DHS Strategic Workforce Planning: Oversight of Departmentwide Efforts Should Be Strengthened
Published: 2012-12-03T00:00:00

Fast Facts:

Highlights:
section_title: Why GAO Did This Study
paragraphs: With more than 240,000 employees doing diverse jobs, DHS's workforce supports the department's multiple missions to prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage the nation's borders, and ensure resilience from disasters, amongst others. Strategic workforce planning focuses on developing long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining an organization's total workforce, including federal staff and contractors, to meet the needs of the future. GAO has previously identified workforce-related challenges faced by DHS components. In light of these ongoing challenges, GAO was asked to review DHS's strategic workforce planning efforts. This report assesses whether DHS has incorporated strategic workforce planning leading principles into the department's management of strategic workforce planning efforts. GAO reviewed DHS strategies and guidance related to strategic workforce planning, compared them with leading principles identified in previous GAO work, and discussed ongoing strategic workforce planning efforts with officials from the seven components selected because they constitute the majority of DHS personnel.
section_title: What GAO Found
paragraphs: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken some relatively recent steps to enhance strategic workforce planning across the department. These steps are generally consistent with leading principles, but the department has not yet implemented an effective oversight approach for monitoring and evaluating components' progress. Specifically, recent steps DHS has taken to develop and implement strategic workforce planning efforts are consistent with the leading principles GAO has reported that include involving management and stakeholders, identifying skills and competencies, developing strategies to fill gaps, and building capability through training. For example, the department demonstrated stakeholder involvement by including component-level stakeholders in the development of the DHS Workforce Strategy. Though DHS has taken steps to implement strategic workforce planning, recent internal audits, as well as GAO's previous work, identified challenges related to workforce planning at the component level that could impair the continued implementation of recently initiated strategic workforce planning efforts. For example, GAO reported in July 2009 that the Federal Protective Service's (FPS) workforce planning was limited because FPS headquarters did not collect data on its workforce's knowledge, skills, and abilities and subsequently could not determine optimal staffing levels or determine how to modify its workforce planning strategies accordingly, amongst others. GAO recommended that FPS take steps to address these issues. FPS officials agreed with our recommendations, and in June 2010 drafted a staffing plan consistent with our recommendation, but as of November 2012, FPS has not gained approval of its staffing plan.
Although DHS began taking positive steps for managing strategic workforce planning in 2011, DHS officials have not yet taken steps to implement an effective oversight approach for monitoring and evaluating components' progress in implementing strategic workforce planning. According to this principle, agencies should measure the effectiveness of the workforce plan and help ensure that the strategies work as intended by monitoring and evaluating the contributions workforce plans make to strategic results. To do this, agencies should determine how well the agency implemented its workforce plan and the contribution that its implementation made toward achieving programmatic goals. However, the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) has developed limited performance measures to provide a basis for monitoring and evaluating departmentwide strategic workforce planning efforts. GAO's analysis identified performance measures that reported on only 2 of the 15 elements in DHS's strategic workforce planning model. OCHCO relies on an informal process to evaluate component workforce planning, though processes exist that it could leverage to provide oversight. For example, OCHCO performs internal audits and requires components to develop annual operations plans to implement the department's workforce strategy. However, the results of the audits are not used to evaluate components' workforce planning. Without (1) performance measures that more comprehensively address DHS's strategic workforce planning process, and (2) policies and procedures for ensuring monitoring and evaluation of departmentwide workforce planning, DHS's OCHCO does not have reasonable assurance that such efforts will be institutionalized. Further, the department will not be able to produce departmentwide evidence of component alignment with DHS strategic workforce planning guidance.
section_title: What GAO Recommends
paragraphs: GAO recommends that, among other actions, the Secretary of Homeland Security (1) identify and document additional performance measures to assess workforce planning efforts and (2) document policies and procedures regarding the use of internal audit results. DHS concurred with our recommendations.

section_title: Letter
paragraphs: With more than 240,000 employees doing diverse jobs—for example,  aviation and border security, emergency response, cybersecurity  analysis, and chemical facility inspection—the Department of Homeland  Security (DHS) is the third largest cabinet-level department in the federal  government. DHS’s workforce supports the department’s multiple  missions to prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage  the nation’s borders, enforce and administer immigration laws, safeguard  and secure cyberspace, and ensure resilience from disasters. DHS’s  Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) works to support the  department’s employees and managers to achieve DHS’s missions.  Human capital leaders across the government face workforce challenges  such as increased turnover—for example, throughout the government,  retirements have increased approximately 25 percent from a year ago— which may remain high for a while because of the combined impact of an  aging workforce and a 2-year pay freeze with possible extensions, as well  as ongoing operational and fiscal challenges. For example, a recent  governmentwide survey of chief human capital officers (CHCO) found that  over half of the 53 CHCOs originally surveyed 5 years ago have since left  government. Further, more than half of the 25-member CHCO Council  have served in that position for less than 2 years, including DHS’s own  CHCO, who has occupied that position since August 2011.
