Report to the Ranking Minority 

Member, Subcommittee on Readiness, 

Committee on Armed Services, House 

of Representatives 

United States General Accounting Office 

GAO

June 2004 DOD CIVILIAN 

PERSONNEL 

Comprehensive 

Strategic Workforce 

Plans Needed 

GAO-04-753 
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?-GAO-04-753.

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Derek Stewart 

at (202) 512-5559 or stewartd@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-04-753, a report to the 

Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee 

on Readiness, Committee on Armed 

Services, House of Representatives 

June 2004

DOD CIVILIAN PERSONNEL 

Comprehensive Strategic Workforce 

Plans Needed 

OSD, the service headquarters, and DLA have recently taken steps to 

develop and implement civilian strategic workforce plans to address future 

civilian workforce needs, but these plans generally lack some key elements 

essential to successful workforce planning. As a result, OSD, the military 

services’ headquarters, and DLA—herein referred to as DOD and the 

components—do not have comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide 

their human capital efforts. None of the plans included analyses of the gaps 

between critical skills and competencies (a set of behaviors that are critical 

to work accomplishment) currently needed by the workforce and those that 

will be needed in the future. Without including gap analyses, DOD and the 

components may not be able to effectively design strategies to hire, develop, 

and retain the best possible workforce. Furthermore, none of the plans 

contained results-oriented performance measures that could provide the 

data necessary to assess the outcomes of civilian human capital initiatives. 

The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their 

efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their need for 

information on current competencies and those that will likely be needed in 

the future. This problem results from DOD’s and the components’ not 

having developed tools to collect and/or store, and manage data on 

workforce competencies. Without this information, it not clear whether they 

are designing and funding workforce strategies that will effectively shape 

their civilian workforces with the appropriate competencies needed to 

accomplish future DOD missions. Senior department and component 

officials all acknowledged this shortfall and told us that they are taking steps 

to address this challenge. Though these are steps in the right direction, the 

lack of information on current competencies and future needs is a 

continuing problem that several organizations, including GAO, have 

previously identified. 

Strategic Workforce Planning Process 

Involvement

of management

and employees

Workforce

gap

analysis

Workforce strategies

to fill the gaps

Evaluation

of and 

revisions to

strategies

Source: GAO.

Set

strategic

direction

Build capability to support workforce strategies 

During its downsizing in the early 

1990s, the Department of Defense 

(DOD) did not focus on 

strategically reshaping its civilian 

workforce. GAO was asked to 

address DOD’s efforts to 

strategically plan for its future 

civilian workforce at the Office of 

the Secretary of Defense (OSD), 

the military services’ headquarters, 

and the Defense Logistics Agency 

(DLA). Specifically, GAO 

determined: (1) the extent to which 

civilian strategic workforce plans 

have been developed and 

implemented to address future 

civilian workforce requirements, 

and (2) the major challenges 

affecting the development and 

implementation of these plans. 

GAO recommends that DOD and 

the components include certain key

elements in their civilian strategic 

workforce plans to guide their 

human capital efforts. DOD 

concurred with one of our 

recommendations, and partially 

concurred with two others because 

it believes that the department has 

undertaken analyses of critical 

skills gaps and are using strategies 

and personnel flexibilities to fill 

identified skills gaps. We cannot 

verify DOD’s statement because 

DOD was unable to provide the gap 

analyses. In addition, we found 

that the strategies being used by 

the department have not been 

derived from analyses of gaps 

between the current and future 

critical skills and competencies 

needed by the workforce. 
Page i GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Letter 1

Results in Brief 4

Background 6

Steps Have Been Taken to Develop and Implement Strategic 

Workforce Plans, but Some Key Elements Are Lacking 13

Need for Information on Current and Future Workforce 

Competencies Is the Major Challenge to Effective Strategic 

Workforce Planning 19

Conclusions 21

Recommendations for Executive Action 21

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 22

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 25 

Related GAO Products 26 

Tables 

Table 1: Various Strategic Human Capital Management and 

Workforce Planning Guidance 12

Table 2: Steps Taken by DOD and the Components to Develop and 

Implement Strategic Workforce Plans 14

Figures 

Figure 1: Distribution of Civilian Employment by DOD Component, 

as of December 30, 2003 (655,545 Direct Hires) 8

Figure 2: Strategic Workforce Planning Process 11

Contents 
Page ii GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Abbreviations 

DLA Defense Logistics Agency 

DOD Department of Defense 

GAO General Accounting Office 

NSPS National Security Personnel System 

OMB Office of Management and Budget 

OPM Office of Personnel Management 

OSD Office of the Secretary of Defense 

OUSD/P&R Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 

Readiness 

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

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other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to 

reproduce this material separately. 
Page 1 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

June 30, 2004 

The Honorable Solomon P. Ortiz 

Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Readiness 

Committee on Armed Services 

House of Representatives 

Dear Mr. Ortiz: 

The achievement of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) mission is 

dependent in large part on the skills and expertise of its civilian 

workforce. DOD’s civilian workforce, among other things, develops policy, 

provides intelligence, manages finances, and acquires and maintains 

weapon systems. During its downsizing in the early 1990s, DOD did not 

focus on reshaping the civilian workforce in a strategic manner. This 

downsizing has resulted in a workforce characterized by a growing gap 

between older, experienced employees and younger, less experienced 

ones. With more than 50 percent of its civilian personnel becoming eligible 

to retire in the next 5 years, DOD may find it difficult to fill certain 

mission-critical jobs with qualified personnel. The problem is exacerbated 

by today’s emerging security threats and rapidly evolving technology. 

Civilian personnel have been deployed along with military personnel to 

participate in operations such as Iraqi Freedom, Desert Storm, Bosnia, and 

Kosovo. In addition, technological advances have generated the need for a 

DOD civilian workforce with more advanced education and greater 

technological skills. 

DOD has undertaken several human capital reforms that will affect its 

future civilian workforce of approximately 700,000 personnel. One major 

initiative is DOD’s creation of a new human capital management system, 

the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which will give the 

department significant flexibility for creating a new framework of rules, 

regulations, and processes to govern the way civilians are hired, 

compensated, promoted, and disciplined. In addition, DOD has undertaken 

efforts to convert over 20,000 military positions to civilian positions in 

fiscal years 2004 and 2005, and more conversions are to be addressed in 

fiscal year 2006 and the out-years. Futhermore, DOD was granted 

permanent authority beginning in fiscal year 2004 to extend buyouts to as 

many as 25,000 civilian employees each year to downsize or restructure 

the workforce to meet mission objectives. For these and other human 

United States General Accounting Office 

Washington, DC 20548 
Page 2 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

capital reforms to have maximum effectiveness and value, it is critical that 

DOD engage in effective strategic workforce planning. 

