Federal Aviation Administration: Human Capital System Incorporates Many Leading Practices, but Improving Employees' Satisfaction with Their Workplace Remains a Challenge
Published: 2009-10-28T00:00:00

Fast Facts:

Highlights:
section_title: Why GAO Did This Study
paragraphs: Aviation is critical to the nation's economic well-being, global competitiveness, and national security. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 48,000 employees guide aircraft, oversee safety, and maintain air traffic control equipment. FAA will need these skills and additional expertise to address evolving missions. As requested, GAO reviewed (1) how FAA's human capital system compares with practices of leading organizations and (2) how FAA employees' workplace satisfaction compares with that of other federal government employees. GAO reviewed documents and relevant studies, and interviewed FAA officials who implement human capital procedures and union representatives. GAO also reviewed survey data on workplace satisfaction.
section_title: What GAO Found
paragraphs: FAA's human capital system incorporates many practices used in leading organizations, but the agency's placement near the bottom in best places to work rankings, published by the Partnership for Public Service and American University's Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation, could pose challenges to employee recruitment, motivation, and retention. As part of strategic workforce planning, FAA determines the critical skills needed in its workforce and assesses individual worker skill levels. It also follows leading practices in performance management, but FAA officials and union representatives questioned the system's fairness, echoing concerns that they have raised in the past. FAA follows fewer leading practices in diversity management, but has an opportunity to strengthen its efforts as it updates diversity outreach plans. Despite these efforts, FAA ranked 214th out of 216 agencies in 2009 as the best place to work in the federal government, similar to its ranking in 2007. These low rankings could pose obstacles to FAA's efforts to retain its existing workforce and recruit staff with the requisite skills needed to implement the Next Generation Air Transportation System. By fiscal year 2013, FAA projects that 38 percent of its employees who perform work that is critical to FAA's mission will be eligible to retire. While FAA employee responses to governmentwide surveys indicate that they like their work, their responses are considerably less positive than the rest of the federal government regarding other factors that have an impact on employee recruitment, motivation, and retention. The percentage of FAA employees' positive responses regarding communications, involvement in decisions that affect their work, and respect for their leaders were up to 19 points below those of the rest of the federal government. FAA has developed an action plan to improve leadership and create a performance-based culture that could improve employees' workplace satisfaction. However, FAA has not established accountability for the plan's success.

section_title: Letter
paragraphs: Aviation is critical to the nation’s economic well-being, global  competitiveness, and national security. The Federal Aviation  Administration (FAA) is tasked with ensuring that our nation’s airspace  system operates safely and efficiently. FAA’s 48,000 employees apply  specialized skills to guide aircraft, ensure safety, install and maintain air  traffic control systems, and coordinate with other countries. As significant  portions of its employees retire in the coming years, FAA will need to  replace these skills and also recruit employees with specialized  acquisitions, systems integration, and program management skills required  to support the transition of the current air traffic control system to the  Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which will rely  more on satellites and automation, than today’s ground-based radars and  aircraft-by-aircraft control. Additionally, FAA will also need to hire several  thousand air traffic controllers to replace those who were hired in the  years following a strike in 1981 and will become eligible to retire in the  coming decade. A human capital system should provide the framework for  recruiting, motivating, and retaining a talented and diverse workforce to  enable an agency to achieve its missions and goals. However, FAA placed  near the bottom of the ranking of the Best Places to Work in the Federal  Government in 2007 and 2009. Additionally, FAA employees’ expressed  dissatisfaction with many facets of their workplace that the Office of  Personnel Management (OPM) has determined affect recruitment,  motivation, and retention of employees. This raises a concern about FAA’s  ability to recruit, motivate, and retain the talented employees needed to  accomplish its mission.
As you requested, this report reviews FAA’s human capital system and  discusses some of its key human capital challenges. We address the  following questions: (1) How do FAA’s human capital practices compare  with those of leading organizations? and (2) How does FAA employees’  workplace satisfaction compare with that of other federal government  employees, and what areas, if any, are most in need of improvement? To  address these questions, we compared the FAA’s human capital practices  with leading practices—those that we have identified through previous  work as being present in public and private organizations that are viewed  as leaders in strategic human capital management and managing for  results. We reviewed FAA documents and regulations, and relevant studies  by other organizations, and interviewed key FAA operating officials who  have responsibility for implementing human capital procedures within  FAA’s major organizational entities. We also interviewed FAA’s human  resource management officials and obtained the perspectives of organized  labor through semistructured interviews with union representatives. This  report provides examples of FAA activities that mirror leading practices  and discusses leading practices that FAA has not implemented. We did not  evaluate the effectiveness of FAA’s implementation of its human capital  system. To compare FAA employees’ workplace satisfaction with that of  other federal government employees, we analyzed the results of OPM’s  Federal Human Capital Survey. Appendix I contains more detailed  information on our scope and methodology.
We conducted this performance audit from June 2008 to October 2009 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 also conducted reliability assessments  of the data we obtained electronically and determined those data to be of  sufficient quality to be used for the purposes of this report.
subsections: section_title: Background
subsections: section_title: Human Capital Systems
paragraphs: Federal agencies need effective human capital systems to support  enhanced performance, ensure accountability, and help achieve their  missions. Through our past work, we have identified five key components  of human capital systems.
Strategic workforce planning: The steps an agency takes to (1) align its  human capital program with its current and emerging mission and  programmatic goals and (2) develop long-term strategies for acquiring,  developing, and retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals.
Training: Developing a strategic approach to establish training priorities  and leveraging investment in training to achieve agency results; identifying  specific training initiatives that improve individual and agency  performance; ensuring effective and efficient delivery of training  opportunities in an environment that supports learning and change; and  demonstrating how training efforts contribute to improved performance  and results.
Recruitment and hiring: Developing and implementing strategies to  advertise positions and attract top candidates; assessing applicants’  relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job- related criteria to identify the most qualified candidates; using a variety of  candidate assessment tools, such as interviews, to make a selection; and  coordinating the process of bringing a new hire on board.
Performance management: Planning work and setting individual  performance expectations, monitoring performance throughout the year  through ongoing feedback, developing individuals’ capacities to perform,  and rating and rewarding individual performance.
Diversity management: A process intended to create and maintain a  positive work environment where the similarities and differences of  individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and maximize  their contributions to an organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
An agency’s human resources organization, the agency’s leaders, and staff  have roles to play in implementing these components. For example, the  human resources organization, with the participation of agency  management, would develop performance management policies and  procedures, but the agency’s leaders implement those policies and  procedures. Additionally the agency’s leaders identify a requirement to  recruit and the skill set needed to fill a vacancy, but the human resource  organization performs the mechanics of posting the vacancy and ensuring  that agency procedures are followed in reviewing applications and making  the selection. The agency’s staff may be involved in vetting new system  proposals or participating in process improvement teams. In FAA, the  Office of Human Resource Management has the primary responsibility for  developing and implementing the agency’s human capital system.  However, senior officials in each of FAA’s four major entities, called lines  of business, oversee the implementation of human capital procedures  within their respective organizations.
section_title: FAA’s Human Capital Reform
paragraphs: In September 1993, the National Performance Review concluded that  federal budget, procurement, and personnel rules prevented FAA from  reacting quickly to the needs of the air traffic control system. In response  to a congressional mandate resulting from this review, the Secretary of  Transportation prepared a report in 1995 that concluded that the most  effective reform would be to exempt FAA from most federal personnel  rules and procedures contained in title 5 of the United States Code. On  November 15, 1995, Congress exempted FAA from a number of title 5 rules  and procedures (see table 1) and directed the FAA Administrator to  develop and implement a new personnel management system. The law  also required that FAA’s new personnel management system address the  unique demands of the agency’s workforce and, at a minimum, provide  greater flexibility in the compensation, hiring, training, and location of  personnel. Subsequent legislation added the requirement for FAA to  negotiate with its labor unions any changes made to its personnel  management system. On April 1, 1996, FAA introduced its new personnel  management system and, over the next several years, initiated a number of  efforts to address the following reform objectives:    FAA acquires, develops, and deploys required expertise (people) where  and when needed.
