GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

August 15, 2008 

Congressional Committees 

Subject: Military Personnel: Improvements Needed to Increase Effectiveness of 

DOD's Programs to Promote Positive Working Relationships between Reservists and 

Their Employers 

Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has relied on more than 

650,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to support operations at home 

and abroad. As demobilized reservists1

 return to civilian life and their civilian 

employment, the difficulties some face in maintaining positive working relationships 

with their employers is an area of interest. Maintaining employers’ continued support 

for their reservist employees will be critical if DOD is to retain experienced reservists 

in these times of longer and more frequent deployments.

The employment and reemployment rights of service members as they transition 

between their federal duties and their civilian employment are governed by the 

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994.2

Education of reservists and employers about USERRA is primarily conducted 

through DOD’s office of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), which 

serves as DOD’s focal point in managing the department’s relations with reservists 

and their civilian employers. ESGR’s focus was on educating service 

members concerning their employment rights under USERRA. Generally, service 

members are entitled to the reemployment rights provided by USERRA, including 

entitlement to reinstatement by their civilian employers consistent with the statute, if 

they meet certain eligibility requirements set out in the act. In fiscal year 2005, ESGR 

shifted its focus to educating employers. The new focus better aligns with ESGR’s 

mission—to gain and maintain support for employee military service from all public 

and private employers of the men and women of the National Guard and Reserve. To 

fulfill its mission, ESGR has developed and implemented a number of outreach 

efforts to help gain employer support.

 In past years, 

The Military Reservists and Veteran Small Business Reauthorization and Opportunity 

Act of 2008 directed the Comptroller General of the United States to report to the 

Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Senate Committee on Small Business and 

3

 

1

 For the purposes of this report, the terms reserve components and reservists refer to the collective 

forces of the Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Navy 

Reserve, and Marine Corps Reserve. 2

 Pub. L. No. 103-353 (1994), as amended, codified at 38 U.S.C. §§4301-4334. 

3

 Pub. L. No. 110-186, §207 (2008). 
Page 2 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

Entrepreneurship, the House Committee on Armed Services, and the House 

Committee on Small Business by August 15, 2008, on the options for promoting 

positive working relationships between reservists and their employers, including 

assessing options for improving the time in which employers of reservists are notified 

of a call to active duty other than training. Accordingly, we examined the extent to 

which DOD has (1) taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and 

responsibilities to their employers to provide timely notification of a call to active 

duty, and (2) developed initiatives to promote positive working relations between 

reservists and their employers. We also were directed to determine whether there has 

been a reduction in the hiring of reservists by business concerns because of (1) any 

increase in the use of reservists after September 11, 2001, or (2) any change in any 

policy of DOD relating to reservists after September 11, 2001.

To address our first objective, we examined policy and guidance describing DOD’s 

reserve component processes and procedures for informing reservists of their 

responsibilities and obligations to their employers. We also analyzed DOD Status of 

Forces Surveys on areas related to advance notice to reservists and other matters 

concerning reserve component members. We assessed the survey data for reliability 

and found the data to be sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. We held 

interviews with key DOD officials and with a nonprobability sample of employers of 

reservists. Because this was a nonprobability sample of employers, the results of 

these interviews are not generalizeable to the general population of reservist 

employers. Further, we conducted focus groups with reservists in three states to 

discuss the amount of advance notice being provided both to reservists by DOD and 

to employers by reservists. These focus groups were based on a nonprobability 

sample and the results from these focus groups are not generalizeable to the 

population of reservists. To select participants for our focus groups, we chose from 

units with the following characteristics: (1) Army National Guard and Army Reserve 

units (which comprise the majority of total reservists), (2) Reserve units consisting of 

100 or more personnel, (3) units that have deployed and redeployed back to the 

United States since January 1, 2007, and (4) units that conducted weekend drills 

during the period May 5, 2008, through July 28, 2008. We conducted a total of 10 focus 

groups in three states (Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia) with a total of 50 

volunteer participants. We selected employers of reservists for our structured 

interviews using DOD’s civilian employee information (CEI) database. We selected 

employers from this database to include a mix of both small and large companies 

based on number of employees, both governmental agencies and private/nonprofit 

companies, civilian employers of reservists from each reserve component, and 

employers in states with a heavy concentration of reservists. We selected from those 

employers deemed to have a high degree of automated matching accuracy by Dun & 

Bradstreet.4

 From the employers who met the above criteria, we randomly selected 77 

employers to contact, and ultimately completed interviews with 11 employers. We 

found this data to be sufficiently reliable for our selection purposes. 

4

Dun & Bradstreet, an organization that maintains a database of more than 130 million business 

records, reviews DOD's civilian employer data and generates a maximum confidence code denoting an 

entry’s degree of accuracy. For the purposes of our review, entries with a confidence code of 7 or 

higher were considered more reliable. 
Page 3 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

For our second objective, we analyzed ESGR outreach programs, initiatives, policies, 

procedures, and memoranda of understanding that address the current activities 

being taken to strengthen reservist/employer working relations. During our 

structured interviews and focus groups, we discussed in detail the outreach programs 

and efforts being carried out. Finally, to determine whether there has been a 

reduction in the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001, we questioned the 

Department of Labor, DOD, and ESGR about any data they may have collected or 

analyses they may have done to examine any such reductions. We also reviewed DOD 

policies and specifically questioned participants in the focus groups and structured 

interviews about any changes in hiring practices or policies that may have occurred. 

We conducted this performance audit from April 2008 through August 2008 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. Further details on our scope 

and methodology can be found in enclosure I. 

Results in Brief 

DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to 

their civilian employers when they are mobilized, but it does not collect data to 

assess the effectiveness of its efforts. In order to qualify for rights under USERRA, 

reservists must generally provide their employers with advance notice prior to 

departure for military duty, and we found that the amount of advance notice provided 

to employers varies. The steps DOD has taken to inform reservists of their obligations 

and responsibilities to their employers include (1) implementing policies and 

procedures that encourage reservists to provide advance notification, and to provide 

this notification in writing, and (2) providing outreach and education for reservists of 

obligations and responsibilities under USERRA through ESGR. Despite these efforts 

to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to provide advance notice 

to their civilian employers of a call to active duty, DOD does not determine whether 

its efforts (1) are helpful in informing reservists of their USERRA responsibilities, or 

(2) enable employers to receive advance notification of reservists’ deployments 

because DOD does not collect data that would enable it to gauge the effectiveness of 

its efforts. DOD administers Status of Forces Surveys to reservists biannually to 

monitor the extent to which it informs service members about USERRA obligations 

and the occurrence of USERRA-related problems, but the surveys do not contain 

questions on the amount and type of notice that reservists provide to their employers. 

Since DOD regularly administers these already established surveys, the most effective 

way to provide DOD with pertinent information on advance notification without 

imposing a significant administrative burden or cost would be through these surveys. 

Until DOD collects data on both the amount and type of advance notice that 

reservists are providing to their employers, it will be unable to determine the 

effectiveness of its efforts to encourage and enable reservists to provide advance 

notice to their employers consistent with USERRA or determine if additional 

measures are required. Toward the completion of our review, officials at the Defense 

Manpower Data Center, the Defense activity which administers the biannual Status of 
Page 4 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

Forces Surveys, told us that they are planning to include questions in subsequent 

Status of Forces Surveys regarding the extent to which reservists are providing 

notification to their employers and whether the notifications are being given orally or 

in writing. 

DOD has used ESGR as its focal point in establishing a strategic approach to promote 

positive working relationships between reservists and their employers, but it does not 

measure the efficiency and effectiveness of these efforts. While ESGR has established 

a strategic plan outlining its mission, goals, and objectives, ESGR has not yet 

established a performance plan to measure how well its efforts are achieving these 

goals. To help establish positive working relationships between reservists and their 

employers, ESGR has developed several ongoing outreach programs, such as 

employer briefings and statements of support, to gain support from employers of 

reservists. However, DOD does not know the extent to which these ESGR efforts are 

helping to achieve its mission because it lacks (1) an established performance plan to 

measure how well it is achieving its goals, (2) a follow-up mechanism to help 

maintain relationships with employers once employers have pledged their support, 

and (3) an outreach program specific to small business needs. Given ESGR’s 

numerous outreach programs and efforts, it is difficult to establish a direct causal 

link between these efforts and their effectiveness. Our prior work has shown that key 

elements of a sound management approach include defining clear missions and 

desired outcomes, establishing implementation goals, measuring performance, and 

aligning activities with resources. Our past work on defense initiatives has shown the 

need for DOD to take a more strategic approach to decision making to ensure that 

investments are based on sound plans with measurable, realistic goals and time 

frames, prioritized resource needs, and performance measures to gauge progress. An 

annual performance plan should link the agency’s mission, strategic goals, and 

program activities. In addition, according to ESGR’s strategic plan and DOD Directive 

1250.01, ESGR’s mission is to “gain and maintain” support from employers of 

reservists. However, DOD does not determine the extent to which employer relations 

are maintained once statements of support are signed, because ESGR does not 

conduct follow-up activities that could help maintain established relationships with 

reservists’ employers. Finally, ESGR’s strategic plan states that it shall improve 

working relationships with employers by designing tailored products to meet their 

specific needs. Small business employers represent nearly 70 percent of selected 

reservists’ employers.