Leading public-sector organizations have found that strategic human 

capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change 

management initiative to transform the culture of government agencies. 

Strategic workforce planning, an integral part of human capital 

management, helps ensure that an organization has the staff with the 

necessary skills and competencies to accomplish its strategic goals.1

Critical skills are core mission and support occupations that are vital to 

the accomplishment of an agency’s goals and objectives. Competencies are 

a set of behaviors that encompass knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal 

attributes that are critical to successful work accomplishment. They 

describe what employees know, what they do, and how they do it and 

translate into effective on-the-job performance. 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 an 

organization’s workforce to achieve programmatic goals. The strategic 

workforce planning process includes five elements used by leading publicand private-sector organizations: (1) involvement of management, 

employees, and stakeholders in developing, communicating, and 

implementing strategic workforce plans; (2) performing analyses to 

identify critical skill and competency gaps between current and future 

workforce needs; (3) developing strategies to fill these skill and 

competency gaps; (4) building the capability necessary to address 

administrative, educational, or other requirements to support workforce 

strategies; and (5) monitoring and evaluating progress and the 

contribution of strategic workforce planning efforts in achieving program 

goals. 

In recent years, we have examined various aspects of DOD’s human 

capital management of its civilian workforce. For example, in March 2000, 

we testified that a strategic approach should be used to guide DOD civilian 

 1

 The Government Performance and Results Act required that an agency’s strategic plan 

cover a period of at least 5 years forward from the fiscal year in which it was submitted. We 

have reported that the act’s strategic planning requirements provide a useful framework for 

agencies to integrate their human capital strategies with their strategic and programmatic 

planning. See U.S. General Accounting Office, A Model of Strategic Human Capital 

Management, GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002). 
Page 3 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

workforce management. We further testified that DOD must define the 

kind of workforce it will need in the coming years, develop plans for 

creating that workforce, and follow up with the actions and investments 

needed so that the right employees—with the right skills, training, tools, 

structures, and performance incentives—will be on hand in the years to 

come.2 In March 2003, we reported on the department’s strategic planning 

efforts for civilian personnel both at DOD and selected defense 

components.3

 In that report we recommended that the Secretary of 

Defense strengthen civilian human capital planning, including integration 

with military personnel and sourcing initiatives. DOD did not concur with 

our recommendation and stated that it presently has both a military and 

civilian plan; the use of contractors is just another tool to accomplish the 

mission, not a separate workforce, with separate needs, to manage. In 

April 2003, we issued a report on DOD’s strategic workforce planning 

efforts for its civilian industrial workforce.4

 We recommended, among 

other things, that the Secretaries of the services and the Commandant of 

the Marine Corps improve the quality and comprehensiveness of the 

services’ workforce planning efforts for civilian industrial employees. DOD 

concurred with most of our recommendations and highlighted the 

importance the department places in human capital management. 

In our 2001 High-Risk Series and Performance and Accountability Series 

and again in 2003, we designated strategic human capital as a high-risk 

area and stated that serious human capital shortfalls are threatening the 

ability of many federal agencies to economically, efficiently, and 

effectively perform their missions.5

 2

 U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Strategic Approach Should Guide DOD 

Civilian Workforce Management, GAO/T-GGD/NSIAD-00-120 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 9, 

2000). 

3

 U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Personnel: DOD Actions Needed to Strengthen 

Civilian Human Capital Strategic Planning and Integration with Military Personnel 

and Sourcing Decisions, GAO-03-475 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 28, 2003). 

4

 U.S. General Accounting Office, DOD Civilian Personnel: Improved Strategic Planning 

Needed to Help Ensure Viability of DOD’s Civilian Industrial Workforce, GAO-03-472

(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 30, 2003). 

5

 U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263 (Washington, 

D.C.: January 2001); U.S. General Accounting Office, Performance Accountability Series—

Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: A Governmentwide Perspective, 

GAO-01-241 (Washington, D.C.: January 2001); and U.S. General Accounting Office, Major 

Management Challenges and Program Risks: A Governmentwide Perspective, GAO-03-95

(Washington, D.C.: January 2003). 
Page 4 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

This report addresses DOD’s efforts to strategically plan for its future 

civilian workforce at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the 

military services’ headquarters, and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). 

As agreed with your office, we determined (1) the extent to which civilian 

strategic workforce plans have been developed and implemented to 

address future civilian workforce requirements and (2) the major 

challenges affecting the development and implementation of civilian 

strategic workforce plans. 

To determine the extent to which OSD, the military services’ headquarters, 

and DLA (hereinafter referred to as “DOD and the components”)6

 have 

developed and implemented strategic workforce plans to address future 

civilian workforce requirements, we obtained their workforce planning 

documents and evaluated their strategic workforce planning efforts in 

terms of the five strategic workforce planning elements noted above. We 

tested the reliability of selected Defense Civilian Personnel Data System 

data used for workforce analysis and reviewed the internal controls 

related to the management of the system. We determined that the data 

were sufficiently reliable to meet our objectives. To determine what 

challenges affect OSD’s, the service headquarters’, and DLA’s development 

and implementation of civilian strategic workforce plans, we interviewed 

officials and obtained, reviewed, and analyzed documentation to identify 

the challenges that affect planning. We conducted our review from April 

2003 through June 2004 in accordance with generally accepted 

government auditing standards. Further details on our scope and 

methodology are presented in appendix I. A list of recent GAO products 

related to federal agencies’ management of human capital is included at 

the end of this report. 

The Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military services’ headquarters, 

and DLA have taken steps to develop and implement civilian strategic 

workforce plans to address future civilian workforce needs, but these 

plans generally lack some key elements essential to successful workforce 

planning. As a result, DOD and the components do not have 

comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide their human capital 

efforts. None of the plans included analyses of the gaps between the 

 6

 Throughout this report, the term “component” refers to DLA and all the services in DOD. 

The term “service” refers to the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, or the 

U.S. Navy. 

Results in Brief 
Page 5 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

critical skills and competencies currently needed by the workforce and 

those that will be needed in the future. Analyses of gaps between critical 

skills and competencies are critical to mapping out the current condition 

of the workforce and deciding what needs to be done to ensure that the 

department and components have the right mix of skills and talents for the 

future. As a result, none of the human capital strategies contained in the 

strategic workforce plans were derived from such analyses. Without 

including analyses of gaps in critical skills and competencies, DOD and the 

components may not be able to design and fund the best strategies to fill 

their talent needs through recruiting and hiring or to make appropriate 

investments to develop and retain the best possible workforce. 