Human resource systems support employees’ achievement of goals.
FAA has effective leadership and management.
FAA is perceived as a desirable place to work.
Human resource management systems are efficient and adaptable.
In 2003, we reported that FAA had implemented many of its reform  initiatives, but changes to its compensation system, workforce planning  initiatives, and implementation of a new performance management system  remained incomplete. FAA had (1) developed a new broadbanded,  performance-based pay structure aimed at providing a wider range of pay  and greater managerial flexibility to recruit, retain, and motivate  employees and (2) implemented the pay structure in varying forms for  about 75 percent of its workforce. FAA had planned to cover the  remainder of the workforce under the new compensation plan as it  negotiated new labor agreements with unions representing those  workforces. As of July 2009, 88 percent of FAA’s workforce was under one  or more components of performance-based compensation. However, FAA  and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)—-the union  representing FAA’s air traffic controllers—agreed to a new contract in  September 2009 that removed nearly 16,000 employees from performance- based compensation, thereby reducing the percentage of the workforce  under performance-based compensation to about 55 percent.
As part of its reform efforts, FAA also developed a new performance  management system consisting of a narrative evaluation of employees’  performance against performance standards combined with feedback and  coaching. FAA began developing its new performance management system  in 1999 and first implemented it within segments of the agency in 2001. At  the time of our 2003 report, about 20 percent of FAA’s workforce was  under the new performance management system. As of July 2009, FAA had  expanded the performance management system’s coverage to more than  95 percent of its workforce. Under FAA’s new contract with NATCA, air  traffic controllers continue to be covered by the new performance  management system. While the contract requires that controllers’  performance be evaluated against written standards, and that the  supervisor and controller discuss the evaluation, the contract does not  provide for interim or midpoint performance feedback during the  performance appraisal cycle.
FAA also sought, received, and implemented flexibilities in hiring,  relocating, and training employees. However, at the time of our 2003  report, FAA had not completed efforts to incorporate these flexibilities  into strategic workforce plans. Workforce planning should include  developing strategies for integrating hiring, recruiting, training, and other  human capital activities in a manner that meets the agency’s long-term  objectives to ensure that appropriately skilled employees are available  when and where they are needed to meet an agency’s mission. We  reported that FAA had established agencywide corporate policies and  guidance for developing workforce plans for executives, managers, and  supervisors and for specific occupations, but these initiatives were at  varying degrees of implementation. As we discuss later in this report, FAA  has developed workforce plans for its major organizational segments and  for specific workforces.
In 2003, we also noted that FAA lacked baseline data against which to  measure the impact of its initiatives, and that FAA had not adequately  linked initiative goals to the agency’s mission goals. While FAA’s human  resource officials maintained that the new compensation system  addressed recruitment and retention objectives, FAA could not support  this assertion with data because the agency did not establish any baseline  data from which to measure improvements. Consequently, we were unable  to evaluate the effectiveness of FAA’s reform efforts. We recommended  that FAA develop empirical data and establish performance measures,  develop linkages between human capital reform initiatives and program  goals, establish time frames for data collection and analysis, and hold  managers accountable for the results of human capital management  efforts. FAA has implemented these recommendations.
section_title: FAA’s Workforce Demographics and Expertise Requirements
paragraphs: In the coming years, FAA risks losing significant amounts of institutional  knowledge as its employees retire. The dramatic shifts that are occurring  in the nation’s population are reflected in FAA’s workforce, where more  than three-fourths of its employees are age 40 or older. By fiscal year 2013,  FAA projects that 38 percent of its employees who perform work that is  critical to FAA’s mission will be eligible to retire (see table 2). For  example, in the next 5 years, 42 percent of air traffic controllers, who  ensure the safe and smooth movement of air traffic in the air and on the  ground at airports; 31 percent of airway transportation system specialists,  who install and maintain air traffic control systems; and 48 percent of  aviation safety inspectors, who perform critical safety oversight of the  aviation industry and air operators, are projected to be eligible to retire.  However, the current economic downturn could affect FAA’s retention  and recruitment. FAA’s losses from retirement and other causes, for all  occupations, declined by 27 percent during the first 4 months of fiscal year  2009, compared with the corresponding months of the prior fiscal year.  Additionally, a July 2009 vacancy announcement for controllers attracted  nearly 9,000 applications and a recruitment fair for people with disabilities  was successful.
In addition to replacing institutional knowledge, FAA will need to obtain  expertise to support the transition of the national airspace system to  NextGen. NextGen envisions a fundamental change in air traffic  management by moving to a structure that is adaptable to growth in  operations as well as shifts in demand, and that is network-centric,  meaning everyone using the system has easy access to the same  information at the same time. NextGen will entail a number of  transitions—from ground-based to satellite-based navigation and  surveillance; from voice communications to digital data exchange; from a  fragmented weather forecast delivery system to a system that uses a  single, authoritative source; and from limited operations in poor visibility  conditions to more operations that can proceed in adverse weather. While  FAA plays a central role in these transitions, the Departments of Defense,  Commerce, and Homeland Security; the National Aeronautics and Space  Administration; and the White House Office of Science and Technology  Policy also participate. In previous work, we questioned whether FAA had  the required systems integration expertise, given the complexity of this  effort. FAA responded by engaging the National Academy of Public  Administration (NAPA) to identify (1) the skills needed to accomplish the  transition to NextGen and (2) strategies for acquiring the necessary  workforce competencies. NAPA assembled a panel of experts (NAPA  Panel) to perform the study and reported on the panel’s findings in  September 2008.
The NAPA Panel found that acquisitions will be an important element in  NextGen. FAA defines its acquisition workforce broadly, following the  Office of Management and Budget’s guidance, to include program and  project managers, researchers and engineers, business and financial  analysts, contracting officers and specialists, contracting officer’s  technical representatives, integrated logistics specialists, test and  evaluation personnel, and other specialized support. Consequently, the  acquisition workforce includes individuals who determine requirements;  plan acquisition strategies; establish business relationships to obtain  needed goods and services; and ensure that the government’s needs are  met by testing, evaluating, and monitoring contractor performance. FAA’s  acquisition workforce also includes experts in subject matter areas, such  as finance, who support the business process. FAA recently estimated that  it will need to hire several hundred additional staff to implement NextGen,  and most of these staff will be part of the acquisition workforce. However,  as FAA attempts to hire these staff, it will be competing with a projected  governmentwide hiring surge. For example, the Partnership for Public  Service’s survey, “Where the Jobs Are 2009,” indicates that from fiscal  years 2010 through 2012, the federal government could hire more than  16,000 employees to fill needs in general administration/program  management; engineering (electrical, aerospace, and computer); finance;  and contracts. FAA is developing a 5-year acquisition workforce plan that  the agency expects will address, among other things, challenges and  strategies to address workforce requirements. FAA expects to complete  the plan in October 2009.
section_title: FAA Incorporates Many Leading Human Capital Practices, but Its Low Ranking in Best Places to Work Could Pose Challenges in Recruitment, Motivation, and Retention
paragraphs: FAA’s human capital system employs many leading practices in strategic  workforce planning, training, recruitment and hiring, and performance  management. FAA has implemented few leading diversity management  practices, but is developing a diversity outreach plan. The agency’s  consistent placement near the bottom in published best places to work  rankings could pose challenges in recruiting, motivating, and retaining  employees to replace those retiring and to meet current and future mission  requirements.
