DHS RECRUITING 

AND HIRING

DHS Is Generally 

Filling Mission-Critical 

Positions, but Could 

Better Track Costs of 

Coordinated 

Recruiting Efforts 

Report to Congressional Requesters

September 2013

GAO-13-742

United States Government Accountability Office
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-13-742, a report to 

congressional requesters

September 2013

DHS RECRUITING AND HIRING

DHS Is Generally Filling Mission-Critical Positions, 

but Could Better Track Costs of Coordinated 

Recruiting Efforts

Why GAO Did This Study

With more than 240,000 employees

doing diverse jobs, DHS’s workforce

supports the department’s multiple

missions to prevent terrorism and

enhance security and ensure resilience 

from disasters, amongst others. Given 

these missions, it is important that 

DHS effectively recruit and hire 

employees with the appropriate skills.

Within DHS, the Office of the Chief 

Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) is 

responsible for human capital policy 

development and implementation. 

GAO has previously reported on DHS’s 

challenges in attracting and retaining a 

qualified workforce. GAO was asked to 

assess DHS’s recruiting and hiring 

strategies. This report addresses the

extent to which (1) DHS and four

selected components have 

implemented recruiting and hiring 

strategies to fill MCOs, and (2) DHS 

has assessed these efforts. To conduct 

its work, GAO reviewed recruiting 

strategies and data on MCO hiring and 

losses, and interviewed officials from 

OCHCO and the four DHS 

components selected for this review

based on their varieties of MCOs and 

recruiting strategies. Information from 

these components cannot be 

generalized to all of DHS, but provides

insights.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that DHS require all 

components to provide recruiting cost 

information in a consistent manner. 

DHS concurred with GAO’s 

recommendation.

What GAO Found

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and selected components are 

implementing strategies to fill mission-critical occupations (MCO), which are 

those occupations most critical to an agency’s mission. In 2011, the Office of 

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)—which coordinates component recruiting efforts—

developed the Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy (CROS). Through 

the CROS, D&I intends to better coordinate and link component recruiting and 

outreach efforts to hiring for DHS mission and workforce needs (for all positions, 

including MCOs), and to leverage resources as well as reduce recruiting costs, 

among other things. D&I has begun to implement the CROS through various 

means, including requiring components to develop their own outreach and 

recruiting plans that align with the CROS. However, D&I has been limited in its 

ability to implement some elements of the CROS—such as recruiter training—

because of budget constraints, according to D&I officials. The components 

selected for GAO’s review—the National Protection and Programs Directorate, 

Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 

Services, and U.S. Secret Service (USSS)—have also implemented various 

strategies to recruit and hire MCOs. In addition, these four components have 

generally been able to address hiring needs for MCOs. For example, USSS data 

show that vacancy rates were generally below 3 percent for MCO positions 

during fiscal years 2010 through 2012. Still, some officials have reported 

experiencing challenges attracting qualified candidates because of factors such 

as financial constraints and regional competition, among other things. For 

example, TSA has been challenged in filling certain positions in some areas 

where competition for other jobs makes it difficult to attract qualified candidates.

D&I is taking steps to assess implementation of the CROS, but could improve 

efforts to track recruiting costs. D&I assesses progress in implementing the 

CROS by tracking and monitoring component performance for six measures, 

such as compliance with data-tracking requirements. These measures are 

aligned with the two overarching goals of the CROS; however, they do not 

include targets to measure DHS’s progress in achieving the goals over the period 

the strategy covers (2012–2017). D&I officials stated that they are gathering 

baseline data on these measures and plan to use these data to help develop 

targets in the future. In addition, three of the CROS’s six annual measures are 

associated with its goal of recruiting a highly qualified workforce. However, DHS 

does not require components to report the information needed to accurately 

assess component performance for one of these measures—which calls for 

standardized data tracking of recruiting and outreach activities. D&I has 

developed a database for components to use to track recruiting efforts and costs, 

but it does not require that all components use this tool or provide data to DHS in 

a consistent manner. D&I officials said that since some components have their 

own tracking systems, they do not want the tracking systems to duplicate efforts. 

D&I acknowledges the importance of obtaining comprehensive and consistent 

cost information from components, but has not determined whether and how it 

will do so. As a result, D&I does not know the total amount of money being spent 

on recruiting and outreach throughout DHS, nor is it able to fully track component 

recruiting costs—and therefore cannot measure the results of the second goal in 

the CROS of optimizing outreach and recruiting resources.

View GAO-13-742. For more information, 

contact David C. Maurer at (202) 512-9627 or 

maurerd@gao.gov.
Page i GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Letter 1

Background 5

DHS and Selected Components Are Implementing Recruiting and 

Hiring Strategies to Fill Mission-Critical Occupations 12

D&I Is Taking Steps to Assess Implementation of the CROS, but 

Could Improve Tracking of Recruiting Costs 25

Conclusions 31

Recommendation for Executive Action 31

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 31

Appendix I Mission-Critical Occupations for Selected Department of 

Homeland Security Components 34

Appendix II Comments from the Department of Homeland Security 40

Appendix III GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 42

Tables

Table 1: Office of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Efforts to 

Implement the Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach 

Strategy (CROS) 14

Table 2: Recruiting Strategies of Selected Components in Our 

Review 17

Table 3: Number of Hires and Losses for Transportation Security 

Officers (TSO), Fiscal Years 2010-2012 20

Table 4: Number of U.S. Secret Service Hires and Losses, and 

Vacancy Rates for Mission-Critical Occupations (MCO), 

Fiscal Years 2010-2013 (as of March 2013) 22

Table 5: Number of New Hires and Losses for all National 

Protection and Programs Directorate Mission-Critical 

Occupations, Fiscal Years 2010-2013 (as of May 2013) 23

Table 6: Goals, Objectives, and Performance Measures in the 

Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy (CROS) 26

Table 7: Mission-Critical Occupations (MCO) for the Four 

Components in Our Review 34

Contents
Page ii GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Figure

Figure 1: Total Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 

Employees Onboard and Mission-Critical Occupation 

(MCO) Employees Onboard, from Fiscal Years 2008-2012 10

Abbreviations

CRC Corporate Recruiting Council

CROS Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy

CS&C Office of Cybersecurity and Communications

CSORP Component Specific Outreach and Recruiting Plan

D&I Office of Diversity and Inclusion

DHS Department of Homeland Security

FPS Federal Protective Service

GPRA Government Performance and Results Act

ISO immigration services officer

IT information technology

LEO law enforcement officer

MCO mission-critical occupation

NPPD National Protection and Programs Directorate

OCHCO Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer

OPM Office of Personnel Management

TSA Transportation Security Administration

TSO transportation security officer

USCIS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

USSS U.S. Secret Service

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Page 1 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

September 17, 2013

Congressional Requesters

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the third-largest cabinetlevel department in the federal government, with over 240,000 employees 

doing diverse jobs covering aviation and border security, emergency 

response, cybersecurity analysis, and chemical facility inspection.1 To 

address the increasingly complex national security challenges associated 

with its wide array of responsibilities, it is important that DHS have 

programs and policies in place to effectively recruit and hire employees 

with the appropriate skills to meet its various mission requirements. In 

recent years, we, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other 

parties have identified major challenges to recruitment and hiring in the 

federal government broadly and at DHS specifically, such as passive 

recruitment strategies and insufficient workforce planning. For example, 

passive recruitment strategies, such as infrequent or no outreach to 

college campuses, can create missed opportunities to expose potential 

employees to information about federal jobs. Also, we have found that 

federal agencies made limited use of hiring flexibilities that could better 

position them to efficiently hire well-qualified candidates for jobs.2

Specific to DHS, we have reported that the department faces challenges 

in attracting and retaining a qualified workforce, particularly in the areas of 

acquisitions, information technology, and cybersecurity. For example, in 

We 

have also reported that in order to ensure that organizations are reaching 

out to diverse pools of talent, agencies must consider active recruitment 

strategies, such as widening the selection of schools from which they 

recruit, building formal relationships with targeted schools and colleges to 

ensure the cultivation of talent for future applicant pools, and partnering 

with multicultural professional organizations and speaking at their 

conferences to communicate their commitment to diversity to external 

audiences and strengthen and maintain relationships.

 1

This total includes military staff in the U.S. Coast Guard and intelligence-related 

positions. Our review generally focuses on civilian, nonintelligence personnel, which 

results in a total of approximately 200,000 DHS employees.

2

GAO, Human Capital: Transforming Federal Recruiting and Hiring Efforts, GAO-08-762T

(Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2008). This report addresses recruiting and hiring efforts 

across the federal government, and includes work reviewing DHS.
Page 2 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

November 2011, we reported on workforce planning challenges for 

cybersecurity personnel in the federal government.3

Under the authority of DHS’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer 

(OCHCO), DHS’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) provides 

department-wide leadership and guidance on diversity and inclusion 

management related to recruitment and outreach, career development, 

and workforce inclusion, among other things.

We found, among 

other things, that the agencies we analyzed—including DHS—faced 

challenges in filling these highly technical occupations. In addition, our 

work in identifying high-risk areas in the federal government has identified 

DHS management, including the function of human capital management, 

as a high-risk area. In a September 2010 letter to DHS based on our prior 

work, we reported on the need for DHS to develop and demonstrate 

sustained progress in implementing a recruiting and hiring strategy that is 

targeted to fill both short- and long-term needs, and specifically to fill 

identified human capital gaps, including diversity and foreign language 

gaps.

4

The process of recruiting and hiring involves developing and 

implementing strategies to advertise positions and attract top candidates 

as well as assessing applicants’ relative competencies or knowledge, 

skills, and abilities against job-related criteria to identify the most qualified 

candidates to potentially hire. This includes identifying mission-critical 

occupations (MCO), which are those occupations that most directly affect 

an agency’s ability to perform its mission, and determining the specific 

skills and competencies required to meet both current and future 

programmatic needs. At DHS, MCOs constitute a large proportion of the 

workforce, highlighting the importance of an effective DHS recruiting and 

hiring strategy to ensure these critical occupations are filled.