5

6

7

8

 Many DOD officials have also acknowledged that small 

5

 See GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and Organizational 

Transformation, GAO-03-669 (Washington, D.C.: July 2, 2003) and Executive Guide: Effectively 

Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act, GA0/GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: 

June 1996). 

6

 See GAO, Defense Business Transformation: Achieving Success Requires a Chief Management 

Officer to Provide Focus and Sustained Leadership, GAO-07-1072 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 5, 2007), 

and Business Systems Modernization: DOD Needs to Fully Define Policies and Procedures for 

Institutionally Managing Investments (Washington, D.C.: May 11, 2007). 7

 Department of Defense Directive 1250.01, National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard 

and Reserve (NCESGR), (Apr. 13, 2004). 

8

 Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, 

Working Group Interim Report to Congress: Special Working Group on Transition to Civilian 

Employment of National Guard and Reserve Members Returning from Deployment in Operation 

Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, Washington D.C. (Nov. 2007). 
Page 5 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

businesses are particularly affected by deploying reserve employees. However, ESGR 

has not implemented any specific programs or activities that explicitly target small 

businesses. Unless DOD takes actions to measure how well its efforts are achieving 

its goals—such as developing a performance plan, conducting follow-up activities, or 

implementing programs that target small businesses—DOD cannot determine 

whether its efforts to improve the working relationships between reservists and their 

employers effectively address the needs of reservists’ employers. 

We were unable to determine the extent to which there has been a reduction in the 

hiring of reservists caused by the increase in the use of reservists after September 11, 

2001, or caused by any changes in any of DOD's policies concerning reservists after 

September 11, 2001, due to a lack of available data related to this issue. We were 

unable to identify any studies or analyses from either DOD or the Department of 

Labor to indicate whether employers have been hiring fewer reservists since 

September 11, 2001. During the course of our review, we identified a number of 

changes to DOD policies relating to reservists since September 11, 2001. For example, 

in early 2007 DOD rescinded a policy that set a cumulative limit of 24 months of being 

involuntarily mobilized over the course of a reservist’s military career and instituted a 

policy of involuntarily mobilizing reservists for a maximum of 1 year at a time. 

However, we were unable to determine how these policy changes, or any other policy 

changes related to the use of reservists, affected the hiring of reservists, if at all. The 

absence of such data or analyses precludes us from determining the impact, if any, of 

any changes in DOD’s policies concerning the hiring of reservists. Even if a reduction 

in the hiring of reservists had occurred, we would be unable to determine what 

factors contributed to the decline.

To improve the effectiveness of DOD’s efforts, we are making recommendations that 

the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 

Readiness to (1) establish an annual performance plan, (2) conduct regular and 

recurring follow-up activities, and (3) develop initiatives to outreach to small 

businesses. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Department partially 

concurred with these three recommendations. The department also provided several 

general comments and one technical comment that we considered and incorporated, 

as appropriate. The department’s comments and our evaluation of those comments 

are discussed in detail in a later section of this report. DOD’s written comments are 

reprinted in enclosure II. 

Background

In 1994 Congress passed the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment 

Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994, which protects individuals as they transition between 

their federal duties and their civilian employment. USERRA provides employment 

and reemployment rights for service members, including those called up from the 

Reserves or National Guard, and prohibits employer discrimination based on military 

service or obligation. In order to be eligible for the rights provided by USERRA, 

service members must meet certain eligibility requirements which include, among 

other things, providing their employers with proper notice prior to their departure for 

military service, and reporting back to work or applying for reemployment in a timely 

manner. Provided service members meet their USERRA requirements, they are 
Page 6 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

entitled to a number of benefits including, in most cases, prompt reinstatement to the 

positions they would have held if they had never left their employment, or to 

positions of like seniority, status, and pay. Reservists who have incurred or 

aggravated a medical disability during their military service are guaranteed certain 

reemployment protections as well, and employers are required to make certain 

efforts to accommodate the service member’s disability. USERRA applies to persons 

who perform service, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the "uniformed services," which 

include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health 

Service commissioned corps, as well as the reserve components of each of these 

services. USERRA applies to virtually all public and private employers in the United 

States regardless of size, and includes federal, state, and local governments, as well 

as for-profit and not-for-profit private sector firms. 

Enforcement and implementation of USERRA involves several federal agencies with 

specific—and sometimes overlapping—outreach, investigative, or enforcement roles. 

For example, USERRA gives the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Labor, and the 

Secretary of Veterans Affairs shared responsibility for taking steps the Secretaries 

determine are appropriate for providing outreach to inform service members and 

their respective employers about their rights, benefits, and obligations under 

USERRA.

9

 Reservists have a number of obligations under the act that must be met if 

they are to be eligible for USERRA rights and benefits. This includes the obligation to 

provide their employers with advance notice prior to departure for military duty

unless an exception applies. 

The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs has overall supervisory 

responsibility for matters that involve the reserve components, and serves as the 

principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense on reserve 

component matters. The Assistant Secretary oversees the activities of the National 

Committee for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.10 Employer Support 

of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) was established in 1972 and has been tasked by 

DOD Directive 1250.01 to “promote both public and private understanding of the 

National Guard and Reserve in order to gain employer and community support for the 

Reserve components as demonstrated through implementing personnel programs, 

policies, and practices that encourage employee and citizen participation in the 

National Guard and Reserve.” ESGR’s mission is twofold. First, it educates service 

members about their rights and responsibilities under the law. This is accomplished 

by providing annual unit, mobilization, and demobilization briefings; supplying 

informational handouts; assigning military liaisons in units as a support contact; and 

maintaining an extensive Web site with information about USERRA.11 Second, it 

strives to gain and maintain employer support for reservists. This is done by 

recognizing outstanding support, increasing awareness of the law through employer 

outreach programs, and resolving conflicts through mediation. ESGR has full-time 

paid staff at its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, including 36 military employees, 

9

38 U.S.C. §4333. 

10 The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is sometimes abbreviated 

NCESGR, but throughout this report we use the more common ESGR abbreviation to include both the 

headquarters and volunteer field staff of the organization. 

11For more information on ESGR please go to www.esgr.org. 
Page 7 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

28 civilian employees, 8 contractors, and 94 contractor field support personnel. ESGR 

performs most of its work through volunteers and specially trained ombudsmen who 

act as informal mediators for USERRA issues that arise between service members 

and their employers. It operates through a network of more than 4,500 volunteers 

throughout 56 committees located in each state, the District of Columbia, Guam, 

Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Europe. With this large network of volunteers 

and ombudsmen to support reservist/employer relations, ESGR’s task is to support 

and advise employers, large and small, and reservists. For fiscal year 2008, ESGR has 

a budget of approximately $13.1 million.

A number of surveys and reports have been conducted that analyze 

reservist/employer relations. DOD has periodically contracted with the Institute for 

Defense Analyses (IDA), a nonprofit corporation that administers federally funded 

research and development programs, to publish reports and studies that examine 

reservist/employer relations.

 

In addition, the Defense Manpower Data Center 

collects, archives, and maintains manpower and personnel data, as well as financial 

databases, for DOD. In this capacity, the Defense Manpower Data Center administers 

an annual survey to civilian personnel, biannual surveys to selected reserve 

personnel, and active duty surveys three times a year. These surveys provide relevant 

and important data on such issues as advance notice to reservists, the work of ESGR; 

and other matters concerning civilian, active duty, and reserve component members.

We have issued prior reports related to employer support, USERRA, and in general 

the need for results-oriented government. In a 2002 report, we addressed DOD’s 

management of relations between reservists and their employers.12 Among other 

things, we found that ESGR did not have data to determine the effectiveness of its 

outreach and mediation efforts. DOD concurred with many of our recommendations 

and has taken action on a number of them. For example, DOD developed the Civilian 

Employer Information database to assist in DOD’s outreach efforts to employers.

 of reservists’ civilian employers, which can help DOD 

reach out to these employers and gain support. In addition, we have issued a number 

of reports that address the need for federal agencies to manage for results. For 

example, in 2004 we issued a report that examined, among other things, the 

challenges agencies face in using performance information in management decisions 

and how the federal government can continue to shift toward a more results-oriented 

focus.