subsections: section_title: FAA Incorporates Many Leading Human Capital Practices in Strategic Workforce Planning, Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and Performance Management
paragraphs: FAA’s human capital system mirrors many leading human capital practices  in strategic workforce planning, training, recruitment and hiring, and  performance management, but FAA officials with responsibility for  implementing human capital procedures in major segments of the agency  and union representatives criticized FAA’s practices in performance  management. Union representatives also criticized FAA’s training  practices. Pending legislation to reauthorize FAA contains provisions  related to a number of these practices.
subsections: section_title: Strategic Workforce Planning
paragraphs: This practice focuses on developing long-term strategies for acquiring,  developing, and retaining an organization’s total workforce to meet the  needs of the future. Such planning is essential to ensure that an agency’s  human capital program uses its workforce’s strengths and addresses  related challenges in a manner that is clearly linked to achieving missions  and goals. Table 3 lists the key leading strategic workforce management  practices that we identified in our past work and examples of FAA’s  activities. See appendix II for an expanded list of FAA’s activities that align  with key leading practices.
FAA has made progress in strategic workforce planning since 2003, when  we issued our previous report. FAA has established an agencywide  strategic human capital plan that lays out human capital goals, and  strategies and initiatives under each goal. FAA annually updates its  strategies and initiatives to maintain alignment with the strategic plan— the Flight Plan—and to reflect emerging or changing mission demands.  FAA has also established workforce plans for each of its four major  entities, called lines of business—the Air Traffic Organization (ATO),  Aviation Safety, Airports, and Commercial Space Transportation—and has  established plans to manage specific workforces, such as air traffic  controllers, and technical operations.
The House has passed and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science,  and Transportation has reported out FAA reauthorization bills that would  require the agency to undertake additional workforce planning. For  example, the bills would require FAA to (1) study and prepare a report to  Congress on the frontline manager staffing requirements at air traffic  control facilities, taking into account, among other things, the facility type  and complexity of air traffic handled and managerial responsibilities, and  (2) develop a staffing model for safety inspectors. Additionally, the bills  would require FAA to make the appropriate arrangements with the  National Academies of Science for studies of the assumptions and  methods used to determine the staffing needs for controllers and airway  transportation systems specialists.
section_title: Training
paragraphs: Training and development programs can assist the agency in achieving its  mission and goals by improving individual and, ultimately, organizational  performance. In our past work, we identified numerous leading training  practices, which we have segmented into the four key components shown  in table 4, along with examples of FAA’s activities that align with these key  components. See appendix II for an expanded list of FAA’s activities that  align with key leading practices.
In 2005, we reviewed FAA’s technical training for aviation safety  inspectors and found that the program followed some leading practices.  For example, the training efforts are intended to support FAA’s goals for  improving aviation safety, and FAA has established clear accountability  for ensuring that inspectors have access to technical training. Additionally,  the technical training program contains an evaluation component.  However, we made several recommendations aimed at, among other  things, improving the timeliness of training, improving FAA’s identification  of gaps in inspectors’ technical knowledge, and developing measures of  the impact of training on achieving organizational goals. FAA has  implemented most of these recommendations. For example, FAA has  taken steps to deliver training in a more timely manner, such as developing  new Web-based courses that inspectors can complete when the training is  needed. Additionally, in 2007, FAA conducted a feasibility analysis that  explored different methods to measure training’s impact on achieving  organizational goals. In August 2009, FAA was working to address the  remaining recommendations by providing more guidance on when  accepting training for in-kind services is appropriate and revising  inspector guidance to clarify that free training does not preclude FAA from  fulfilling its oversight and enforcement role. The Senate’s FAA  reauthorization bill would require FAA to report on the training provided  to safety inspectors.
Union representatives provided comments regarding how FAA designs  and implements training. The President of the Professional Aviation Safety  Specialists (PASS)—the union representing, among others, FAA  employees who maintain air traffic control equipment—said that the  technical training for airway systems specialists is often unnecessarily  time-consuming and costly, because FAA customizes the training to make  it unique to FAA and then requires that employees travel to the FAA  Academy to receive technical training. The union President said that FAA  could streamline the process by allowing staff to take training courses  from private vendors who offer the same training at locations closer to  their home office. FAA noted that the academy is the only location that  replicates every piece of equipment that aviation systems safety specialists  use, and that equipment in air traffic control facilities cannot be taken off- line for training. However, FAA’s Director of Technical Training and  Development told us that FAA is exploring how to validate locally  provided courses for equivalency to the training provided at the FAA  Academy. Additionally, FAA is increasing the availability of Web-based  training, simulations, and other alternative training methodologies that  will allow greater opportunities for on-site training, according to another  FAA training official. We are currently reviewing airway transportation  system specialist training under another engagement.
NATCA representatives criticized how FAA implements controller  training. In their opinion, FAA relies too much on memorandums and  other impersonal methods, rather than in-person training that would allow  staff to directly pose questions to instructors and engage in open  discussion on topics that require clarification. FAA’s Director of Technical  Training and Development believes this criticism to be an overstatement,  and noted that FAA offers many specialized courses at the FAA Academy  and fills the spaces allocated.
NATCA representatives also believe that controllers have fewer  opportunities to attend training because there are not enough experienced  controllers to handle air traffic while others attend training. A 2008 report  from the Department of Transportation Inspector General questioned  whether FAA had sufficient numbers of experienced controllers to train  the large numbers of new controllers that it was hiring. The report noted  that the hiring process was outpacing the capabilities of many air traffic  facilities to efficiently process and train new hires. The Inspector General  made a number of recommendations, and FAA agreed or partially agreed  with most of them. FAA notes that the agency continues to monitor its  hiring and training programs to achieve a balance between a facility’s  trainees and the facility’s training capacity, and to help ensure that  trainees progress through each stage of training while ensuring safety. The  House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills would require that FAA study  the adequacy of training provided to air traffic controllers.
section_title: Recruitment and Hiring
paragraphs: In a highly competitive job market, having an effective hiring process can  help an agency compete for talented people who have the requisite  knowledge and up-to-date skills to accomplish missions and achieve goals.  Table 5 lists the key recruitment and hiring practices that we have  identified in our past work and provides examples of FAA’s activities. See  appendix II for an expanded list of FAA’s activities that align with key  leading practices.
In recent years, FAA has used its flexibilities mostly to hire, relocate, and  retain air traffic controllers. However, FAA also has used flexibilities to  hire expertise in other fields, such as program management, aerospace  engineering, and environmental protection. The House and Senate FAA  reauthorization bills would require FAA to increase the number of safety- related positions, such as safety inspectors, commensurate with available  funding.
section_title: Performance Management
paragraphs: An effective performance management system can be a strategic tool to  drive internal change and achieve desired results. Our work has identified  numerous leading practices in performance management, which we  summarize in table 6. The table also provides examples of FAA’s activities  that align with these key leading practices. See appendix II for an  expanded list of FAA’s activities that align with key leading practices.
FAA officials responsible for implementing human capital procedures  within the lines of business, as well as representatives of several unions,  criticized components of FAA’s performance management system. For  example, because FAA’s system calls for a performance rating of either  “meets expectations” or “does not meet expectations,” an official from  FAA’s largest line of business and union officials characterized the system  as “pass/fail.” Because nearly everyone is rated “meets expectations,” they  believe that the system does not make distinctions above the “meets  expectations” level.