Under the authority of DHS’s OCHCO, departmental workforce planning  is managed by the Balanced Workforce Program Management Office  (BWPMO). DHS’s components operate within the human capital  framework established and overseen by OCHCO. component-level OCHCOs, or their equivalent, that work with the DHS  OCHCO to manage human capital efforts at each of the components.
The human capital framework includes the development of strategic goals and an  implementation plan that are achievable, realistic, and focused on strategic priorities. It  also ensures integration with related DHS business cycles, particularly the DHS Planning,  Programming, Budget, and Execution cycles. capability to support strategies; and monitoring, evaluating, and revising  those strategies.
Moreover, we previously reported on workforce planning–related  challenges at DHS and its components. These challenges include  collecting and analyzing workforce data, determining optimal staffing, and  identifying gaps in workforce needs, amongst others. For example, we  reported in September 2012 that most of DHS’s major acquisition  programs experienced workforce shortfalls—specifically a lack of  government personnel—increasing the likelihood their programs will  perform poorly in the future. adequate staff in DHS program offices—both in terms of skill and staffing  levels—increased the risk of insufficient program planning and contractor  oversight, which is often associated with cost growth and schedule slips.  At the component level, we reported in April 2012 that the Federal  Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had not developed processes  to systemically collect and analyze agencywide workforce data, and made  recommendations that the agency take steps to do so. FEMA officials  agreed with our recommendations and in May 2012 said that senior  FEMA officials convened a group to discuss ways of addressing some of  the recommendations.
We also previously reported that a lack of  In light of DHS’s ongoing human capital challenges, you asked us to  review DHS’s strategic workforce planning efforts. This report assesses  whether DHS has incorporated the five strategic workforce planning  leading principles into the department’s management of its workforce  planning efforts.
GAO, Homeland Security: DHS Requires More Disciplined Investment Management to  Help Meet Mission Needs, GAO-12-833 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 18, 2012). DHS  generally defines major programs as those expected to cost at least $300 million over  their respective life cycles, and many are expected to cost more than $1 billion.
To address this objective, we assessed DHS’s workforce planning  strategies and guidance against strategic workforce planning and related  leading principles previously identified in our work. We also reviewed  DHS strategies and guidance including the following: the Balanced  Workforce Strategy, the department’s effort to identify the appropriate  balance of federal and contractor employees; the Integrated Strategy for  High Risk Management, which addresses our designation of the  department’s implementation and transformation as a high-risk area and  includes multiple human capital initiatives, among others; the DHS  Strategic Plan 2012-2016; and the DHS Workforce Strategy 2011-2016 to  determine whether the department’s workforce planning strategy and  guidance aligned with the department’s missions and goals. We also  reviewed Human Capital Resources Audits—internal audits performed by  OCHCO to assess component compliance with DHS’s Human Capital  Accountability Plan—and the Office of Personnel Management’s Human  Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. To determine the  reliability of the audits, we reviewed the guide used by internal auditors  that included descriptions of the steps taken and information collected  during these audits. We also reviewed component-specific workforce  planning documents and discussed ongoing strategic workforce planning  efforts with officials from the seven operational components that  encompass the vast majority of DHS personnel. We also interviewed  officials from DHS’s OCHCO as well as their component-level  counterparts to assess to what extent strategic workforce planning had  been implemented.
We conducted this performance audit from April 2012 to December 2012  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.
subsections: section_title: Background
paragraphs: Strategic workforce planning addresses two critical needs: 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. This process includes the determination of critical skills and  competencies—such as the identification of mission-critical occupations  (MCO)—to meet both current and future programmatic needs. Once skills  and competencies are identified, strategies should be tailored to address  gaps in number, deployment, and alignment. The development and  implementation of strategic workforce planning should be collaborative,  involving employees and other stakeholders. Further, organizations  should monitor and evaluate progress of their workforce plans and the  contributions that their implementation made toward achieving  programmatic goals.
In 2002, we reported that a consistent approach to the government’s  management of its people—its human capital—was the critical missing link  in reforming and modernizing the federal government’s management  practices, noting that many agencies faced challenges in key areas,  including leadership, strategic human capital planning, and creating results- oriented organizational cultures, amongst others. actions to be taken, such as workforce planning to support the skilled talent  needs of the government, the identification of solutions to skills gaps, and  the measurement and evaluation of the performance of key initiatives.
GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, GAO-02-373SP (Washington,  D.C.: Mar. 15, 2002). and transforming the department. For example, we identified the need for  DHS to link workforce planning efforts to the department’s strategic and  program-specific planning efforts to identify current and future human  capital needs, including the size of the workforce; the deployment of the  workforce across the department and its components; and the  knowledge, skills, abilities, and diversity needed for the agency to meet its  goals and objectives. In our most recent update of the high-risk list in  February 2011, we reported that the department needed to link workforce  planning to its strategic and program-specific planning efforts to identify  current and future human capital needs to address DHS’s challenges  within the department’s management functions and in integrating those  functions across the department.
