office, in April and the first part of May 

2014, DOD used the Defense Competency Assessment Tool—an enterprise-wide tool designed to assess 

competency gaps—that is expected to provide financial-management leadership with workforce data that will 

assist in identifying Financial Management workforce competency gaps.

◑

4. An assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and contractor personnel capabilities, 

as determined under the total force management policies and procedures established under 10 

U.S.C. § [129a 10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(A) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(1)(B)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan does not address this requirement. 

Specifically, the community did not provide an assessment of the appropriate mix of military, civilian, and 

contractor personnel capabilities. The plan focused primarily on the civilian Financial Management workforce 

but only provided demographic information on civilians in the mission-critical occupations. According to the 

plan, the Financial Management community also collected data for authorized and assigned military officers, 

warrant officers, and enlisted financial-management personnel, but did not provide similar demographic and 

projected target data for the military portion of the workforce.

o
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 50 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Financial Management workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

5. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific recruiting and 

retention goals, especially in areas identified as critical skills and competencies, including the 

program objectives of the department to be achieved through such goals and the funding needed 

to achieve such goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(A)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

The plan identified near-term opportunities to improve the workforce, and stated that the Financial 

Management workforce actively participated in the new Defense Civilian Emerging Leader Program to recruit 

and develop the next generation of leaders who possess needed technical and leadership competencies to 

meet the future leadership requirements of the department. As part of this program, the Financial 

Management community funded 30 participants for this leadership program in fiscal year 2012 and expected 

to fund an additional 30 in fiscal year 2013. The plan, however, did not identify specific recruiting and 

retention goals. The Financial Management functional community also did not include the funding needed to 

achieve the goals associated with this program. 

◑

6. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes specific strategies for 

developing, training, deploying, compensating, and motivating the civilian employee workforce of 

the department, including the program objectives of the department to be achieved through such 

strategies and the funding needed to implement such strategies [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(B) 

referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(B)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

The plan included a Mission Critical Occupation Strategy and Action Plan focused on the DOD Financial 

Management Certification Program. This community intends to use this strategy to develop a Financial 

Management workforce with the necessary competencies. According to the details of the strategy, DOD is 

consolidating multiple Financial Management workforce development efforts across DOD into a mandatory 

cohesive program to effectively educate, train, and certify financial-management personnel (civilian and 

military). This effort includes key financial-management and leadership competencies and will enable the 

Financial Management community to assess and close gaps.

Although the plan included a specific strategy for, among other things, developing and training the Financial 

Management workforce, the plan did not identify funding needed for that strategy. The plan stated only that 

the community coordinated funding needs with DOD’s components and that these funding needs were 

included in the fiscal year 2014 President’s Budget.

Officials from the Comptroller’s office told us that, as part of the fiscal year 2014 President’s Budget process, 

their office engaged with the military departments to assess the adequacy of current planned funding to 

implement and sustain the program. As a result of those efforts, approximately $13 million to $14 million per 

year was realigned across the fiscal year 2014-2018 Future Years Defense Program to address training 

shortfalls and to provide funding for additional web-based course development.

◑

7. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies including any incentives necessary to 

attract or retain any civilian personnel possessing the skills and competencies identified [10 

U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(B) referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan partially addresses this requirement. 

The plan provided some information on incentives—such as full permanent change-of-station reimbursement 

and family-friendly workplace, among others—used at the mid and senior levels of the Financial Management 

workforce, but it did not identify how the community used or uses these incentives to address gaps in the 

Financial Management workforce’s critical skills and competencies.