For employees who have met expectations, FAA further distinguishes  performance by distributing performance-based “superior contribution  increases” (SCI). FAA distributes the SCI based on supervisors’ summaries  of employee performance that are based on (1) personal observations of  employees’ performance and contributions and (2) the employees’ self- assessments. The supervisor’s summary focuses on three areas:  collaboration, customer service, and impact on organizational success. A  fourth area, management and leadership, applies only to managers. Up to  65 percent of employees who meet expectations can receive either a 1.8  percent or 0.6 percent SCI.
FAA’s practice of awarding pay increases based on employee  contributions aligns with its reform objective that human resource  systems support employees’ achievement of organizational goals, but FAA  officials with responsibility for implementing human capital procedures in  the ATO, Aviation Safety, and Airports lines of business, as well as union  representatives, expressed fairness concerns about the impacts of these  increases, similar to the concerns on which we reported in 2003. The  FAA officials believe that the SCI is not large enough to motivate  performance, and because more than one-half of the employees receive  the increase, it creates morale problems among those employees whom  officials believe are solid performers, but received no SCI. Union  representatives said that, from the employee’s perspective, it is not clear  how supervisory recommendations are translated into decisions about  which employees receive these increases. Union representatives also  expressed fairness concerns in saying that, in some cases, the same  employees receive the increases every year and that, in other cases,  increases appear to be given on a rotating basis, without respect to level of  performance.
All employees who meet expectations also receive an Organizational  Success Increase (OSI), which FAA provides when the agency has met at  he  least 90 percent of its performance targets. The total funding pool for t OSI consists of the amount of the governmentwide General Schedule  increase for a given year, plus an additional 1 percent. As with t OSI aligns with the reform objective of supporting employees’  achievement of organizational goals. However, FAA and union officials  criticized the OSI component of performance pay because, in their  opinion, it rewards or penalizes employees for organizational performanc that they cannot influence. For example, FAA may withhold a portion of  the OSI because the agency did not achieve its target for reducing  operational errors, even though there are many employees, such as  contract specialists, whom FAA officials and union representatives believe  have no influence over such activities.
FAA has taken actions to improve the implementation of its performance  management system. For example, in 2008, FAA issued a memorandum to  senior leadership and managers emphasizing policy requirements for, and  reiterating the importance of, midcycle progress reviews. Additionall FAA organization is developing guidance for managers on providing  feedback and, according to FAA officials, managers receive automatic  notifications that midpoint feedback and end-of-cycle reviews are due to  help ensure that these activities take place. FAA also recently initiated a  series of briefings for employees and managers regarding the performa management and pay for performance systems. Additionally, FAA is  assessing the percentage of employees who receive midterm feedback to  identify whether corrective action is needed. Recently, FAA developed an  action plan aimed, in part, at creating a performance culture within the  agency. The plan contains steps to improve managers’ use of the  performance management system. We discuss this action plan in more  detail later in this report.
section_title: FAA Has Implemented Few Leading Diversity Management Practices
paragraphs: Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a  positive work environment where the similarities and differences of  individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and maximiz their contributions to an organization’s strategic goals. The concept of  managing diversity focuses on inclusion, which involves engaging the  talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and capabilities of individuals and groups  working toward common goals and therefore serves as a complement to equal employment opportunity (EEO). Implementing effective diversity  e  management helps an organization foster a work environment in which  people are enabled and motivated to contribute to mission  accomplishment and provide both accountability and fairness for all  employees. Through our past work, we identified the following key  practices that experts agree are leading diversity management practices.
Develop a diversity strategy and p lan that are developed and aligned with  e organization’s strategic plan. ram that attracts a supply of qualified, diverse  pplicants for employment. ployee involvement to drive diversity throughout the  rganization.
Ensure that top leadership provides a vision of diversity that it emonstrates and communicates throughout an organization.
Conduct diversit bout diversity.
Establish a set of quantitative and qualitative me arious aspects of an overall diversity program. asures of the impact of    Establish a means to ensure that leaders are held accountable for d by linking their performance ass p rogress of diversity initiatives. essment and compensation to the  Include in succession planning an ongoing, strategic process for  identifying and developin potential future leaders.  g a diverse pool of talent for an organization’s    Link diversity to performance by understanding that a more diverse  tivity and help  inclusive work environment can yield greater produc im prove individual and organizational performance.
section_title: FAA’s Low Ranking in Best Places to Work Could Pose Challenges in Recruitment, Motivation, and Retention
paragraphs: FAA’s ranking near the bottom in Best Places to Work in the Federal  Government in 2007 and 2009, as published by the Partnership for Public  Service (the Partnership) and American University’s Institute for the Study  of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI), could present a barrier to  recruiting, motivating, and retaining the talented employees that FAA  needs to meet future mission requirements. The Partnership and ISPPI  develop their ranking on the basis of analysis of OPM’s biannual Federal  Human Capital Survey results. The survey contains over 80 items that  gauge employee satisfaction with pay, leadership, and collaboration,  among other things. The Partnership and ISPPI ranked FAA 204th out of  222 agencies in 2007 and 214th out of 216 agencies in 2009.
These published rankings are important to FAA because an agency’s  reputation is a key factor in recruiting and hiring applicants. A recent  Partnership report noted that a good reputation is the most frequently  mentioned factor in choosing potential employers, and agencies with high  satisfaction and engagement scores were seen as desirable by college  graduates seeking employment. The Partnership report also noted that  college students are rating some government agencies as ideal employers.
Similarly, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) reported that  employees’ willingness to recommend the federal government or their  agency as a place to work can directly affect an agency’s recruitment  efforts, the quality of the resulting applicant pool, and the acceptance of  employment offers. In 2005, compared with 1989, MSPB found that  considerably more federal employees would recommend the government  as a place to work, and that more federal employees reported satisfaction  with their pay. Moreover, the job security that federal employment offers  is a major selling point in the current economic downturn. While FAA  generally follows leading recruitment and hiring practices, FAA may be  able to take only limited advantage of these favorable trends, since only  about one-half of FAA employees’ responses to the OPM survey item, “I  would recommend my organization as a good place to work,” were  positive in 2008. About 65 percent of the employees in the rest of the  federal government responded positively, putting FAA about 15  percentage points behind other agencies. Moreover, MSPB noted that  prospective employees would rather work for an agency billed as one of  the best places to work as opposed to an agency at the bottom of the list.  Clearly, when Congress passed legislation allowing FAA to implement a  new personnel management system, FAA recognized the importance of  this point by establishing the reform objective that FAA be perceived as a  desirable place to work. However, FAA’s low rankings in 2007 and 2009  would not indicate to prospective applicants that FAA is perceived as a  desirable place to work.
section_title: FAA Is Considerably behind the Rest of the Federal Government in Key Measures of Workplace Satisfaction, and Is Taking Steps Aimed at Improvement
paragraphs: FAA employee responses to OPM’s 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey  placed the agency well behind the rest of the federal government in overall  job and organizational satisfaction, as well as satisfaction with their  leaders and their leaders’ competencies in communications and building  teamwork and cooperation. FAA is taking steps that could improve  employee satisfaction, but has not established accountability for  improvements.
subsections: section_title: FAA Employees Indicated Less Satisfaction Than the Rest of the Federal Government with Their Jobs; Organization; and Items That Affect Recruitment, Motivation, and Retention
paragraphs: Compared with employees in the rest of the federal government, FAA  employees indicated less satisfaction with key items in OPM’s 2008  Federal Human Capital Survey. FAA employees provided 59 percent  positive responses regarding overall job satisfaction—9 percentage points  lower than employees in the rest of the federal government, and 41  percent positive responses regarding overall satisfaction with their  organization—17 percentage points lower than employees in the rest of  the federal government. Moreover, FAA employees were less positive  concerning many of the items that OPM has identified as indicators of an  agency’s ability to recruit, motivate, and retain employees. On the basis of  its analysis of its past two Federal Human Capital Surveys, OPM  determined that responses to 16 items—called “impact items”—really  make a difference in whether people want to come, stay, and contribute  their fullest to an agency. FAA’s percentage of positive responses to these  impact items and the difference between FAA’s percentage of positive  responses and that of the rest of the federal government appear in figure 1.