Furthermore, none of the plans contained results-oriented performance 

measures; that is, the plans did not reflect the measures that could provide 

meaningful data necessary to assess the outcomes of their civilian human 

capital initiatives. Without these measures, DOD and the components 

cannot gauge the extent to which their human capital investments 

contribute to achieving their organizations’ programmatic goals. 

The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their 

efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their need 

for information on current personnel competencies and those that will 

likely be needed in the future. This problem results from DOD and the 

components not having developed tools to collect and/or store, and 

manage data on workforce competencies. Without this information it 

cannot be determined whether DOD and the components are designing 

and funding workforce strategies that will effectively shape the civilian 

workforce with the appropriate competencies needed to accomplish 

future DOD missions. Senior department and component officials all 

acknowledged this shortfall and told us that they are taking steps to 

address this challenge. For example, in July 2003, the Army formed a 

working group to identify its civilian personnel competencies. In February 

2004, the Navy implemented an online survey instrument to collect 

competency data for its civilian workforce. The Navy has also partnered 

with a contractor to manage its competency collection process. In July 

2004, DLA plans to implement an automated skills inventory tool to 

capture the competencies of its current workforce. Though these are steps 

in the right direction, the lack of information on current competencies and 

future needs is a continuing problem that several organizations, including 

GAO, have previously identified. 

We are making recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to have DOD 

and the components include more key elements in their civilian strategic 

workforce plans to help guide their human capital efforts. DOD provided 
Page 6 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

oral comments after reviewing a draft of this report, concurring with one 

of our three recommendations, and partially concurring with two others. 

In partially concurring with our recommendation to analyze and document 

critical skills and competency gaps between its current and future 

workforces, the department stated that it recently began analyses between 

gaps in the critical skills currently needed and those needed in the future. 

We cannot verify DOD’s statement because DOD was unable to provide 

any specific documentation showing that it had performed gap analyses. 

Regarding gap analyses of competencies, DOD stated that the value of 

conducting a global gap analysis between current competencies and those 

needed for the future is unclear. Our recommendation did not suggest that 

DOD conduct a global gap analysis of competencies for its entire civilian 

workforce. Rather, we recommended that DOD analyze and document the 

gaps between current critical skills and competencies and those needed 

for the future workforce. In partially concurring with our recommendation 

to develop workforce strategies to fill identified workforce gaps in skills 

and competencies, the department stated that it is actively engaged in 

developing strategies to fill identified skills gaps and noted that its new 

human capital management system, the National Security Personnel 

System, will provide for increased personnel flexibilities designed to help 

support the department’s strategic workforce planning efforts. The 

department also noted that it continues to use existing flexibilities such as 

recruitment and retention bonuses, and relocation allowances. In our 

report, we acknowledge that DOD and the components have implemented 

various strategies to address workforce imbalances. However, as we noted 

in our report, these strategies have not been derived from analyses of 

critical skills and competency gaps. 

With almost 700,000 civilian employees on its payroll, DOD is the second 

largest federal employer of civilians in the nation, after the Postal Service. 

The achievement of DOD’s mission is dependent in large part on the skills 

and expertise of its civilian workforce. DOD’s civilian workforce, among 

other things, develops policy, provides intelligence, manages finances, and 

acquires and maintains weapon systems. Because of the global war on 

terrorism, the role of DOD’s civilian workforce is expanding to include 

participation in combat support functions, thus enhancing the availability 

of military personnel to focus on warfighting duties for which they are 

uniquely qualified. Career civilian personnel possess “institutional 

memory,” which is particularly important in DOD because of the frequent 

rotation of military personnel and the short tenure of the average political 

appointee. 

Background 
Page 7 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Since the end of the Cold War, the civilian workforce has undergone 

substantial change, due primarily to downsizing, base realignments and 

closures, competitive sourcing initiatives, and DOD’s changing mission. 

For example, between fiscal years 1989 and 2002, DOD’s civilian 

workforce shrank from 1,075,437 to 670,166—about a 38 percent 

reduction.7 As of December 30, 2003, DOD’s civilian workforce was down 

to 655,545 employees. DOD performed this downsizing without proactively 

shaping the civilian workforce to ensure that it had the specific skills and 

competencies needed to accomplish future DOD missions. A consequence 

of this lack of attention to force shaping can be seen in the age distribution 

of the civilian workforce in comparison to the distribution at the start of 

the drawdown. Today’s workforce is older and more experienced, but 57 

percent of the workforce will be eligible for early or regular retirement in 

the next 5 years. 

As shown in figure 1, as of December 30, 2003, the military services 

employed about 85 percent of DOD’s civilians; 15 percent were employed 

by other defense organizations. 

 7

 These numbers do not include indirect-hire employees. 
Page 8 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Figure 1: Distribution of Civilian Employment by DOD Component, as of 

December 30, 2003 (655,545 Direct Hires) 

a

Other Defense organizations include Defense agencies, DOD field activities, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 

Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the Office of the 

Secretary of Defense. 

b

The Department of the Navy includes Navy and Marine Corps personnel. 

DOD has undertaken several human capital reforms that will affect the 

future civilian workforce. In November 2003, Congress, in making 

authorizations for DOD, authorized the Secretary of Defense to establish a 

new human capital management system, the National Security Personnel 

System.8

 The law granted DOD exemptions from laws governing federal 

civilian personnel management found in title 5 of the United States Code.9

Congress provided these flexibilities in response to DOD’s position that 

the inflexibility of federal personnel systems was one of the most 

important constraints to the department’s ability to attract, retain, reward, 

and develop a civilian workforce to meet the national security mission of 

 8

 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-136, § 1101 

(codified at 5 U.S.C. § 9902). 

9

 Congress did not exempt DOD from provisions of title 5 pertaining to veterans’ 

preference, merit systems principles, prohibited personnel practices, and equal 

employment opportunity. 

DOD Civilian Human 

Capital Reforms 

15%

23%

28%

34%

Army (223,584)

Other Defense organizations (99,630)a

Air Force (152,029)

Navy (180,302)b

Sources: DOD (data); GAO (analysis).
Page 9 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

the 21st century. The NSPS will give the department significant flexibility 

for creating a new framework of rules, regulations, and processes to 

govern the way that civilians are hired, compensated, promoted, and 

disciplined. 

Congress also granted DOD other new personnel flexibilities, including 

permanent authority to extend separation incentives (commonly referred 

to as “buyouts”) to induce as many as 25,000 civilians to voluntarily leave 

federal service. These separation incentives may be used to, among other 

things, reshape or reduce the department’s civilian workforce. In 

December 2003, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 

Readiness authorized the military services’ headquarters and DOD 

components to immediately initiate buyouts as long as affected employees 

leave government service during fiscal year 2004. 