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) to address challenges identified for each  management area—human capital, financial, information technology,  acquisition, and management integration. DHS provided updates of its  progress in implementing these initiatives in later versions of the strategy  in June 2011, December 2011, and June 2012. We reported in  September 2012 that successfully achieving and sustaining progress in  these management areas would demonstrate the department’s ability and  ongoing commitment to addressing its high-risk designation in this  implementation and transformation area.
subsections: section_title: Leading Principles of Strategic Workforce Planning
paragraphs: We have reported that strategic workforce planning includes five leading  principles that address 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. The process for strategic workforce  planning, along with a description of the five associated leading  principles, is shown in figure 1.
section_title: Interactive graphic Figure 1: Strategic Workforce Planning Process Incorporating Leading Principles
paragraphs: Move mouse over the phase title to get more information on the phases.
section_title: OCHCO Manages Strategic Workforce Planning for DHS
paragraphs: The department created BWPMO within OCHCO in March 2010 and  issued its Balanced Workforce Strategy in 2010. The Balanced Workforce  Strategy refers to the department’s effort to identify the appropriate  balance of federal and contractor employees required to support critical  agency functions. For example, we reported in December 2011, as a  result of the balanced workforce efforts, the Transportation Security  Administration (TSA) hired 12 individuals in watch officer support  positions, which involve collecting information and monitoring domestic  events that affect air passenger security, positions that had previously  been filled by contractors. Program officials said they plan to convert the  remaining contractor positions to positions for federal employees in the  near future. Further, we reported that DHS developed the Balanced  Workforce Strategy in response to congressional concerns about the  department’s use of contracted services and our 2007 report on its use of  professional and management support services. BWPMO issued the  Balanced Workforce Strategy in 2010 and subsequently developed an  automated tool to help components perform the necessary analysis to  determine the appropriate mix of federal employees versus contractors.
With the balanced workforce effort established, in January 2011, BWPMO  began preparing for a Workforce Planning Summit to focus on Strategic  Workforce Planning within DHS that it held in May 2011. From February  through May 2011, DHS held four meetings featuring presentations from  TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), FEMA, and Customs and Border  Protection (CBP) to discuss workforce planning best practices. DHS also  revised and reissued the department’s Workforce Planning Guide in  March 2011.
Another office in OCHCO, the Human Capital Policy and Programs  (HCPP) office, also plays a role in the oversight of component workforce  planning efforts. Specifically, HCPP performs Human Resources  Operations Audits (HROA) to determine components’ compliance with  DHS’s Human Capital Accountability Plan and the Human Capital  Assessment and Accountability Framework. Along with ensuring  compliance with statutes and regulations, these internal audits assess the  degree to which policies, programs, and practices provide efficient and  effective support of the components’ respective missions.
The HROAs assess components in five areas related to human capital  using a three-point scale (having met, partially met, or not met desired  outcomes). Specifically, the five areas of the HROAs are (1) strategic  alignment, (2) leadership and knowledge management system, (3)  results-oriented performance culture system, (4) talent management  system, and (5) accountability system. Within each of the five areas there  are a total of 44 outcomes that, taken together, provide a basis for the  assessment. Depending on the results of their findings, auditors can  either require actions or make recommendations to the components for  further action, which are included in the final report sent to the  component.
section_title: DHS’s Recent Efforts to Manage Strategic Workforce Planning Reflect Leading Principles, but Increased Oversight of Component Planning Would Enhance Efforts
paragraphs: While DHS has recently taken steps that are generally consistent with  leading principles in managing departmental strategic workforce planning,  OCHCO has made limited progress in developing an oversight approach  for monitoring and evaluating component-level efforts. As a result, and  since OCHCO’s efforts are in the relatively early stages, it is too early to  determine the potential impact of its strategic workforce planning policies  and initiatives on the departmentwide implementation of these efforts.  Since January 2011, DHS has developed and disseminated guidance and  procedures to guide workforce planning at the component level and has  taken steps to enhance workforce planning across the department. These  steps are generally reflective of some leading principles we have  identified for strategic workforce planning. However, the performance  measures contained in various DHS strategies primarily focus on  monitoring progress in implementing a single aspect of strategic  workforce planning—that is determining whether staff performing certain  jobs should be federal or contract employees. In addition, OCHCO  officials have not developed a documented evaluation system to  institutionalize its oversight efforts. Further, internal audits and our  previous work have identified component-level challenges related to  workforce planning.
subsections: section_title: DHS Has Taken Steps for Managing Strategic Workforce Planning, but Challenges Remain
paragraphs: DHS has taken steps relatively recently that are generally consistent with  strategic workforce planning principles. Specifically, since January 2011,  DHS has taken steps to develop and implement strategic workforce  planning efforts that are generally consistent with the leading principles  including involving management and stakeholders, identifying skills and  competencies, developing strategies to fill gaps, and building capability  through training.