DHS’s components 

operate within the human capital framework established and overseen by 

OCHCO, and their respective component-level human capital offices, or 

their equivalents, work with DHS OCHCO to manage human capital 

efforts at each of the components.

 3

GAO, Cybersecurity Human Capital: Initiatives Need Better Planning and Coordination, 

GAO-12-8 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 29, 2011).

4

In addition, D&I manages departmental efforts to increase the employment of veterans 

within DHS, and also leads efforts to investigate allegations of workplace harassment and 

provide resolution and corrective action when appropriate and necessary.
Page 3 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Given the importance of recruiting and hiring to DHS’s mission to prevent 

terrorism, secure our borders and cyberspace, and ensure resilience to 

disasters, you asked us to assess DHS’s recruiting and hiring strategies. 

This report addresses (1) the extent to which DHS and selected 

components have implemented recruiting and hiring strategies to fill 

MCOs, and (2) the extent to which DHS has assessed these efforts.

To address the extent to which DHS and selected components have 

implemented recruiting and hiring strategies to fill MCOs, we reviewed 

DHS’s primary recruiting strategy—the Coordinated Recruiting and 

Outreach Strategy (CROS) for fiscal years 2012-2017—and OCHCO’s 

efforts to facilitate implementation of the CROS among DHS’s 

components. To gain an understanding of component efforts to address 

CROS provisions, as well as component efforts to develop and implement 

their own recruiting and hiring strategies, we selected four DHS 

components—the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), 

the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Citizenship 

and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the U.S. Secret Service 

(USSS)—and reviewed documentation developed in response to the 

CROS as well as their respective recruiting and hiring strategies.5

 5

DHS has seven operational components—Customs and Border Protection, Federal 

Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, TSA, U.S. 

Coast Guard, USCIS, USSS—as well as NPPD, the Federal Law Enforcement Training 

Center, and several headquarters offices, for which OCHCO largely provides personnel 

processing. Within NPPD, there are four different subcomponents: Federal Protective

Service (FPS), Office of Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C), Office of 

Infrastructure Protection, and Office of Biometric Identity Management (which has 

replaced the United States Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology program 

as of March 2013). FPS is a federal law enforcement agency that provides integrated 

security and law enforcement services to federally owned and leased buildings, facilities, 

properties, and other assets. CS&C is responsible for enhancing the security, resilience, 

and reliability of the nation’s cyber and communications infrastructure. The Office of 

Biometric Identity Management provides biometric identification services that help federal, 

state, and local government decision makers accurately identify the people they encounter 

and determine whether those people pose a risk to the United States.

We 

selected these components because they provided a cross section of 

varied missions, critical occupations, and recruiting strategies within DHS. 

For example, NPPD contains many of DHS’s cybersecurity personnel—

who hold positions for which DHS has faced challenges in recruiting and 

hiring in recent years. Though the results of our review of these 

components cannot be generalized to DHS as a whole, they provide 

valuable insights into recruiting and hiring efforts and challenges within 
Page 4 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

the department. In addition to reviewing these components’ efforts to 

adhere to the CROS and develop their own recruiting strategies, we also 

analyzed workforce hiring data when available and appropriate.6 To 

determine the reliability of these data, we reviewed documentation on the 

data systems and interviewed officials responsible for working with the 

data systems. Through this work, we determined these data were 

sufficiently reliable for our purposes. To gain further insights into the 

development of recruiting strategies and efforts, challenges faced in hiring 

for MCOs, and efforts to mitigate such challenges, we interviewed 

OCHCO officials responsible for overseeing department-wide recruiting 

and hiring strategies and efforts, and human capital officials in the four 

components included in our review at their headquarters and at selected 

field locations. We selected the four field locations based on input from 

the DHS components, who identified the regional offices that experienced 

successes or challenges in recruiting and hiring.7

To address the extent to which DHS has assessed efforts to implement 

the CROS, we assessed DHS’s efforts to ensure that components 

complied with reporting provisions of the CROS by reviewing 

documentation (such as component-specific strategies) prepared in 

response to the CROS, and also compared elements of the CROS with 

leading practices for workforce planning identified in our prior work, as 

While the views and 

information shared by these components’ regional representatives cannot 

be generalized to all regions or employees within each component, they 

provide insight into field-level recruiting and hiring experiences.

 6

As discussed later in this report, components use a variety of data to monitor and assess 

the success of their recruiting and hiring efforts. To provide illustrative examples of these 

data, we present the following information in this report: TSA hires and losses from fiscal 

years 2010 through 2012; USSS hires, losses, and vacancy rates from fiscal years 2010 

through March of 2013; USCIS hires and losses through April of fiscal year 2013, as well 

as the number of qualified applications received during 2012; and NPPD hires and losses 

from fiscal years 2010 through May of 2013, as well as vacancy rates for the CS&C 

subcomponent and number of FPS officers as of June 2013.

7

Specifically, we spoke with USCIS officials in Texas, USSS officials in New York, and 

TSA officials at airports in Colorado and Alaska.
Page 5 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

well as general strategic planning.8

We conducted this performance audit from November 2012 to September 

2013 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.

We supplemented this review by 

interviewing OCHCO officials responsible for ensuring implementation of 

the CROS, as well as component officials who have worked with OCHCO 

in implementing this strategy.

Recruiting and hiring involves developing and implementing strategies to 

advertise positions and attract top candidates as well as assessing 

applicants’ relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities 

against job-related criteria to identify the most qualified candidates. The 

federal hiring process typically includes notifying the public that the 

government is accepting applications for a job; screening applications 

against minimum qualification standards; and assessing applicants’

relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job-

 8

See, for example, GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce 

Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003); Government Performance and 

Results Act (GPRA) (Pub. L. No. 103-62, 107. Stat 285 (1993)); and Project Management 

Institute, The Standard for Program Management, Third Edition © (Newtown Square, 

Pennsylvania: 2013). GAO-04-39 addresses key strategic workforce planning principles 

for aligning an organization’s human capital program with its current and emerging 

mission and programmatic goals, and developing long-term strategies for acquiring, 

developing, and retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals. GPRA was enacted to—

among other things—improve federal program effectiveness, accountability, and service 

delivery, in part through requiring performance plans with goals that establish target levels 

of performance against which achievement can be compared. While the practices called 

for through GPRA are required at the federal department/agency level, we have previously 

reported that they can serve as leading practices for planning at lower levels within federal 

agencies, such as individual programs or initiatives. For example, see GAO, Foreign Aid 

Reform: Comprehensive Strategy, Interagency Coordination, and Operational 

Improvements Would Bolster Current Efforts, GAO-09-192 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 17, 

2009). The Standard for Program Management outlines supporting processes for program 

management, including program cost budgeting and estimation.

Background

Federal Recruiting and

Hiring Process
Page 6 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

related criteria to identify the most qualified applicants. Federal civil 

service employees, other than those in the Senior Executive Service, are 

employed in either the competitive service or the excepted service.9

Federal agencies follow similar processes of identifying and selecting the 

most qualified candidates. This process generally includes, among other 

things, rating and ranking candidates and preparing ranked lists of the 

best-qualified candidates; selecting candidates to interview; conducting 

reference checks and applying veterans’ preference criteria; and making 

job offers, including conducting any preemployment checks (such as 

medical examinations) and security clearance checks. However, variation 

in how this process is carried out may occur across the four DHS 

components selected for our review. For example, TSA hires for all 

occupations as a member of the excepted service, while NPPD, USCIS, 

and USSS are part of the federal competitive service, though NPPD and 

USSS also hire for certain positions under excepted service appointing 

authorities. Specific to TSA, under the Aviation and Transportation 

Security Act, TSA is generally exempt from the provisions of Title 5 of the 

U.S. Code as well as the policies and procedures OPM established under 

Title 5, in order to adapt hiring processes to align with the unique 

demands of the agency’s workforce.

The 

majority of the federal civilian workforce obtains positions through the 

open competitive service examination process, which is intended to 

ensure that hiring complies with merit principles. Applicants for 

competitive service positions generally compete against one another 

through the competitive examination process.

10

 9

5 U.S.C. §§ 2102(a), 2103(a). Only certain positions are in the excepted service and are 

excepted from the competitive examination process. Positions may be excepted from the 

competitive service by statute, by the President, or by OPM. 5 C.F.R. § 213.101. OPM 

may except positions from the competitive service when it determines that appointments 

into such positions through competitive examination are not practicable. 5 C.F.R. § 6.1(a). 

Excepted appointments can be under either Schedule A (e.g., chaplain and attorney 

positions), Schedule B (e.g., Student Career Experience Program and Senior Executive 

Service candidate development program positions), or Schedule C (e.g., political 

appointee positions). 5 C.F.R. Part 213, Subpart C.

Thus, TSA may adapt hiring 

processes as needed to meet agency needs, and has established its own 

hiring flexibilities. For example, TSA has an approved interchange 

agreement from OPM to allow permanent TSA employees to apply and 

be selected for vacancies in competitive service agencies.

1049 U.S.C. § 114(n), 49 U.S.C. § 40122(g).
Page 7 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Within DHS, OCHCO is responsible for ensuring that DHS has the 

programs, policies, processes, and resources to recruit, hire, train, and 

retain its overall workforce. OCHCO’s strategic human capital agenda 

includes, among other things, recruiting a diverse workforce, hiring 

veterans, and improving the hiring process. Within OCHCO, specifically 

with respect to recruiting, D&I focuses on coordinating and leveraging 

component resources to achieve departmental recruiting and outreach 

goals, which are to reduce recruiting costs, increase efficiencies, and 

increase the diversity of applicant pools. While D&I administers human 

resource services related to recruiting and hiring for DHS headquarters, 

individual DHS components are primarily responsible for the active 

recruiting and hiring of employees for their components—that is, 

identifying their own occupational needs, including monitoring workforce 

data on grade, seniority, demographics, and attrition rates. Individual 

components also have their own recruiting and hiring budgets and are 

responsible for reaching out to potential applicants through job fairs, 

recruiting events, and other marketing efforts. Individual components 

manage their own application and hiring processes, including evaluation 

of potential candidates through selection.