In addition, DOD has undertaken efforts to expand the use of its civilian 

workforce to perform combat support functions traditionally performed 

by military personnel. In December 2003, the Under Secretary of Defense 

(Comptroller) directed the military services to convert over 20,000 military 

positions to civilian positions in fiscal years 2004 and 2005; more 

conversions are to be addressed in fiscal year 2006 and the out-years. 

Studies by several organizations, including GAO, have shown that 

successful organizations in both the public and private sectors use 

strategic management approaches to prepare their workforces to meet 

present and future mission requirements. We have found that these 

organizations have used strategic workforce planning as a management 

tool to develop a case for human capital investments and to anticipate and 

prepare for upcoming human capital issues that could jeopardize the 

accomplishment of goals.10 Strategic human capital planning begins with 

establishing a clear set of organizational intents—including a clearly 

defined mission, core values, goals and objectives, and strategies—and 

then developing an approach to support these strategic and programmatic 

goals. Strategic workforce planning, an integral part of human capital 

management, requires systematic assessments of current and future 

human capital needs and strategies—which encompass a broad array of 

initiatives to attract, retain, develop, and motivate a top-quality 

 10 GAO-02-373SP and U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Key Principles for 

Effective Strategic Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003). 

Strategic Workforce 

Planning 
Page 10 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

workforce—to fill the gaps between an agency’s current and future 

workforce needs. Approaches to such planning vary according to agencyspecific needs and mission, but our work suggests that, irrespective of the 

context in which planning is done, such a process should address five key 

elements (see fig. 2): 

1. Involvement of management and employees: Efforts that address key 

organizational issues, like strategic workforce planning, are most likely 

to succeed if, at their outset, agencies’ top program and human capital 

leaders set the overall direction, pace, tone, and goals of the effort, and 

involve employees and stakeholders in establishing a communication 

strategy that creates shared expectations for the outcomes of the 

process. 

2. Workforce gap analysis: Identifying whether gaps exist between the 

current and future workforces needed to meet program goals is critical 

to ensuring proper staffing. The absence of fact-based gap analyses can 

undermine an agency’s efforts to identify and respond to current and 

emerging challenges. The analysis of the current workforce should 

identify how many personnel have the skills and competencies needed 

to meet program goals and how many are likely to remain with the 

agency over time, given expected losses due to retirement and other 

attrition. The characteristics of the future workforce should be based 

on the specific skills and competencies that will be needed. The 

workforce gap analyses can help justify budget and staff requests by 

linking the program goals and strategies with the budgetary and staff 

resources needed to accomplish them. 

3. Workforce strategies to fill the gaps: Developing strategies to address 

any identified workforce gaps in critical skills and competencies 

creates the road map needed to move from the current to the future 

workforce. Strategies address how the workforce is acquired, 

developed and trained, deployed, compensated, motivated, and 

retained. 

4. Build-up of capability to support workforce strategies: As agencies 

develop tailored workforce plans and the administrative, educational, 

and other requirements that are important to support them, it is 

especially important to educate managers and employees about the 

human capital flexibilities so that the flexibilities are implemented 

openly, fairly, and effectively. 

5. Evaluation of and revisions to strategies: Evaluating the results of the 

workforce strategies and making needed revisions helps to ensure that 
Page 11 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

the strategies work as intended. A key step is developing resultsoriented performance measures as indicators of success in attaining 

human capital goals and program goals, both short- and long-term. 

Periodic measurement and evaluation provide data for identifying 

shortfalls and opportunities to revise workforce plans as necessary. 

Figure 2: Strategic Workforce Planning Process 

These concepts are especially relevant in considering the human capital 

reforms that DOD has under way that will fundamentally change the way it 

manages its civilian workforce. Because DOD is one of the largest 

employers of federal civilian employees, how it approaches human capital 

management sends important signals about trends and expectations for 

federal employment across the government. More importantly, the role 

that DOD’s civilian workforce plays in support of our national security 

makes DOD’s approach to managing its people a matter of fundamental 

public interest. 

Involvement

of management

and employees

Workforce gap

analysis

Workforce strategies

to fill the gaps

Evaluation of 

and revisions

to strategies

Source: GAO.

Set strategic

direction

Build capability to support workforce strategies 
Page 12 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Four agencies—GAO, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the 

Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Office of the Under 

Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (OUSD/P&R)—have 

developed guidance for human capital management and workforce 

planning. Highlights of this guidance are presented in table 1. 

Table 1: Various Strategic Human Capital Management and Workforce Planning Guidance 

Agency Guidance 

GAO In March 2002, we issued an exposure draft of our model of strategic human capital management to help 

federal agency leaders effectively lead and manage their people. The model is designed to help agency 

leaders effectively use their people and determine how well they integrate human capital considerations 

into daily decision making and planning for the program results they seek. 

OMB In October 2001, OMB developed standards of success for strategic human capital management—one 

of five governmentwide reform initiatives in the President’s Management Agenda. 

OPM In December 2001, OPM released a human capital scorecard to assist agencies in responding to the 

OMB standards for success; later in October 2002, OMB and OPM developed—in collaboration with 

GAO—revised standards for success. To assist agencies in responding to the revised standards, OPM 

released the Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. 

OUSD/P&R In April 2002, OUSD/P&R published a departmentwide strategic plan, the Civilian Human Resources 

Strategic Plan, to set forth its vision to design, develop, and implement human resource policies, 

strategies, systems, and tools to ensure a mission-ready civilian workforce. 

Source: GAO. 

Congress has additionally recognized the importance of workforce 

planning and, in 2002, added to the Government Performance and Results 

Act a provision requiring the Chief Human Capital Officer of each agency 

to prepare an annual plan that provides a description of how the 

performance goals and objectives are to be achieved, including the 

operation processes, training, skills, and technology, and the human 

capital, information, and other resources and strategies required to meet 

those performance goals and objectives.11

 11 See Pub. L. No. 107-296, § 1311(a)(1), which rewrote 31 U.S.C. § 1115(a)(3); See Pub. L. 

No. 107-296, § 1311(a)(2-3), which redesignated former subsection (f) as (g) and added a 

new subsection (f). 

Guidance for Managing 

Strategic Workforce 

Planning 
Page 13 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Although the DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and 

implement strategic workforce plans, the plans lack some key planning 

elements. As a result, the plans are not comprehensive. DOD and most of 

the components we reviewed have involved top-level management, staff, 

and stakeholders in the development and implementation of their strategic 

workforce plans; however involvement has been limited in the Navy but 

increasing. The strategic workforce plans have also included the 

identification of critical skills currently needed by the workforce and 

those needed in the future, as well as administrative, educational, and 

other requirements developed to support workforce strategies. However, 

the plans are not comprehensive because they lack some key elements 

essential for successful workforce planning. For example, the strategic 

workforce plans lacked analyses of gaps in critical skills and 

competencies, human capital strategies derived from analyses that 

identified such gaps, and results-oriented performance measures. 

