National Weather Service: Actions Have Been Taken to Fill Increasing Vacancies, but Opportunities Exist to Improve and Evaluate Hiring
Released: 2017-05-24T00:00:00

Letter

Background

NWS is the nation’s official and authoritative source for watches and warnings during severe weather and is responsible for providing weather and climate data and issuing forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy. Through its operational units nationwide, NWS issues many types of forecasts and warnings including weather, river, flood, and aviation. It issues approximately 1.5 million forecasts and 50,000 warnings annually. NWS also supports the national infrastructure that collects and processes worldwide weather data and climate observations from the air, land, and sea. This infrastructure includes technologies such as Doppler weather radar; satellites operated by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; marine data buoys; surface observing systems; and instruments for monitoring space weather. Across this infrastructure, NWS collects billions of weather and climate observations annually, which are fed into its supercomputer forecasting models. In fiscal year 2016, NWS had 4,218 employees, of whom 3,629 were in operational units, and NOAA’s budget for NWS was approximately $1.1 billion, according to NWS documentation.

NWS headquarters, led by the Director of NWS, is responsible for overall agency management, including overseeing operations and conducting budgetary formulation, analysis, and reporting. NWS’s Chief Operating Officer, based out of NWS’s headquarters, oversees six regional offices— referred to as regional headquarters—and the director’s office of the National Centers. NWS’s regional headquarters and the director’s office of the National Centers, in turn, oversee various local operational units. Together, these units constitute six categories of operational units, with a total of 168 individual operational units as follows.

Regional headquarters. Six regional headquarters are led by regional directors who provide administrative and operational support, including managing the regions’ budgets and hiring efforts, to the following offices and centers:

Weather forecast offices. One hundred and twenty-two offices operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to monitor local weather and issue local forecasts and warnings.

Weather service offices. Fifteen offices, mostly located in Alaska, operate on various schedules to collect weather observations that assist with the development of local, national, and global forecasts and warnings.

River forecast centers. Thirteen centers operate 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, to monitor major river systems and aquifers to produce river and flood forecasts and coordinate warnings with local weather forecast offices. These centers increase their service hours as needed when flooding is predicted or is occurring.

Tsunami warning centers. Two centers generally operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to monitor seismic and sea level activity and issue tsunami forecasts and warnings for the United States and its territories.

National Centers and the director’s office. The director’s office of the National Centers oversees nine National Centers and provides them administrative and operational support, including managing their hiring efforts. The National Centers generate products and services to support other NWS operational units, as well as private sector partners, other governmental agencies, and the public. Most centers operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and some issue forecasts and warnings related to a particular area of focus (e.g., the National Hurricane Center issues forecasts and warnings for hurricanes and other tropical weather). The nine centers are the: (1) Aviation Weather Center, (2) Climate Prediction Center, (3) Environmental Modeling Center, (4) National Centers for Environmental Prediction Central Operations, (5) National Hurricane Center, (6) Ocean Prediction Center, (7) Space Weather Prediction Center, (8) Storm Prediction Center, and (9) Weather Prediction Center.

Figure 1 shows the location of NWS’s six regions and 168 operational units. (App. II provides information on NWS’s 168 operational units by operational unit category and location.)

The structure of NWS’s operational units is principally based on NWS’s efforts to modernize the agency during the 1990s. During the modernization effort, NWS established a standardized staffing model in its operational units to provide more uniform services. The staffing structure across NWS operational units is generally based on “fair weather” forecasting needs, meaning that additional staff and overtime may be called for to help with issuing weather forecasts and warnings during severe weather and emergency events. See figure 2 for examples of forecasting workstations at NWS operational units.

As noted above, NWS receives support for certain administrative functions from NOAA’s WFMO, including workforce planning; hiring; and processing personnel actions such as promotions. WFMO also works with NOAA’s Office of Security—which is staffed and directed by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Security—to ensure security checks and background investigations are conducted as part of the hiring process, as necessary.

