Acquisition Workforce: Status of Agency Efforts to Address Future Needs
Published: 2002-12-18T00:00:00

Fast Facts:

Highlights:
section_title: Why GAO Did This Study
paragraphs: The federal government is dramatically changing the way it purchases goods and services--by relying more on judgment and initiative versus rigid rules to make purchasing decisions. At the same time, agencies are dealing with reductions in the civilian acquisition workforce. GAO was asked to determine what efforts federal civilian agencies are making to address their future acquisition workforce needs.
section_title: What GAO Found
paragraphs: GAO looked at the efforts six civilian agencies are undertaking to address their future acquisition workforce needs. Together, these agencies account for about 72 percent of civilian agency contracting dollars. All of these agencies are taking steps to address their future acquisition workforce needs. Three--the Departments of Energy and Veterans Affairs (VA) and the General Services Administration--are developing specific plans to strengthen their acquisition workforces, and three others--the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services and the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA)--are including their acquisition workforces in their overall plans to strengthen human capital. All are implementing new or strengthening existing career development and training programs. NASA and VA are also developing new information management systems. The agencies, however, are facing considerable challenges to making their human capital strategic plans and training programs a success. Principally: most acquisition professionals will need to acquire a new set of skills focusing on business management. Because of a more sophisticated acquisition environment, they can no longer be merely purchasers or process managers. Instead, they will also need to be adept at analyzing business problems and assisting with developing strategies in the early stages of the acquisition. Beyond this immediate transformation, it is difficult for agencies to forecast what will be needed in terms of numbers of workers, skills, and expertise in the years to come. Rules, regulations, and agency missions are always changing, and budgets are constantly shifting. Many agencies simply lack good data on their workforces, including information on workforce size and location, knowledge and skills, attrition rates, and retirement rates. This data is critical to mapping out the current condition of the workforce and deciding what needs to be done to ensure that the agency has the right mix of skills and talent for the future. In overcoming these challenges, agencies can learn from the Department of Defense (DOD), which has made progress in acquisition workforce strategic planning and has addressed some of the same issues. DOD officials learned that the strategic planning effort was going to take a long time and that effective leadership and guidance, along with technology and sound methodology, were required to accurately forecast workforce needs.

section_title: Letter
paragraphs: The federal government is dramatically changing the manner in which it purchases goods and services. It is also striving to maximize the value of the $200 billion it spends annually by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the commercial marketplace. As a result, rigid procurement rules have given way to rules that allow the use of more judgment and initiative on the part of the individuals who make up the acquisition workforce. At the same time, some agencies are contending with the fact that the acquisition workforce has decreased by 22 percent in the last decade.
Industry and government experts alike recognize that a key to making a successful transformation toward a more sophisticated acquisition environment is having the right people with the right skills. Leading public organizations here in the United States and abroad have found that strategic human capital management must be the centerpiece of any serious change management initiative and efforts to transform the cultures of government agencies. Workforce planning provides managers with a strategic basis for making human resource decisions and allows organizations to address systematically the issues that are driving workforce change.
You requested that we (1) determine the efforts civilian federal agencies are making to address their future acquisition workforce needs and identify the challenges, if any, they have encountered and (2) identify any “lessons learned” from the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to develop strategic plans for its acquisition workforce. We included the following six civilian agencies in our review: the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Treasury, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We did not assess the effectiveness of the agencies’ efforts.
subsections: section_title: Background
paragraphs: The federal government is facing several significant challenges when it comes to its acquisition workforce: the number of workers is declining, while the workload and the demand for more sophisticated technical, financial, and management skills are increasing. DOD’s contracting workload, for example, has increased by about 12 percent in recent years, but the workforce available to perform that workload has been reduced by about half over the same period. Meanwhile, the federal government is implementing various ways of contracting, such as performance-based contracting methods, commercial-based pricing approaches, and the use of purchase cards.
High-performing public organizations have found that strategic planning and management can address human capital shortfalls. Strategic human capital planning begins with establishing a clear set of organizational intents, including a clearly defined mission, core values, goals and objectives, and strategies, and then integrating a human capital approach to support these strategic and programmatic goals. It requires systematic assessments of current and future human capital needs and strategies— which encompass a broad array of initiatives to attract, retain, develop, and motivate a top quality workforce—to fill the gaps. To ensure lasting success, the top leaders of an organization need a sustained commitment to embracing human capital management. They need to see people as vital assets to organizational success and must invest in this valuable asset.
While many organizations have developed models for workforce planning,putting aside variations in terminology, the models share the following common elements. They identify organizational objectives; identify the workforce competencies needed to achieve the objectives; analyze the present workforce to determine its competencies; compare present workforce competencies to those needed in the future (sometimes referred to as a “gap analysis”);  develop plans to transition from the present workforce to the future  periodically evaluate the workforce plans, review the mission and objectives to assure they remain valid, and make adjustments as required by changes in mission, objectives, and workforce competencies.