OCHCO human capital programs and initiatives are supported, 

developed, and implemented through various cross-component councils, 

as well as implementation of DHS strategic human capital goals and 

priorities. For example, in May 2010, as part of its role in facilitating 

department-wide recruiting efforts, D&I led the development of the 

Corporate Recruiting Council (CRC), which holds monthly meetings with 

recruitment officers from DHS components as a means to encourage 

coordination and sharing of recruiting and hiring practices and strategies. 

CRC is chaired by D&I and has representatives from all of DHS’s 

components. Through the CRC, D&I focuses on presenting a “one DHS”

image by serving as the focal point for department-wide recruitment 

procedures and guidance, leveraging resources, and facilitating 

coordination and information sharing among components on recruiting 

events, best practices, and strategies.

DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Roles and Responsibilities
Page 8 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

We have previously reported on the importance of strategic workforce 

planning and focusing on developing long-term strategies for acquiring, 

developing, and retaining an organization’s total workforce.11 Strategic 

workforce planning includes the determination of critical skills and 

competencies—such as the identification of MCOs—to meet both current 

and future programmatic needs and developing strategies tailored to 

address gaps in the number, skills, competencies, and deployment of the 

workforce.12 DHS has developed and, in November 2012, updated a 

workforce planning guide that provides steps, tools, and resources that 

components are to use to plan for current and future organizational and 

workforce needs. One key element of strategic workforce planning is 

recruiting and hiring, which is intended to identify and acquire employees 

with the necessary skills and competencies to meet agency programmatic 

needs.13 In December 2012, we reported on strategic workforce planning 

efforts at DHS—specifically, that while DHS had taken steps that are 

generally consistent with leading principles in managing departmental 

strategic workforce planning, OCHCO had made limited progress in 

developing an oversight approach for monitoring and evaluating 

component-level efforts.14

 11

To provide a basis for monitoring and 

assessment of department-wide workforce planning efforts, we 

recommended that DHS identify and document additional performance 

GAO-04-39.

12As we reported in September 2012, OPM and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council 

(a body composed of chief human capital officers of 24 executive agencies, chaired by 

OPM, to advise and assist the head of the agency and other agency officials in their 

strategic human capital efforts) established a working group in September 2011 to identify 

and mitigate critical skills gaps as a means to address the federal government’s human 

capital high-risk area. See GAO, Human Capital Management: Effectively Implementing 

Reforms and Closing Critical Skills Gaps Are Key to Addressing Federal Workforce 

Challenges, GAO-12-1023T (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 19, 2012). In conjunction with OPM 

efforts to identify and mitigate skill gaps, DHS’s OCHCO is overseeing a pilot project to 

assess competency gaps for selected MCOs at DHS. 

13DHS’s Workforce Planning Model identifies five steps for effective workforce planning—

(1) set a strategic direction; (2) identify supply and demand discrepancies; (3) develop an 

action plan; (4) implement the action plan; and (5) monitor, evaluate, and revise. Within 

these five steps are 15 elements, 1 of which involves recruitment, hiring, training, and 

placement. See GAO, DHS Strategic Workforce Planning: Oversight of Departmentwide 

Efforts Should Be Strengthened, GAO-13-65 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 3, 2012). In addition 

to recruiting and hiring, training is also a key element in the workforce planning model and 

can help address skill and competency gaps. We have ongoing work examining training 

programs at DHS and plan to report the results of our review in 2014. 

14GAO-13-65.

Recruiting and Hiring as

an Element of Strategic 

Workforce Planning
Page 9 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

measures, document policies and procedures to use the results of audits 

related to component-level workforce planning, and integrate the results 

of these audits with components’ annual operational plans and review 

these plans. DHS concurred with these recommendations and has 

reported taking steps to address them, but they are not yet fully 

implemented.

In 2011, at the direction of OCHCO, DHS’s components identified their 

MCOs. OCHCO validated that these MCOs represent those jobs that are 

most critical to accomplishment of the mission, rather than simply the jobs 

that are most populous within each component (although some MCOs are 

the most populous within a component). For example, USCIS’s sole MCO 

is the immigration services officer (ISO) position, while one of TSA’s five 

MCOs is its transportation security officer (TSO).15 DHS completed the 

process of revalidating the MCOs that represent those occupations most 

critical for DHS to fulfill its mission in August 2013 and plans to do so 

again every 2 years hereafter.16

As shown in figure 1, the size of DHS’s workforce has grown in recent 

years and the majority of DHS’s workforce is composed of MCOs.

See appendix I for a list of all MCOs for 

the four components in our review.

 15ISOs are responsible for the adjudication of applications and petitions for immigration 

benefits and privileges. TSOs implement security screening procedures to protect the 

traveling public by, in part, assisting in conducting screening of passengers, baggage, and 

cargo.

16According to OCHCO, the revalidated MCO list is awaiting review and approval by the 

Chief Human Capital Officer.
Page 10 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Figure 1: Total Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Employees Onboard and 

Mission-Critical Occupation (MCO) Employees Onboard, from Fiscal Years 2008-

2012

Note: The total DHS employee count does not include U.S. Coast Guard military members or DHS 

employees in intelligence-related positions. According to DHS, these groups account for 

approximately 40,000 additional staff.

This figure represents all occupational series that contain MCOs. In some instances, MCO positions 

are subsets of the occupational series that cannot be identified more granularly (e.g., cybersecurity 

personnel are a subset of information technology [IT] specialists). Thus, this figure likely overstates 

the true proportion of MCOs within DHS.
Page 11 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

In January 2003, we designated implementing and transforming DHS as 

a high-risk area because DHS had to transform 22 existing agencies—

several with major management challenges—into one department. 

Human capital—including recruiting and hiring efforts—is among the 

challenges we have identified that DHS faces in implementing and 

transforming itself. To address this high-risk designation, DHS needs to 

achieve 31 specific actions and outcomes, 1 of which is related to 

recruiting and hiring. These actions and outcomes are based on the 

issues we have identified and recommendations made through our work 

at DHS.

In January 2011, DHS issued its initial Integrated Strategy for High Risk 

Management, which included key management initiatives (e.g., Workforce 

Strategy, Workforce Planning and Balanced Workforce, and Outreach 

and Targeted Recruitment) and corrective actions to address these highrisk areas as well as the actions and outcomes we identified as needed to 

address the high-risk designation. DHS agreed with these actions and 

outcomes and designated senior DHS officials to be responsible for 

implementing them. DHS provided updates of its progress in 

implementing these initiatives, including recruiting and hiring, in later 

versions of the strategy in June 2011, December 2011, and June 2012. In 

its September 2012 update to the June 2012 Integrated Strategy for High 

Risk Management, describing DHS’s progress in implementing a 

recruiting and hiring strategy that is targeted to fill both short- and longterm needs, and specifically to fill identified human capital gaps, including 

diversity and foreign language gaps, DHS reported that it has partially 

addressed this outcome, which we validated in December 2012.17 In our 

most recent high-risk update, in February 2013, we reported that DHS 

needs to continue to demonstrate sustained progress in addressing this 

outcome.18 In its June 2013 update, DHS reported that it has now mostly 

addressed this outcome.19

 17In reporting on progress in addressing high-risk outcomes, GAO and DHS generally use 

the following nomenclature: fully addressed = outcome is fully addressed; mostly 

addressed = progress is significant and a small amount of work remains; partially 

addressed = progress is measurable, but significant work remains; and initiated = 

activities have been initiated to address outcome, but it is too early to report progress.

We are continuing to evaluate the 

18GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-13-283 (Washington, D.C.: February 2013).

19DHS, Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management (Washington, D.C.: June 27, 

2013).

Our High-Risk Work 

Related to DHS Recruiting 

and Hiring Efforts
Page 12 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

appropriateness of this designation as part of our ongoing high-risk work, 

and plan to use the results from this report to inform our own evaluations 

of this outcome in our future high-risk updates.

DHS has developed and taken steps to implement a coordinated 

recruiting and outreach strategy and address resource constraints. In 

addition, the four components we selected for review have various efforts 

under way to develop and implement their own targeted recruiting and 

hiring strategies. Components reported that they have generally been 

successful in filling MCOs.

While DHS components are largely responsible for specific activities and 

efforts to recruit and hire for their MCOs, DHS has taken steps to help 

ensure greater coordination and resource sharing among components. 

Specifically, in 2011, D&I—through the CRC—developed the CROS to

better coordinate and link component recruiting and outreach efforts to 

hiring for DHS mission and workforce needs (for all positions, including 

MCOs), and leverage resources as well as reduce recruiting costs, 

among other things. The CROS provides a high-level strategy that 

supports DHS’s goal from its Workforce Strategy for Fiscal Years 2011-

2016 to “recruit a highly qualified and diverse workforce.” It is designed to, 

among other things, guide outreach and recruitment efforts across DHS, 

leverage all outreach and recruiting resources, and integrate recruiting 

and outreach plans across DHS.

According to D&I officials, the CROS was largely developed to help 

relieve some of the fragmentation of component recruitment efforts, 

reflecting a recent DHS-wide emphasis on having components work 

together to present an image of “one DHS”—rather than individual 

DHS and Selected 

Components Are 

Implementing 

Recruiting and Hiring 

Strategies to Fill 

Mission-Critical 

Occupations

DHS Has Developed and 

Taken Steps to Implement 

a Coordinated Recruiting 

and Outreach Strategy and 

Address Budgetary 

Constraints
Page 13 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

components—to potential applicants at outreach events.20 One means of 

doing this is by having components coordinate to share booth space 

under the DHS banner at recruiting events. For example, if USSS and 

TSA are both hoping to hire law enforcement officers, they might agree to 

share the registration fee at a recruiting event (or take turns paying fees 

at alternate events) and have staff from each component together at one 

table to speak to potential applicants about their respective positions. D&I 

officials state that this sharing of resources is important to the 

department, as devoting additional resources to increasing overall 

recruiting efforts has not been a high priority for DHS over the past year, 

given budget constraints. Other D&I efforts to implement the CROS 

across DHS are shown in table 1.