FAA responses to the top two items in figure 1 indicate that FAA  employees said they like the work they do and derive considerable  satisfaction from it; and FAA employees’ satisfaction on these topics was  close to that of employees in the rest of the federal government. However,  for the remainder of the items, FAA employees expressed less satisfaction  than employees in the rest of the federal government. These lower levels  of workplace satisfaction represent potential hurdles when competing for  talent with other federal agencies. FAA’s strained labor-management  relations could be contributing to the low percentages of positive  responses. Several bargaining units have had contract negotiations stretch  over many years with no settlement. For example, nearly 4,000 employees,  represented by PASS, remain under the provisions of contracts that date  back to 1988 and 1993, while new contracts are under negotiations.  Additionally, in 2006, FAA encountered difficulties in negotiating a new  labor contract with NATCA, which represents about one-third of FAA  employees. In May 2009, FAA and NATCA began mediated bargaining to  reach agreement on a new contract. In September 2009, FAA and NATCA  signed a new 3-year contract. FAA and NATCA reached agreement on  most contract items, but required binding decisions from the mediators for  some items, including compensation. FAA views the new contract as a  framework for helping to meet the challenges of implementing NextGen.
While improvement in any of the impact items that OPM identified could  help FAA improve its attractiveness as an employer of choice, the items  for which FAA is farthest behind the rest of the federal government  provide a focus for FAA to target its improvement efforts. Those items  revolve around employee perceptions of their leaders and the leadership  competencies of communication and building teamwork and cooperation.
Research has shown that employees who are led by strong leaders are  more satisfied, engaged, and loyal than employees with weak leaders.
FAA employees provided 28 percent positive responses regarding  satisfaction with the policies and practices of senior leaders, and 33  percent positive responses regarding having a high level of respect for  senior leaders. These two items were the farthest behind the positive  responses to impact items from the rest of the federal government.  Additionally, positive responses to “How good a job do you feel is being  done by your immediate supervisor or team leader?” were 10 percentage  points behind the positive responses from the rest of the federal  government.
Consistent with FAA’s reform objective, FAA has identified 16 leadership  competencies grouped under 4 dimensions (see fig. 2).
FAA’s assessed the competency levels of its leaders in 2005, 2007, 2008,  and 2009. The results showed that the communications competency  approached or slightly exceeded the agency target level each year.  However, as figure 1 shows, employee perceptions of communications  from managers remained 12 percentage points behind the rest of the  federal government, suggesting that further work remains. The senior  executives who assisted the NAPA Panel also perceived a need for FAA’s  leaders to improve communications about NextGen. They pointed out that  FAA’s leaders will need to better communicate a clear vision for NextGen,  better define what it is, and get support and buy-in from staff at all levels  of the organization. FAA officials believe that the NextGen Implementation  Plan, issued in January 2009, addresses these concerns. In developing the  plan, FAA’s objective was to allow a broad audience to gain a common  understanding of NextGen. The plan provides technical information in its  appendixes, which officials said address the needs of specific  stakeholders.
The way leaders communicate with their employees can impact  employees’ perceptions of leaders’ honesty and integrity, which, in turn,  can affect the level of employees’ respect for their senior leaders—another  impact item among those for which FAA’s responses were farthest behind  the rest of the federal government. The president of a local union of the  American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees  (AFSCME) provided an example that he believes demonstrates the  relationship between these competencies. The union representative said  that FAA provided little information to employees between 2003 and 2004  as FAA planned for and implemented a sweeping reorganization that  created the 36,000 employee ATO. After the reorganization, FAA  management characterized ATO as a model organization, but after the first  Chief Operating Officer departed, FAA reorganized the responsibilities of  ATO’s Vice Presidents. The representative believes that FAA’s lack of  communications regarding these reorganizations likely contributed to a  decline in trust of FAA management.
FAA employees also provided fewer positive responses for impact items  related to the supervisory competency, building teamwork and  cooperation. The survey items related to teamwork and cooperation are  “How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your  work?” and “Employees have a feeling of personal empowerment with  respect to work processes.” We and others have reported on this as an  area of governmentwide concern under topics such as empowerment,  collaboration, teamwork, and employee engagement. For example, we  have reported that empowering employees plays a crucial role in  establishing a results-oriented culture. Additionally, as we previously  noted in this report, a leading diversity management practice is to  understand that a more diverse and inclusive workforce can yield greater  productivity, and that diversity training could provide an awareness of  how diverse perspectives can improve organizational performance.  Moreover, MSPB has concluded that further engaging the federal  workforce is critical as agencies attempt to improve their operations  within budget constraints, and as they face increasing numbers of  retirement-eligible employees in a labor market where there is intense  competition for top talent. MSPB found that engaged employees have  less intention to leave their current agency, use less sick leave, and workf  in agencies that produce better programmatic results. For the purposes o this report, we use collaboration to include teamwork, cooperation,  employee engagement, and employee empowerment.
Improving collaboration has implications for FAA’s successful  implementation of NextGen, because 98 percent of FAA’s employees who  are eligible to be members of a bargaining unit are represented by a union.  The NAPA Panel noted that although FAA’s labor-management relations  had been strained for years, FAA had no clear strategy to engage the  unions. In the past, FAA’s failure to collaborate with the ultimate users  early in a system’s design contributed to cost growth and schedule  delays. The panel concluded that FAA’s success in leading the transition  to NextGen will depend, in part, on its willingness to review its past efforts  and learn from challenges and mistakes.
Although controllers will be end users of NextGen’s technology, NATCA  representatives told us they perceive that FAA management has little  interest in collaboration. NATCA testified to Congress (1) that NextGen  will only be successful if it is done with complete participation and  agreement from government, labor, and industry groups and (2) that  collaboration will help FAA to identify and address potential issues early  on in the process, thereby saving time, money, and resources and avoiding  safety risks.
In FAA’s view, the agency has always desired to include end users in  developing NextGen technology and procedures. According to FAA, a  dispute arose over whether FAA or NATCA would make the final  determination concerning the specific union members who would serve as  subject matter experts. At the present time, FAA is using controllers as  subject matter experts in testing and developing new technology and  procedures, but NATCA has not endorsed their participation, according to  a senior FAA official.
Other union representatives discussed collaboration in more general  terms. A PASS representative described a culture in which employees  speak only when asked, and said that speaking up and suggesting  solutions to problems is not encouraged. The representative also said that  many supervisors feel frustrated because they would like to change this  culture, but FAA does not provide any encouragement to do so. A  representative of the American Federation of Government Employees said  the union had been optimistic years ago about a 1996 contract that had an  emphasis on partnership, but nothing materialized in subsequent years.
The following section of this report describes several actions that FAA is  taking to improve elements of workplace satisfaction, including  collaboration. Additionally, the Senate FAA reauthorization bill contains  provisions aimed at increasing collaboration with employee groups. For  example, the bill would require FAA to establish a process for  collaborating with employees, who are selected by the bargaining unit, in  planning and developing projects that would affect them.
section_title: FAA Is Working to Address Workplace Satisfaction, but Has Not Established Accountability for Improvement
paragraphs: FAA is taking actions that could improve employee satisfaction with their  leaders over time. In 2007, FAA established its Senior Leadership  Development Program to provide a pipeline of senior managers qualified  to fill executive-level vacancies. To identify emerging leaders among its  nonsupervisory employees, FAA initiated the Program for Emerging  Leaders in 2009. FAA evaluates applicants for these programs on the basis  of their demonstration of the leadership competencies shown in figure 2.  Over time, as more of FAA’s leaders graduate from these programs,  perspectives of employees about their leaders could change for the better.