This process is simple in concept, but it can be difficult to carry out. First, it requires a shift in the human resource function from a support role to a role that is integral to accomplishing an agency’s mission. Second, it requires developing accurate information on the numbers and locations of employees and their competencies and skills, data on the profile of the workforce, and performance goals and measures for human capital approaches. We have previously reported that agencies may find that they lack some of the basic tools and information to develop strategic plans, such as accurate and complete information on workforce characteristics and strategic planning expertise.
Four organizations—the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the Procurement Executives Council (PEC), and the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI)— have roles to play in dealing with workforce and acquisition workforce issues. Highlights of these different roles are presented in table 1.
section_title: Status of Civilian Agencies’ Efforts to Develop Strategic Plans for Their Acquisition Workforces
paragraphs: All six agencies that we reviewed have published or drafted human capital strategic plans for their overall workforces and are taking actions specifically targeted at strengthening their acquisition workforces. Three agencies are developing specific acquisition workforce plans. Agencies are in varying stages of these efforts. The agencies are facing challenges in completing workforce plans—in particular, they are finding it difficult to predict and respond to future needs given the rapid pace of change occurring within acquisition and the lack of reliable data on workforce characteristics. Agencies are also hampered by difficulty in sharing information about best practices and lessons learned in addressing acquisition workforce issues.
subsections: section_title: Progress Made
paragraphs: In developing strategic plans for their overall workforces, all six of the agencies we reviewed have identified their organizational objectives. Three of these, DOE, HHS, and Treasury, have gone as far as conducting a gap analysis, which involves comparing present workforce competencies to those that will be needed in the future. Some agencies are developing these plans at an agencywide level, while others are developing them at a bureau or operating division level.
Four agencies included in our review—VA, GSA, DOE, and NASA—believe that the acquisition function is central to accomplishing their missions. There are clear reasons for this. About 90 percent of NASA’s funds, for example, is spent on contracts for projects such as the international space station and the space shuttle. DOE contracts out about 94 percent of its budget. VA purchases goods and services, such as medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and information technology. And GSA’s primary function is to assist federal agencies in procuring goods and services.
Recognizing the importance of acquisition to their missions, VA, GSA, and DOE are all developing or have developed strategic plans specifically targeted at strengthening their acquisition workforce. NASA is developing an overall workforce plan that will include the acquisition workforce. VA and GSA have defined the objectives for their future acquisition workforces. GSA has also established the competencies that workforce will need and has begun its gap analysis. DOE has studied its acquisition workforce, identified competencies and gaps, and is now implementing actions it believes are needed to strengthen the acquisition workforce. NASA is in the process of identifying the competencies its workforce possesses. All four of these agencies have also developed training and career development programs that are aimed at ensuring their acquisition workforces have the skills to accomplish the agencies’ missions.
Treasury and HHS view acquisition as critical to mission success. However, unlike GSA, for example, acquisition is not a primary function of these agencies. Each agency spends less than 25 percent of its budget on acquisitions. Nevertheless, Treasury and HHS have undertaken initiatives such as training, career development, and intern programs to ensure that their acquisition workforces have the necessary skills and training to accomplish their missions.
Tables 2 and 3 highlight progress being made by the agencies we studied. Detailed information on each agency’s efforts is provided at the end of this section.
section_title: Challenges Facing Agencies
paragraphs: Major challenges facing the agencies we reviewed were difficulty in forecasting their missions in the future because of shifting priorities and budgets and difficulty in predicting the characteristics that the future workforce will need. Also, acquisition rules and regulations are changing, making it difficult for agencies to predict what will be required of their acquisition workforce in years to come. Officials at DOE said that given the dynamic nature of the agency’s mission focus and budget direction, forecasting the future represented a formidable challenge. Officials at HHS also noted that improving the focus on the agency’s mission and the skills sets needed to accomplish the mission was their biggest challenge. Officials at VA told us that they are still trying to determine how the department would be conducting its acquisitions in the future, and therefore they could not yet predict the kind of acquisition workforce VA would need.
Compounding the uncertainty of the future environment is the changing role of the acquisition professional from merely a purchaser or process manager to a business manager. Uncertainty is also caused by an increased focus on performance and outcomes, which requires greater integration of functions such as acquisition, financial management, and program management. In order to make this transition, acquisition workers will need to acquire an entirely new set of skills and knowledge, according to the agency officials with whom we spoke. For example, in addition to having a firm understanding of contracting rules and processes, acquisition workers will need to be adept at consulting and communicating with line managers, and they will need to be able to analyze business problems, identify different alternatives in purchasing goods or services, and assist in developing strategies in the early stages of the acquisition. Finally, a deeper understanding of market conditions, industry trends, and the technical details of the commodities and services being procured will be required.