DOD and most of the components we reviewed have involved top-level 

management, staff, and stakeholders in the development and 

implementation of their strategic workforce plans. However, involvement 

has been limited but increasing in the Navy. The strategic workforce plans 

have also included the identification of critical skills currently needed by 

the workforce and those that will be needed by the workforce in the 

future, as well as agencywide plans and procedures to support workforce 

strategies. Table 2 provides an overview of the steps taken by DOD and the 

components toward developing and implementing strategic workforce 

plans in terms of the five key strategic workforce planning elements. 

Steps Have Been 

Taken to Develop and 

Implement Strategic 

Workforce Plans, but 

Some Key Elements 

Are Lacking 

DOD and Components 

Have Taken Some 

Strategic Workforce 

Planning Steps 
Page 14 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Table 2: Steps Taken by DOD and the Components to Develop and Implement Strategic Workforce Plans 

Key strategic workforce planning elements OSD Army Navy 

Marine 

Corps Air Force DLA 

Involvement of management and 

employees 

 

Top management set the overall strategic 

direction. 

Yes Yes Yesa Yes Yes Yes 

Employees and stakeholders involved in 

developing and implementing future workforce 

strategies. 

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Communication strategy established to create 

shared expectations, promote transparency, 

and report progress. 

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Workforce gap analysis 

Identification of current and future critical 

skills. 

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Analysis of gaps between current and future 

critical skills. 

No No No No No No 

Identification of current and future 

competencies. 

No No No Yes No No 

Analysis of gaps between current and future 

competencies. 

No No No No No No 

Workforce strategies to fill the gaps 

Strategies derived from analyses of critical 

skills and competency gaps. 

No No No No No No 

Build capability to support workforce 

strategies 

 

Administrative, educational, and other 

requirements developed to support workforce 

strategies. 

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 

Evaluate and revise strategies 

Result-oriented performance measures 

established to evaluate plans. 

No No No No No No 

Sources: DOD (data); GAO (analysis). 

a

Subsequent to our exit conference with DOD and the components to discuss the results of our work, 

a Department of the Navy official provided us with a draft human capital strategic plan for the civilian 

workforce (Department of the Navy Human Capital Management: An Overview, April 2004). However, 

we did not have time to assess the plan because of the short period of time between the time when 

the draft plan was provided and the issuance of this report. 

While DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and 

implement civilian strategic workforce plans, their plans generally lacked 

some key elements essential to successful workforce planning. 

Strategic Workforce Plans 

Lack Some Key Elements 
Page 15 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Specifically, none of the plans included analyses of gaps between the 

critical skills and competencies currently needed by the workforce and 

those that will be needed in the future. As a result, none of the human 

capital strategies contained in the strategic workforce plans were derived 

from analyses that identified gaps in critical workforce skills or 

competencies needed by DOD and the components to meet future 

strategic goals. Furthermore, none of the plans contained results-oriented 

performance measures. As a result, DOD and the components do not have 

comprehensive strategic workforce plans to guide their human capital 

efforts. Without comprehensive strategic workforce plans, DOD and the 

components may not know the competencies of the current and future 

staff, what gaps exist in skills and competencies, and what their workforce 

strategies should be. This is especially important as changes in national 

security, technology, budget constraints, and other factors alter the 

environment within which DOD operates. 

As previously discussed, the civilian strategic workforce plans we 

reviewed included information about the current and future critical skills. 

However, none of the plans included analyses of gaps between the critical 

skills and competencies currently needed and those needed in the future. 

GAO and others have reported that it is important to analyze future 

workforce needs to (1) assist organizations in tailoring initiatives for 

recruiting, developing, and retaining personnel to meet their future needs 

and (2) provide the rationale and justification for obtaining resources and, 

if necessary, additional authority to carry out those initiatives. We also 

stated that to build the right workforce to achieve strategic goals, it is 

essential that organizations determine the critical skills and 

competencies—a set of behaviors that encompass knowledge, skills, 

abilities, and personal attributes—that are critical to successful work 

accomplishment. To do so, the following data are needed: 

• What is available—both current workforce characteristics and future 

availability. This is accomplished by assessing the current workforce—

defining the number and types of competencies for employees in each 

occupational group; determining the skill levels for each competency; and 

assessing how they will evolve over time, factoring in such events as 

retirements. 

• What is needed—the critical workforce characteristics needed in the 

future. This is accomplished by analyzing the future workforce—

developing specifications for the kinds, numbers, and location of 

personnel it will need to address its future challenges. 

• What is the difference between what will be available and what will be 

needed—that is, the gap. This is especially important as changes in 

Strategic Workforce Plans Did 

Not Analyze Critical Skills and 

Competency Gaps 
Page 16 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

national security, technology, and other factors alter the environment 

within which DOD and the components operate. 

We reported that DOD and the four military services lacked information 

about their future workforce needs in a March 2003 report on strategic 

planning efforts for civilian personnel.12 We pointed out that a National 

Academy of Public Administration study noted DOD’s increasing reliance 

on contractor personnel, and its need for civilian personnel expertise to 

protect the government’s interest and ensure effective oversight of 

contractors’ work. We recommended that DOD define the future civilian 

workforce, identifying the required characteristics (e.g., the skills and 

competencies, number, deployment, etc.) of personnel needed, and 

determine the workforce gaps that needed to be addressed through human 

capital initiatives. DOD did not concur with our recommendation and 

stated that this action was already being accomplished through 

information provided to OMB and OPM for the President’s Management 

Agenda Scorecard.13 However, DOD did not provide us with this 

information during the course of our prior review. Based on our current 

review of the data being supplied to OMB and OPM, we determined that 

the data are not sufficiently comprehensive to fully address the broader 

elements of workforce planning that we have endorsed to ensure that 

workforce data be compiled and analyzed as an integral part of the 

strategic workforce planning process and factored into planning for 

human capital initiatives. 

Though DOD and the components have implemented various strategies to 

address expected workforce imbalances, these strategies have not been 

derived from analyses of gaps between the critical skills and competencies 

currently needed by the workforce and those that will be needed in the 

future. Without analyzing critical skills and competency gaps, DOD and the 

components may not be able to design and invest in strategies that will 

effectively and efficiently transition to the future workforce they desire 

and need. 

Applying this principle to strategic workforce planning means that 

agencies consider how hiring, training, staff development, performance 

 12 GAO-03-475. 

13 As part of the President’s management agenda for improving government performance, 

OMB evaluates executive agencies, including DOD’s performance in five major 

management categories, including human capital management. 