Involving top management and stakeholders: We have found  efforts that address key organizational issues, like strategic workforce  planning, are most likely to succeed if, at their outset, agencies’ top  program and human capital leaders set the overall direction, pace,  tone, and goals of the effort, and involve employees and other  stakeholders in establishing a communication strategy that creates  shared expectations for the outcome of the process. We reported in  March 2012 that DHS has demonstrated top leadership commitment  by identifying roles and responsibilities at the departmental level for its  key management initiatives, including those in the human capital  management area, it included in the December 2011 Integrated  Strategy for High Risk Management. At the component level,  BWPMO began efforts in 2011 to obtain input from component  stakeholders and communicated information departmentwide via  councils and committees, such as the Workforce Planning Council,  which meets monthly. In addition, from June through October 2011,  BWPMO regularly held committee meetings of its Workforce  Indicators Working Group to incorporate component input into new  strategic workforce planning initiatives, such as providing common  definition of terms so that human capital data, such as rates of  attrition, reported by components are uniform. DHS also included  component input in the development of the DHS Workforce Strategy  Fiscal Years 2011-2016. Internal audits found evidence that  components are taking steps to involve top managers and  stakeholders. For example, internal audits of CBP in December 2011  found that agency workforce planning officials meet with their  program-level counterparts at least three times a year to discuss  changes within their workforce, develop strategies to retain the  workforce, and to provide updated workforce analysis statistics.
Identifying critical skills and competencies: Our work has shown  that in order to effectively meet department challenges, agencies must  identify the workforce skills and competencies that are critical to  achieving strategic goals and identify how the agency will obtain these  requirements. OCHCO began working with components in 2011 to  help identify critical skills and competencies needed to achieve their  current and future workforce needs to achieve the department’s  missions. OCHCO provided components guidance for identifying  critical skills and competencies, among other things, and DHS also  developed a common framework for DHS competencies to be used  across all components through DHS’s Competency Working Group.  Specifically, this framework includes a standard set of  departmentwide competencies that would apply to all staff, which  would be augmented by two further sets of competencies within each  component: one set specific to all occupations and the other set  specific to individual jobs. OCHCO also worked directly with  components to identify MCOs. Internal audits found evidence that  components are taking steps to identify critical skills and  competencies, as well as the gaps that exist. For example, auditors  found in their March 2010 audit that TSA identified mission-critical  positions throughout its organization and that information related to  the competencies necessary to fill mission-critical positions was  housed in a tool utilized as part of a midlevel leadership development  program.
Developing strategies for addressing gaps: Our work on strategic  workforce planning principles indicates that once an agency identifies  the critical skills and competencies needed, strategies should be  developed to address gaps in the number, skills and competencies,  and deployment of the workforce needed for the future. Developing  such strategies creates a road map for an agency to use to move from  the current to the future workforce needed to achieve program goals.  In September 2011, OCHCO began participating in the  governmentwide Executive Steering Committee and Integrated  Product Team as part of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)  and Department of Defense (DOD)-led Strategic Human Capital High  Risk Initiative to develop strategies for addressing workforce skill  gaps. According to BWPMO officials, its efforts on this  governmentwide initiative supplemented the gap analysis detailed in  the DHS Workforce Planning Guide, which BWMPO officials planned  to update with additional tools and templates developed based on  information from the governmentwide initiative. BWPMO officials  reported they plan to complete the update by the end of November  2012. In addition, DHS required components to develop an initial  assessment strategy for developing plans to address the skill gaps by  the end of fiscal year 2012, and the department reported in June 2012  that 100 percent of its components had developed an initial  assessment strategy. For example, officials at the U.S. Secret Service  (USSS) said they developed a series of action plans to ensure full  staffing of the Uniformed Division officer position, a position  designated as a high-risk MCO through efforts related to the work of  the governmentwide high-risk initiative. This included the identification  and analysis of staffing gaps and the development of action plans to  close them.
Building workforce planning capability: Our work on strategic  workforce planning principles indicates that agencies should build the  capability needed to address administrative, education, and other  requirements important to supporting the workforce strategy. BWPMO  leadership hosted the May 2011 Strategic Workforce Planning  Summit, which involved human capital officials from each component.  The summit provided training for component officials on strategic  workforce planning to identify workforce indicators, competency and  skill gaps, and revise MCOs. The training also included building  components’ planning capability to address current and future  workforce needs using alternative futures scenarios. Officials at FEMA  credited the summit with providing them the training they needed to  better define their MCOs. In addition, representatives from each of the  seven major components we interviewed said that OCHCO staff  provided multiple opportunities for building their workforce planning  capability through shared knowledge, including leading principles,  identifying challenges and solutions, and general sharing of  information between DHS and the components and also among the  components. OCHCO has also provided resources for components to  work directly with each other regarding sharing workforce leading  principles. For example, BWPMO manages a shared website that  allows officials at each component to share information and utilize  resources, such as presentations or leading principles shared by other  components. Internal audits found evidence that components are  also building workforce planning capability. For example, in March  2012, internal auditors reported that Immigration and Customs  Enforcement (ICE) had established communities of practice  composed of eight offices tasked with addressing the strategic  direction of human capital and improving communications for  accuracy and timeliness among the ICE human capital leaders.