This database contains a list

13

DOD Has Taken Steps to Inform Reservists of Their Obligations and 

Responsibilities to Notify Their Employers When They Are Called to Active 

Duty, but Does Not Assess Its Effectiveness 

DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to 

provide advance notification to their civilian employers when mobilized, but it does 

not collect data to gauge the effectiveness of its efforts. To qualify for protection 

12GAO, Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations between Reservists and 

Their Employers, GAO-02-608 (Washington, D.C.: June 13, 2002). 13GAO, Results-Oriented Government: GPRA Has Established a Solid Foundation for Achieving 

Greater Results, GAO-04-38 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 10, 2004). 
Page 8 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

under USERRA, reservists must generally provide their employers with advance 

notice prior to their departure for military duty. The steps DOD has taken to inform 

reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers include (1) 

implementing policies and procedures aimed directly at the issue of advance 

notification, and (2) providing outreach and education through ESGR concerning 

reservists’ obligations and responsibilities under USERRA. 

First, DOD has established policies and procedures to inform guard and reserve 

members of their obligations and responsibilities to their employers. Specifically, 

DOD Instruction 1205.12 assigns responsibilities and prescribes procedures for 

informing service members of their civilian employment and reemployment rights, 

benefits, and obligations under USERRA.14 This instruction requires that the service 

members be advised that DOD strongly encourages reservists to provide advance 

notice in writing to their civilian employers of a pending mobilization with the 

explanation that providing written advance notice is preferable to verbal advance 

notice since it is easier to establish that this basic prerequisite to retaining 

reemployment rights has been fulfilled. The ESGR USERRA annual briefings 

presented at the unit level also point out that written notification would be better 

than verbal notification. However, in our focus groups with reservists, we found that 

some individuals provided only verbal notice of an upcoming call to active duty to 

their civilian employer. The instruction also requires service members to be advised 

that notice, whether verbal or written, should be provided as early as is practicable 

and that DOD strongly recommends that advance notice to civilian employers be 

provided at least 30 days prior to departure for uniformed service when it is feasible 

to do so. According to the instruction, the advance notice requirement can be met by 

providing the employer with a copy of the unit’s annual training schedule or by 

preparing a letter. A sample standardized letter is provided in the instruction and on 

the ESGR Web site. In addition, the Navy Reserve provides specific guidance to its 

members on advance notice to employers.15 This guidance also strongly encourages 

reservists to give their employers as much notice as possible to enable employers to 

make the necessary arrangements to cover the reservists’ work in their absence. The 

guidance also instructs Navy reservists to give notice in writing and to keep a copy in 

case a question arises as to whether notice has been given. 

Second, DOD has assigned ESGR responsibility for conducting outreach and 

education programs and activities to educate and inform guard and reserve members 

of their obligations and responsibilities under USERRA. ESGR accomplishes its 

outreach and education mission through several mechanisms, such as a toll-free 

information line, informational brochures and handouts, a Web site, individual and 

group briefings, and military unit liaison representatives. ESGR conducts thousands 

of annual briefings, most often at the unit level, to inform reservists and their 

employers about their rights and responsibilities under USERRA. In fiscal year 2007, 

more than 67,000 employers and approximately 235,000 reservists were briefed on 

USERRA and ESGR services. The ESGR Web site contains links that direct 

14DOD Instruction 1205.12, Civilian Employment and Reemployment Rights of Applicants for, and 

Service Members and Former Service Members of the Uniformed Services, (Apr. 4, 1996) incorporating 

change (Apr. 16, 1997). 

15Bureau of Naval Personnel Instruction 1001.39F (Sept. 17, 2007). 
Page 9 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

individuals to the USERRA statutes as well as explanations of the law. In addition to 

these briefings and other outreach efforts, every reserve component unit within each 

state is to have an assigned military liaison who serves as the primary link between 

the reserve components and ESGR, assists their assigned commands/units in 

developing and executing employer relations, and provides USERRA training and 

materials.16 The liaison also helps train the command’s or unit’s appointed employer 

relations representative if requested so that this representative can provide employer 

relations and USERRA training. Consistent with ESGR’s previously mentioned 

outreach efforts in conjunction with related resources available to the reservists, we 

observed in our focus groups that most reservists were aware of their obligation to 

provide advance notice to employers. 

Despite these efforts to inform reservists of their obligations and responsibilities to 

provide advance notice to their civilian employers of a call to active duty, DOD does 

not determine whether its efforts are helpful in informing reservists of their USERRA 

responsibilities or enabling employers to receive advance notification of reservists’ 

deployments. DOD does monitor the extent to which it informs service members of 

their USERRA obligations and the occurrence of USERRA-related problems by 

including questions on these areas in its Status of Forces Surveys (SOFS), which are 

periodically conducted to identify issues that need to be addressed or monitored. For 

example, according to a 2006 DOD SOFS of guard and reserve members, most reserve 

component soldiers have been briefed on employment rights and responsibilities; an 

estimated 79 percent of those responding said that they had been briefed on USERRA 

at least once.

One of the first steps to ensuring that employers are adequately notified of a 

reservist’s call to active duty is ensuring that reservists themselves are adequately 

notified by DOD of an impending deployment or mobilization. DOD provides informal 

“alerts” (warning orders) prior to issuing formal notification orders. These alerts 

provide additional advance notice to reservists that their unit may soon be called to 

active duty. On its SOFS, DOD has included questions to measure the extent to which 

reserve component members receive advance notice prior to a call to active duty.

According to the 2007 SOFS, an estimated 76 percent of reservists had received an 

informal alert notice; of those, an estimated 77 percent received notice of 30 days or 

more. However, formal notice from DOD is provided much closer to the mobilization 

date; an estimated 47 percent of reservists reported on the 2007 SOFS that they 

received written, formal orders 30 days or more prior to having to report for active 

duty. Thus, a reservist might receive an informal alert of an upcoming activation 

several months in advance, but might not receive formal orders until a month prior to 

activation. According to DOD officials, the informal alerts should allow employers to 

better plan for when reservists will not be available to them. We noted in a prior 

report that the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs 

emphasized the need to provide orders well in advance of deployments, in part so 

that employers could be notified promptly.17 In addition, the Assistant Secretary of 

16National Committee Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Instruction 1250.31, Military Liaison 

Program (Nov. 16, 2005). 

17GAO-02-608. 
Page 10 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Defense for Reserve Affairs warned that “unjustifiably late notification may harm the 

working relationships between reservists and their employers.” 

However, we found that these informal alerts provided by DOD to reservists may not 

necessarily translate into earlier notification to employers. In focus group discussions 

we conducted with soldiers who had been redeployed back to the United States since 

the beginning of 2007, they noted that deployment plans frequently changed. Because 

plans changed so often, there was general agreement in several of our focus groups 

that it was not a good idea to share the informal alert information with an employer.

Some reservists in some of the focus groups said that they had to strategically plan 

how and when to share information and notice with employers because of fears that 

employers might react negatively; some reservists perceived they could be passed 

over for a promotion and others felt they should not tell their employer of an 

upcoming call to active duty too far in advance out of fear of being written out of the 

company’s future plans. In a few focus groups there was general agreement that the 

reservists would each provide their respective employers no more than 30 days 

notice no matter how much formal or informal notice they had received from DOD. 

DOD, however, does not collect data that would enable it to gauge the effectiveness 

of its efforts because DOD has not developed procedures to identify the amount or 

the form of notice, written or verbal, that reservists are actually providing to their 

civilian employers. Consequently, DOD is unable to determine either the amount of 

notice reservists are regularly providing to their employers or the form (written or 

verbal) in which this advance notice, if any, is being provided. Given that DOD’s 

Status of Forces Surveys do not specifically address the issue of employer 

notification form (written or verbal), DOD is unable to determine the percentage of 

individuals that provide only verbal notice to their employers. While DOD is not 

required to collect data that identify the amount or the form of notice provided to 

civilian employers, the collection of these data could help DOD gain a better 

understanding of the amount and type of notice reservists are actually providing to 

their civilian employers. The collection of these data from civilian employers of 

reservists could potentially be both cost prohibitive and time consuming. DOD 

currently has a survey mechanism in place (DOD’s biannual Status of Forces 

Surveys) capable of capturing these data. These surveys already capture data about 

when reservists receive alerts and mobilization orders, so there would be context for 

adding questions pertaining to reservists’ notification of mobilization to their civilian 

employers. Thus, DOD’s Status of Forces Surveys may be the most effective means to 

provide DOD with pertinent information on advance notification without imposing a 

significant administrative burden or cost. Additionally, adding these questions may 

provide DOD a valuable source for discovering any trends in either the amount of 

advance notice or form of notice being provided to civilian employers by reservists. 