◑
Appendix IV: GAO’s Assessment of the Extent 

to Which DOD’s Civilian Workforce Plan 

Addresses Statutory Requirements

Page 51 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Financial Management workforce statutory requirements and comments Our assessment

8. A plan of action for developing and reshaping the civilian employee workforce of the department 

to address the gaps in critical skills and competencies that includes any legislative changes that 

may be necessary to achieve its recruiting and retention goals [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(B) 

referencing 10 U.S.C. § 115b(b)(2)(F)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan did not address this requirement. In 

this section of the report DOD did not address whether or not additional legislative changes are necessary to 

achieve the community’s recruiting and retention goals, while other portions of the plan either provided 

proposed legislative changes or indicated that no further changes were necessary.

o

9. Specific steps that the department has taken or plans to take to develop appropriate career paths 

for civilian employees in the financial management field and to implement the requirements of 10 

U.S.C. § 1599d [10 U.S.C. § 115b(e)(2)(C)]

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan addresses this requirement. The plan 

acknowledged that the department has not established enterprise-wide career paths for the 13 occupational 

series that constitute the financial-management career field. The plan also indicated, however, that the Office 

of the Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) began working on enterprise-wide career paths by collecting 

component-specific roadmaps from eight of the financial-management components with the largest 

concentration of financial-management personnel. The Comptroller’s office is reviewing these roadmaps for 

commonalities from an enterprise-wide perspective and will report progress on the development of 

enterprise-wide career paths in the fiscal year 2014-2019 Strategic Workforce Plan. The plan also outlined six 

major milestones for developing the enterprise-wide financial-management career paths, beginning with 

collecting the remaining component-specific career paths.

Regarding implementation of the requirements of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 

2012, (Pub. L. No. 112-81, § 1051 [2011], codified as amended at 10 U.S.C. § 1599d), which provided DOD 

the authority to prescribe certification and credentialing standards for the Financial Management community, 

according to officials DOD developed its course-based Financial Management Certification Program in 

response to the statute.

●

10. A plan for funding needed improvements in the financial management workforce of the 

department through the period of the current Future Years Defense Program including a 

description of any continuing shortfalls in funding available for that workforce [10 U.S.C. § 

115b(e)(2)(D)] 

Comments: DOD’s Financial Management functional community plan does not address this requirement. 

The plan stated that the Financial Management Certification Program is the primary strategy to improve the 

Financial Management workforce. The department intends for the Financial Management Certification 

Program to consolidate multiple financial management development efforts across DOD into a mandatory 

cohesive program to effectively educate, train, and certify financial-management personnel. In addition, 

according to the plan, the community has also identified a number of near-term opportunities to meet the 

current workforce demands. However, DOD did not include a plan for funding such improvements, nor did it 

address whether the potential for shortfalls exists currently or in the future. 

o

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. | GAO-14-565

Legend:

●= Addressed—workforce plan discussed aspects of the statutory requirement

◑ = Partially Addressed—workforce plan discussed some aspects of the statutory requirement

O = Not Addressed—workforce plan did not discuss any aspects of the statutory requirement

Note: Data are from DOD’s Fiscal Year 2013-2018 Strategic Workforce Plan.
Appendix V: Comments from the Department 

of Defense

Page 52 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Appendix V: Comments from the Department 

of Defense
Appendix V: Comments from the Department 

of Defense

Page 53 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan
Appendix VI: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments

Page 54 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Brenda S. Farrell, (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov

In addition to the above named contact, David Moser, Assistant Director; 

James Kernen; Steven Lozano; Brian Pegram; Michael Pose; Terry 

Richardson; Jennifer Weber; Erik Wilkins-McKee; and Michael Willems 

made key contributions to this report.

Appendix VI: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff 

Acknowledgments
Related GAO Products

Page 55 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Human Capital: Additional Steps Needed to Help Determine the Right 

Size and Composition of DOD’s Total Workforce. GAO-13-470. 

Washington, D.C.: May 29, 2013.

High-Risk Series: An Update. GAO-13-283. Washington, D.C.: February 

14, 2013.

Human Capital: Critical Skills and Competency Assessments Should Help 

Guide DOD Civilian Workforce Decisions. GAO-13-188. Washington, 

D.C.: January 17, 2013.

Human Capital: DOD Needs Complete Assessment to Improve Future 

Civilian Strategic Workforce Plans. GAO-12-1014. Washington, D.C.: 

September 27, 2012.