Evaluating the outcome of FAA’s leadership development programs will  help FAA assess its progress in meeting its reform objective to improve  leadership and management. To evaluate the outcome of its leadership  development programs, FAA collects evaluations of participants’  satisfaction with the training and the classroom experience and obtains  progress reviews that focus on the demonstrated achievement of  developmental objectives. FAA is also measuring overall programmatic  outcomes tied to succession planning goals, such as the ratio of candidates  in development to projected vacancies, number of graduates appearing on  best-qualified lists, and graduates placed in leadership positions. However,  because FAA has so far graduated 1 cohort of 16 participants from its  leadership development programs, substantial data are not yet available.  To measure the impact of these programs on leadership within the agency,  FAA is beginning to track movement in the results of its periodic  leadership competency assessments.
FAA also has recently taken some steps to create a more collaborative  climate. For example, in February 2009, FAA invited NATCA to collaborate  on the implementation phase of the En Route Automation Modernization  system—a key component of the NextGen transition. According to  NATCA, FAA and the union have held several constructive negotiation  sessions on the system’s implementation. In another example, FAA agreed,  in collaboration with NATCA, to provide immunity from discipline for  employees who report safety issues under certain conditions, through  program implementation by a joint union-management committee. FAA  credits this agreement for allowing significant strides toward a safety  management culture, with the support of organized labor. FAA also used a  collaborative approach to reach agreement in 2008 on a contract covering  headquarters employees represented by AFSCME. This was the first  successful contract negotiation since the units were first certified in 1999.  A representative of PASS also noted some positive initiatives. He said the  union recently attended a few meetings regarding development of ATO’s   5-year strategic plan, suggesting that FAA management is starting to  embrace the idea that collaboration with union groups results in a better  product.
Additionally, FAA’s new Administrator is emphasizing employee  engagement. FAA has established an Employee Engagement Steering  Committee comprised of FAA executives. According to FAA, these  executives will engage, listen to, and act upon the issues, ideas,  suggestions, and recommendations made by employees to improve the  FAA work environment, management practices, and organizational  culture, with the goal of becoming one of the best places in government to  work. Moreover, the Administrator has expressed his commitment to  employee engagement in a speech to one of the agency’s largest unions  and sent an e-mail to all FAA employees describing a number of initiatives  aimed at hearing what employees are thinking. According to FAA Human  Resource Management officials, the Administrator also plans to provide  monetary awards to individuals and teams that make significant  contributions to improving workplace satisfaction.
FAA’s actions, as we have previously described, align with  governmentwide initiatives to improve workplace satisfaction. OPM, in  collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget, has requested  agencies to develop action plans to increase employee satisfaction in areas  where the Federal Human Capital Survey indicated low satisfaction, and to  include their plans as part of their fiscal year 2011 budget submissions.  FAA has developed a Federal Human Capital Survey 2009-2010 Action  Plan, which it intends to include with its 2011 budget submission.
FAA’s action plan focuses on improving FAA’s positive response rates to  selected survey items related to leadership and creating a performance  culture. Some of these items are among those that OPM has identified as  affecting an agency’s recruitment, motivation, and retention. FAA has  included the activities envisioned for the Employee Engagement Steering  Committee, as we have previously described, as part of its plan to improve  leadership. These activities could help increase positive responses  regarding employee empowerment and employees’ involvement in  decisions that affect their work. FAA’s positive responses for these items  were, respectively, 11 and 13 percentage points behind the rest of the  federal government in the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey.  Additionally, the section of the plan focused on creating a performance  culture contains actions aimed at improving the performance management  system’s effectiveness, which FAA officials and union representatives  criticized. For example, the plan includes providing training on effectively  applying the performance management system, with the expectation of  achieving a better understanding of how to use the system so that  employees and managers establish clear performance expectations as a  basis for ongoing performance feedback and coaching. The plan also  includes improving FAA’s policies and evaluation process to better ensure  that the performance management system is used effectively.
These efforts represent a good start. MSPB noted that among the steps  that agencies can take to improve collaboration is recruiting supervisors  on the basis of their supervisory abilities, something that FAA has already  begun to do. FAA is also striving to create a line of sight between an  employee’s work and the goals of the agency, which is another step  toward increased employee engagement, according to MSPB. Also, MSPB  encourages agencies to ensure a good person-to-job fit. Based on survey  responses, FAA appears to have achieved some success in this area. As  figure 1 shows, the impact items “I like the kind of work I do,” “My work  gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment,” and “My talents are used  well in the workplace” received the three highest percentages of positive  responses from FAA employees and were the closest to the percentage of  positive responses from employees in the rest of the federal government.
However, FAA has not established accountability for the plan’s success.  Although the action plan sets a goal of a 7 percent improvement in positive  response rates to the eight selected survey items, FAA has not made  successful achievement of this goal a performance expectation for  managers, according to FAA Human Resource Management officials.  Because strong leadership is key to creating a performance culture, adding  an expectation for improvement in survey responses could increase  chances for success. Disclosing the plan and its actions, goals, and  outcomes in publicly available reports to Congress, such as the annual  performance and accountability report, would also help to ensure  accountability.
section_title: Conclusions
paragraphs: FAA has made good progress in developing a human capital system that  addresses many of its reform objectives and has structures and processes  that exhibit leading practices. FAA’s efforts to increase its workforce  diversity by developing an expanded applicant pool are important, but  they do not embrace the full range of leading diversity management  practices. FAA could take steps to move beyond recruitment activities and  toward diversity management by incorporating leading practices in future  updates of its congressionally directed plans to increase diversity in the  controller and aviation safety workforces.
FAA employees’ dissatisfaction with their workplace, expressed in their  responses to OPM’s Federal Human Capital Survey, suggests that FAA has  not achieved the reform objective to be perceived as a desirable place to  work, and could hinder FAA’s effort to recruit, motivate, and retain the  workforce it needs for current and future missions. FAA’s Federal Human  Capital Survey Action Plan represents a positive step to reach beyond the  structures and processes of its human capital system and address the  underlying causes of employee dissatisfaction with their workplace.  Establishing accountability within FAA, and externally to Congress and  the American people, represents the next step to increase the probability  of the plan’s success.
section_title: Recommendations for Executive Action
paragraphs: To ensure that FAA can hire, motivate, and retain the talented staff it  needs to operate the national airspace system and implement the  transition to NextGen, we recommend that the Secretary of Transportation  direct the FAA Administrator to take the following three actions:  1.  ensure that key leading practices in diversity management are  incorporated in future updates of FAA’s plans to increase diversity in  the controller and aviation safety workforces;  2.  hold its managers accountable for the outcomes of the Federal Human  Capital Survey Action Plan by establishing a performance expectation  that FAA managers will achieve the plan’s stated increases in positive  responses to designated survey items; and  3.  hold the agency accountable to Congress and the American people by  disclosing the plan, actions, goals, and outcomes in publicly available  reports to Congress, such as the annual performance and  accountability report.
section_title: Agency Comments
paragraphs: In commenting on a draft of this report, the Department of Transportation  generally agreed to consider GAO’s recommendations and provided  technical corrections that GAO incorporated as appropriate.