Beginning in 2013, a series of events led to a hiring backlog at NWS. Specifically, in response to the 2013 federal budget sequestration, NOAA implemented an agency-wide hiring freeze. Because WFMO generally could not hire or replace departing employees during the freeze, the number of vacancies at NWS increased. According to WFMO officials, when the hiring freeze was lifted in 2014, demand for hiring across NOAA was high. Simultaneously, WFMO had experienced a high level of attrition during the freeze—in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, approximately 50 percent of WFMO staff handling hiring left the agency, according to a WFMO official—and therefore, WFMO could not keep pace with the hiring demand when the freeze was lifted. In fiscal year 2016, attrition at NWS outpaced WFMO’s hiring abilities. Over the course of the fiscal year, 191 staff left NWS, and WFMO hired 157 external candidates, according to WFMO data. Therefore, NWS’s hiring backlog increased. According to NWS documents and officials, NWS had resources to fill vacant operational unit positions, but it was unable to do so because of limited hiring resources at WFMO. According to NOAA budget officials, an administrative spending cap has limited WFMO’s ability to increase its hiring activities to address the hiring demand. In particular, since fiscal year 2005, NOAA has been subject to an administrative spending cap in its annual appropriation that places restrictions on the dollar amount the agency can spend for administrative support, including the amount it can spend on hiring actions.

Additionally, in 2016, WFMO began planning changes to the hiring- related functions it provides to NWS. Specifically, NOAA began transitioning toward using a newly established Commerce-wide Enterprise Services Organization (ESO)—a shared services model—to process actions related to human capital, including hiring requests for NWS and NOAA’s other agencies. A NOAA official said that ESO is intended to improve operational efficiencies by increasing automation levels, streamlining business processes, and improving customer service. When ESO is fully established, WFMO officials said they anticipate that WFMO will provide business advisors to NWS to continue to provide workforce planning assistance, counseling on human capital issues, and other hiring-related assistance.

Available Data Indicate Vacancies across NWS Operational Units Have Increased Since Fiscal Year 2010

Available NWS data show that vacancies at operational units increased from fiscal years 2010 through 2016. Specifically, we determined that across NWS’s 168 operational units, vacancies increased from about 5 percent (211 positions) at the end of fiscal year 2010, to about 11 percent (455 positions) at the end of fiscal year 2016. These vacancy rates are based on data from NWS’s organizational table, a database that tracks information on the number, type, and location of positions across the agency, including whether each position is filled.

However, these vacancy rates do not factor in the agency’s available resources, according to NOAA and NWS officials. The officials explained that from fiscal years 2010 through 2016, NWS did not have resources to support all of the positions included in its organizational table. For example, in fiscal year 2016, an NWS official said that the organizational table contained approximately 185 more positions than the agency had resources to support.

To address this issue, NWS developed additional vacancy data that factored in its available resources. Based on these data, the vacancy rate across operational units was approximately 0.6 percent in fiscal year 2010 and increased to about 7 percent in fiscal year 2016. NWS developed these data by proportionally distributing unfilled positions from the organizational table across the operational units to show the number of positions the agency had resources to fill at an agencywide level. However, while useful in providing an estimate of agencywide vacancies, these data do not reflect how individual NWS operational units have managed their staffing levels and vacancies. Instead of identifying specific positions on its organizational table to leave unfilled to ensure staffing levels did not exceed available agency resources, NWS established a “targeted vacancy rate” practice in 2014. Under this practice, the six NWS regional headquarters directors and the director of the National Centers are to hold approximately 5 percent of the positions on the organizational table vacant across their operational units. NWS headquarters officials said that the regional headquarters directors and the director of the National Centers are responsible for implementing this practice and have discretion to allocate resources according to their needs to achieve the agency’s mission goals. Most directors said that they have not had to manage to the targeted vacancy rate, however, because existing vacancies have kept staffing levels below what NWS resources can support.