Human Capital: Complete Information and More Analyses Needed to 

Enhance DOD’s Civilian Senior Leader Strategic Workforce Plan. 

GAO-12-990R. September 19, 2012.

DOD Civilian Workforce: Observations on DOD’s Efforts to Plan for 

Civilian Workforce Requirements. GAO-12-962T. Washington, D.C.: July 

26, 2012.

Defense Acquisition Workforce: Improved Processes, Guidance, and 

Planning Needed to Enhance Use of Workforce Funds. GAO-12-747R. 

Washington, D.C.: June 20, 2012.

Defense Acquisitions: Further Actions Needed to Improve Accountability 

for DOD’s Inventory of Contracted Services. GAO-12-357. Washington, 

D.C.: April 6, 2012.

Defense Workforce: DOD Needs to Better Oversee In-sourcing Data and 

Align In-sourcing Efforts with Strategic Workforce Plans. GAO-12-319. 

Washington, D.C.: February 9, 2012.

DOD Civilian Personnel: Competency Gap Analyses and Other Actions 

Needed to Enhance DOD’s Strategic Workforce Plans. GAO-11-827T. 

Washington, D.C.: July 14, 2011.

Human Capital: Opportunities Exist for DOD to Enhance Its Approach for 

Determining Civilian Senior Leader Workforce Needs. GAO-11-136. 

Washington, D.C.: November 4, 2010.

Related GAO Products
Related GAO Products

Page 56 GAO-14-565 DOD's 2013-2018 Workforce Plan

Human Capital: Further Actions Needed to Enhance DOD’s Civilian 

Strategic Workforce Plan. GAO-10-814R. Washington, D.C.: September 

27, 2010.

Human Capital: Opportunities Exist to Build on Recent Progress to 

Strengthen DOD’s Civilian Human Capital Strategic Plan. GAO-09-235. 

Washington, D.C.: February 10, 2009.

Human Capital: The Department of Defense’s Civilian Human Capital 

Strategic Plan Does Not Meet Most Statutory Requirements.

GAO-08-439R. Washington, D.C.: February 6, 2008.

DOD Civilian Personnel: Comprehensive Strategic Workforce Plans 

Needed. GAO-04-753. Washington, D.C.: June 30, 2004.

(351873)
The Government Accountability Office, the audit, evaluation, and 

investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its 

constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and 

accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO 

examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and 

policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance 

to help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. 

GAO’s commitment to good government is reflected in its core values of 

accountability, integrity, and reliability.

The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no 

cost is through GAO’s website (http://www.gao.gov). Each weekday 

afternoon, GAO posts on its website newly released reports, testimony, 

and correspondence. To have GAO e-mail you a list of newly posted 

products, go to http://www.gao.gov and select “E-mail Updates.”

The price of each GAO publication reflects GAO’s actual cost of 

production and distribution and depends on the number of pages in the 

publication and whether the publication is printed in color or black and 

white. Pricing and ordering information is posted on GAO’s website, 

http://www.gao.gov/ordering.htm. 

Place orders by calling (202) 512-6000, toll free (866) 801-7077, or 

TDD (202) 512-2537. 

Orders may be paid for using American Express, Discover Card, 

MasterCard, Visa, check, or money order. Call for additional information.

Connect with GAO on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. 

Subscribe to our RSS Feeds or E-mail Updates. Listen to our Podcasts. 

Visit GAO on the web at www.gao.gov. 

Contact:

Website: http://www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm

E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov

Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470

Katherine Siggerud, Managing Director, siggerudk@gao.gov, (202) 512-

4400, U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 

7125, Washington, DC 20548

Chuck Young, Managing Director, youngc1@gao.gov, (202) 512-4800

U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149 

Washington, DC 20548

GAO’s Mission

Obtaining Copies of 

GAO Reports and 

Testimony

Order by Phone

Connect with GAO

To Report Fraud, 

Waste, and Abuse in 

Federal Programs

Congressional 

Relations

Public Affairs

Please Print on Recycled Paper.