While DHS has taken relatively recent steps, since January 2011, to  implement strategic workforce planning, recent internal audits, as well as  our previous work, identified challenges related to workforce planning at  the component level. Specifically, these audits, as well as our previous  work, have reported findings of component-level deficiencies that could  impair the continued implementation of recent OCHCO efforts. For  example, internal audits and our previous work found challenges related  to the following.
Involving stakeholders: In July 2010, internal auditors  recommended that human capital professionals in the Coast Guard  work with component and program-level human capital stakeholders  to determine the workforce needed to meet organizational goals.
Similarly, in August 2009, internal auditors recommended that U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) educate all managers,  supervisors, and employees on the significance of the strategic  workforce plan, including their roles and responsibilities in  implementing the plan.
Identifying critical skills: Internal auditors found in March 2012 that  ICE had performed the preliminary identification of MCOs in fiscal  years 2010 and 2011, and recommended that ICE continue efforts to   Additionally, internal  identify competency gaps, among other things. auditors found in July 2010 that while USCG identified a list of MCOs,  the list was inconsistent across the functional areas of human capital  and that a comprehensive list should be compiled and shared  amongst the various program areas. In July 2009 we reported that,  among other things, the Federal Protective Service’s (FPS) workforce  planning was limited because FPS headquarters did not collect data  on its workforce’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. We reported that  without such information, FPS was unable to determine what its  optimal staffing levels should be or identify gaps in its workforce  needs, or determine how to modify its workforce planning strategies to  fill these gaps, and we made recommendations that FPS take steps to  address these issues. FPS officials agreed with our recommendations  and in June 2010 drafted a staffing plan consistent with our  recommendations, but as of November 2012, FPS has not gained  approval of its staffing plan.
Developing strategies for addressing gaps: A March 2012 internal  audit reported that although ICE had made significant progress in the  development of a draft succession plan demonstrating progress in  moving toward a strategically aligned workforce plan, the agency had  not yet finalized a comprehensive agencywide workforce and  succession plan, and that this area remains a source of concern.  Further, we reported in February 2009 that TSA did not have a  reasonable basis for determining the workforce needed to achieve  inspection goals of its transportation security inspector (TSI)  workforce. According to TSA officials, planned aviation inspection  goals were met in fiscal year 2007, but aviation cargo inspection goals  were not met because, among other reasons, TSA did not fill all of its  cargo TSI positions. TSA reported that it had plans to conduct a  staffing study in fiscal year 2009 to identify the optimal workforce size  to address its current and future program needs. In September 2011,  we further reported that TSA had completed the workforce study in  March 2010 to provide the agency with a more reasonable basis for  determining the optimal workforce size needed to achieve its current  and future inspector workload needs of its aviation and air cargo  inspectors.study were informing TSA’s resource allocation decisions as part of  this review.
We did not assess the extent to which the results of this
Building capability: In internal audits conducted from August 2009  through May 2010, auditors found that three of the seven  components’ human capital managers and staff had insufficient  awareness of the linkage between human capital planning and the  department’s missions and goals. Specifically, as mentioned above, in  August 2009, auditors recommended USCIS educate all managers,  supervisors, and employees in Human Capital on the significance of  the human capital strategic plan and how its strategic objectives affect  the mission, including their roles and responsibilities in executing the  plan. Audits conducted in October 2009 and May 2010 resulted in  similar recommendations for both ICE and USSS.
section_title: DHS Efforts to Monitor and Evaluate Components Progress
paragraphs: Although the department recently began taking positive steps for  managing strategic workforce planning in 2011, DHS officials have not yet  taken steps to implement an effective oversight approach for monitoring  and evaluating components’ progress in implementing strategic workforce  planning, consistent with strategic workforce planning principles.
According to leading principles, agencies should measure the  effectiveness of the workforce plan and help ensure that the strategies  work as intended by evaluating the contributions workforce plans make to  strategic results. To do this, agencies should determine how well the  agency implemented its workforce plan and determine the contribution  that the implementation made toward achieving programmatic goals.  Periodic measurement of an agency’s progress toward human capital  goals and the extent that human capital activities contributed to achieving  programmatic goals provides information for effective oversight by  identifying performance shortfalls and the need for appropriate corrective  actions.Framework calls for agencies to develop a system for monitoring and  evaluating the results of its human capital management policies,  programs, and activities, and identifying and monitoring necessary  improvements based on the principle that agency human capital  management decisions should be guided by a data-driven, results- oriented planning and accountability system.
Further, OPM’s Human Capital Assessment and Accountability  OCHCO has developed limited performance measures to provide a basis  for monitoring and evaluating departmentwide strategic workforce planning  efforts. related to strategic workforce planning and that two of these three  measures gauge components’ efforts to determine whether positions  should be filled with federal or contract employees. Determining whether  a function should be staffed by either a federal employee or a contractor is  one element of the first of five steps (strategic direction setting) in DHS’s  workforce planning model, which includes five steps made up of a total of  15 elements. The five steps and 15 elements of the DHS Workforce  Planning Model, as well as whether there are any related performance  measures for these elements, are described in table 1.