Until DOD begins to develop procedures and to collect data on both the amount, as 

well as the type, of advance notice being given by most reservists to their civilian 

employers, it may be unable to measure the effectiveness of its efforts to inform 

service members of their benefits and obligations under USERRA or determine 

whether additional measures are required. Toward the completion of our review, 

officials at the Defense Manpower Data Center told us that they are planning to 

include questions in subsequent Status of Forces Surveys regarding the extent to 

which reservists are providing notification to their employers and whether the 
Page 11 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

notifications are being given orally or in writing. We will continue to monitor these 

efforts and the extent to which they contribute to DOD’s effectiveness in improving 

reservists’ notifications to their employers. 

DOD Has Established a Strategic Approach with Many Outreach Initiatives 

to Promote Positive Working Relationships between Reservists and 

Employers, but Does Not Gauge the Effectiveness of Its Efforts

While DOD has used ESGR in establishing a strategic approach that includes many of 

DOD’s outreach initiatives to help improve working relationships between reservists 

and their employers, it does not gauge the effectiveness of its efforts. Specifically, 

ESGR does not know the extent to which these outreach initiatives are helping 

achieve its mission because ESGR (1) lacks an established performance plan to 

measure how well it is achieving its goals, (2) does not have a mechanism in place to 

follow-up with employers to help maintain relationships once employers have 

pledged their support, and (3) lacks an outreach program specific to small business 

needs.

ESGR has been DOD’s focal point in creating and instituting a strategic approach that 

includes many outreach initiatives to help improve working relationships between 

reservists and their employers. Table 1 provides some information on the different 

types of outreach initiatives used by ESGR to help gain employer support, which aids 

in promoting positive working relationships between reservists and their employers. 

Table 1: Examples of ESGR Programs Aimed at Promoting Positive Working 

Relationships between Reservists and Their Civilian Employers

Program Description 

 Boss Lifts The employer is provided an opportunity to visit the reservist at his or 

her drill site to gain firsthand experience and an appreciation for the 

employee’s military service. These events provide the employer with 

opportunities to directly observe the technical, organizational, team 

building, and leadership skills of their employees. They also provide 

employers with opportunities to observe military training, some of which 

may be directly related to their employee’s civilian job.

Mass Market 

Outreach 

ESGR uses public service advertising as available, in spaces such as 

billboards, and magazines. ESGR uses additional media outreach 

activities involving advertising and article placement to help promote 

ESGR as a resource and to highlight what employers are doing to help 

support reservists who are called to active duty.

Strategic 

Partnerships 

Through strategic partnerships with the national headquarters and local 

chapters of the Chamber of Commerce, Society for Human Resource 

Management, National Federation of Independent Business, Small 

Business Administration, and Rotary Club, ESGR strives to educate 

employers about USERRA and the ESGR organization. According to an 

ESGR official, they are in the process of distributing a direct-mail 

publication “about ESGR” to all 250,000 members of the Society for 

Human Resource Management, and they have provided direct mail about 

ESGR to 15,700 members of the International Association of Chiefs of 
Page 12 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Program Description 

Police. 

Employer 

Briefings 

ESGR provides employer briefings as a forum for local employers, unit 

commanders, ESGR members, and community leaders to meet, network, 

and discuss issues that arise from employee participation in the National 

Guard and Reserves. The meeting site can be a local restaurant, hotel, 

service club, Chamber of Commerce, National Guard Armory, Reserve 

Center, or military installation. According to an ESGR official, in fiscal 

year 2007, ESGR field committees briefed 68,803 employers.

Awards 

Program 

Reservists can nominate their employers to receive sequential and 

progressive awards. 

The Patriot Award recognizes individual supervisors, not necessarily 

the employer organization as a whole. During fiscal year 2007, 15,124 

employers were nominated. Nominated employers receive a Patriot 

Award certificate and accompanying lapel pin.

The Above and Beyond Award honors employers of reservists who go 

above and beyond the requirements of USERRA, for example, an 

employer providing continuation of benefits or pay differential. 

The Pro Patria Award is the highest award that an ESGR field 

committee may bestow upon employers within its purview. Employers 

who are previous recipients of both the Patriot Award and the Above 

and Beyond Award, and have signed a statement of support, are eligible 

to receive the Pro Patria Award. 

The Freedom Award (The Secretary of Defense Employer Support 

Freedom Award) is given to exemplary employers in three categories: 

large business, small business, and the public sector. Reservists submit 

nominations, from which 15 are selected and forwarded to the Secretary 

of Defense. In fiscal year 2007, more than 1,000 reservists nominated 

their employers for this award.

Sources: GAO analysis, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve information.

Given ESGR’s numerous outreach programs and efforts, it is difficult to establish a 

direct causal link between these efforts and their effectiveness. While these initiatives 

represent positive efforts to promote positive working relationships between 

reservists and their employers, ESGR does not know the extent to which these 

outreach initiatives are helping achieve its mission because ESGR (1) lacks an 

established performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its goals, (2) does 

not have a mechanism in place to follow-up with employers to help maintain 

relationships once employers have pledged their support, and (3) lacks an outreach 

program specific to small business needs. Our prior work has shown that key 

elements of a sound management approach include defining clear missions and 

desired outcomes, establishing implementation goals, measuring performance, and 
Page 13 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

aligning activities with resources.18 Our past work on defense initiatives has shown 

the need for DOD to take a more strategic approach to decision making to ensure that 

investments are based on sound plans with measurable, realistic goals and time 

frames, prioritized resource needs, and performance measures to gauge progress. To 

be able to assess the effectiveness of their activities and determine how well they are 

achieving their mission, organizations need to link established performance measures 

with set goals, as we have previously reported. 

ESGR has established a strategic plan that provides a workable foundation for annual 

performance planning and reporting. ESGR’s strategic plan outlines its mission, goals, 

and objectives. For example, ESGR’s August 22, 2007, strategic plan states that ESGR 

is to conduct focused outreach efforts to gain statements of support from all 

identified civilian employers of reservists by 2011; this equates to a goal of obtaining 

an average of 20 percent of these employers in each year of the period covered by the 

plan. During fiscal year 2007, more than 20,644 employers signed statements of 

support.

 quarterly reports on the 

various outreach activities performed.

 ESGR collects and reports some data on its outreach efforts. The 

organization’s state field committee representatives prepare

 These quarterly reports include data on some 

of the programs listed in table 1. While all events listed may not occur regularly in all 

locations, data on the different types of outreach efforts to help promote positive 

working relationships between reservists and their civilian employers are reported to 

ESGR. For example, field committee reports have included data on the number of 

media events, trade shows, conferences, symposiums, boss lift events, and awards for 

the quarter. ESGR officials noted that the statements of support signings are their 

primary outreach effort to gain employer support, and explained that these 

statements of support often are acquired as a result of other ESGR outreach efforts.

For example, one field committee representative we spoke with stated that she had 

attended a symposium sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management 

and obtained 20 to 25 statements of support from employers. 

Despite its collecting and reporting data on these outreach efforts, ESGR does not 

have an annual performance plan in place to measure how well its outreach efforts 

are achieving its goals. As a step in that direction, ESGR has recently issued its first 

annual report.19 ESGR’s annual report provides information on, among other things, 

the organization’s guiding principles and organizational structure, a historical 

overview, and some statistics on its outreach programs. Nonetheless, ESGR’s 2007 

annual report provides data on only some of its activities; it does not include 

performance measures to demonstrate the effectiveness of ESGR’s outreach efforts.

As previously mentioned, ESGR established a 5-year goal (by 2011) to obtain 

statements of support from 100 percent of the employers it has identified. However, 

the annual report does not discuss the progress being made towards achieving this 

goal. Without a performance plan, ESGR may not be able to evaluate the extent to 

which it is meeting its goals, or identify successes as well as potential problem areas 

that might require adjustments to these goals. 

 

18GAO-03-669. 