Another challenge for agencies is the lack of data on the characteristics of the current workforce (e.g., size of workforce; deployment across the organization; knowledge, skills and abilities; attrition rates; retirement rates; etc.). NASA and VA are developing their own management information systems to capture this data. In addition, the FAI is developing a management information system, called the Acquisition Career Management Information System, to help agencies and departments collect and maintain standardized data on their acquisition workforces. The director of the FAI stated that the system is expected to be operational by January 2003.
An additional challenge cited by some agency procurement officials is the lack of a means to share information among agencies about best practices or lessons learned in dealing with acquisition workforce issues. One potential mechanism for providing such leadership is the PEC, which was created to provide a senior-level forum for monitoring and improving the federal acquisition system. The OFPP Administrator currently serves as the chair of the council.
The council established an Acquisition Workforce Committee in 1999 to focus on the changing role of the acquisition workforce and to identify methods and strategies to equip this workforce with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully meet the challenges of change. According to the committee chair, the council has only recently recognized that it needs to take a leadership role in coordinating agencies’ efforts to strengthen the acquisition workforce. However, assuming this leadership role will present its own challenges. For example, the PEC has yet to reach a consensus on how best to fulfill this role, in part because of the difficulty in finding common ground among several federal agencies with different agendas and missions. In addition, agencies currently lack formal mechanisms for sharing information about best practices or lessons learned on dealing with acquisition workforce issues.
The Acquisition Workforce Committee had chartered working groups to research acquisition workforce needs, establish a governmentwide Acquisition Management Intern Program, develop retention strategies and incentives, and determine the ideal skills and characteristics of the future acquisition professional. According to the chair of the committee, although some of these initiatives, such as the intern program, have been successful, the effort to develop a broader governmentwide approach to building and implementing a model for the future acquisition workforce has been slow because the PEC has been realigning itself and redefining its strategic initiatives to support the President’s Management Agenda and to respond to issues related to homeland security.
The following information provides details of the civilian agencies’ efforts to address acquisition workforce issues. The check marks in the Status section indicate each agency’s progress in developing strategic plans for its overall workforce and for its acquisition workforce, if applicable.
General Services Administration Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce As the government’s primary procurement arm, GSA’s role is to assist agencies in procuring supplies and services, office space, equipment, telecommunications, and information technology.  The GSA acquisition workforce comprises about 2,950 personnel out of a total of about 14,000.
GSA considers its primary acquisition workforce to include contract specialists (GS 1102), procurement clerks (GS 1106), purchasing specialists (GS 1105), property disposal agents (GS 1104), contracting officers, and contracting officer representatives /contracting officer technical representatives.  In the near future, GSA will expand this definition to include program managers. Condition of Acquisition Workforce GSA sees its acquisition workforce as integral to accomplishing its mission.  To keep up the trend toward purchasing highly complex and technical goods and services, GSA will need its acquisition workforce to build knowledge on market conditions, industry trends, and the technical details of the commodities and services being acquired.  GSA also envisions broadening the knowledge base of acquisition professional beyond the procurement field into areas such as budget, finance, and program management.  A little over 26 percent of the acquisition workforce will be eligible to retire by 2007. Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed Efforts GSA has established the Office of Acquisition Workforce Transformation to foster the development of the acquisition workforce. Among other things, the office is responsible for developing a succession plan, developing and implementing recruitment programs, and developing and managing education/training standards and data. GSA has identified acquisition as one of its mission-critical occupations, and has established the competencies needed by the acquisition workforce.  However, GSA currently does not know whether its acquisition workforce has the requisite competencies. Therefore, it has established the Applied Learning Center to measure whether the acquisition workforce has the competencies to carry out its duties successfully. The pilot project will begin in 2003 and will be completed that calendar year.  The results of the pilot will provide an indication of the skills gaps in GSA’s acquisition workforce.  As a part of its ongoing strategy to address the skills gaps identified, GSA has also established an Education and Training Center to provide the needed training. Challenges GSA currently tracks its acquisition workforce data manually and maintains it in a database.  GSA will migrate this data to the Acquisition Career Management Information System when it comes on line in the January 2003 timeframe.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce Out of a total of about 18,000 employees, approximately 680 comprise NASA’s acquisition workforce.  NASA contracts out about 90 percent of its budget; it spent about $12.7 billion in fiscal year 2001.  The acquisition function is essential because NASA is a research and development (R&D) agency, and the ability to achieve its mission is dependent on the acquisition function of awarding R&D contracts.  NASA’s missions are: to advance and communicate scientific knowledge and understanding of the Earth, the solar system and the universe; to advance human exploration, use, and development of space; and to research, develop, verify, and transfer advanced aeronautics and space technologies.