 20According to D&I, this “one DHS” vision was widely communicated to the department’s 

components via a memo from the Secretary of Homeland Security announcing DHS’s 

Workforce Strategy in December 2010. In particular, the Secretary stated that “the time for 

fragmented, duplicative, and sometimes competing branding and recruitment is over,” and 

called for development of a coordinated recruitment strategy presenting a unified image of 

DHS.
Page 14 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Table 1: Office of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Efforts to Implement the Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy

(CROS)

Effort Description

Component Specific 

Outreach and Recruiting 

Plan (CSORP)

Beginning in 2012, D&I began directing components to develop CSORPs that align with the CROS. The 

CSORPs are component-level plans developed annually and intended to cover a 5-year period, with a 

focus on veterans and diversity outreach efforts, to help components identify and organize their focus in 

recruiting efforts.a CSORPs are also intended to provide D&I—which reviews the reports annually—with 

greater ability to monitor components’ plans to link recruiting efforts with mission-critical occupation (MCO) 

hiring needs. Components in our review generally developed these CSORPs, but three of the four plans 

we reviewed did not include all the directed elements (e.g., MCO hiring needs, veterans targets, outreach 

efforts by population, and planned recruiting and outreach expenditures).b

“Top 25” list of 

recruitment events

In 2012, D&I, working with components through the Corporate Recruiting Council (CRC), established a 

“Top 25” list of recruitment events that components have identified as having large pools of diverse 

applicants.

c D&I encourages components to partner to attend these events and touts development of this 

list as an important effort of the CRC.

Shared database on 

recruiting events

In 2012, D&I implemented a shared database that allows components to report information on recruiting 

events (e.g., costs, key population groups recruited, approximate number of attendees) in an attempt to 

gather consistent information from components on recruiting events.

MCO Onboard Diversity 

Snapshots

On a quarterly basis, D&I reviews “MCO onboard diversity snapshots,” which present data on current 

levels of employment by race/ethnicity and gender, focused on law enforcement officer (LEO) and LEOrelated positions. D&I considers LEO and LEO-related positions the priority MCOs for DHS, since D&I 

stated these represent the majority of all MCO positions. Thus, these positions have been the focus of 

D&I’s review of component efforts to fill MCOs. These data provide D&I leadership with information on how 

the components are doing in staffing these positions for each of these applicant groups, as well as 

opportunities to potentially increase outreach to groups they may consider underrepresented.

Source: GAO analysis of DHS information.

a

In general, CSORPs are expected to identify each component’s key recruiting and outreach officials; 

annual veterans and disabled veterans hiring targets for 5 years; MCOs targeted for recruitment; 

plans for recruiting and outreach by race, ethnicity, and gender (i.e., underrepresented groups as 

identified by components); and estimated recruiting and outreach costs. This aligns with DHS’s 

department-wide emphasis on increased hiring of veterans and other diversity populations.

b

For example, while USSS provided all requested items in its fiscal years 2012 through 2016 CSORP, 

USCIS, TSA, and NPPD did not provide 5-year veterans hiring targets in the CSORP (though D&I 

reports that all components do provide OCHCO with annual reports discussing their efforts to recruit 

veterans and meet annual veteran hiring targets). D&I officials informed us that in their first year of 

reviewing CSORPs, they were less concerned with whether the components provided every element 

called for in the D&I-provided template than if the plans identified key MCO hiring needs and the 

components’ outreach efforts to find applicants to meet those needs.

c

Examples include conferences and job fairs held by associations such as the National Native 

American Law Enforcement Association, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement 

Executives, Hispanic American Police Command Officer Association, and Women in Federal Law 

Enforcement.

D&I officials have emphasized that their role is to assist components in 

coordinating and linking recruiting efforts, ensure that component 

recruiting efforts are tied to filling MCOs, and review high-level data on 

diversity employment in DHS, rather than explicitly telling components 

how they should go about recruiting and hiring for positions. D&I officials 
Page 15 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

said they have fulfilled their role by developing and implementing the 

CROS and facilitating components’ efforts to coordinate and share 

effective recruiting practices through the CRC. Officials from all four 

components we interviewed generally spoke well of the CRC as a helpful 

vehicle for sharing information on recruiting and hiring among 

components and coordinating recruiting efforts when feasible, and on the 

role of D&I in facilitating recruiting and hiring efforts. While component 

officials noted that they support in concept DHS efforts to coordinate 

recruiting, officials from two of the four components we interviewed voiced 

concerns that the efforts to have components represent themselves 

simply as DHS entities—or have representatives from other components 

speak to potential job applicants on their behalf—could make it difficult for 

some components to communicate the unique aspects of their missions 

and occupations. D&I officials stated that it is not DHS’s intent to take 

away components’ identities, but to encourage collaboration, and that 

they have gotten positive feedback on these efforts from components in 

the field.

While D&I has taken steps to implement the CROS across DHS, D&I has 

been limited in its ability to implement some elements, largely because of 

budget constraints, according to D&I officials. For example, in accordance 

with a CROS objective to coordinate recruitment planning procedures to 

reduce duplication of effort and travel costs, D&I planned to roll out “one 

DHS” training for component recruiters at five regional sites to encourage 

coordinated and shared recruiting efforts at the field level. However, D&I 

suspended this effort after training at the first two sites because of 

budgetary constraints, and has not determined when the budget will allow 

it to continue the training efforts. In the meantime, D&I is considering 

hosting webcasts or video teleconferences to train recruiting officials in 

the field who may be interested in learning about other components. In 

addition, the CROS calls for an annual marketing plan and process to 

centralize recruiting-related advertising to create a unified image of DHS 

to job seekers. However, according to D&I officials, budgetary constraints 

have also placed this work on hold.
Page 16 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

In addition to preparing CSORPs, the four components we selected for 

review have various efforts under way to develop and implement their 

own targeted recruiting and hiring strategies. For example, all 

components generally reported forming relationships with and targeting 

colleges and universities, and attending recruiting events that serve 

veterans and diverse populations (e.g., Women in Federal Law 

Enforcement and the Wounded Warriors Program). While not required by 

OCHCO, components may develop their own specific targeted 

recruitment strategies to guide their efforts in identifying the best possible 

candidates for their unique missions and occupational requirements. For

example, as explained in table 2, TSA and USSS have developed 

targeted recruiting strategies, while USCIS has elected not to develop 

such a strategy, and NPPD plans to develop one in the future.

Selected Components 

Have Implemented Various 

Recruiting and Hiring 

Strategies and Efforts
Page 17 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Table 2: Recruiting Strategies of Selected Components in Our Review 

Component Strategy/approach to recruiting

Transportation 

Security 

Administration 

(TSA)

TSA has an overall strategic recruitment plan for its transportation security officers (TSO) agency-wide.a TSA has 

also developed a number of more targeted plans aimed at recruiting TSOs (and personnel for other positions) for 

specific airports. For example, in 2010 TSA developed a recruiting strategy specifically for TSOs at an airport in 

the southeastern United States. This strategy identified target populations for recruiting (e.g., members of the 

military), outreach organizations, and local publications and marketing events in the area that could be used to 

better “brand” TSA for potential applicants. According to TSA officials, these types of targeted recruiting strategies 

help them to take into account area workforce demographics; specific airport needs (e.g., more female TSOs); and 

specific recruitment events and outreach organizations, which could increase the likelihood that the component 

can register and track the success of particular recruiting and outreach efforts stemming from each recruiting 

strategy. In addition, TSA has a strategy specific to veterans’ recruiting.

United States 

Secret Service 

(USSS)

USSS produces an annual recruiting and outreach plan that contains projected staffing targets for key occupations 

and a number of goals, activities, and performance measures based largely on levels of outreach (e.g., attend a 

certain number of events for military and diversity groups; advertise via brochures and electronic newsletters; and 

conduct employment information sessions with educational institutions, professional organizations, and the public). 

While efforts to implement this plan are not directly tied to hiring specific numbers of employees, they provide 

USSS with a road map for increasing outreach to certain diversity areas. In addition, USSS prepares annual 

recruitment accomplishment reports that provide details on the number and types of recruitment events attended 

during the fiscal year—broken out by target populations—as well as estimated cost savings through reduced 

registration fees.b For example, USSS reported attending 691 recruiting events in fiscal year 2012 targeting a 

number of populations.

United States 

Citizenship and 

Immigration 

Services (USCIS)

USCIS does not have a component-level targeted recruiting and outreach strategy. According to USCIS officials, it 

does not have any problems attracting sufficient numbers of applicants to fill its immigration services officer (ISO) 

slots—its sole mission-critical occupation (MCO).c There are needs for ISOs with different skill sets in different 

offices and regions of the nation, officials said, so a national “one size fits all” recruiting strategy would not be 

optimal for them. Officials added that they may consider developing such a strategy once USCIS has completed 

ongoing efforts to refine its workforce planning efforts and staffing allocation model. In the meantime, much of 

USCIS’s recruiting efforts have focused on veterans’ outreach events.