We identified these performance measures in two different strategy documents, DHS’s  Workforce Strategy and its Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management.
The remaining performance measure gauges the percentage of  components that have developed an initial assessment strategy for  determining skills gaps for an analysis of workforce supply, which is a  precursor to step 2 of the workforce planning model. OCHCO also uses  what it refers to as the Human Capital Dashboard to monitor and report to  senior DHS officials regarding targeted indicators of workforce health,  such as attrition, aligned with the MCOs. For example, in DHS’s first  mission area, Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security, the  Dashboard identifies workforce information such as number of staff and  attrition rates for job series identified as MCOs, including transportation  security officers from TSA and special agents from USSS.
Thus, on the basis of our evaluations, OCHCO has established  performance measures that monitor only 2 of the 15 elements in the  department’s workforce planning model. When we asked BWPMO  officials about developing performance measures for other steps or  elements of the DHS Workforce Planning Model, officials agreed that the  existing measures did not adequately report the state of strategic  workforce planning at the component level. BWPMO officials said that  they intended to include additional performance measures in revising the  Workforce Strategy, sometime in 2016. In subsequent discussions,  BWPMO officials said that, in response to our inquiries, they planned to  discuss how to accelerate their efforts to incorporate additional  performance measures for reporting components’ progress implementing  strategic workforce planning at a future Workforce Planning Council  meeting. place to develop and implement additional workforce planning-related  performance measures. Without performance measures that provide  BWPMO a basis to monitor all aspects of departmentwide strategic  workforce planning, DHS has limited means of determining components’  progress toward achieving human capital goals or the contribution of  human capital activities toward achieving programmatic goals. Additional  performance measures that monitor additional steps and elements of  DHS’s workforce planning model could enhance the department’s  oversight of these efforts.
BWPMO officials also discussed applying a governmentwide measure in fiscal year  2012 to measure staffing gaps as part of its annual reporting to OPM.
subsections: section_title: Evaluate Progress
paragraphs: BWPMO officials rely on an informal management approach to assess  component workforce planning, which provides it with a limited means of  evaluating components’ progress in implementing departmental policies  and procedures governing workforce planning. BWPMO’s reliance on an  informal management approach to evaluate components’ progress in  implementing departmental policies and procedures governing workforce  planning provides limited oversight of components’ efforts because it fails  to leverage and institutionalize existing processes.
Two processes exist within OCHCO that BWPMO could leverage to more  effectively evaluate components’ progress implementing workforce  planning, though these have limitations. Specifically, components develop  and provide to OCHCO for review, annual operational plans to report on  the components’ progress implementing the department’s Workforce  Strategy, though OCHCO has not provided timely review of components’  annual operational plans. Additionally, HCPP uses internal audits in its  evaluation of component-level human capital-related efforts, but BWPMO  has not used the results of these audits to evaluate the implementation of  the components’ workforce planning efforts.
The department’s Workforce Strategy requires components to submit  annual operational plans to OCHCO that describe, among other things,  how their strategic workforce planning supports the strategy’s goals and  objectives. Specifically, the annual operational plans are the method by  which components report to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the  CHCO on component-specific actions in support of the department’s  goals, objectives, and associated performance measures identified in the  Workforce Strategy. OCHCO is responsible for overseeing the  implementation of the Workforce Strategy and also for providing oversight  and feedback on the components’ annual operational plans, among other  things. In order for these annual plans to be an effective tool for  component leadership to ensure that their workforce planning efforts are  aligned to the department’s Workforce Strategy, component officials need  departmental feedback in time to make any corrections or revisions so  they can fully develop the operational plans prior to the start of the fiscal  year and then implement them once the fiscal year begins.
However, OCHCO has not provided feedback on operational plans in  time for the components to revise and implement their plans before the  start of the fiscal year. Specifically, when we spoke with component  officials from April through May 2012, they said they had previously  provided their fiscal year 2012 operational plans to OCHCO for review,  but at that time had not yet received feedback on these plans. An official  from the OCHCO Chief of Staff’s office, the office responsible for  overseeing the implementation of the workforce strategy and for providing  feedback on the components operational plans, said that as of September  2012, nearly 1 year after the beginning of fiscal year 2012, the  components’ had not received feedback on their operational plans for  fiscal year 2012, and subsequently the department had not begun  working with components to develop their plans for fiscal year 2013.  Further, fiscal year 2013 had already begun yet OCHCO had not  completed the process for finalizing the fiscal year 2012’s plans. This  official agreed that components’ operational plans should be finalized and  in place prior to the start of the fiscal year for which they are intended in  order to guide components’ operations for the coming year.