NASA includes contract specialists (GS 1102), purchasing specialists (GS 1105), contracting officers, and procurement clerks in its acquisition workforce. Condition of Acquisition Workforce Since 1993, the acquisition workforce has been reduced more than 30 percent, from about 1,000 in fiscal year 1993 to about 680 in fiscal year 2002.  By the end of 2007, another 27 percent of the remaining acquisition workforce will be eligible for retirement. However, NASA does not perceive a crisis in its acquisition workforce because of current hiring and an emphasis on an intern program that is expected to continue to bring in new acquisition employees.
Also, NASA does not anticipate a big shift in the role of its acquisition workforce because the goods and services it purchases are not likely to change. Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans □ Identified competencies present □ Gap analysis □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust □ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce □ Defined vision/objectives □ Identified competencies needed □ Identified competencies present □ Gap analysis □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust Efforts Currently, each of the NASA Enterprises and Centers is responsible for identifying the workforce size and skills that it needs to accomplish its mission, but NASA recognizes that it has limited capability for personnel tracking and planning.  To address this issue, it is developing an agencywide workforce planning system that will allow better management of the existing workforce and enable better strategic decisions about future workforce needs.  The system will track the distribution of workforce across programs, personnel critical skills, and personnel management experience, and will permit NASA to identify gaps between skills required and skills available.  NASA officials responsible for developing the system said that it could be used to determine and predict gaps in the acquisition workforce.  NASA hopes to have the system implemented agencywide by September 2003.
NASA’s Office of Procurement has three initiatives to address entry-level, mid-level and senior-level staff development needs: NASA’s Contracting Intern Program ensures a pipeline of well-trained, college-educated candidates to offset demographic trends; NASA’s Career Development and Procurement Certification Programs ensure that acquisition professionals receive training that meets or exceeds statutory requirements; and NASA’s Rotational Assignments with Industry provide senior acquisition professionals with corporate experience and the tools needed to assume acquisition management and other leadership positions.
Department of Energy Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce DOE has about 14,100 federal employees, with a contracting workforce of 464.  The contracting workforce includes contracting officers and contract specialists (GS 1102), purchasing specialists (GS 1105), and other series with significant acquisition responsibilities assigned to DOE procurement offices.  DOE contracts out about 94 percent of its budget, using a widespread network of contractors.  In fiscal year 2001, DOE spent approximately $18.6 billion on contracts.  The department manages an extensive array of energy programs over a nationwide complex that includes headquarters organizations, operations offices, field offices, national laboratories, power marketing administrations, special purpose offices, and sites now dedicated to environmental cleanup.  With over 100,000 contractor employees who manage approximately 50 major installations across the county, acquisition is critical to accomplishing the department’s mission.
In addition to the series listed above, the DOE acquisition workforce includes procurement clerks (GS 1106), project/program managers, property managers, financial assistance specialists, and contracting officer representatives. Condition of Acquisition Workforce In fiscal year 1995, DOE began a 5-year period of downsizing.  During this period, it essentially stopped hiring.  As a result, the average age of the DOE workforce increased.  In 1998, the DOE procurement executive conducted a demographic study of the acquisition workforce because of concerns that 4 years of downsizing had created potential short- and long-term problems regarding the ability of the workforce to meet future needs.  The study found that DOE was likely to lose its acquisition leadership because of retirements and therefore needed to develop leadership skills in the remaining workforce.  In addition, DOE’s assessment of the acquisition environment identified education and developmental needs in project/program management, property management, financial assistance, and contractor human resource management.  A survey conducted in 2001 showed that the department would continue to face the same issues as revealed by the 1998 study.
In response to the 1998 study, DOE initiated its Acquisition Career Development Program to address the gaps identified.  The program is designed to ensure that the department will have sufficient numbers of personnel with adequate education and training to perform the acquisition mission. Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed ✔ Identified competencies present ✔ Gap analysis ✔ Transition plans Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce ✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed ✔ Identified competencies present ✔ Gap analysis ✔ Transition plans Efforts The elements of the Acquisition Career Development Program include an intern program, a training and certification program, and a program to develop future leaders of the acquisition workforce by providing educational and experiential opportunities.  This program includes course work in acquisition-related areas, rotational assignments with industry, attendance at a leadership institute, and a developmental assignment as Acting Director at Headquarters. Challenges Some of the challenges cited by DOE officials included the difficulty of forecasting the mission of the agency in an environment of shifting budgets and priorities, the lack of lower-level (i.e., below office director level) management support for workforce planning efforts, and the lack of funding and resources to implement developmental programs.