National 

Protection and 

Programs 

Directorate 

(NPPD)

NPPD has not developed a component-level recruiting strategy, or a human capital strategy, because—following 

its human resource authority designation in 2009—recent efforts have been focused on creating its directoratelevel strategic plan. NPPD officials stated that they plan to develop a human capital strategic plan—to include a 

recruiting and hiring strategy—pending approval of resources for fiscal year 2014. Officials report a number of 

ongoing efforts, such as use of special hiring authorities, to improve recruiting and hiring among cybersecurity 

personnel and Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers—two key MCOs.d

Source: GAO analysis of DHS information.

a

TSOs— the MCO that represents TSA’s most populous occupation—perform all security functions 

related to the screening of people, property, and cargo through the use and application of procedures, 

techniques, and technology.

b

According to the 2012 recruitment accomplishment report, USSS estimates savings of approximately 

$35,000 in fiscal year 2012. USSS also states that despite an 85 percent cut in recruitment budget for 

2012, it cut back on the number of events by 12 percent compared with the number of events for 

2011. It was able to do this by, among other things, focusing on outreach through no-cost information 

sessions at colleges, high schools, and military installations, and providing tours to potential 

applicants at its headquarters and training center.

c

USCIS has one MCO—the ISO subset within the1801 series (General Inspection, Investigation, & 

Compliance)—which includes field and service operations, call centers, refugee and asylum officers, 

and fraud detection and national security officers. According to USCIS officials, ISOs constitute over 

44 percent of its workforce.

d

FPS officers include sworn law enforcement officers and trained security experts who provide 

security assessments, inspections, and oversight for contract guards, and respond to crimes in 

progress.
Page 18 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

In addition to their recruiting and outreach efforts, components in our 

review have taken steps to streamline the hiring process and reduce the 

time-to-hire.21 We have reported in the past that time-consuming and 

paperwork-intensive processes pose challenges to recruiting and hiring in 

the federal government.22 As part of larger federal hiring reforms to 

address this and other issues, DHS components track time-to-hire for 

certain MCOs and commonly filled positions.23 According to OCHCO, 

components are directed by DHS to report these data to OCHCO on a 

quarterly basis, and OCHCO gathers and reports the time-to-hire data to 

OPM. OPM has established a time-to-hire target of 80 days for all federal 

agencies. DHS component officials generally state that they have been 

challenged in meeting OPM targets, and officials from two components 

said that it may not be possible to meet the 80-day OPM target because 

of the many steps involved in their hiring process. For example, many 

DHS positions require extensive background checks, and some require 

security clearances, which lengthen the time it takes to bring someone 

onboard. USCIS, for example, reports that in the fourth quarter of fiscal 

year 2012, its average time to hire ISOs was 117 days. However, USCIS 

officials stated that they did not believe this time frame was driving 

candidates away from seeking positions, adding that they rarely make job 

offers that are not accepted. In addition, components are studying their 

time-to-hire data and seeking ways to reduce this time in an effort to meet 

OPM targets. TSA reports that it has been able to reduce time-to-hire for 

its management, administrative, and professional positions from an 

average of approximately 112 days to 104 days between the first and 

second quarters of fiscal year 2013 and is exploring efforts to further 

streamline the hiring process, such as developing a standard job 

announcement.24

 21“Time-to-hire” is a measure of the amount of time taken to bring an employee onboard, 

from the date a new hire action is authorized through the date a new employee begins 

working.

TSA is also working to reduce time-to-hire for its TSOs 

22GAO-08-762T. 

23A presidential memorandum dated May 11, 2010, called on federal agencies to overhaul 

the way they recruit and hire the civilian workforce to, among other things, improve the 

ability to select high-quality candidates efficiently and quickly. The memorandum also 

directed federal agencies to report on and attempt to reduce time-to-hire for missioncritical and commonly filled occupations. Memorandum, Improving the Federal 

Recruitment and Hiring Process, 75 Fed. Reg. 27,157 (May 11, 2010).

24TSA’s management, professional, and administrative positions cover all employees 

except for TSOs, entry-level federal air marshals, and Senior Executive Service. 
Page 19 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

by working closely with airport hiring officials to determine the appropriate 

size of their “ready pool” for hiring.25 USSS also reported making efforts to 

reduce time-to-hire by moving more quickly to complete qualification 

exams and reviews of those results.

Components in our review have generally been successful in filling 

MCOs, in part because of the various strategies and efforts discussed 

above, as well as less attrition of current MCO employees, with the 

exception of cybersecurity personnel. Component officials stated that in 

assessing the state of their MCO workforces, they regularly review varied 

workforce data—such as hires, losses, and vacancy rates—and meet 

with hiring officials from their program offices to determine how well 

specific occupational needs are being met or what challenges may be 

affecting them.26 It is important to note that there are multiple indicators 

that agencies can use to determine the health of their workforces and 

their success in filling MCOs and other positions. We present data on 

hires, losses, and vacancy rates, when available, because these are 

indicators that the selected components use to assess their workforce 

health and to identify recruiting and hiring needs.27

 25 The ready pool refers to TSO candidates who have passed all assessments, including 

background and medical checks, and are eligible to receive a job offer from the airport(s) 

to which they applied, which helps to ensure that qualified candidates are available for hire 

at all times. Once job opportunity announcements are posted, candidates are then 

processed through each of the subsequent assessment steps as the airports’ hiring needs 

dictate.TSA tracks time-to-hire for its TSO positions in two different manners. As reported 

to OPM through OCHCO, time-to-hire consists of the time taken for an airport to formally 

open a position for hiring until a new hire is brought on board (or, the time taken to move 

an applicant from the ready pool to onboard status). As of March 2013, this average timeto-hire was 37 days for TSOs. However, to better capture the “end to end” time to hire 

TSOs, TSA also internally tracks the average amount of time elapsed between a new 

hire’s submission of an application until he or she is brought on board. This average timeto-hire is approximately 150 days. TSA officials explained that this time frame is greatly 

affected by the length of time an applicant may have to wait between filling out an initial 

application and reporting to TSA for further assessments, which in turn is affected by the 

hiring needs of that applicant’s airport of choice.

26 For the purposes of this report, “losses” refer to employees that have left a component 

because of resignation, retirement, or other separation from the component.

27There are a number of factors and events that can influence vacancy rates at various 

points in time and for variable durations, including changes in staffing allocations, attrition 

of staff, budget factors, and changes in hiring processes—and vacancy rates fluctuate 

throughout the year. There is also no generally agreed-upon standard for acceptable 

vacancy rates. 

Selected Components 

Have Generally Been 

Successful in Filling MCOs
Page 20 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

TSA. TSA has generally been successful in recruiting and hiring for its

MCOs, including TSOs, as illustrated by table 3 (which shows hiring 

outpacing losses over the last 3 fiscal years) and comments from TSA 

officials.28

Table 3: Number of Hires and Losses for Transportation Security Officers (TSO), 

Fiscal Years 2010-2012

Fiscal year Hires Losses

2010 4,059 4,002

2011 8,787 4,682

2012 5,947 5,620

Source: TSA.

Note: Transportation security officers perform all security functions related to the screening of people, 

property, and cargo through the use and application of procedures, techniques, and technology.

TSA human capital officials stated that they assess success in hiring 

TSOs by reviewing data and meeting with program officials to discuss 

whether hiring needs at particular airports are being met. TSA produces a 

weekly report that captures the number of TSOs that need to be hired to 

meet certain airports’ needed TSO allocations, as well as the number of 

candidates that have been certified for the ready pool. The report also 

contains the number of TSOs that have been brought onboard over the 

prior 2 months and those projected to be brought onboard the next 

month. When airport hiring needs are identified, TSA human capital 

officials said they examine the weekly report to ensure that there are 

enough candidates in the ready pool; if not, officials work to identify job 

fairs and outreach efforts in that airport’s geographic area to recruit more 

candidates. TSA human capital officials noted that they also meet with 

program offices’ hiring managers to get feedback on recruiting and hiring 

processes and challenges that may need to be addressed.

TSA human capital officials cited a number of factors that contribute to 

the agency’s success in filling TSO positions. In particular, officials said 

that their development and use of hiring flexibilities has been helpful in 

attracting candidates for TSO positions. For example, TSA—working in 

 28TSA officials informed us that they generally do not track vacancy rates for positions but 

rely on program offices to report to them on job needs to be filled.
Page 21 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

collaboration with OPM—has established a policy allowing part-time 

TSOs to purchase health insurance at the same rate as full-time 

employees. This is a benefit that is not available to employees hired by 

competitive service agencies. According to TSA officials, this flexibility 

has been useful in hiring TSOs because many TSOs are hired on a parttime basis.

TSA officials reported facing some challenges in hiring TSOs, particularly 

in certain geographic areas, such as remote areas or locations where 

there is greater competition for qualified candidates. As one example, 

TSA officials reported that in North Dakota, burgeoning oil field work 

offers greater pay for qualified applicants. To mitigate these challenges, 

officials reported using more direct e-mail and radio communications to 

potential job seekers, or visiting one-stop employment centers. Officials 

informed us that these hiring challenges have not affected TSA’s ability to 

meet its mission as overtime pay is used to fund additional shift coverage, 

among other things.

USSS. USSS has generally been able to fill MCO positions. As shown in 

table 4, vacancy rates were generally below 3 percent for MCO positions 

during fiscal years 2010 through 2012.
Page 22 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Table 4: Number of U.S. Secret Service Hires and Losses, and Vacancy Rates for Mission-Critical Occupations (MCO), Fiscal 

Years 2010-2013 (as of March 2013)

Fiscal year Data Special agents

Uniformed 

Division police 

officers Special officers

Protective/physical

support officers MCOs total

2010 Hires 162 205 3 4 374

Losses 122 125 8 7 262

Vacancy 0.25% 0.93% N/A N/A 0.4%

2011 Hires 91 135 4 3 233

Losses 120 69 3 5 197

Vacancy 0.45% -1.43% N/A N/A -0.08%

2012 Hires 0 21 8 2 31

Losses 100 56 6 7 169

Vacancy 2.99% 2.95% 0.74% 2.22% 2.87%

2013a Hires 0 0 2 0 2

Losses 59 27 3 3 92

Vacancy 4.69% 4.99% 12.84% 4.26% 4.99%

Source: United States Secret Service.

Notes: Special agents are criminal investigators who investigate violations of U.S. laws, perform 

security surveys and background investigations, and assist U.S. Attorneys. They also ensure 

protection of officials and their families and perform other protective duties such as advance security 

surveys of domestic locations. Uniformed Division police officers provide security for physical 

buildings, such as the White House, Vice President’s residence, designated embassies, and other 

specified federal property, among other things. Special officers maintain security posts, monitor and 

operate communications systems, and inspect and operate protective vehicles, among other things. 

Protective/physical support officers plan, develop, and implement a technical security program for 

major protective advance trips involving designated protectees, and conduct technical investigative 

support functions, among other things.