Workforce Strategies Generally 

Not Derived from Analyses of 

Critical Skills and Competency 

Gaps 
Page 17 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

management, and other human capital strategies can be used to close gaps 

and gain the critical skills and competencies needed in the future. GAO 

and others have reported that it is important to analyze future workforce 

needs to assist organizations in tailoring initiatives for recruiting, 

developing, and retaining personnel to meet their future needs, and to 

provide the rationale and justification for obtaining and targeting 

resources and, if necessary, additional authority to carry out those 

initiatives. Although not based on formal analyses of skills and 

competency gaps, DOD and the components have implemented various 

recruitment, retention, training and professional development, and 

compensation strategies to address workforce imbalances. 

• The Army is planning to hire more entry-level professional, administrative, 

and technical personnel through its career intern program in preparation 

for expected retirements of civilians in leadership positions. In addition, it 

is offering bonuses for engineers, scientists, and computer specialists; 

accelerated promotions for engineers; permanent change-of-station moves 

for all interns; and in some cases, advanced in-hire pay rates. According to 

the Army, all of these initiatives will help grow the leaders of tomorrow, 

accomplish the necessary transfer of institutional knowledge, and restore 

a more balanced age distribution to the Army’s workforce. 

• The Navy (including the Marine Corps) has implemented a variety of 

recruitment, retention, and retirement strategies to address its aging 

civilian workforce. One particular strategy involves hiring retired military 

personnel, who are well-seasoned employees already familiar with the 

knowledge and skills necessary to maintain the Navy’s mission. 

• The Air Force has developed a strategy centered on enhancing recruitment 

efforts, investing in the workforce through skill proficiency training and 

leadership development, and establishing incentives for force shaping. As 

of April 2004, the Air Force had hired 1,381 interns since fiscal year 2000. 

According to the Air Force, the intern program is a key element of the Air 

Force renewal effort. In addition, the Air Force believes that force 

development plays a central role in creating a workforce that is ready for 

the challenges of its aerospace mission to ensure the orderly transfer of 

institutional knowledge as well as develop new skills for the aerospace 

mission. According to an Air Force official, in fiscal year 2002, the Air 

Force invested $9 million in civilian leadership training as a direct result of 

its aging workforce profile. 

• DLA has created a Corporate Intern Program that provides systematic 

training and on-the-job training work experience. DLA plans to hire 

approximately 150 interns per year through fiscal year 2007. According to 

a DLA official, 518 interns had been hired since 2000. DLA developed a 

Professional Enhancement Program to help high-potential employees in 

grades 12 to 15 to increase their knowledge and/or skills. 
Page 18 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

While these strategies are important efforts to help shape DOD’s and the 

components’ future as the current workforce becomes eligible for 

retirement, these strategies have not been derived from analyses of gaps 

between the critical skills and competencies currently needed by the 

workforce and those that will be needed in the future. Therefore, it is 

unknown whether these strategies will lead to a desirable future 

workforce that will help attain programmatic goals. 

DOD and the components have not developed results-oriented 

performance measures to provide a basis for evaluating workforce 

planning effectiveness. Thus, DOD and the components cannot gauge the 

extent to which their human capital initiatives contribute to achieving 

their organizations’ missions. Performance measures, appropriately 

designed, can be used to gauge two types of success: (1) progress toward 

reaching human capital goals and (2) the contribution of human capital 

activities toward achieving programmatic goals. These measures can also 

improve the effectiveness of workforce planning strategies, the overall 

workforce planning process, and oversight, by identifying shortfalls in 

performance and other improvement opportunities, such as corrective 

actions that can be incorporated into the next planning cycle. Without 

results-oriented measures, it is difficult for an organization to assess the 

effectiveness of its human capital initiatives in supporting its overarching 

mission and goals. 

DOD and the components have not defined practical, meaningful measures 

that assess the effectiveness of human capital management. For example, 

DOD’s fiscal year 2003 Annual Report on civilian human resources 

emphasized the department’s efforts to achieve activity-oriented goals, 

such as employee satisfaction with DOD employment, diversity in 

management positions, and new hire turnover rates. While this is useful 

for tracking DOD’s progress, it does not gauge how well DOD’s human 

capital efforts helped the department achieve its programmatic goals. As a 

result, the link between specific human capital strategies and strategic 

program outcomes is not clear. 

Strategic Workforce Plans for 

Civilian Personnel Lack 

Results-Oriented Performance 

Measures to Monitor and 

Evaluate Progress 
Page 19 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

The major challenge that DOD and most of the components face in their 

efforts to develop and implement strategic workforce plans is their need 

for information on current workforce competencies and the competencies 

they anticipate needing in the future. This problem results from DOD’s and 

the components’ not having developed tools to collect and/or store, and 

manage data on workforce competencies that are critical to successful 

work accomplishment. As a result, it is not clear whether they are 

designing and funding workforce strategies that will effectively shape the 

civilian workforce with the appropriate competencies needed to 

accomplish future DOD missions. 

Effective workforce planning requires that human capital staff and other 

managers base their workforce analyses and human capital decisions on 

complete, accurate, and timely personnel data. Senior department and 

component officials all acknowledged this shortfall, and told us that they 

are taking steps to address this challenge. Though these are steps in the 

right direction, the lack of information on current competencies and future 

needs is a continuing problem that several organizations, including GAO, 

have previously identified. 

In our March 2003 report on DOD strategic human capital management, 

we reported that DOD had begun adopting the Army’s Civilian Forecasting 

System and its Workforce Analysis Support System for departmentwide 

use. According to DOD, those systems are still being evaluated by the 

Strategic Integration Division in the Civilian Personnel Management 

Service (CPMS) at OSD and CPMS is trying to make this software easier to 

use. However, the systems do not collect, store, and manage data on 

current and future competencies. The Army is working with OPM to link 

its Civilian Forecasting System and Workforce Analysis Support System to 

OPM’s Human Resources Management database to perform competency 

forecasts. 

In April 2001, the Army commissioned a contractor to, among other things, 

assist in assessing its civilian workforce and to develop new concepts for 

workforce planning. The contractor concluded that the Army’s forecasting 

models are largely based on the current occupational series and grade 

structure and do not lend themselves to forecasting the supply of 

multiskilled civilians with the competencies needed in the future. The 

contractor recommended that the Army develop a competency-based 

inventory of the current workforce using, among other types of 

information, core and occupation-specific competencies. According to an 

Army official, in July 2003, the Army formed a Competency Area Review 

Work Group that consists of the Chief of Workforce Analyses and 

Need for Information 

on Current and Future 

Workforce 

Competencies Is the 

Major Challenge to 

Effective Strategic 

Workforce Planning 
Page 20 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Forecasting in Civilian Personnel Policy, some operations research 

analysts, and personnel specialists to identify the civilian personnel 

competencies and competency measures. According to an Army official, 

the group is constructing a competency database that will eventually 

contain competencies on all employees. By the end of July 2004, the Army 

will have occupational forecasts linked to competencies for a subset of the 

Army’s workforce. In fiscal year 2005, the remaining workforce will be 

linked by occupation to competencies. 