19National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Annual Report, (Arlington,VA: 

Fiscal Year 2007). 
Page 14 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

While ESGR’s mission is to “gain and maintain” support from employers of reservists, 

it does not have a follow-up-mechanism in place to help maintain the relationships 

established with those employers who have signed statements of support. During the 

course of our review, we found that once a statement of support is signed by an 

employer, there is no follow-up-mechanism in place to maintain the established 

employer relationship. DOD officials acknowledged that they do not have a follow-up 

mechanism in place that can help maintain employer support; they stated their belief 

that such an effort would be beneficial. Until a follow up mechanism is in place, DOD 

is unable to determine whether meeting its goals for employer signings of statements 

of support shows real progress toward developing effective employer relationships 

and whether it is able to fully attain its goal of both gaining and maintaining support 

from employers. 

Furthermore, ESGR lacks a systematic approach for identifying problem areas that 

could help to target outreach efforts. For example, while DOD conducts outreach to 

its general population of employers, DOD has not developed an approach for 

targeting small businesses. A November 2007 DOD report to Congress found that 

nearly 70 percent of employers of selected reservists have fewer than 100 

employees.20 ESGR’s strategic plan states that the organization will conduct an 

environmental assessment of customer needs through targeted outreach and analysis.

The strategic plan also states that ESGR shall improve working relationships with 

employers by designing tailored products to meet their specific needs. Multiple DOD 

officials have acknowledged that small businesses are especially affected by the 

deployment of their reserve employees; these officials noted that small businesses 

were one of the main challenges or obstacles that DOD was facing. Additionally, 

during interviews we held with selected employers (both large and small), some of 

the small business owners told us that their business suffered while their reservist 

employee was deployed. Some employers said it cost them additional overtime to 

compensate other workers to replace the deployed reservists, and some said they had 

to move employees around to areas that they were not as familiar with or trained in. 

Additionally, a small business owner told us that the replacements were not as good 

as the reservist they had replaced. However, ESGR has not established any outreach 

programs specifically targeted to small business owners that could address these 

concerns and potentially improve working relationships between reservists and their 

small business employers. Until ESGR develops a focused effort to target small 

businesses, it may be unable to address the unique needs of small businesses, which 

are the majority of reservists’ employers. 

Data Unavailable to Identify Any Reductions in the Hiring of Reservists 

Since September 11, 2001

We were unable to determine the extent to which there has been any reduction in the 

hiring of reservists because of the increase in the use of reservists after September 

11, 2001, or because of any changes in DOD’s policies concerning reservists after 

20Department of Defense Working Group Interim Report to Congress: Special Working Group on 

Transition to Civilian Employment of National Guard and Reserve Members Returning from 

Deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, Office of the Under 

Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (November 2007). 
Page 15 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

September 11, 2001, due to the lack of available data related to this issue. We 

discussed with DOD and Department of Labor officials the extent to which they 

maintained data on the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001, and whether 

there were changes in any of DOD's policies relating to reservists after September 11, 

2001. Officials were not aware of any data related to a reduction in the hiring of 

reservists. We also asked participants in our focus groups if they were aware of any 

reduction in hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001. While the results of these 

discussions were limited by the small number of participants in the focus groups, the 

general consensus of the reservists was that they had not noticed any changes in the 

hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001. Some focus group participants felt that 

employers were hiring fewer reservists, but said they could not substantiate their 

beliefs. Also, in discussions with employers, which were also limited by the small 

number of participants, the employers we spoke with all indicated that they had not 

seen any reductions in their companies’ hiring, or any changes in their hiring policies, 

with respect to reservists since September 11, 2001. However, these focus groups and 

discussions were based on a nonprobability sample and are therefore ultimately not 

generalizable; the data do not help determine the extent to which there was a 

reduction in the hiring of reservists since September 11, 2001. 

In the course of our work, we identified a number of DOD policy changes relating to 

reservists since September 11, 2001, but we were unable to determine the extent to 

which these policy changes or others may affect the hiring of reservists. For example, 

on January 19, 2007, the Secretary of Defense announced that reserve component 

personnel will now be mobilized for a maximum of 12 months at any one time with 

discretion given to the services to exclude time for training needed for deployment 

and post-mobilization leave from that 12-month period. This is a change from the 

earlier policy that limited involuntary mobilizations of reservists to a total of 24 

cumulative months. In addition to this policy change, the Under Secretary of Defense 

for Personnel Readiness Mobilization/Demobilization issues memoranda each time 

the President authorizes the involuntary call-up of Reserve Component members and 

has periodically issued other similar memoranda all of which the department says are 

designed to maintain employer support and to remind reservists of the requirement to 

provide notice to their employers. However, even if a reduction in the hiring of 

reservists had occurred after September 11, 2001, we would not be able to attribute 

any such decline to specific factors such as any changes in DOD policy. Absent such 

data or analyses, DOD has no way to know if there has been a reduction in the hiring 

of reservists since September 11, 2001. The absence of data also precludes any 

analysis to determine the impact, if any, on reservists.

Conclusions

DOD has taken steps toward informing reservists of their obligations and 

responsibilities to provide advance notification to their civilian employers before they 

are mobilized and improving working relationships between reservists and their 

employers, but it does not assess the effectiveness of these efforts. Until DOD begins 

to develop procedures and to collect data on both the amount, as well as the type, of 

advance notice being given by most reservists to their civilian employers, DOD will 

not be able to determine how well its efforts to inform reservists of their obligation to 

provide advance notice to employers are working or determine whether additional 
Page 16 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

measures are required. Furthermore, DOD and ESGR have developed many outreach 

initiatives to help improve working relationships between reservists and their civilian 

employers, but they do not assess the efficiency and effectiveness of these efforts. 

Without a performance plan and a clearly defined approach to evaluate and analyze 

the results of its outreach efforts, ESGR may be unable to evaluate the extent to 

which it is meeting its goals, or identify successes as well as potential problem areas 

that might require adjustments to these goals. Without a follow-up process to help 

maintain relationships established through the signing of statements of support, 

ESGR may be unable to determine whether it is making progress toward developing 

effective employer relationships or whether it is able to maintain established 

employer support. Finally, unless ESGR develops initiatives targeted to small 

businesses, the needs of the majority of civilian employers of reservists may not be 

fully addressed. 

Recommendations for Executive Action

To gauge the effectiveness of DOD’s actions to increase the likelihood that more 

progress will be made in promoting positive relationships with employers, we 

recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary of Defense for 

Personnel and Readiness take the following three actions: 

• establish an annual performance plan that develops and facilitates the 

implementation of performance measures on how well ESGR is achieving its 

goals, 

• conduct regular and recurring follow-up activities on outreach efforts to 

maintain positive working relationships with employers who have previously 

signed statements of support, and 

• develop initiatives to specifically conduct outreach efforts to small businesses 

that employ reservists. 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

In addition to the three recommendations listed above, the draft report that we 

provided to DOD for review and comments included a fourth draft recommendation 

in which we recommended that the Secretary of Defense direct the Under Secretary 

of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to include questions in DOD’s Status of 

Forces Surveys for reserve component members to determine the amount of 

notification being provided by service members to their civilian employers prior to 

activation and the extent to which mobilization notices are provided verbally versus 

in written form. DOD did not concur with this draft recommendation and stated that 

the responsibility for employer notification rests ultimately with the service member 

and should not be used to judge the effectiveness of DOD’s outreach efforts. While 

we recognize that the responsibility for employer notification rests ultimately with 

the service member, DOD has a responsibility to inform reservists of their obligations 

under USERRA, which would include the obligation to generally provide their 
Page 17 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

employers with advance notice prior to departure for military duty. Moreover, we 

believe that a very important element to developing and maintaining employer 

support for members of the Guard and Reserves is to ensure that these service 

members are aware of their responsibilities to their employers and are following 

through on these responsibilities. As we stated in the report, we believe that the most 

effective means for continually monitoring the effectiveness of the department’s 

outreach efforts to inform service members of their responsibilities is through the 

biannual Status of Forces Surveys. However, because officials at the Defense 

Manpower Data Center told us toward the completion of our review that they are 

planning to include questions in subsequent Status of Forces Surveys regarding the 

extent to which service members are providing notification to their employers and 

whether the notifications are being given verbally or in writing, we omitted this draft 

recommendation from the final report. Nonetheless, we continue to believe this 

initiative has merit, and we encourage its full implementation. The department 

partially concurred with the three remaining recommendations. A detailed discussion 

of the department’s comments regarding these three recommendations and our 

evaluation of those comments is included in the paragraphs below. DOD’s written 

comments are reprinted in enclosure II. 