N/A (not available) means that USSS did not collect these data for those positions during the 

applicable time frame.

a

As of March 2013.

While USSS officials stated that when funding is available, they generally 

have been able to fill their MCO positions; they added that funding 

constraints in fiscal year 2012 limited their recruiting, outreach, and hiring 

efforts, which led to higher vacancy rates in fiscal years 2012 and 2013 to 

date. For example, because of funding constraints, USSS did not hire any 

special agents (who conduct criminal investigations and ensure protection 

of officials and their families) in fiscal year 2012 or in 2013 to date, and 

hiring for Uniformed Division police officers (who provide protection for 

property such as the White House and Vice President’s residence) has 

not kept pace with losses in fiscal year 2012 or 2013 to date, as shown in 

table 4. For the special agents, officials stated that while their protective 
Page 23 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

mission is adequately staffed, there are now fewer man hours to support 

field office investigative responsibilities. However, USSS officials told us 

that Uniformed Division protective responsibilities have largely not been 

affected as USSS has reprogrammed staff from administrative and 

training functions, increased overtime, and reduced noncritical training.

USCIS. Data on job applications, hires, and losses—as well as 

discussions with USCIS officials—show that USCIS has not faced 

challenges hiring ISOs, who hold the only MCO position within USCIS. 

Specifically, USCIS officials told us they receive thousands of applicants 

for vacant ISO positions, and have been able to fill these vacancies 

without difficulty. For example, during 2012, USCIS received applications 

from over 27,000 minimally qualified applicants for approximately 200 ISO 

vacancies, and through April of fiscal year 2013, USCIS had 

approximately 329 ISO new hires compared with 77 losses.29

NPPD. NPPD has experienced some successes and challenges in filling 

its MCOs. As shown in table 5, NPPD’s new hires have outpaced losses 

for all MCOs component-wide since fiscal year 2010.

Table 5: Number of New Hires and Losses for all National Protection and Programs 

Directorate Mission-Critical Occupations, Fiscal Years 2010-2013 (as of May 2013)

Fiscal year Hires Losses

2010 145 52

2011 144 69

2012 182 89

2013a 123 66

Source: National Protection and Programs Directorate.

Notes: These data include interns and summer hires for all NPPD MCO positions as defined in 

appendix I.

a As of May 2013.

 29USCIS tracks and reviews vacancy rates by office (e.g., Field Operations, Service 

Center Operations), but does not track these rates by position (e.g., ISOs). The 27,000 

minimally qualified applicants cited here were deemed minimally qualified after initial 

screening and prior to any screening conducted by USCIS.
Page 24 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Despite these component-wide successes, NPPD has recently struggled 

with filling some key MCOs, such as those for FPS officers and 

cybersecurity personnel.30 For example, NPPD officials informed us that 

despite receiving a large number of applicants, FPS has faced challenges 

in meeting its statutorily mandated target levels for officers, which have 

increased in recent years.31

As of June 2013, CS&C—the NPPD subcomponent that houses 

cybersecurity personnel—had a vacancy rate of 22 percent. In attempting 

to fill cybersecurity positions, NPPD officials reported facing some 

challenges because of the length of time taken to conduct security checks 

needed to grant Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information 

clearances when needed, low pay in comparison with that of private 

sector positions, and lack of clearly defined skill sets or a unique

occupational series for these positions. We have previously reported on a 

number of these and other related challenges in the federal cybersecurity 

workforce.

As of June 2013, FPS had 955 officers 

onboard versus a target of 1,007 officers. While there is no specific target 

for vacancy rates, officials noted that they hope to meet their target level 

for officers onboard this fiscal year. Officials cited the rigorous and 

lengthy preemployment background, medical, and drug checks as a 

primary challenge in hiring at FPS. To mitigate this challenge, NPPD 

officials reported accepting a larger qualified applicant pool during the 

preemployment process and increasing the use of Veterans Hiring 

Authority and direct hire authority at job fairs, wherein FPS can make 

tentative job offers on the spot pending clearance of background and 

other checks.

32

 30FPS officers are sworn law enforcement officers and trained security experts who 

provide security assessments, inspections, and oversight for contract guards, and respond 

to crimes in progress. Cybersecurity personnel are spread throughout a number of 

different occupational series within NPPD, but are generally concentrated in the 

Information Technology (2210) series. Thus, there is not a specific occupational series 

that houses all cybersecurity personnel, and NPPD could not provide us with hire and loss 

data for cybersecurity personnel alone. See 

NPPD has taken a number of steps to mitigate the 

challenges of filling cybersecurity positions, such as using direct hire 

authority/flexibilities and establishing relationships with “centers of 

GAO-12-8 for further information on the 

difficulties faced by federal agencies in determining the size of their cybersecurity 

workforce, in part because of this lack of a specific job series.

31See, e.g., Pub. L. No. 113-6, 127 Stat. 198, 355 (2013).

32See GAO-12-8.
Page 25 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

academic excellence” to create a pipeline of qualified candidates to hire. 

NPPD officials also noted that there are ongoing department-wide efforts 

to better define and strengthen the required skill set for DHS 

cybersecurity personnel, including pursuit of a specific cybersecurity 

personnel job series, which officials expect to ultimately better inform 

recruiting and hiring.

D&I has established performance measures to assess progress in 

implementing the goals and objectives of the CROS, and plans to develop 

performance targets in future iterations of the CROS to better track 

component performance. D&I could better measure department-wide 

recruiting and outreach costs by tracking recruiting costs from all DHS 

components in a consistent manner. In addition, DHS is taking steps to 

better measure return on investment for recruiting and outreach activities, 

a key focus of the CROS.

D&I assesses departmental and component progress in implementing the 

CROS by tracking and monitoring component efforts for six performance 

measures that are aligned with six corresponding objectives and two 

long-term goals (shown in table 6).

D&I Is Taking

Steps to Assess 

Implementation of

the CROS, but Could 

Improve Tracking of 

Recruiting Costs

D&I Plans to Better Assess 

CROS Implementation 

through Performance 

Targets, but Could Better 

Measure Department

wide Recruiting Costs
Page 26 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Table 6: Goals, Objectives, and Performance Measures in the Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy (CROS)

Goals/objectives

Goal 1: Recruit a highly qualified and diverse workforce

Objective 1.1: Establish enterprise-wide outreach and recruiting plans, ensuring links to overarching strategies and statutory 

requirements

Performance measure: Percentage of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters and component recruiting and outreach 

portfolios fully developed

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: 100 percenta

Objective 1.2: Standardize tracking and data reporting on recruiting, outreach, and marketing activities

Performance measure: Percentage of DHS headquarters and components in compliance with tracking and data-reporting 

requirements

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: 62 percent

Objective 1.3: Develop methodologies that foster the creation of focused recruitment and outreach strategies based upon workforce 

planning and mission-critical needs

Performance measure: Percentage of components with data-driven targeted recruitment and outreach plans that link to organizational 

needs

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: 100 percenta

Goal 2: Optimize outreach and recruiting resources enterprise-wide

Objective 2.1: Coordinate recruitment and outreach planning procedures to reduce duplication of effort and travel costs

Performance measure: Percentage decrease in recruiting cost, by component

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: $22,590 in savings in fiscal year 2012 

Objective 2.2: Establish annual planning mechanisms that ensure the coordination of outreach and recruiting resources

Performance measure: Percentage decrease in component-specific participation at outreach and recruiting events

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: Office of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) is revisiting this objective and its milestones 

because of the changing budget environment 

Objective 2.3: Establish a planning framework to create a unified image of DHS to applicants and job seekers, maintaining DHS 

branding guidelines

Performance measure: Percentage increase in booth sharing and shared advertising

Fiscal year 2012 performance measure result: Deferring until 2014 because of budgetary constraints

Source: DHS Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy (CROS).

a

D&I officials reported that 100 percent compliance in these measures was achieved through 

component preparation of Component Specific Outreach and Recruiting Plans (CSORP). However, 

as we noted earlier, not all components provided all elements called for in D&I’s CSORP template. 

The officials reported that their reviews of CSORPs were more subjective and focused on whether the 

components identified mission-critical occupation (MCO) hiring needs and efforts planned to meet 

those needs.

While these measures are aligned with and cover key aspects of 

performance related to the goals and objectives outlined in the CROS, 

they do not include performance targets to track long-term, short-term, or 

interim component progress toward achieving the goals of the CROS over 

the period the strategy covers (2012–2017). As shown in table 6, all six 

measures in the CROS use percentages to quantitatively indicate the 
Page 27 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

extent to which the measure is being achieved. However, none of these 

measures identify a target percentage, or standard, against which to 

assess component performance. For example, the performance measure 

for objective 2.2 calls for a percentage decrease in component-specific 

participation at recruiting events, but it does not identify any target 

percentages to assess component performance in achieving the measure 

or goal 2 in the CROS, which is to optimize outreach and recruiting 

resources enterprise-wide. In addition, one of the measures (1.1) calls for 

components to have fully developed recruiting and outreach portfolios, 

which the CROS defines as including both short- and long-term workforce 

plans, strategic and tactical plans, and diversity snapshots. While D&I 

officials indicated that all components have fully developed recruiting and 

outreach portfolios—which D&I views as the CSORPs—the CSORPs do 

not uniformly include long-term planning as defined in the CROS (3 to 5 

years). More specifically, CSORPs for the four components in our review 

focused on current-year efforts to reach out to underrepresented 

populations, and one contained a target for long-term veterans hiring. D&I 

revised the CSORP development template for fiscal year 2013 to focus 

on current-year efforts and did not request that components include longterm goals or targets in their CSORPs. Officials stated that they made this 

change to gather more baseline data before focusing on longer-term 

goals.