Like the other agencies, the Navy currently does not have the means to 

collect, store, and manage data on workforce competencies. In August 

2000, a National Academy of Public Administration study for the Navy 

pointed out that strategic workforce planning should include automated 

tools to identify the tasks and competency requirements of its civilian 

workforce. In February 2004, the Navy implemented an online survey 

instrument to collect competency data for its civilian workforce. It has 

also partnered with a private-sector contractor to manage the competency 

collection process. The safety community of the Navy was the first to 

initiate the pilot. The process is the same that is being used to collect 

competencies for Navy sailors and officers. 

The Marine Corps has collected data on workforce competencies. It has a 

system under development (the Civilian Workforce Development 

Application) that will be used to store and manage data on these 

competencies. The target date for completing construction of the 

application is July 2005. 

The Air Force has identified leadership competencies for the total force 

(i.e., active duty military, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserves, and 

civilians). It has begun to develop an analytical information system—the 

Total Human Resource Managers’ Information System—to capture 

occupational codes for the total force. But according to Air Force officials, 

the system will not collect, store, and manage data on workforce 

competencies. 

DLA also currently lacks competency data but has included an objective in 

its 2002-2007 Strategic Plan to identify gaps between the workforce 

competencies and the skills to meet mission requirements for all DLA 

positions by the end of fiscal year 2007. According to a DLA official, the 

agency is in the process of constructing a skills management tool. With the 

help of a contractor, DLA plans to roll out an automated skills inventory 

tool (Competency Analysis Management Tool) expected in July 2004 to 

capture the competencies of its current workforce. The analysis tool will 
Page 21 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

be a Web-based system that employees can access and provide input 

regarding their proficiency levels in competencies that have been 

identified for the respective job families, according to a DLA official. 

DOD’s current efforts to establish a new personnel system and convert 

thousands of military positions to civilian positions, and permanent 

authority to offer annual cash buyouts to thousands of employees—when 

taken together—provide for wide-ranging changes in DOD’s civilian 

personnel reforms. However, it is questionable whether DOD’s 

implementation of these reforms will result in the maximum effectiveness 

and value because DOD has not developed comprehensive strategic 

workforce plans that identify future civilian workforce needs. 

Although DOD and the components have taken steps to develop and 

implement civilian strategic workforce plans to address future civilian 

workforce needs, they generally lack some key elements essential to 

successful workforce planning. Because DOD and the components have 

not addressed all of the elements of strategic workforce planning, they do 

not know what gaps exist in skills and competencies; what type of 

recruitment, retention, and training and professional development 

workforce strategies should be developed and implemented to meet future 

organizational goals; and what competencies their staff need to do their 

work now and in the future. More complete information on the 

competencies needed for the future workforce would, for example, 

enhance DOD’s decisions on which employees to offer cash buyouts. In 

addition, DOD and the components lack defined practical, meaningful 

measures to gauge outcomes of their workforce strategies. Without 

including these key elements, their civilian strategic workforce plans lack 

comprehensiveness and consequently, DOD’s future strategic workforce 

plans may not result in workforces that possess the critical skills and 

competencies needed. 

To improve the comprehensiveness of strategic workforce planning for the 

DOD civilian workforce, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense 

direct the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military service 

headquarters, and the Defense Logistics Agency to build upon their 

strategic workforce planning efforts through the following three actions: 

• Analyze and document the gaps between current critical skills and 

competencies and those needed for the future workforce. 

Conclusions 

Recommendations for 

Executive Action 
Page 22 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

• Develop workforce strategies to fill the identified skills and competency 

gaps. 

• Establish results-oriented performance measures to use in evaluating 

workforce planning efforts. 

We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Department of 

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

Readiness provided oral comments on a draft of this report. The 

department partially concurred with our recommendation that it analyze 

and document critical skills and competency gaps between its current and 

future workforces. Also, the department partially concurred with our 

recommendation that it develop workforce strategies to address identified 

workforce gaps in skills and competencies. The department concurred 

with our recommendation that it establish results-oriented performance 

measures to use in evaluating its workforce planning efforts. DOD also 

provided technical and general comments that we have incorporated 

where appropriate. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the department 

analyze and document critical skills and competency gaps between its 

current and future workforces. The department stated that in the first 

quarter of fiscal year 2004, it began analyses between gaps in the critical 

skills currently needed and those needed in the future, and that it 

supplements the analyses, as necessary, to meet emerging technologies 

and missions. We cannot verify DOD’s statement because DOD was unable 

to provide any specific documentation showing that it had performed gap 

analyses. Regarding gap analyses of competencies, DOD stated that the 

value of conducting a global gap analysis between current competencies 

and those needed for the future is unclear, particularly as applied to over 

650,000 jobs in nearly 700 occupations. Our recommendation did not 

suggest that DOD conduct a global gap analysis of competencies for its 

entire civilian workforce. Rather, we recommended that DOD analyze and 

document the gaps between current critical skills and competencies and 

those needed for the future workforce. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the department 

develop workforce strategies to fill identified workforce gaps in skills and 

competencies. The department stated that it is actively engaged in 

developing strategies to fill identified skills gaps and noted that its new 

human capital management system, the National Security Personnel 

System, will provide for increased personnel flexibilities designed to 

address workforce challenges and help support the department’s strategic 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 
Page 23 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

workforce planning efforts. The department also noted that it continues to 

use existing flexibilities such as recruitment and retention bonuses, and 

relocation allowances. In our report, we acknowledge that the NSPS will 

give the department significant flexibility for creating a new framework of 

rules, regulations, and processes to govern the way civilians are among 

other things, hired, compensated, and promoted. We also acknowledge 

that DOD and the components have implemented various recruitment, 

retention, training and professional development, and compensation 

strategies to address workforce imbalances. However, as we noted in our 

report, these strategies have not been derived from analyses of critical 

skills and competency gaps. Without such analyses, DOD and the 

components may not be able to design and invest in strategies will 

effectively and efficiently transition them to the future workforce they 

desire and need. 

Regarding our recommendation that the department establish resultsoriented performance measures to use in evaluating its workforce 

planning efforts, the department concurred, noting that it is committed to 

focusing on results and using data in evaluating workforce planning 

efforts. 