The department also provided several general comments and one technical comment 

that we considered and incorporated, as appropriate. Specifically, DOD stated in its 

comments that the Department of Labor may be able to provide data on the number 

of USERRA complaints filed with that agency involving discrimination. Officials at 

the Department of Labor told us that they could provide data on the total number of 

USERRA complaints filed, but not on the number of complaints filed in specific 

categories such as discrimination. In addition, DOD stated in its comments that the 

department does not agree with the statement in our report that ESGR does not 

collect data to assess the effectiveness of its efforts and does not measure the 

efficiency and effectiveness of its efforts. As we state in our report, however, while 

ESGR has a Strategic Plan that includes specific goals and objectives, it lacks an 

established performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its goals. DOD 

notes in its comments that ESGR is developing an Operational Plan to supplement its 

Strategic Plan and to provide additional guidance and measures. DOD also stated in 

its comments that in our discussion of the changes in defense policies since 

September 11, 2001, regarding the hiring of reservists, we make reference to only one 

specific policy memo. The department identified other relevant policy memos which 

we have added in the report. Lastly, DOD stated in its technical comment that it is not 

aware of the role that the Department of Veterans Affairs has in the enforcement of 

USERRA. As we state in our report, under the provisions of USERRA, the Department 

of Veterans Affairs has a role in providing outreach to inform service members and 

respective employers about service members’ rights, benefits, and obligations. The 

statement in our report refers to their outreach responsibility under §4333 of 

USERRA, which gives the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Labor and the 

Secretary of Veterans Affairs responsibility for taking steps the Secretaries determine 

to be appropriate for providing outreach to inform service members and their 

respective employers about their rights, benefits, and obligations under USERRA
Page 18 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

The department partially concurred with our first recommendation that the Under 

Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness establish an annual performance 

plan that develops and facilitates the implementation of performance measures on 

how well ESGR is achieving its goals. In response to this recommendation, DOD 

specifically commented that the ESGR Strategic Plan includes measurable, realistic, 

and time-sensitive objectives and performance measures, and that the department is 

currently engaged in an effort to supplement the Strategic Plan with an Operational 

Plan to provide additional guidance and measures. As stated in our report, we agree 

that ESGR’s Strategic Plan includes specific goals and objectives but we continue to 

believe that ESGR lacks specific performance measures and an established 

performance plan to measure how well it is achieving its goals. While we 

acknowledge that ESGR collects certain data elements related to their goals and 

objectives, as discussed in their comments, ESGR does not have an annual 

performance plan for measuring trends or periodically assessing its progress toward 

meeting its goals and objectives. For example, one of the objectives in ESGR’s 

Strategic Plan is to obtain statements of support from all identified reserve 

component employers. To accomplish this objective, ESGR established a 5-year goal 

(by 2011) to obtain statements of support from 100 percent of the employers it has 

identified. While ESGR reports the total number of statements of support signed, 

ESGR does not periodically measure or report the extent to which it is attaining this 

long-term goal. DOD’s characterization of the intent of the ESGR Operational Plan to 

supplement its Strategic Plan and to include additional effectiveness measures 

appears consistent with the intent of our recommendation to develop an annual 

performance plan. We support the department’s efforts to develop its annual 

Operational Plan and to provide additional guidance and measures to assess the 

extent to which ESGR is accomplishing its goals and objectives. 

The department also partially concurred with our second recommendation that the 

Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness conduct regular and 

recurring follow-up activities on outreach efforts to maintain positive working 

relationships with employers who have previously signed statements of support. 

Specifically, the department commented that, while it agrees that employer outreach 

is important, there is a limited number of ESGR staff to conduct such employer 

outreach efforts and the department believes that an employer who signs a support 

agreement is less likely to then engage in a contrary practice. As stated in our report, 

however, ESGR officials that we spoke with during the engagement agreed that 

additional follow-up efforts with employers would be beneficial toward maintaining 

employer support subsequent to an employer signing a statement of support. We also 

continue to believe that periodic and consistent outreach to employers will help DOD 

to fully attain its goal of both gaining and maintaining support from employers. 

Lastly, the department also partially concurred with our third recommendation that 

the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness develop initiatives to 

specifically conduct outreach efforts to small businesses that employ reservists. 

Specifically, DOD commented that it believes the challenges small business owners 

may face when a reservist-employee is absent to perform military duty are beyond the 

scope of responsibilities which are under ESGR’s purview. As stated in our report, 

however, small businesses that employ reservists face a number of specific and 

unique challenges when a reservist-employee is called to perform active military duty. 
Page 19 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Further, as previously mentioned in our report, ESGR’s strategic plan states that it 

shall improve working relationships with employers by designing tailored products to 

meet their specific needs. We continue to believe that, for ESGR to effectively 

perform its mission of gaining and maintaining employer support, it needs to 

establish mechanisms to assess and address these unique challenges facing small 

businesses.

- - - - - 

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Defense; the Secretaries of 

the Army, Navy, and Air Force; the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve; and 

the Defense Manpower Data Center. We will also make copies available to others on 

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

http://www.gao.gov.

Should you or your staff have any questions on the matters discussed in 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 key contributions to this report are listed in

enclosure III. 

Brenda S. Farrell 

Director, Defense Capabilities and Management 
Page 20 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

List of Congressional Committees 

The Honorable Carl Levin 

Chairman 

The Honorable John McCain 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Armed Services 

United States Senate 

The Honorable John F. Kerry 

Chairman 

The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

United States Senate 

The Honorable Ike Skelton 

Chairman 

The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Armed Services 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Nydia M. Velázquez 

Chairwoman 

The Honorable Steve Chabot 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Small Business 

House of Representatives 
Page 21 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Scope and Methodology

To address our objectives we obtained, reviewed, and analyzed available documents, 

reports, laws, regulations, surveys, and other information related to promoting 

positive working relationships between reservists and their employers. 

We interviewed officials within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Reserve Affairs (RA), Headquarters Marine Corps (Manpower and Reserve Affairs), 

Office of Chief of Navy Reserve, United States Army Reserve, National Committee for 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, National Guard Bureau, Army National 

Guard, Defense Manpower Data Center, United States Air Force Manpower and 

Reserve Affairs, and joint Deployment Support and Reintegration Program. We also 

interviewed Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Program Support specialists 

and executive directors. 

In addition, we reviewed our prior work on reserve forces and issues related to the 

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994.

A list of Related GAO Products is included in enclosure IV. We also coordinated with 

the DOD Office of the Inspector General to discuss ongoing work related to this 

project.

To evaluate the extent to which DOD has taken steps to inform reservists of their 

obligations and responsibilities to their employers to provide timely notification of a 

call to active duty, we obtained information describing DOD active and reserve 

component procedures and processes in place to inform reservists of their 

responsibilities and obligations to their employers. This includes procedures 

regarding advance notification by reservists to employers of upcoming mobilizations 

as well as the reservists’ rights and responsibilities under USERRA. To determine the 

effectiveness of DOD’s programs to inform reservists of their rights and 

responsibilities to their employers,

We held interviews with key 

DOD officials and established a nonprobability sample of employers of reservists. 

Because this is a nonprobability sample of employers, the results of these interviews 

are not generalizeable to the general population of reservist employers. We 

conducted focus groups with reservists in three states to discuss their responsibilities 

regarding the amount of advance notice being provided both to reservists by DOD 

and to employers by reservists. his was also a nonprobability sample and the results 

from these focus groups are not generalizeable to the population of reservists.

 we also analyzed DOD Status of Forces Surveys 

on areas related to advance notice to reservists and other matters concerning reserve 

component members. We assessed these survey data for reliability and found them to 

be sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. 

 T

 To 

select participants for our focus groups, we chose from units with the following 

characteristics: (1) Army National Guard and Army Reserve units (which comprise 

the majority of total reservists), (2) reserve units consisting of 100 or more personnel, 

(3) units that have deployed and redeployed back to the United States since January 

1, 2007, and (4) units that conducted weekend drills during the period May 5, 2008, 

through July 28, 2008. We conducted a total of 10 focus groups in three states 

(Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia) with a total of 50 volunteer participants. We 

selected employers of reservists for our structured interviews using DOD’s civilian 

employee information (CEI) database. We selected employers from this database to 
Page 22 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

 

include a mix of both small and large companies based on number of employees, both 

governmental agencies and private/nonprofit companies, civilian employers of 

reservists from each reserve component, and employers in states with a heavy 

concentration of reservists. We selected from those employers deemed to have a high 

degree of automated matching accuracy by Dun & Bradstreet.21 From the employers 

who met these above criteria, we randomly selected 77 employers to contact, and 

ultimately completed interviews with 11 employers. We found this data to be 

sufficiently reliable for our selection purposes. 

 

To determine DOD’s initiatives to support reservist/employer relations, we met with 

and conducted interviews with knowledgeable officials at DOD, including Employer 

Support of the Guard and Reserve, National Guard Bureau, and reserve components.