When we asked the official from the OCHCO Chief of Staff’s office  whether the component operational plans were an effective tool for the  department to use in its evaluation of component-level workforce  planning, the official acknowledged that the plans do not serve as an  effective management tool for OCHCO to evaluate component workforce  strategy-related activities, including workforce planning. The plans do not  serve as an effective management tool because there have been delays  in preparing, reviewing, and approving component annual operational  plans, as well as in providing feedback. Such feedback serves as the  basis for revising and finalizing the plans, as well as providing baseline  information to develop the following year’s plans. OCHCO officials agreed  that they have not provided components with feedback regarding their  operational plans in a timely manner, which has delayed the  implementation of the fiscal year 2012 plans as well as the development  of fiscal year 2013 plans. OCHCO officials agreed these plans should  have been developed and implemented prior to the start of the fiscal year  for which they are to be used to evaluate the implementation of the DHS  Workforce Strategy. As a result, without timely feedback and  implementation, OCHCO is unable to use the annual operational plans to  determine the effectiveness of components’ efforts to implement the  department’s workforce strategy.
In addition to OCHCO’s requirement that components report annually on  the status of their implementation of workforce planning efforts, HCPP  conducts internal audits called Human Resources Operations Audits on  each operational component every 3 years. Our analysis determined  that 11 out of 44 total outcomes in the HROAs related to workforce  planning. Within the first section of the HROA, strategic alignment, there  are three outcomes that explicitly assess components’ workforce planning  efforts. For example, one outcome assesses whether workforce planning  is strategically approached. In addition to the three outcomes explicitly  identified in the audits as related to workforce planning, our analysis  determined there are an additional eight outcomes within the audits that  relate to the strategic workforce planning leading principles our previous  work has identified. For example, one outcome DHS components are  assessed against is whether they have documented and communicated  human capital accountability policies, processes, measures, and results  throughout their organization. This outcome directly relates to the  strategic workforce planning leading principle regarding monitoring and  evaluating.
The most recently completed audits conducted on the seven operational  components included in our review revealed that five of the seven  components had not taken needed steps to ensure that human capital  accountability policies, processes, measures, and results are documented  and communicated throughout the organization. Additionally, four  components had not fully incorporated systems to continually assess and  improve human capital planning and investment as well as their impact on  mission accomplishment. For example, in their most recent HROAs, CBP  and TSA met all four outcomes pertaining to accountability; however,  audits of the other five components included recommendations to develop  accountability programs. For example, in March 2012 auditors  recommended that ICE officials develop a formalized accountability  program that describes a system for measuring accountability goals and  compliance with applicable legal authorities and continue developing  standardized policies and procedures that will be used to hold program  areas accountable. Similarly, USCIS’s most recent audit report in August 2009 recommended that USCIS officials develop and implement a  human capital accountability plan.
Further, HCPP and BWPMO, the two offices in OCHCO responsible for  providing oversight of components’ workforce planning, have not  coordinated their efforts. Specifically, within OCHCO, HCPP uses the  HROAs to evaluate components’ compliance with certain statues and  regulations, among other things, while BWPMO, the OCHCO office  primarily responsible for departmentwide workforce planning, had no  knowledge that HROAs included workforce planning-related required  actions and recommendations.
According to the OCHCO Human Resources Audit Manual, the guide  used by audit teams to perform HROAs on the components, the  component is responsible for preparing an action plan for the accepted  required actions and recommendations. This plan must be submitted to  the audit team lead for review and approval and must include a timeline of  activities to fulfill each action and must identify the documentation that will  be provided to the audit team lead upon completion of each item.
When we asked OCHCO officials how the required action plans were  evaluated, they said that as part of their follow-up and tracking of  component HROA responses, HCPP reviews component action plans  and closes out audit reports. This process includes issuing the final audit  results to the component and, in response, the component develops an  action plan. Once HCPP receives the required component action plan,  HCPP staff evaluates the plan to determine its sufficiency in addressing  the required actions from the audits and adds notes to the report to  indicate their final determination or provide further direction to the  component. Finally, HCPP issues a close out report to the component  documenting the status of the findings.
Despite BWPMO’s responsibility for departmentwide workforce planning,  officials in that office did not use the workforce planning-related portions  of the HCPP HROAs to evaluate component workforce planning. When  we asked BWPMO officials how they used the results of these audits for  departmental management and oversight, they said that they were not  aware that the HROAs included recommendations or required  components to take certain actions pertaining to workforce planning.  Thus, these officials said that they had not integrated the results of these  audits into their strategic workforce planning efforts. Because HCPP  performs the human resources operational audits and BWPMO had not  used the results to assess compliance, the BWPMO officials relied on  informal discussions with component officials to gather information on the  status of component strategic workforce planning efforts.
As a result of our inquiries, BWPMO officials said they planned to  coordinate with HCPP in the future to ensure that workforce planning  analysis conducted during the audits is consistent with BWPMO  workforce planning efforts, and that the results of required actions and  recommendations from the final audit reports related to workforce  planning are evaluated across components. However, BWPMO had no  documented plans regarding using these audits to evaluate components’  implementation of strategic workforce planning efforts. Though BWPMO  and HCPP officials stated they planned to revise the Human Resources  Audit Manual to incorporate changes, as of November 2012, BWPMO  was unable to provide specific information regarding how these audits  would be used in the future. Standards for Internal Control in the Federal  Government calls for agencies to have appropriate documentation of  transactions and internal controls, which should appear in management  directives, administrative policies, or operating manuals. Moreover, the  standards state that such policies and procedures should provide  reasonable assurance that ongoing monitoring and evaluation is  institutionalized in the agency’s operations. Without policies and  procedures in place to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is  institutionalized, OCHCO will continue to have limited oversight of the  implementation of strategic workforce planning at the component level.