For vacancy rates at the operational unit level, we examined data from NWS’s organizational table and determined that vacancies have varied across NWS operational units, by category of operational unit, and by region. For example, at the close of fiscal year 2016, the vacancy rate across operational units was about 11 percent. However, almost half of the units (75 of 168) had a higher vacancy rate, and more than 10 percent (21 of 168) had a vacancy rate higher than 20 percent at the close of fiscal year 2016. Similarly, we found a wide range of vacancy rates by operational unit category (see table 1 for a breakdown of vacancy rates by operational unit category for the last pay period of fiscal years 2014 through 2016). Regional vacancy rates also varied. For example, at the end of fiscal year 2016, the Central Region had the lowest vacancy rate of 8 percent, while the Alaska Region had the highest vacancy rate of 19 percent (see app. III for additional data on vacancy rates by region).

We also determined that across NWS’s 122 weather forecast offices— which comprised approximately 75 percent of NWS’s operational unit staff at the end of fiscal year 2016—vacancies varied by position. For example, at the end of fiscal year 2016, the number of vacant meteorologist positions—including entry-level, general, and lead meteorologists—had increased by 57 percent (from 98 to 154 vacant positions) from fiscal year 2014. Over the same period, the number of vacant management positions—including the meteorologist-in-charge, warning coordination meteorologist, science and operations officer, and electronics systems analyst—decreased by 29 percent (from 42 to 30 vacant positions). For more information on vacancy rates in weather forecast offices by position, see app. IV.

Officials Reported NWS Operational Units Took Steps to Address the Impact of Vacancies but at Times Were Unable to Complete Key Tasks

Officials we interviewed in NWS regional headquarters, the National Centers, and operational units reported taking steps to address the impact of vacancies and help ensure forecasts and warnings were issued but said they were at times unable to complete key tasks and were experiencing stress and fatigue from their efforts to cover for vacancies. For example, operational unit managers reported that they have needed to perform additional tasks, such as working forecasting shifts, and have modified leave schedules to cover forecasting shifts in their units. However, taking these steps, according to managers and staff, at times led to their inability to complete other key tasks, such as providing severe weather information support to state and local emergency managers.

NWS Operational Unit Managers and Staff Reported Taking Steps to Help Ensure Forecasts and Warnings Were Issued in Light of Vacancies

Most NWS officials we interviewed indicated that vacancies in operational units remained unfilled for extended periods, stretching from several months to a few years. For example, one operational unit manager said that over the course of 6 years (2011 to 2016), her unit had 16 vacancies. The vacancies remained unfilled for an average of 11 months, and 2 of the vacancies took over 2 years to fill, according to documentation provided by the manager. Another operational unit manager said that since 2014, 3 of the unit’s positions were vacant between 8 and 20 months.

Operational unit managers and staff across the units we interviewed reported having taken several steps to address the impact of vacancies and to help ensure forecasts and warnings were issued.

Managers and Staff Performed Additional Tasks

Managers and staff in operational units with vacancies often performed additional tasks to help ensure forecasts and warnings were issued, according to officials we interviewed in five NWS regional headquarters, the National Centers, and six of eight operational units. For example, managers we interviewed in five of the eight operational units with vacancies that we visited said that they worked forecasting shifts to cover for vacancies. Typically, in a fully staffed operational unit, managers are expected to spend from 10 to 25 percent of their time working forecasting shifts. In one weather forecast office we visited, however, three managers said they worked forecasting shifts above the expected percentage in 2016. For example, the warning coordination meteorologist estimated working around 70 percent of his time on forecasting shifts for about 6 months to cover for vacancies. Similarly, another operational unit we visited had a vacant administrative assistant position for over a year since February 2016. In this instance, the warning coordination meteorologist and the science and operations officer told us that, in addition to their managerial duties, they shared the administrative assistant’s responsibilities, while also working forecasting shifts to cover for other vacancies in the unit.

Operational unit managers and staff were sometimes temporarily promoted to positions of greater responsibility when those positions were vacant, according to officials we interviewed in five NWS regional headquarters and managers in five operational units. For example, they said that a general meteorologist may be temporarily promoted to a lead meteorologist position, allowing that meteorologist to act as a supervisor to other meteorologists. According to data from NOAA’s WFMO, NWS operational units made 333 temporary promotions in fiscal year 2016. Officials in one NWS regional headquarters said that making temporary promotions generally does not increase the number of staff available to work forecasting shifts, but rather temporarily shifts a vacancy from one position in the unit to another. In addition, managers and staff are limited by regulations to being temporarily promoted for 120 days in a 12-month period, resulting in managers sometimes promoting several different staff to cover for one vacant position over the course of the vacancy, according to officials in another NWS regional headquarters.