Department of Veterans Affairs Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce The VA sees its acquisition workforce as integral part to accomplishing its mission.  The acquisition workforce of 6,000 represents about 2.5 percent of the total workforce of 240,000.  The acquisition workforce’s primary role is to purchase pharmaceuticals, medical-surgical supplies, prosthetic devices, information technology, construction, and services for America’s veterans and their families.  VA spent about $5.9 billion on contracts in fiscal year 2001, which represented about 12 percent of its budget.
The acquisition workforce includes contract specialists (GS 1102), purchasing specialists (GS 1105), contracting officers, contracting officer representatives, contracting officer technical representatives, and other acquisition-related positions such as program managers and procurement clerks.
Condition of Acquisition Workforce The Secretary of Veterans Affairs established a Procurement Reform Task Force in June 2001 to review VA's acquisition system and develop specific recommendations for optimizing the system.  The task force found that the acquisition workforce is in a vulnerable position because the nature of its work is changing rapidly, requiring broader competencies and more complex skill sets.  In addition, it found an increased need for employees with higher educational levels, general management proficiency, and the ability to leverage information technology. The task force also recognized that a critically high number of VA’s acquisition employees are eligible for retirement.
Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce ✔ Defined vision/objectives Efforts The procurement reform task force proposed a workforce development strategy consisting of several initiatives that would ensure a sufficient and talented acquisition workforce.  However, the task force report noted that the implementing a strategic plan for the acquisition workforce would bind these initiatives together and ensure that the workforce is managed as a single entity, rather than as a loose collection of related occupations.
VA is in the early stages of developing a strategic workforce plan for its acquisition workforce and is in the process of implementing some of the task force’s recommendations.  For example, it has implemented the Center for Acquisition and Materiel Management Education On-line (CAMEO), a centralized management information system to capture data on the training and education of its acquisition workforce.  This data will help identify the skills and competencies the acquisition workforce has currently.  VA acquisition personnel began populating the CAMEO database in January 2002.
In addition to serving as a database, CAMEO provides on-line training.  VA’s first on-line training course became available to its acquisition workforce in December 2001.  VA develops and provides training programs and courses following the curriculum established by the FAI.  VA also conducts continuing education sessions tailored to the nonmanagerial and managerial members of the acquisition workforce. Challenges While the task force report articulated a broad vision for the acquisition workforce, VA is trying to identify the specific skills and competencies the acquisition workforce currently has and what will be needed in the future.  VA does not have a centralized database with complete and accurate data that will enable it to identify the skills and competencies for its current workforce.  Because the VA is in the process of changing its acquisition practices and processes, it cannot yet predict precisely what kind of workforce will be needed.
Department of Treasury Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce Treasury’s acquisition workforce provides a support function for the department’s 15 bureaus.  The Treasury acquisition workforce of 640 represents less than 1 percent of the total workforce of 134,577.  The total of 134,577 does not include seasonal workers. Treasury does not plan to develop an acquisition workforce plan since it does not identify the acquisition workforce as a challenge in accomplishing its mission.
Treasury’s acquisition workforce includes contract specialists (GS 1102), purchasing agents (GS 1105), and procurement clerks (GS 1106). Condition of Acquisition Workforce Historical data indicate that Treasury GS 1102s have a low attrition rate of 13 percent, which is balanced by a one-for-one new hire ratio of 12.9 percent.  About 22 percent of the GS 1102s will be eligible to retire in 2004, with the percentage rising to 44 in 2009. However, an October 2001 Workforce Planning Report by the Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources cites OPM data that indicate most federal employees wait 3 years past their eligibility date to actually retire.  In light of the above data, the department has not identified the acquisition workforce as a management challenge.  However, Treasury has recognized that the role of the acquisition workforce is evolving from simply purchasing to that of business advisor as the government procurement environment changes. Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed ✔ Identified competencies present ✔ Gap analysis Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust □ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce □ Defined vision/objectives □ Identified competencies needed □ Identified competencies present □ Gap analysis □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust Efforts Treasury is implementing initiatives to ensure that the acquisition workforce does have the skills and competencies needed currently and in the future.  For example, the agency has established the Treasury Acquisition Institute, which offers a curriculum to meet the needs of its acquisition workforce.  Besides procurement, the institute offers courses in interpersonal communication and computer capabilities, as well as courses in project management, competitive sourcing, and leadership.  The institute and the office of the Treasury Procurement Executive also conduct nontraditional training such as procurement conferences and other procurement training as needed.
Treasury has established a Treasury Procurement Intern Program to recruit hire and train new contract specialists, an Acquisition/Business Career Management Program and a Fulfillment Program.
Treasury officials stated that the department is actively participating with the FAI to develop and establish a standard set of skills and competencies that may be used governmentwide. FAI planned to implement the set of skills and competencies by late 2002. Challenges Treasury officials noted that the lack of a standardized, governmentwide set of skills and competencies for the future acquisition workforce made it difficult to assess the current workforce.