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of  this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 14 days from the  report date. At that time, we will send copies of this report to interested  congressional committees, the Secretary of Transportation, the  Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, and other parties. In  addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at  http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me  at (202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices  of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last  page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to this report  are listed in appendix III.
Gerald L. Dillingh Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues  am, Ph.D.
section_title: Appendix I: Scope and Methods
paragraphs: To determine how the components and practices of the Federal Aviation  Administration’s (FAA) human capital system compare with those of  leading organizations, we reviewed FAA documents and regulations— which detailed FAA policies and practices in the functional areas of  workforce planning, training, recruiting and hiring, performance  management, and diversity management. We also reviewed relevant  studies by other organizations, including the National Academy of Public  Administration. We discussed the structure and processes of FAA’s human  capital system, and how the system is addressing FAA’s challenges, with  officials from the Office of Human Resource Management and the Office  of Civil Rights, and with FAA officials who have responsibility for  implementing human capital procedures within each line of business— Commercial Space Transportation, Aviation Safety, Airports, and the Air  Traffic Organization. We conducted our interviews with FAA officials at  FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and, via teleconference, Oklahoma  City, Oklahoma. Additionally, we obtained perspectives of organized labor  on the human capital system through semistructured interviews with  representatives of FAA’s four largest unions—the National Air Traffic  Controllers Association (about 19,000 members); the Professional Aviation  Safety Specialists (about 11,100 members); the American Federation of  State, County, and Municipal Employees (about 2,200 members); and the  American Federation of Government Employees (about 1,800 members)— which, collectively, represent about three-fourths of FAA’s workforce. We  conducted a high-level comparison of FAA’s practices to leading practices.  More detailed comparisons could disclose specific leading practices that  FAA is not following, beyond those discussed in this report. We did not  assess the effectiveness of FAA’s human capital system, because other  factors—outside of FAA’s human capital system—may also affect FAA’s  performance.
To determine how FAA employees’ workplace satisfaction compares with  that of other federal government employees, and what steps FAA is taking  to improve workplace satisfaction, we reviewed FAA employee responses  to the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) biennial Federal Human  Capital Surveys for 2004, 2006, and 2008. We specifically analyzed the  responses to 16 “impact items” that, according to OPM, make a difference  in employee recruitment, motivation, and retention. Through document  review and interviews with FAA officials, we determined FAA’s actions  and plans to improve employee satisfaction for those items for which FAA  employee satisfaction was the farthest behind the rest of the federal  government.
We conducted this performance audit from May 2008 to October 2009 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 also conducted reliability assessments  of the data we obtained electronically and determined those data to be of  sufficient quality to be used for the purposes of this report.
section_title: Appendix II: Key Leading Practices and FAA’s Activities in Strategic Workforce Planning, Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and Performance Management
paragraphs: Appendix II: Key Leading Practices and FAA’s  Activities in Strategic Workforce Planning,  Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and  Performance Management   Works with stakeholders in annually reviewing and updating the Federal Aviation  Administration (FAA) Human Capital Plan.
Has executives sign workforce planning documents for the workforces under their  purview.
Determine the critical skills and  competencies that will be needed to  achieve current and future programmatic  results.
Develops workforce plans for major organizational segments and for specific  workforces, such as air traffic controllers; plans provide workforce demographics and  strategies to address workforce challenges.
Strives to achieve strategic alignment among people, goals, and mission  accomplishments when annually updating workforce plans.
Examines human capital challenges to determine the extent to which the current  workforce, systems, and practices meet future business requirements and determines  where challenges exist.
Developed a 16-competency leadership success profile and revalidates it every 2  years through a managementwide survey.
Mandates annual skill assessments for all managers and establishes recurring  management training requirements.
Uses a competency model for human resource specialists that includes numerous  technical and general competencies.
Enlisted the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) for assistance in  determining the workforce competencies needed to lead and implement NextGen.
Bases its human capital planning framework on guidance from the Office of  Management and Budget, GAO, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Developed an acquisition workforce plan that officials said will include acquisitions  competencies, based in part on information from the NAPA Panel’s review.
Partnered with agencies across the federal government to establish a federal  certification program for program and project managers based on recognition of  common, essential competencies.
Develop strategies that are tailored to  address gaps in the number, deployment,  and alignment of human capital  approaches for enabling and sustaining  the contributions of all critical skills and  competencies.
Established a Senior Leadership Development Program to provide a pipeline of  candidates to compete for leadership positions; uses leadership competencies to  evaluate candidates for the program.
Established a Program for Emerging Leaders to assess, develop, and demonstrate  candidates’ management potential; provide structured training; and provide a  corporate perspective of FAA; uses leadership competencies to evaluate candidates  for the program.
Participates in several governmentwide competency analysis efforts for mission  critical workforces, such as information technologists, engineers, community planners,  and human resource specialists.
Identifies gaps in workforce competencies and formulates closure strategies.
Established a Human Capital Planning Council to serve as an internal community of  practice for workforce planning and to provide a focal point for sharing best practices  and disseminating guidance.
Engages in knowledge transfer by partnering with OPM, the Department of  Transportation, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, NAPA, GAO, and other  government agencies; learning institutions; and the private sector to ensure that the  best possible decisions are made through shared lessons learned, feedback, and  expertise.
Uses a six-stage process that includes aligning human capital policies, practices, and  initiatives with the Flight Plan; scanning external trends to identify those that can affect  the organization; scanning trends in workforce supply; and establishing and  measuring progress against human capital goals.
Established a system of accountability that holds the organization, managers, and  human resource officers accountable for efficient and effective human resources  management.
Included accountability as a leadership competency.
Established performance metrics in the Flight Plan for the time to fill vacancies,  workplace injury rates, grievance processing time, and meeting staffing targets for air  traffic controller and safety workforces.
Uses an automated system to track performance.
Administrator reviews progress on initiatives against performance targets and goals in  monthly meetings.
Posts performance results against the human capital goals on its Web site.
Analyzes the results of employee surveys and takes action to improve specific areas.
Establishes training programs that align with agency goals.
Requires that training be based on a systematic analysis of the knowledge, skills, and  abilities required to achieve the organization’s mission.
Determines gaps between desired and current organizational performance,  determines if training is the appropriate solution, and, if so, addresses those learning  needs in annual business plans.
Incorporates training strategies as a significant part of workforce planning efforts by,  for example, establishing corporate employee training programs to build leadership  competence within the FAA workforce, support professional development, and  promote continuous learning.
Developed criteria based on industry Instructional Design Standards to determine  whether to design training programs internally or use an external source. FAA officials  stated that these criteria also capture FAA’s processes for developing training  internally.
Uses a mixed approach to centralizing management of training programs.
Conducts managerial and leadership training on an agencywide basis to enable  consistent training across the agency.
Conducts technical or professional training on a decentralized basis to  accommodate subordinate organizations’ unique requirements. For example,  officials from the Commercial Space line of business noted that, because much of  its work is very technical and different from that of other lines of business, it  designs and conducts much of its training internally.
Conducts analyses to choose among different mixes of training delivery mechanisms.  For example, FAA officials noted that FAA is moving to a more “blended approach” to  training delivery, using computer-based training where possible, which can help  ensure that an agencywide audience receives the same message.
Implementation: Agency leaders  communicate the importance of training  and developing employees and foster an  environment conducive to effective  training and development.
Encourages employees to work with their supervisors in creating individual  development plans—identifying occupational performance requirements, job- and  career-related learning needs, and learning strategies for meeting them—in  conjunction with their annual performance plans.
Communicates management team commitment to ensuring that adequate funds will  be set aside for position-essential training and has noted that funding for training in  support of employees’ career development will be provided when possible.
Vests accountability for the enhanced performance of the workforce in the Office of  Corporate Learning and Development and with line of business executives.