A performance measure should tell an organization how well it is 

achieving its goals, and GPRA defines a performance goal as a target 

level of performance expressed as a tangible, measurable objective, 

against which actual achievement can be compared, including a goal 

expressed as a quantitative standard, value, or rate.33

 33Pub. L. No. 103-62, 107 Stat. 285 (1993). GPRA was intended to address several broad 

purposes, including strengthening the confidence of the American people in their 

government; improving federal program effectiveness, accountability, and service delivery; 

and enhancing congressional decision making by providing more objective information on 

program performance. GPRA requires agencies to establish goals and targets to define 

the level of performance to be achieved by a program and express such goals in an 

objective, quantifiable, and measurable form. If an agency, in consultation with the Office 

of Management and Budget, determines that it is not feasible to express performance 

goals in an objective, quantifiable, and measurable form, an alternative form may be 

authorized. This alternative form should include separate descriptive statements of a 

minimally effective program and a successful program, or an alternative that would allow 

for an accurate independent determination of whether the program activity’s performance 

meets the criteria of the description; or state why it is infeasible to express a performance 

goal in any form. 31 U.S.C. § 1115(c).

In addition, both 
Page 28 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

the CROS and our prior work highlight the need for recruiting and 

outreach strategies to be linked directly to short- and long-range plans, 

and our prior work has also stated that measures, such as outputs or 

intermediate outcomes, can be used to show progress or contribution to 

intended results.34

D&I officials stated that they and the components are in the early stages 

of implementing and assessing the CROS and are continuing to obtain 

performance data to establish a baseline level of performance for the six 

measures they have, including assessing the extent to which the 

measures themselves are appropriate and identifying the necessary 

actions and activities required to achieve their long-term goals. Given this, 

and the uncertainty associated with current federal budget and hiring 

constraints, D&I officials said that they felt it was premature to call for the 

CROS and CSORPs to identify short-term, interim, or long-term targets 

associated with their performance measures. However, D&I officials said 

they recognize the need to establish clearer links in the CROS between 

the actions being taken and the extent to which they are helping DHS and 

the components achieve the long-term goals of the CROS, in part by 

developing targets for measures. D&I officials told us they plan to address 

these issues in future updates to the CROS. Taking steps to update the 

CROS to include performance targets to measure and link component 

efforts with a desired set of outcomes is an important step to help clarify 

the ultimate desired outcomes of DHS’s recruiting and outreach strategy 

and the specific actions DHS and components need to take on a shortterm or interim basis to achieve the long-term goals outlined in the CROS.

In addition, one of the objectives in the CROS (2.1) is to coordinate 

recruitment and outreach planning procedures to reduce duplication of 

effort and travel costs. D&I has developed a database for components to 

use to track recruiting and outreach efforts and costs, but it does not 

require that all components use this database or enter data in a 

consistent manner. As a result, D&I does not have the information 

required to accurately assess component performance for this objective. 

D&I officials said that since many components have their own systems for 

 34GAO, Agency Performance Plans: Examples of Practices That Can Improve Usefulness 

to Decisionmakers, GAO/GGD/AIMD-99-69 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 26, 1999). This 

report illustrates how agency performance plans can better articulate a results orientation 

by using intermediate goals and measures to show progress or contribution to intended 

results, among other things. 
Page 29 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

tracking the costs associated with recruiting outreach activities (e.g., 

events attended, occupations for which they are recruiting, and number of 

attendees), they do not want the components to duplicate efforts by 

having them enter the same type of information in the DHS shared 

database. D&I officials reported that components saved approximately 

$22,590 in fiscal year 2012 by sharing booth space at recruiting events 

coordinated through the CRC. However, D&I is unaware of the total costs 

of all recruiting and outreach activities department-wide, and D&I officials 

said this amount does not represent any savings from events or activities 

that may have been coordinated outside of the CRC. The CROS states 

that “consistent tracking and reporting of recruiting and marketing data 

will assist DHS and its components in informed decision-making and the 

development of resource allocation plans for strategic outreach, recruiting 

and marketing activities each fiscal year,” and one of its objectives calls 

for standardized tracking and data reporting of recruiting and outreach 

activities. The Standard for Program Management calls for an 

identification of program financial sources and resources, including the 

establishment of baseline costs as a primary financial target programs 

can be measured against.35

D&I officials said they are revisiting the usefulness of the shared 

database versus the time and resources spent by components to enter 

data, and are also considering other options for obtaining this cost 

information from components, including development of a template 

components could fill out and provide back to D&I. D&I officials 

acknowledged that obtaining comprehensive and consistent cost 

information from all components in a manner that will ensure consistent 

and complete reporting of such data would be a worthwhile endeavor, but 

officials have not determined whether and how they will do so. As a 

result, D&I does not have a baseline of all recruiting costs from which to 

measure ongoing cost savings, making it difficult to determine how well 

department resources are being leveraged through component 

coordination or assess the extent to which they are achieving the second 

goal of the CROS of optimizing outreach and recruiting resources 

department-wide. Requiring all components to provide recruiting cost 

information in a consistent manner would enable D&I to better track 

overall recruiting costs, which would help it to assess the extent to which 

recruiting costs are being reduced by components as a result of 

 35Project Management Institute, The Standard for Program Management.
Page 30 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

increased coordination and leveraging resources, as called for in the 

CROS.

The CROS discusses the importance of establishing return on investment 

for recruiting and outreach events.36

D&I officials said that OPM is working with departments within the federal 

government to compile applicant data to help better link applicants and 

new hires to various recruiting and outreach efforts, which D&I officials 

said could help them better determine their return on investment for 

various recruiting and outreach events. D&I officials told us they 

anticipate obtaining data later this calendar year, noting that the data 

would provide information on each candidate through the entire hiring 

cycle from initial application up to selection. D&I officials told us that 

officials from other departments said that they believe the response rate 

will be about 40 to 50 percent. While this response rate would not 

represent all or most new hires, D&I officials said analysis of this 

information could help them better understand the nature of the 

applicants it is getting, including new hires that resulted from specific 

recruiting events or the percentage of new hires that came from colleges 

and universities it visited or targeted. This type of information could assist 

D&I in making more informed decisions in the future about where to 

spend limited funds on recruitment and outreach efforts.

According to D&I and all component

officials we interviewed, tracking return on investment has primarily been 

the responsibility of each component, and has generally been conducted 

informally. D&I officials said that determining return on investment for 

their recruiting and outreach activities can be challenging. For example, 

D&I officials said information provided by candidates or new hires at 

recruiting events or during the hiring process is voluntary, which makes it 

difficult to reliably determine the reasons an individual was interested in 

DHS or became an employee. Nevertheless, components in our review 

have taken steps to better determine return on investment for recruiting 

and outreach events. For example, three of the four components prepare 

and review after-action reports to identify events that led to interaction 

with promising candidates.

 36To calculate return on investment, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the 

cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

DHS Is Taking Steps to 

Address Challenges in 

Determining Return on 

Investment for Recruiting 

and Outreach Activities
Page 31 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

As DHS faces increasingly complex national security challenges, it is 

important that it effectively recruit and hire employees with the 

appropriate skills to meet its mission requirements. In recent years, we 

and others have identified challenges to recruiting and hiring in the 

federal government in general and within DHS in particular. While DHS 

and selected components are implementing strategies to fill MCOs, and 

generally report that they are able to fill MCO positions, DHS could better 

assess its efforts to implement the CROS and achieve recruiting cost 

savings by requiring all components to provide recruiting cost information 

in a consistent manner. Doing so would help DHS better track the amount 

of resources being spent on recruiting and outreach throughout DHS and 

assess the extent to which increased coordination and leveraging 

resources have decreased recruiting costs.

To help ensure that DHS has comprehensive data to help track recruiting 

costs and coordinated efforts, we recommend that the Secretary of 

Homeland Security direct OCHCO to take the following action:

• require all components to provide D&I with recruiting cost information 

in a consistent manner to allow better tracking of overall recruiting 

costs and use this information to assess the extent to which recruiting 

costs are being reduced by components as a result of increased 

coordination and leveraging resources as called for in the CROS.

We provided a draft of this report to DHS for review and comment. On 

September 9, 2013, DHS provided written comments, which are reprinted 

in appendix II, and provided technical comments, which we incorporated 

as appropriate. DHS concurred with our recommendation and described 

actions planned to address it. Specifically, DHS stated that through the 

CRC, DHS will develop and implement a system to consistently track and 

analyze overall recruiting costs by all components. This information could 

help DHS assess the degree to which recruiting costs are being reduced 

through component coordination—as called for in the CROS. DHS 

expects to complete this effort by December 31, 2013. If fully 

implemented, DHS’s planned actions will address the intent of this 

recommendation.

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Homeland 

Security, appropriate congressional committees, and other interested 

parties. This report is also available at no charge on the GAO website at 

http://www.gao.gov.

Conclusions

Recommendation for 

Executive Action

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation
Page 32 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

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

me at (202) 512-9627 or maurerd@gao.gov. Contact points for our 

Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on 

the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report are listed in 

appendix III.

David C. Maurer

Director

Homeland Security and Justice Issues
Page 33 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

List of Requesters

The Honorable Thomas R. Carper

Chairman

The Honorable Tom Coburn, MD

Ranking Member

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

United States Senate

The Honorable Claire McCaskill

Chair

Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

United States Senate

The Honorable Jeff Duncan

Chairman

Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency

Committee on Homeland Security

House of Representatives
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 34 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Table 7 presents the occupational series and positions considered to be 

mission-critical occupations for the components in our review.

Table 7: Mission-Critical Occupations (MCO) for the Four Components in Our Review 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

National 

Protection and 

Programs 

Directorate 

(NPPD)

80 Security Administration Security specialist (NPPD-wide): analyzes; interprets; 

implements; assesses; and coordinates security policies, 

processes, and procedures in matters related to personnel 

security, physical security, cyber security, information 

security, and industrial security programs. 

301 Miscellaneous Administration and 

Program (Subset)

Information management analyst: responsible for day-today operations involving cyber security tasks and 

identifying, resolving, and eliminating events that may lead 

to possible system threats. Personnel holding this position 

also recommend modifications to agency security plans 

and evaluate system goals, objectives, and priorities.