Department of Health and Human Services Size and Role of Acquisition Workforce The acquisition workforce is considered a mission support activity that provides assistance to the 11 operating divisions to accomplish their mission of protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, particularly for those least able to help themselves.  The HHS acquisition workforce of 963 makes up 1.5 percent of the total HHS workforce of 64,836.  In fiscal year 2001, the agency spent about $6.2 billion on federal contracts, which represented about 1 percent of its total budget.
The acquisition workforce includes contracting officers (GS 1102), purchasing agents (GS 1105), and procurement technicians. Condition of Acquisition Workforce About 15 percent of the acquisition workforce is currently eligible to retire.  However, according to HHS officials, this percentage is not out of line with the HHS workforce as a whole. In addition, neither retirements nor overall attrition among this workforce has shown itself to be a problem in recent years.  Consequently, HHS does not view the acquisition workforce as a management challenge.
In terms of the future acquisition workforce, HHS, like other agencies, envisions its acquisition workforce evolving into business managers. Status of Overall Workforce Strategic Plans ✔ Agency has published/drafted human capital strategic plan ✔ Defined vision/objectives ✔ Identified competencies needed ✔ Identified competencies present ✔ Gap analysis Status of Acquisition Workforce Strategic Plans □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust □ Separate human capital strategic plan for acquisition workforce □ Defined vision/objectives □ Identified competencies needed □ Identified competencies present □ Gap analysis □ Transition plans □ Evaluate/adjust Efforts HHS and its operating divisions have developed human capital plans for ensuring that the overall workforce has the skills needed to manage their programs.  HHS has implemented initiatives such as the HHS Emerging Leaders program and a training program for its acquisition workforce.  The department has also participated in the governmentwide Acquisition Management Intern Program.  These initiatives are aimed at ensuring that the acquisition workforce will have the skills and competencies to accomplish the agency’s mission and evolve into the business managers/advisors that will be needed in the future. Challenges HHS officials said they faced the following challenges in trying to address their future acquisition workforce needs:  the lack of standardized equivalencies for acquisition training courses taken at other government agencies to help determine skill levels and competencies, a lack of data to identify/characterize the workforce, and a need to improve focus on the agency mission and develop competencies for effective acquisitions to support that mission.
DOD has been working for several years to strengthen its civilian acquisition workforce. The acquisition workforce comprises a large proportion of the overall workforce, and DOD views the acquisition workforce as critical to accomplishing its mission. DOD has analyzed its current workforce and made projections for the future. But in doing so, it recognized that implementing a strategic approach to reshaping the workforce involves substantial challenges. The overriding challenge for DOD was the need to overcome cultural resistance to the strategic approach and build a solid foundation for planning, which DOD recognized could take years to accomplish. The civilian agencies we studied may face some of the same challenges as they press forward with their own planning efforts. The specific lessons learned from DOD’s efforts to address its challenges are highlighted in table 4.
section_title: DOD Planning Efforts
paragraphs: During the past decade, DOD has downsized its civilian acquisition workforce by half. It now faces what it considers to be serious imbalances in the skills and experience of its remaining workforce and the potential loss of highly specialized knowledge if many of its acquisition specialists retire. DOD created the Acquisition 2005 Task Force to study this problem and develop a strategy to replenish personnel losses. The task force’s first recommendation was to develop and implement a human capital strategic plan for the civilian acquisition workforce.
In response to this recommendation, DOD components undertook a strategic planning effort in 2001 in tandem with an array of other initiatives aimed at strengthening the acquisition workforce, including personnel demonstration projects and new recruiting and new training initiatives. In its first strategic planning cycle, DOD engaged a consultant to provide training on the workforce planning process, which took about 2 days, and then set out to develop the plans.
According to DOD officials, despite encountering problems during the first cycle, the effort was useful in that the components had begun to think strategically about their workforce. However, the officials recognized that the results were imperfect. For example, none of the initial plans submitted by DOD’s components contained a complete analysis of potential gaps for the civilian acquisition workforce. The components attributed this problem to deficiencies in the first attempt at the planning process. Specifically, due to the time constraints and the timing of the process, the components lacked sufficient planning guidance from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, such as the Defense Planning Guidance and the Quadrennial Defense Review, which had not yet been issued. In addition, inadequate modeling capability made the process less than optimum. Furthermore, the output was hampered somewhat by inconsistent accuracy of personnel data.
DOD still found that the first cycle provided a valuable experience because it highlighted the key planning barriers that needed to be overcome. In addition to a lack of specific guidance, data, and modeling tools, other barriers included ad hoc policy decisions, cultural resistance to workforce planning, limited strategic workforce planning expertise, and the lack of an institutional structure to support strategic workforce planning. DOD also recognized that overcoming these barriers would not be easy because they require DOD to acquire new systems and tools and to make a cultural shift from viewing human capital as a support function to a mission function. As figure 1 illustrates, DOD now estimates that it will take as long as 5 years to mature the human capital strategic planning process.