In addition, although components are required to develop annual  operational plans to report on their efforts to implement the department’s  workforce strategy and the HROAs are performed on components to  assess the extent to which they are contributing to mission  accomplishment, among other things, the two efforts are not linked. In  conjunction with additional strategic workforce planning performance  measures, incorporating the results of human resources operations  audits, including the status of addressing required actions and  recommendations, in the components’ annual operational plans could  provide OCHCO with a greater ability to oversee departmentwide  strategic workforce planning. Moreover, monitoring and evaluating the  results of components’ implementation of OCHCO’s strategic workforce  planning policies and procedures is essential to ensure that issues and  concerns identified in prior internal audits are consistently and  comprehensively resolved and to provide a means of assessing the  impact of OCHCO’s recent initiatives.
section_title: Conclusion
paragraphs: DHS’s ability to successfully meet its multiple, diverse, and essential  missions involves the efforts of more than 240,000 employees, the vast  majority of which work within the seven operational components. To  ensure DHS has the workforce it needs to accomplish these missions,  and effectively manage the human capital challenges it is facing along  with the government as a whole, such as increasing turnover, the  department needs to align its strategic planning with programmatic goals  and budgetary realities to develop long-term strategies for acquiring,  developing, and retaining staff to achieve these goals. DHS has recently  taken steps to implement more strategic, departmentwide workforce  planning by working collaboratively with components though various  committees and councils to focus the department on strategic workforce  planning. Nonetheless, as DHS moves forward, it will need to determine  how to assess its progress and ensure components are achieving  workforce planning goals. DHS currently has limited performance  measures and lacks policies and procedures regarding how to use the  results of audits for departmental oversight of component workforce  planning. Without additional performance measures related to workforce  planning to hold components accountable for making progress in  implementing these efforts, DHS’s OCHCO does not have an effective  means of monitoring progress. Similarly, without policies and procedures  for integrating the results of audits into component workforce plans and  annual reports, DHS lacks reasonable assurance that evaluation of such  efforts will be institutionalized, nor can it provide evidence of component  alignment with departmental strategic workforce planning guidance.
section_title: Recommendations for Executive Action
paragraphs: To help ensure that DHS strategic workforce planning is effectively  implemented departmentwide, we recommend that the Secretary of  Homeland Security direct the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer to  take the following three actions to provide a basis to monitor and assess  the effectiveness of departmentwide strategic workforce planning:  identify and document additional performance measures, such as  measures to monitor component efforts to develop and implement  action plans to address workforce supply and demand discrepancies,  and use them to assess and report on components’ progress in  implementing DHS’s strategic workforce planning process; document policies and procedures for the Balanced Workforce  Program Management Office and the Human Capital Policy and  Programs Office 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 the plans and provide timely feedback to  enhance components’ implementation of strategic workforce planning  efforts.
section_title: Agency Comments
paragraphs: We requested comments on a draft of this report from DHS. On  November 16, 2012, DHS provided written comments, which are  reprinted in appendix I, and provided technical comments, which we  incorporated as appropriate. DHS concurred with our three  recommendations and described actions planned to address them.  Specifically, DHS stated that—-
The department has taken steps to implement an effective oversight  approach for monitoring and evaluating components’ progress in  implementing strategic workforce planning. These steps include an  effort by BWPMO and HCPP to develop a checklist outlining specific  performance measures to be used in future HROAs to determine  component compliance with workforce planning guidance, among  other things.
BWPMO plans to document oversight policies in the next update of its  workforce planning guidance, and that HCPP will provide audit  findings to BWPMO staff in order to ensure appropriate internal  control processes and component compliance with workforce planning  guidance. The procedures outlined in the planned update to the DHS  Workforce Planning Guide will also be used by BWPMO to monitor  and provide workforce planning oversight of components.
OCHCO will use HROA audit results as a source of component  information as OCHCO conducts reviews of component annual  operational plans. OCHCO will begin this integration of HROA  information and component operational plans with the issuance of  HCPP’s next HROA audit report scheduled for the end of November  2012.
We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Homeland  Security, selected congressional committees, and other interested  parties. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO  website at http://www.gao.gov.
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 II.
section_title: Appendix I: Comments from the Department of Homeland Security
section_title: Appendix II: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments
subsections: section_title: GAO Contact
section_title: Staff Acknowledgments
paragraphs: In addition to the contact named above, Chris Keisling, Assistant Director;  Scott Behen, Analyst-in-Charge; David Garcia; Steve Lozano; and  Katherine Davis made significant contributions to the work. Mary  Denigan-Macauley, Tracey King, and Amanda Miller also contributed to  this work.