343 Management and Program Analysis 

(Subset)

Management and program analyst (Infrastructure Security 

Compliance Division; the series includes two discrete 

positions)

Mission Support: This position entails developing and 

tracking budgets; answering questions regarding vision and 

requirements of new spending; negotiating cost and 

logistics of new training; coordinating sponsored training; 

aligning new hires to billets; tracking personnel actions; 

supporting the reception of new staff; and developing 

operating procedures for training, hiring, or acquisitions.

Policy: This position entails conducting outreach programs, 

responding to external inquiries, summarizing programs 

operations data, revising tools and policies, drafting 

regulations, reviewing inspection documents, managing 

programs, and issuing orders mandating compliance to 

delinquent facilities.

Program analyst (Cybersecurity & Communications 

[CS&C]): provides acquisition strategy and plays a major 

role involving information technology (IT) procurement; 

plans, develops and manages administrative functions 

related to the efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise 

acquisition system; and studies and interprets legislation, 

policy statements, rules, regulations, directives and other 

regulatory material to determine their intent and effect on 

operations.

Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland 

Security Components
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 35 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

391 Telecommunication (Subset) Telecommunications specialist (CS&C): ensures the 

accuracy of the telecommunications service priority 

database; resolves system support and 

telecommunications interface problems; briefs senior 

federal executives, emergency responder organizations, 

and communications sector private industry entities on 

Telecommunications Service Priority Program functions 

and initiatives.

854 Computer Engineer Computer engineer (NPPD-wide): provides advice and 

guidance on the implementation of systems engineering 

processes, and formulates, develops, and administers 

NPPD systems engineering process, planning and 

technology.

Computer engineer (CS&C): manages, supervises, leads, 

or performs professional engineering and scientific work 

involving the design, construction, and operation of 

computer systems, including hardware and software and 

their integration.

855 Electronics Engineer Electronics engineer (CS&C): manages, supervises, leads, 

and performs professional engineering and scientific work 

for purposes such as communication, computation, 

sensing, control, measurement, and navigation.

1550 Computer Science (Subset) Computer scientist: responsible for the application of, or 

research into, computer science methods and techniques 

to store, manipulate, transform, or present information by 

means of computer systems. The position develops 

software, high-speed computing, real-time data acquisition, 

computer graphics, and integrated computer systems.
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 36 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

1801 General Inspection, 

Investigation, & Compliance

Border and transportation security officer (NPPD-wide): 

reviews existing and proposed legislative and regulatory 

requirements and translates requirements of new 

legislation; recommends program development, planning, 

coordination, direction, and assessment activities relating 

to immigration eligibility; formulates interdiction policies, 

procedures, and guidelines; validates program studies and 

assessments; provides technical and operational guidance 

for operations; and evaluates efficiency and effectiveness 

for special projects programs.

Chemical security inspector (Office of Infrastructure 

Protection): functions as subject matter expert on physical 

and technical security protective measures and 

procedures, and in reviewing and evaluating chemical 

facility physical, personnel, information and cyber security 

plans and countermeasures; plans, coordinates, 

participates in, or leads joint team inspections and 

compliance audits, including preparing field, compliance 

assistance and after-action reports; responsible for 

chemical facility situational awareness and management, 

emergency preparedness, and critical incident 

management.

Protective security advisor (Office of Infrastructure 

Protection): serves as liaison among Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal agencies, state 

and local government, and the private sector on critical 

infrastructure security compliance matters; functions as an 

expert on physical security protective measures and 

procedures; reviews and interprets directives, program 

changes, legal initiatives and DHS guidelines; and 

develops and implements local critical infrastructure 

policies, procedures and directives.

1811 Criminal Investigation(Subset) Criminal Investigator (Federal Protective Service [FPS]): 

conducts criminal and administrative investigations, plans 

and coordinates investigative processes, serves as case 

agent for interagency investigations, and may lead teams 

of criminal investigators and law enforcement officers. 

Personnel holding this position also provide coordination 

and guidance for multijurisdictional and interregional 

investigations and prepare reports of investigation and 

intelligence studies and direct and coordinate working 

groups on law enforcement activities and intelligence 

issues.
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 37 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

2210 Information Technology (Subset) Information technology specialist (CS&C): functions as a 

technical expert in two or more assigned areas, including 

policy and planning, security, application software, 

operating systems, network service, data management, 

systems administration, and customer support. Personnel 

in this position are responsible for planning, designing, 

adapting, developing, acquiring, documenting, testing, 

implementing, integrating, maintaining and modifying 

systems.

Information technology specialist (U.S.–Computer 

Emergency Readiness Team): oversees and coordinates 

response to cyber incidents, provides on-site incident 

response, advises on strategies to protect and secure 

sensitive information and systems, monitors and plans for 

change in federal IT security policy and legislation, and 

analyzes and responds to software and hardware 

vulnerabilities. Personnel in this position are also 

responsible for interfacing with the DHS National 

Operations Center during cyber incidents and implementing 

IT security projects and initiatives.

Information technology specialist (Network Security 

Deployment): develops deployment strategies for and leads 

efforts to coordinate and install cyber security network 

equipment and software at federal facilities, conducts 

testing, monitors network architecture and transmission 

protocols, and resolves cyber security network issues. 

Personnel in this position also identify network 

requirements, define and maintain network architecture, 

and determine the configuration and optimization of 

network cyber security installations. 

Transportation 

Security 

Administration 

(TSA)

132 Intelligence Intelligence officer: provides intelligence support and threat 

briefings; liaises with the Joint Terrorism Task Forces and 

state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials and 

intelligence fusion centers; serves as a technical advisor; 

contributes to the development of high-level briefs and 

detailed and complex studies.

340 Program Management 

(Federal Security Director Subset)

Federal security director: provides day-to-day direction for 

federal airport security staff and operations for an airport. 

The federal security director is responsible for supporting 

security evolution and ensuring the deployment, 

management, and oversight of people, processes, and 

technology to improve security operations. The federal 

security director is the primary ranking TSA authority 

responsible for leadership and coordination of TSA security 

activities.
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 38 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

1801 General Inspection, Investigation, 

& Compliance

Transportation security inspector: conducts regulatory 

inspections/investigations and supports criminal 

investigations related to alleged or suspected security 

violations by identifying, collecting, and preserving 

evidence used to support enforcement actions.

Federal air marshal: primary duty is to investigate, 

apprehend, or detain individuals suspected or convicted of 

offenses against the criminal law of U.S. air carriers,

airports, crews, and passengers.

1802 Compliance Inspection and Support Transportation security officer: performs all security 

functions related to the screening of people, property, and 

cargo through the use and application of procedures, 

techniques, and technology.

1811 Criminal Investigation Criminal investigator: conducts, monitors, and coordinates 

criminal and administrative investigations and inspections; 

responds to security violations; interviews and interrogates 

witnesses and suspects; reviews transportation security 

measures and operations; identifies problem areas and 

recommends solutions; documents violations and prepares 

criminal and civil cases; and tests security systems for 

compliance.

United States 

Citizenship and 

Immigration 

Services (USCIS)

1801 General Inspection, Investigation, & 

Compliance (Immigration Services 

Officer Subset)

Immigration services officer: responsible for the 

adjudication of applications and petitions for benefits and 

privileges. Personnel in the position also perform 

assignments in the following areas: data integrity, security, 

customer support, liaison, communications, interviews, 

analysis, and training.

United States 

Secret Service 

(USSS)

80 Security Administration (Physical 

Security Specialist (Law Enforcement) 

Subset)

Physical security specialist: plans, develops, and 

implements a comprehensive technical security program 

for major protective advance trips involving designated 

protectees, and conducts technical investigative support 

functions and activities in the United States and overseas. 

The position holder also serves as agency technical 

authority in one of the technical security specialized 

programs and senior technical advisor for large-scale 

protective activities. 

83 Police Officer (Uniformed Division): ensures the protection of 

officials and their families, designated embassies, and 

other specified federal property; enforces laws, statutes, 

and ordinances; investigates accidents and crimes; arrests 

suspects; and appears in court. The position also covers 

designated security posts, preparation of incident reports, 

response to security alarms, and interviews of unauthorized 

persons seeking admission to protected areas.

Sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deputy/assistant chief, and 

chief perform, supervise or manage duties above and, 

depending upon position, engage in planning, policy 

development, and administration of Uniformed Division

activities and operations.
Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations

for Selected Department of Homeland Security 

Components

Page 39 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Component MCO

Series Occupation Job description

1802 Compliance Inspection and Support 

(Special Officer/Physical Security 

Subset)

Protective support technician: performs driving and 

technical protective support duties associated with the 

security of protective operations and movements and the 

secure transportation of armored vehicles used in those 

movements.

Special officer: maintains designated protective security 

posts; inspects all operational, safety, emergency, and 

convenience equipment of protective vehicles to ensure 

peak operating condition; drives protective vehicle or 

follow-up; controls the movement of persons into and 

around multiple Secret Service facilities and associated 

areas; monitors and operates various communications 

equipment; and employs various advanced X-ray screening 

technologies in order to detect and identify high-risk items.

1811 Criminal Investigation Criminal investigator: investigates specified violations of 

U.S. laws, performs security surveys and background 

investigations, and works with U.S. Attorneys in preparing 

and presenting federal cases. Protection duties include 

advance security surveys of domestic locations, covering 

designated security posts, and keeping close to designated 

protectees.

Source: GAO analysis of DHS data.
Appendix II: Comments from the

Department of Homeland Security

Page 40 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

Appendix II: Comments from the

Department of Homeland Security
Appendix II: Comments from the

Department of Homeland Security

Page 41 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 
Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments

Page 42 GAO-13-742 DHS Recruiting and Hiring 

David C. Maurer, (202) 512-9627 or maurerd@gao.gov

In addition to the contact named above, Adam Hoffman, Assistant 

Director; Adam Couvillion, Analyst-in-Charge; Dave Bieler; Chris 

Ferencik; Christine Hanson; Tracey King; Lara Miklozek; and Amanda 

Miller made significant contributions to the work.

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff 

Acknowledgments

(441118)
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