Several specific lessons learned from DOD’s experience are highlighted below.
section_title: Leadership
paragraphs: An overriding lesson learned from DOD has been that making the cultural shift from viewing human capital as a support function to a mission function requires strong and sustained leadership involvement. GAO’s guidance on human capital strategic planning also emphasizes the shift in the role of the human capital function from a support function to one that is integral to achieving the agency’s mission. In addition, leadership is needed to foster an agency’s vision, align organizational components, and build commitment to the vision at all levels of the organization.
For DOD, leadership involvement from leaders at lower levels of the organization was particularly critical since it became apparent in the first cycle of planning that attempting to develop a workforce plan at an agencywide level for a disparate organization such as DOD was almost impossible. This is because the various business units within an agency have very different missions, workforce characteristics, and needs. At the same time, DOD recognized that additional authority needed to be provided to managers within business units for making any needed changes as they developed their plans. For example, these managers might not have had additional hiring authority to address the gaps they identified. DOD officials noted that providing such authority may require policy, regulatory, or statutory changes.
Another leadership challenge facing DOD was that some DOD components lacked buy-in on the importance of acquisition workforce planning. A consultant hired to assist DOD’s acquisition workforce planning efforts said that one reason managers view workforce planning skeptically is because the results of such efforts are difficult to measure, and the costs can be significant. DOD officials acknowledged, however, that although the costs may be significant, the costs of making decisions without the necessary information would be equally significant and could lead to worse problems. Our guidance reflects this view as well.
Another deficiency identified by DOD in its first planning effort was the lack of guidance that identified what DOD’s goals were for human capital and how planning efforts should be carried out. Without a clearly articulated statement of intent, DOD components lacked a strong rationale for developing a view of what the future workforce should look like. Moreover, without guidance on how the planning should be done, components took differing approaches to their analyses.
section_title: Planning Tools
paragraphs: In assessing the results of its first planning cycle, DOD found that it lacked essential strategic planning tools, including systems that could accumulate and report all data needed for its forecasting efforts, models for projections, and planning guidance. Our own guidance recognizes such tools as essential to successful strategic planning. For example, our guidance points out that valid and reliable data are critical not only to assess an agency’s workforce requirements, but also to heighten an agency’s ability to manage risk by allowing managers to spotlight areas for attention before crises develop and identify opportunities for enhancing agency results.
Another factor complicating the components’ workforce planning efforts was the difficulty in obtaining data needed to develop plans. Officials at one DOD component, for example, told us that they had to use three different data systems in an attempt to identify the characteristics of the current workforce, and even then they were not sure that the data was accurate. One system was used to obtain data on such things as pay grade, job series, and location; another system was used to extract retirement data; and a “home-grown” attrition model was used to project how many people would leave, die, and retire based on historical trends. A consultant in the first planning effort also told us that most of the models used to make projections were rudimentary, at best, and that forecasting data important to making projections was incomplete, missing, and/or inaccurate.
section_title: DOD Has Taken Steps to Address Challenges
paragraphs: DOD is working to overcome the problems experienced during the first planning cycle. It held working group meetings with the components to gather lessons learned and develop recommendations to improve the quality of the data for the second planning cycle, which began in January 2002. For the second cycle, DOD issued guidance that was expected to help components identify future workforce requirements. DOD officials expect that each cycle will improve as the planners gain experience.
GAO-02-373SP. year), because the components see the value of strategic planning for the acquisition workforce.
DOD is now implementing a workforce data management strategy to improve the collection and storage of personnel data. The intent is to identify new data requirements and information needs for strategic planning. In addition, DOD is working to develop more sophisticated modeling tools. As part of the second strategic planning cycle, DOD hosted a workshop for its components to discuss tools that would support the workforce planning effort. These tools included a workforce model that provides a current view of the workforce, an aging projection model that predicts what the current acquisition workforce inventory would look like within a certain period of time, and a future requirements determination model that ties workload to resource allocation and projects how changes in workload will affect resource use in the future. DOD officials expect that these tools will improve the results of the second planning cycle and also expect the tools themselves to improve in the future.
section_title: Conclusions
paragraphs: Procurement reforms, technological changes, and downsizing have placed unprecedented demands on the acquisition workforce. Acquisition workers are now expected to have a much greater knowledge of market conditions, industry trends, and the technical details of the commodities and services they procure. For this reason, any agency that relies heavily on acquisition to accomplish its mission stands to benefit greatly by developing strategic human capital plans that define the capabilities that will be needed by the workforce in the future, as well as strategies that can help the workforce meet these capabilities.