To learn more about ESGR’s roles and responsibilities in implementing programs that 

promote positive working relations between reservists and their employers, we also 

conducted interviews with several ESGR field representatives. To determine the 

extent to which DOD has taken initiatives to promote positive working relations 

between reservists and their employers, we obtained documents, policies, and 

procedures; information on DOD’s employer outreach efforts; and memoranda of 

understanding addressing the current activities to help promote and strengthen 

positive working relationships between reservists and their civilian employers. We 

specifically questioned employers in our structured interviews on their relationships 

with their respective reserve employees, and what suggestions, if any, they had to 

strengthen reservist employer relations. 

To determine the extent that there has been a reduction in the hiring of reservists 

after September 11, 2001, or any change in any of DOD’s policies relating to reservists 

after September 11, 2001, we requested data from the Department of Labor, Defense 

Manpower Data Center, and Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. We 

specifically questioned participants in our focus groups and structured interviews on 

any changes in hiring practices or policies that have occurred.

We conducted this performance audit from April 2008 through August 2008 in 

accordance with generally accepted government accounting 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.

21 Dun & Bradstreet, an organization that maintains a database of more than 130 million business 

records, reviews DOD's civilian employer data and generates a maximum confidence code denoting an 

entry’s degree of accuracy. For the purposes of our review, entries with a confidence code of 7 or 

higher were considered more reliable. 
Enclosure II 

Page 23 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Comments from the Department of Defense
Enclosure II 

Page 24 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

GAO DRAFT REPORT – DATED August 5, 2008 

GAO CODE 351205 / GAO-08-981R 

"MILITARY PERSONNEL: Improvements Needed to Increase Effectiveness of DoD’s 

Programs to Promote Positive Working Relationships Between Reservists and Their 

Employers"

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE GENERAL COMMENTS 

The GAO acknowledges the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Strategic Plan 

and the myriad Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve programs to inform reservists and 

employers of their rights and obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and 

Reemployment Right Act. These outreach efforts are designed to gain and maintain the support 

of employers for their employees who serve in the Guard or Reserve.

It is not surprising that GAO found no studies on the extent to which employers hiring 

practices might have changed. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights 

Act includes a discrimination provision which prohibits an employer from basing a hiring 

decision on an individual’s service in a Uniformed Service or an obligation to serve in the 

Uniformed Services. However, we suggest that complaints filed by individuals claiming 

discrimination would provide a meaningful way of determining if employees or potential 

employees believe an employer is engaged in a discriminatory practice with respect to hiring. 

The Department of Labor may be able to provide data on the number of complaints filed with 

that agency involving discrimination. The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve also 

maintains a database on the types of inquiries they receive and mediation conducted by 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. 

The Department does not agree with the statement that Employer Support of the Guard 

and Reserve does not collect data to assess the effectiveness of its efforts and does not measure 

the efficiency and effectiveness of its efforts. The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve 

Strategic Plan specifically contains measurable objectives, and considerable effort has been 

undertaken by Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve to quantify and measure its activities 

in order to evaluate returns on investments. The quarterly reports produced by the organization, 

together with a Management Control Plan, provide a clear performance plan for leadership, and 

adjustments are made on a regular basis to achieve ever-better results. As stated by GAO itself, it 

is difficult to establish a direct causal link between Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve 

efforts and their effectiveness, but based on the activities conducted by Employer Support of the 

Guard and Reserve and comparing the number of cases filed with the Department of Labor to the 

actual utilization of Guard and Reserve members, the Department believes that Employer 

Support of the Guard and Reserve and its over 4,200 volunteers are making a positive impact in 

fostering positive relationships between Reserve Component members and their employers. 
Enclosure II 

Page 25 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

We also noted that GAO only cited one memorandum on the employment of Reserve 

Component members—the memo issued on January 19, 2007, by the Secretary of Defense. But 

GAO did not reference several other DOD policy documents in which the Department explicitly 

provided guidance on the reasonable employment of reservists. These policy documents were 

designed to maintain employer support, and to remind Reserve Component members of the 

requirement to provide notice to their employers. These include the Under Secretary of Defense 

for Personnel and Readiness Mobilization/Demobilization memoranda issued each time the 

President authorizes the involuntary call-up of Reserve Component members and the Under 

Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness memo of July 19, 2002, which prescribes 

guidance on the judicious and prudent use of National Guard and Reserve personnel. Further, in 

the September 20, 2001 memorandum, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and 

Readiness limited the initial period of mobilization to 12 months with a 24-month cumulative 

limit. While conditions on the ground resulted in the Secretary of Defense granting an exception 

to the 12 month limit for the Army, it nonetheless remained the policy until Secretary Gates 

issued his new policy on force utilization on January 19, 2007, as noted in the correspondence.

We have one comment on a technical issue: the Department is not aware of the role that 

the Department of Veterans Affairs has in Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment 

Rights Act as stated on page 6 of the draft report.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMMENTS 

TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS 

RECOMMENDATION 1: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the 

Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to include questions in DoD’s Status of 

Forces Surveys for Reserve Component members to determine: (1) the amount of notification 

being provided by Service members to their civilian employers prior to activation; and (2) the 

extent to which mobilization notices are provided verbally versus in written form. 

DOD RESPONSE: Nonconcur. While this information may be of some interest, it would 

provide information that is beyond the Department’s control. The Department uses Status of 

Forces Surveys of Reserve Component members to help assess the effectiveness of it efforts, but 

the responsibility for employer notification ultimately rests with the Service member and should 

not be used to judge the effectiveness of outreach efforts. The following are examples of the 

types of questions included in the Status of Forces Surveys of Reserve Component members that 

are useful to the Department: 

y the number of Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act briefing 

members received; 

y additional information on Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights 

Act that would be helpful; 

y the best time to provide information on Uniformed Services Employment and 

Reemployment Rights Act; 

y satisfaction with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve assistance; 

2
Enclosure II 

Page 26 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

y the degree of employer support; 

y the type of support provided by an employer; 

y their reemployment experiences following activation; 

y problems experienced despite Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment 

Rights Act; and 

y the type of assistance reservists sought. 

While the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act only requires 

advance notice be given employers without specifying the form (verbal or written) or the 

timeliness of the notice, the Department, through numerous outreach initiatives and policies has 

encouraged Reserve Component members to notify their employers as early as possible about 

their mobilizations, and will continue to engage in education efforts to foster two-way 

communication between Reserve Component members and their employers. 

The Department has a responsibility to inform reservists and the employers of reservists of 

their obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. 

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act requires a member to 

provide notice, written or verbal, to his or her employer. As stated in the GAO correspondence, 

the Department has exceeded its obligation by strongly encouraging reservists to provide that 

notice in writing. Also, for reservists to provide notice to their employers, they must know when 

they will be required to perform military duty. The correspondence acknowledges that the 

Department has done that. Further, as mobilizations have become more predictable, the 

Department has been able to increase the amount of notice that it provides reservists of a pending 

period of military service. But it is the individual reservist’s responsibility to notify his or her 

employer. While having data on how far in advance an employer receives notice is interesting, 

there is little action the Department can take despite being armed with that information. The 

correspondence states that “Until DOD begins developing procedures to collect data regarding 

both the amount, as well as the type, of advance notice being given by most reservists to their 

civilian employers, it may be unable to measure the effectiveness of its efforts to inform 

servicemembers of their benefits and obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and 

Reemployment Rights Act or determine whether additional measures are required.” This implies 

that these two data elements would be the determining factors in whether Employer Support of 

the Guard and Reserve efforts to inform reservists of their rights and benefits under Uniformed 

Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act are successful. The Department disagrees 

with this assertion. As previously stated, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has 

several ways to determine the effectiveness of its outreach efforts. While the Department will 

continue to emphasize and encourage reservists to provide notice as far in advance as possible 

and to provide notice in writing, this remains a responsibility of the member and should not be 

used as the basis for judging the effectiveness of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve 

outreach efforts.

Of note, according to a 2008 survey of employers by the Institute for Defense Analyses 

and Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Customer Service Center data, employers have 

not indicated lack of early notification as a significant challenge in their support for the military 

service of their employees.

3
Enclosure II 

Page 27 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

RECOMMENDATION 2: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the 

Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to establish an annual performance plan 

that develops and implements performance measures on how well Employer Support of the 

Guard and Reserve is achieving its goals. 

DOD RESPONSE: Partially Concur. The GAO did not acknowledge the efforts and 

performance measures Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has in place to gauge its 

effectiveness. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense 

organization with a mission to gain and maintain employer support for Guard and Reserve 

service by recognizing outstanding support, increasing awareness of the law, and resolving 

conflicts through mediation, serves as the DoD’s focal point in managing the Department’s 

relations with reservists and their civilian employers. 