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional 

committees; the Secretary of Defense; the Secretaries of the Air Force, 

Army, and Navy; the Commandant of the Marine Corps; and the Director 

of DLA. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In 

addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at 

http://www.gao.gov. 
Page 24 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

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

contact me at (202) 512-5559 (stewartd@gao.gov) or Sandra F. Bell at (202) 

512-8981 (bells@gao.gov). Major contributors to this report were Janine 

Cantin, Jeanett H. Reid, Jose Watkins, Alissa Czyz, and Cheryl Weissman. 

Sincerely yours, 

Derek B. Stewart 

Director, Defense Capabilities and Management 
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 

Page 25 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

To determine the extent to which civilian strategic workforce plans have 

been developed and implemented to address future civilian workforce 

requirements, we obtained and reviewed Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) guidance on standards for success for strategic human 

capital management, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) 

Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. We also 

obtained and reviewed civilian human capital strategic plans, workforce 

planning documents, and workforce analysis submitted by the Department 

of Defense (DOD) to OMB. We assessed the reliability of data used for the 

workforce analysis by (1) reviewing existing information about the system 

and the data produced by the system; (2) interviewing agency officials 

knowledgeable about the data and reviewing their responses to questions 

on system controls; and (3) making basic comparisons of the data with 

OPM’s Civilian Personnel Data File’s data for obvious errors in accuracy. 

We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable to meet our 

objectives. Using the workforce planning documents, we evaluated DOD’s 

and the components’ strategic workforce planning efforts in terms of five 

strategic workforce planning elements that we identified through our prior 

work in review of studies by leading workforce planning organizations 

that included the OPM, other U.S. government agencies, the National 

Academy for Public Administration, and the International Personnel 

Management Association. We also held discussions with the following 

cognizant officials to obtain their views on their strategic workforce 

planning efforts: the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for 

Personnel and Readiness; the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force 

headquarters; and the Defense Logistics Agency. Additionally, we obtained 

and reviewed civilian employee data and personnel retirement eligibility 

data from the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System. 

To determine the challenges affecting the development and 

implementation of civilian strategic workforce plans, we interviewed 

officials and obtained, reviewed, and analyzed documentation to identify 

the types of challenges that might affect planning. We also assessed the 

extent to which the DOD components had efforts under way to develop 

and implement tools to collect, store, and manage data on workforce 

competencies. 

We conducted our work from April 2003 through June 2004 in accordance 

with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 
Related GAO Products 

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Information Technology Management: Improvements Needed in 

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Management Governmentwide. GAO-04-478T. Washington, D.C.: March 3, 

2004. 

Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and 

Development Efforts in the Federal Government. GAO-04-546G. 

Washington, D.C.: March 1, 2004. 

Social Security Administration: Strategic Workforce Planning Needed to 

Address Human Capital Challenges Facing the Disability Determination 

Services. GAO-04-121. Washington, D.C.: January 27, 2004. 

Information Technology Management: Governmentwide Strategic 

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Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce 

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Foreign Assistance: USAID Needs to Improve Its Workforce Planning 

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Succession Planning and Management Initiatives. GAO-03-914. 

Washington, D.C.: September 15, 2003. 

DOD Personnel: Documentation of the Army’s Civilian WorkforcePlanning Model Needed to Enhance Credibility. GAO-03-1046. 

Washington, D.C.: August 22, 2003. 

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Federal Procurement: Spending and Workforce Trends. GAO-03-443. 

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Veterans Benefits Administration: Better Collection and Analysis of 

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Human Capital: Selected Agency Actions to Integrate Human Capital 

Approaches to Attain Mission Results. GAO-03-446. Washington, D.C.: 

April 11, 2003. 

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Strategic Approach. GAO-03-156. Washington, D.C.: February 3, 2003. 

High-Risk Series: Strategic Human Capital Management. GAO-03-120. 

Washington, D.C.: January 2003. 

Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Office of Personnel 

Management. GAO-03-115. Washington, D.C.: January 2003. 

Acquisition Workforce: Status of Agency Efforts to Address Future 

Needs. GAO-03-55. Washington, D.C.: December 18, 2002. 

Human Capital: Effective Use of Flexibilities Can Assist Agencies in 

Managing Their Workforces. GAO-03-2. Washington, D.C.: December 6, 

2002. 

Military Personnel: Oversight Process Needed to Help Maintain 

Momentum of DOD’s Strategic Human Capital Planning. GAO-03-237. 

Washington, D.C.: December 5, 2002. 

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Authorization Bill. GAO-03-264R. Washington, D.C.: November 15, 2002. 
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Agencies. GAO-03-293SP. Washington, D.C.: November 14, 2002. 

Highlights of a GAO Roundtable: The Chief Operating Officer Concept: A 

Potential Strategy to Address Federal Governance Challenges. 

GAO-03-192SP. Washington, D.C.: October 4, 2002. 

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Senior Executive Performance. GAO-02-966. Washington, D.C.: 

September 27, 2002. 

Human Capital Flexibilities. GAO-02-1050R. Washington, D.C.: August 9, 

2002. 

Results-Oriented Cultures: Insights for U.S. Agencies from Other 

Countries’ Performance Management Initiatives. GAO-02-862. 

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Planning Needed. GAO-02-839. Washington, D.C.: July 24, 2002. 

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Achieve Results. GAO-01-1007T. Washington, D.C.: July 31, 2001. 

Human Capital: Implementing an Effective Workforce Strategy Would 

Help EPA to Achieve Its Strategic Goals. GAO-01-812. Washington, D.C.: 

July 31, 2001. 

Single-Family Housing: Better Strategic Human Capital Management 

Needed at HUD’s Homeownership Centers. GAO-01-590. Washington, 

D.C.: July 26, 2001. 

Human Capital: Taking Steps to Meet Current and Emerging Human 

Capital Challenges. GAO-01-965T. Washington, D.C.: July 17, 2001. 

Office of Personnel Management: Status of Achieving Key Outcomes and 

Addressing Major Management Challenges. GAO-01-884. Washington, 

D.C.: July 9, 2001. 

Managing for Results: Human Capital Management Discussions in 

Fiscal Year 2001 Performance Plans. GAO-01-236. Washington, D.C.: April 

24, 2001. 

Human Capital: Major Human Capital Challenges at the Departments of 

Defense and State. GAO-01-565T. Washington, D.C.: March 29, 2001. 
Related GAO Products 

Page 30 GAO-04-753 DOD Workforce Planning 

Human Capital: Meeting the Governmentwide High-Risk Challenge. 

GAO-01-357T. Washington, D.C.: February 1, 2001. 

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