While the civilian agencies we reviewed are generally in the early stages of this process, DOD’s experience highlights the need to provide the right foundation for planning. This includes obtaining appropriate data collection and modeling tools, planning expertise, and management buy-in. More important, DOD’s experience has shown that strategic workforce planning is not an easy task and can take several years to accomplish. This makes it especially important for agencies to sustain strong leadership and support for the planning effort and to be able to learn from each other’s experiences, with assistance from procurement executives and organizations such as the OFPP.
section_title: Recommendation
paragraphs: In order to leverage the experiences of federal agencies’ efforts, including those of DOD, to address future acquisition workforce needs, we recommend that the OFPP Administrator work with procurement executives to ensure that the lessons learned from these efforts are shared with all federal agencies as they continue with their initiatives to improve the acquisition workforce.
section_title: Agency Comments and Our Evaluation
paragraphs: DOD, NASA, HHS, and DOE provided written comments on a draft of this report. OFPP and Treasury provided comments via e-mail. VA and GSA chose not to provide comments. All the agencies generally agreed with our findings and recommendation. However, OFPP noted that the role of the PEC is likely to change in the future and therefore suggested our recommendation direct the Administrator of the OFPP to work with procurement executives, rather than with the PEC. We have made this change.
DOD and NASA concurred with our findings and had no further comment. Their comments appear in appendix I and appendix II, respectively.
HHS concurred with our findings, but provided technical comments, including clarifying that it views acquisition as critical to mission success, although acquisition is not a primary function of the agency. We incorporated these technical comments as appropriate. HHS’s formal comments appear in appendix III.
Treasury provided technical comments, including one focused on distinguishing between permanent and seasonal workers in its workforce. We incorporated the comments as appropriate.
DOE provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate, and it expressed four concerns. First, DOE made the distinction between its acquisition workforce and its contracting workforce. We added language to reflect this distinction. Second, DOE noted that our report does not appear to recognize its ongoing efforts to evaluate and adjust its overall workforce and acquisition workforce strategic plans, nor does our report note that DOE continually evaluates the effectiveness of its programs. We asked DOE to provide more information on the evaluation process, and a DOE official stated that while evaluation does occur, there is no formal process for doing so, nor is there any documentation of such evaluation. Third, DOE asked us to provide more detail about its formal succession plan program. We believe our report already captures this information, but in a summarized manner. The information on pages 10 to 15 is meant to display the highlights of agencies’ efforts to address acquisition workforce issues. Finally, DOE believed that the lack of management support did not pose a challenge to its efforts to improve the acquisition workforce, but that a lack of resources to implement developmental programs has been a challenge. While we agree that DOE’s top management has been supportive of workforce planning, our allusion to the lack of management support for workforce planning efforts refers to a lack of support at lower levels of management. We have modified the report to explain this issue and to address the lack of resources. DOE’s comments appear in appendix IV.
section_title: Scope and Methodology
paragraphs: To determine civilian agencies’ efforts to address their future workforce needs, we interviewed the procurement executives and other acquisition officials at GSA, NASA, DOE, VA, HHS, and Department of Treasury, and we reviewed documents that they provided. These six agencies accounted for about 72 percent of the federal dollars contracted by civilian (non- DOD) agencies in fiscal year 2001. We did not assess the effectiveness of the agencies’ efforts or validate the data they provided. In addition, we contacted officials at OPM and OFPP to determine what guidance may have been provided to assist agencies with their acquisition workforce planning efforts. We also interviewed officials with the PEC to obtain their views on future acquisition workforce issues.
To identify the lessons learned from DOD’s efforts to develop strategic plans for its acquisition workforce, we reviewed DOD’s report on the implementation of the Task Force 2005 recommendations. We interviewed officials from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; acquisition management officials for the military services; and other officials representing DCAA, DCMA, and DLA. In addition, we obtained relevant documents and interviewed DOD and contractor officials involved in DOD’s strategic planning efforts.
We conducted our review between December 2001 and October 2002 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30 days from the date of this letter.  At that time, we will send copies to other interested congressional committees; the secretaries of Defense, Army, Air Force, Navy, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Veteran’s Affairs; and the administrators of the General Services Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. We will also make copies available to others upon request. In addition, the report will available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.
Please contact me at (202) 512-4125, or Hilary Sullivan at (214) 777-5652, if you have any questions regarding this report. Major contributors to this report were Vijay Barnabas, Cristina Chaplain, William Doherty, Enemencio Sanchez, Sylvia Schatz, and Edward Stephenson.
section_title: Appendix I: Comments from the Department of Defense
section_title: Appendix II: Comments from NASA
section_title: Appendix III: Comments from the Department of Health and Human Services
section_title: Appendix IV: Comments from the Department of Energy