The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Strategic Plan specifically contains 

measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-sensitive objectives and considerable effort has been 

undertaken to quantify and measure its activities in order to evaluate returns on investments. 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve documents the number of Bosslifts, the number of 

mailings, strategic partnership gained, employer briefings and recipients of awards. Measures 

such as these must be used against a standard to determine their effectiveness. This is 

accomplished by analyzing the number and type of requests for information and complaints 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve receives from reservists or filed with the 

Department of Labor. The quarterly reports produced by the organization, together with a 

Management Control Plan, provide a clear performance plan for leadership. This process allows 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve to make appropriate adjustments on a regular basis 

to achieve ever-better results. Further, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is currently 

engaged in an effort to supplement its Strategic Plan with an annual Operational Plan to provide 

additional guidance and measurements. 

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent Global War on 

Terrorism, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has ramped up its activity in step with 

the increased mobilization of the Reserve Component while providing a dedicated and valuable 

service to hundreds of thousands of Reserve Component members and their employers. Over the 

years, focused outreach and communications efforts conducted by Employer Support of the 

Guard and Reserve have resulted in greater awareness and support by employers for the military 

service of their employees. 

Data from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Ombudsman Service indicate 

that the total number of contacts to Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve have increased 

from 5,298 in FY05 to 7,765 in FY06 to 13,116 in FY07 to 8,575 in FY08 (as of June 30), noting 

increased awareness of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve among our customers. 

Meanwhile, the number of actual cases has decreased, from 4,682 in FY05 to 3,152 in FY06 to 

2,374 in FY07 to 1,988 in FY08 (as of June 30). This underscores the effectiveness of Employer 

Support of the Guard and Reserve outreach to and education of employers and Reserve 

Component members across the country. 

4
Enclosure II 

Page 28 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Concurrently, the number of employers of Guardsmen and Reservists who sign 

statements of support has increased, from 10,909 in FY05 to 11,396 in FY06 to 20,644 in FY07 

to 27,770 in FY08 (as of June 30). 

RECOMMENDATION 3: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the 

Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to conduct regular and recurring followup activities on outreach efforts to maintain positive working relationships with employers who 

have previously signed statements of support. 

DOD RESPONSE: Partially Concur. The Department of Defense recognizes the importance of 

employer support and has provided increasing levels of support for Employer Support of the 

Guard and Reserve since 2001. Two factors are important when looking at the issue of follow-up 

activities. First, there is a limited Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve staff and they 

must prioritize their efforts. Second, it could be assumed that an employer who signs a support 

agreement is less likely to then engage in a contrary practice. But that does not mean that follow 

up or reengagement is unnecessary; it is. Since the availability of the Civilian Employer 

Information data, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has sought to put into place 

processes and programs to conduct regular, recurrent, and focused outreach to known employers 

of Reserve component members. Since 2005, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has 

sent an annual direct mail informational brochure to all known employers of Reserve component 

members and plans to continue this mailing annually. Also, Employer Support of the Guard and 

Reserve plans to supplement this direct outreach with additional direct outreach to Reserve 

Component members, and to specific subsets of the employer community, such as small business 

owners or specific industries. Further, the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Statement 

of Support Program is built around the concept of “gaining and maintaining” support through an 

initial symbolic statement of support signing and subsequent maintenance of contact at the local 

level. Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve also plans, as resources are available, to 

conduct direct mail outreach as well as personal contact to employers who have signed 

statements of support as a means of maintaining contact and support. 

In addition to initiatives noted above, individual services have their own initiatives 

directly and indirectly related to employer outreach efforts. For example, the National Guard 

Bureau has partnered directly with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for financial 

support of full-time personnel in each state to assist in outreach efforts. The Army Reserve has 

established an ambitious employer outreach program aimed at building and maintaining positive 

“Employer Partnerships” by actively reaching out to employers of Army Reserve Soldiers and 

Family members. The outreach program seeks to build enduring relationships which encourages 

employers to hire Soldiers and share the human capital resource. Several partnerships have 

already been codified in signed Memoranda of Agreements between the Army Reserve and 

employers and more are planned in the near future. The “Employer Partnership” initiative will 

continue to be a very important priority for the Army Reserve. The GAO was provided with 

numerous documents and examples of those initiatives and efforts. 

5
Enclosure II 

Page 29 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

6

RECOMMENDATION 4: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense direct the 

Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) to develop initiatives to specifically 

outreach to small businesses that employ reservists. 

DOD RESPONSE: Partially Concur. GAO cited several challenges a small business owner 

may face when a reservist-employee is absent to perform military duty. But those are issues that 

are beyond the scope of responsibilities which are under the purview of the Employer Support of 

the Guard and Reserve. For several years, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense 

(Reserve Affairs) has been engaged with and formed a strategic alliance with the Small Business 

Administration to help Small Business Administration identify and develop programs to assist 

small business owners with the challenges they may encounter during the absence of a reservistemployee. The most recent example of such a program is the Small Business Administration’s 

recently-established Patriot Express program. 

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is an information broker to Reserve 

Component members and their employers regarding the Uniformed Services Employment and 

Reemployment Rights Act. As the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights 

Act applies to all employers, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve conducts outreach to 

all known employers of Reserve Component members. Additionally, Employer Support of the 

Guard and Reserve has strong working relationships with government, non-profit, and industry 

groups representing specific employer or industry segments. These relationships foster 

important “Strategic Partnerships” with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

Specifically, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has a strong working relationship with 

the Small Business Administration with whom Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve has 

conducted joint outreach efforts to increase awareness to small businesses. Employer Support of 

the Guard and Reserve outreach efforts are geared to provide a baseline information campaign to 

all Reserve Component members and their employers and to provide additional information to 

specific industry or employer segments. The National Guard and Army Reserve actively reach 

out to employers of all sizes and actively seek out “small business” owners in order to build 

relationships.

Also of note, from the Institute for Defense Analyses study previously referenced, data 

indicate the lack of significant problems from employers in general, including small businesses 

specifically, regarding the impact of the military service obligations of their employees. 
Enclosure III 

Page 30 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact 

Brenda S. Farrell, (202) 512-3604 or farrellb@gao.gov 

 

Acknowledgments 

In addition to the individual named above, David Schmitt (Assistant Director), Bonita 

Anderson, Renee Brown, Janine Cantin, Rudy Chatlos, Nicole Harms, Tobin 

McMurdie, Terry Richardson, Shana Wallace, Tracy Williams, and Matthew Young 

made key contributions to this report.
Enclosure IV 

Page 31 GAO-08-981R Reservists and Employers

Related GAO Products 

Military Personnel: Federal Agencies Have Taken Actions to Address Service 

members’ Employment Rights, but a Single Entity Needs to Maintain Visibility to 

Improve Focus on Overall Program Results. GAO-08-254T. Washington, D.C.: 

November 8, 2007. 

Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Reserve 

Employment Issues. GAO-07-259. Washington, D.C.: February 8, 2007. 

Military Personnel: Federal Management of Service member Employment Rights 

Can Be Further Improved. GAO-06-60. Washington, D.C.: October 19, 2005. 

Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Address Long-term Reserve Force Availability 

and Related Mobilization and Demobilization Issues. GAO-04-1031. Washington, 

D.C.: September 15, 2004. 

Military Pay: Army Reserve Soldiers Mobilized to Active Duty Experienced 

Significant Pay Problems. GAO-04-990T. Washington, D.C.: July 20, 2004. 

Reserve Forces: Observations on Recent National Guard Use in Overseas and 

Homeland Missions and Future Challenges. GAO-04-670T. Washington, D.C.: April 

29, 2004. 

Military Pay: Army National Guard Personnel Mobilized to Active Duty 

Experienced Significant Pay Problems. GAO-04-89. Washington, D.C.: November 13, 

2003. 

Military Personnel: DOD Needs More Data to Address Financial and Health Care 

Issues Affecting Reservists. GAO-03-1004. Washington, D.C.: September 10, 2003. 

Military Personnel: DOD Actions Needed to Improve the Efficiency of Mobilizations 

for Reserve Forces. GAO-03-921. Washington, D.C.: August 21, 2003. 

Military Personnel: Preliminary Observations Related to Income, Benefits, and 

Employer Support for Reservists During Mobilizations. GAO-03-549T. Washington, 

D.C.: March 19, 2003. 

Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations Between 

Reservists and Their Employers. GAO-02-608. Washington, D.C.: June 13, 2002. 

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