The Office of Corporate Learning and Development is responsible for  managerial/leadership training and is accountable for improvements in that area.
The lines of business are responsible for developing technical and professional  training and are accountable for employee technical performance. The Air Traffic  Organization, for example, has several layers of training accountability for air  traffic controller technical training, starting with the Vice President of Technical  Training, who is responsible for Air Traffic technical training.
Evaluation: Systematically plan for and  evaluate the effectiveness of agency  training and development efforts using  the appropriate analytic approaches and  performance data.
Evaluates learning and development activities to determine how well these activities  meet short- and long-range program needs.
Establishes standards that address the quality of learning and development activities  and delivery systems, achievement of learning objectives, impact on performance,  accomplishment of organizational requirements and expectations, and written end-of- activity evaluation.
Uses performance data from end-of-course evaluations to assess participant reaction,  vendor and instructor performance, transfer of learning, learning outcomes, and the  effectiveness of participatory learning techniques.
Compiles training evaluation results for use in future planning.
Assesses leadership skills every spring and uses the results of these assessments to  refine the leadership curriculum for the following year.
Requires lines of business and staff organizations to plan and justify their training  needs as part of the regular budget process.
Lines of business are responsible for maintaining records of all training activities,  expenditures, and plans.
Manages costs through electronic delivery of Web-based courses.
Evaluate recruitment strategies to attract  applicants.
Monitors the effectiveness of the Air-Traffic Selection and Training tool—the screening  test for air traffic controller applicants—and has commenced a study aimed at  assessing the effectiveness of the tool over the long term.
Uses the Chief Human Capital Officers Council Management Satisfaction survey to  obtain hiring manager feedback on the hiring process and the quality of applicants.
Evaluates the success of its strategies by setting performance targets and reporting  on its success in meeting them in annual performance and accountability reports.
Refines vacancy announcements so that they better incorporate key competencies  and evaluates applicants against these competencies.
Uses feedback collected from job applicants to redesign its systems to improve  usability.
Uses its Automated Staffing and Application system for most externally advertised  vacancies to post vacancy announcements, obtain applications, rate and rank  applicants, and complete the selection process.
Uses on-the-spot hiring authority based on factors such as the number of applications  received and the adequacy of job advertising efforts.
Uses recruitment incentives when extreme difficulty has existed for a prolonged period  of time in attracting an adequate number of candidates, or when necessary to attract a  candidate with unique competencies critical to an important agency mission.
Pays retention incentives when the unique qualifications of the employee or a special  need for the employee’s services makes it essential to retain the employee and the  employee would be likely to leave the federal service in the absence of a retention  incentive.
Use performance management system to  improve performance by helping  individuals see the connection between  their daily activities and organizational  goals and encouraging individuals to  focus on their roles and responsibilities to  help achieve these goals.
Aligns individual performance expectations with organizational goals by requiring that  each supervisor and employee develop a performance plan that describes employee  tasks and responsibilities and provides a line of sight from those items to the goals in  the Flight Plan.
Clearly defines and widely communicates FAA’s performance expectations for the  organization in FAA’s Flight Plan and business plans, and for individuals in employee  performance plans.
Ties performance-based pay increases to an employee’s “Impact on Organizational  Success.”
Rates employees on their ability to successfully set priorities and complete work  that directly affects the ability of the organization to meet its performance  objectives and deliver high-quality products and services.
Use competencies to examine individual  contributions to organizational results.  Competencies, which define the skills  and supporting behaviors that individuals  are expected to exhibit to carry out their  work effectively, can provide a fuller  picture of an individual’s performance.
Uses two types of performance standards to describe employee’s major  responsibilities and expected outcomes.
Uses “common” or “generic” performance standards when the work is repetitious  in nature and is characterized by consistent processes, standard outcomes and  expectations, and is task- or procedurally based. These plans contain  standardized outcomes and expectations that apply to all employees doing the  same or similar job(s). For example, all air traffic controllers are expected to  recognize adverse and emergency situations and take timely corrective actions.
Uses a customized plan that applies to specific individuals for their specific duties  when work is programmatic in nature and is characterized by unique processes  and diverse outcomes, and expectations are project-oriented.
Tracks progress toward multiple agency performance targets, as outlined in the Flight  Plan, and issues periodic performance reports.
Reports the status quarterly on the agency Web site and annually in performance and  accountability reports.
Create pay, incentive, and reward  systems that clearly link employee  knowledge, skills, and contributions to  organizational results. A key aspect of  implementing such a system is making  meaningful distinctions in individual  performance and appropriately rewarding  those who perform at the highest level.
Uses a two-phased process to appraise the performance of most employees and  distribute performance-based pay increases.
Uses a secondary pay decision process to make more meaningful performance  distinctions in determining performance-based pay increases.
Provides monetary awards for outstanding performance in categories such as  ensuring safety, customer service, and leadership.
Granted over $5 million in cash awards and over 64,000 hours of time off under  the incentive awards program in fiscal year 2007.
Established procedures to deal with unacceptable performers, which require that  supervisors provide employees with an opportunity to improve before taking  performance-based action. Employees are placed on a performance improvement  plan, called an “Opportunity to Demonstrate Performance,” for a period of time as  specified in the governing labor agreement and, if the employee remains on the plan  at the end of the performance cycle, the employee does not receive a performance- based increase.
Provide candid and constructive feedback  to help individuals maximize their  contribution and potential in  understanding and realizing the goals  and objectives of the organization.
Requires that supervisors conduct meetings with their employees halfway through the  performance cycle and provide ongoing, informal feedback on the employee’s  progress against the performance plan and identify opportunities for improvement.
Provides automatic notifications to managers that midpoint feedback and end-of-cycle  reviews are due, to help ensure that these activities take place.
Disseminated a broadcast message to all FAA managers to remind them of the  midcycle review requirement, the due date, and the reasons for the review.
Actively involve employees and  stakeholders, such as unions or other  employee associations, when developing  results-oriented performance  management systems in order to help  improve employees’ confidence and  belief in the fairness of the system and  increase their understanding and  ownership of organizational goals and  objectives.
Involved employees in Performance Management System design by conducting over  50 focus groups with more than 500 total participants across all lines of business,  unions, and pay grades to verify employee survey results and to obtain employee  suggestions for improving the system.
Provided training for supervisors, managers, and employees when originally  implementing its performance management system, by developing a variety of  classroom training modules and interactive video sessions.
Developed an instructional guide for employees on the performance management  system.
Developed a desk guide for managers on distributing superior contribution increases.
Recently conducted a series of briefings regarding the pay for performance system.
Provide adequate safeguards that help to  ensure transparency, which can improve  the credibility of the performance-based  pay system by promoting fairness and  trust.
Established a process for handling disputes in its performance management system.  The process is designed to be collaborative in nature, beginning with the jointly  developed performance plans. FAA uses a grievance procedure or bargaining unit  contracts, whichever apply, to resolve disputes and/or disagreements that are not  resolved through the initial efforts.
Publishes information for employees on internal Web sites about the results of  performance pay decisions.
section_title: Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments
subsections: section_title: GAO Contact
section_title: Staff Acknowledgments
paragraphs: In addition to the contact named above, Maria Edelstein, Assistant  Director; Edmond Menoche, Senior Analyst; Sherwin Chapman; Peter  DelToro; Jessica Evans; Colin Fallon; Cynthia Heckmann; Bert Japikse;  Janice Latimer; Steven Lozano; Grant Mallie; Belva Martin; Sara Ann  Moessbauer; Carol Petersen; Colleen Phillips; Mark Ramage; Beverly Ross;  and Kiki Theodoropoulos made significant contributions to this report.