Managers and Staff Adjusted Their Work Schedules

Managers and staff in operational units with vacancies adjusted their work schedules to cover for vacancies and help ensure forecasts and warnings were issued, according to officials in all six NWS regional headquarters, the National Centers, and seven of the eight operational units we visited. For example, managers in five operational units said that managers and staff worked overtime to cover forecasting shifts and ensure forecasts and warnings were issued. Typically, NWS uses overtime to increase the number of staff covering forecasting shifts during severe weather. However, when operational units have had vacancies, managers and staff have also worked overtime to cover forecasting shifts during fair weather and additional forecasting shifts during severe weather, according to NWS headquarters officials. Several staff in one operational unit said they frequently worked 15 to 20 consecutive days without a day off to cover for multiple vacancies. In another operational unit, in light of vacancies, three to five employees consistently worked about 100 hours per pay period during fiscal years 2015 and 2016 to ensure forecasts and warnings were issued, according to data provided by the regional director overseeing the unit.

Managers in three operational units we visited said that, because of vacancies, they had reduced the number of staff scheduled for forecasting shifts. For example, a manager in one operational unit with a hydrologist vacancy said he reduced the number of hydrologist shifts during the day from three to two to allow staff to take annual leave during the summer. Another operational unit manager said that because his office was short-staffed, on fair weather days he reduced the number of meteorologists scheduled from two to one, and then scheduled another employee, such as an entry-level meteorologist or a hydrometeorological technician, to ensure that at least two employees were staffed to a forecasting shift. Officials in one NWS regional headquarters said that reducing the number of staff on a forecasting shift during fair weather can be risky because severe weather can occur quickly without sufficient time for the operational unit manager to call in additional staff.

Managers and Staff Modified Their Leave Schedules

Operational unit managers and staff modified their leave schedules to cover for vacancies and ensure staff were available to issue forecasts and warnings, according to officials in four NWS regional headquarters, the National Centers, and seven operational units we visited. For instance, managers in five operational units said they had denied or cancelled their own or others’ planned annual leave because of vacancies in the office. One operational unit manager indicated he cancelled annual leave as a last resort after taking other actions, such as requiring other staff to work overtime, and another manager said she altered her leave plans to allow operational unit staff to take annual leave. Staff in four operational units said that on some occasions they were not able to use annual or sick leave because they worked forecasting shifts to cover for vacancies instead. For example, staff in one operational unit we visited said that no one in the unit was granted annual leave at the end of 2015 to ensure that forecasting shifts would be covered. Staff in two other operational units said that employees were choosing not to take annual or sick leave because they did not want to leave their units short-staffed. Because staff had been unable to use their annual leave, officials in the National Centers and one NWS regional headquarters said some operational unit staff may end up losing some of their annual leave at the end of the year.

Managers Requested Additional Temporary Staff from Other Operational Units

Managers in four of eight operational units we visited said they had requested additional staff from other operational units through temporary duty assignments to ensure that forecasting shifts were staffed. For example, staff from one operational unit we visited said they had at least one meteorologist at the unit on temporary duty, working forecasting shifts for a 7-month period from 2015 to 2016, to cover for vacant meteorologist positions in the office. To obtain assistance, operational unit managers are to make requests to their respective NWS regional headquarters. Officials in all six NWS regional headquarters said that some operational units they oversee have requested additional staff to cover forecasting shifts, but their ability to accommodate those requests has been limited by funding and the availability of staff. One regional headquarters official said that to accommodate requests for additional staff to cover forecasting shifts, the region performed fewer outreach activities because those activities are funded by the same account as temporary duty assignments.

Management and Staff Cited an Inability at Times to Perform Key Tasks, As Well As Increased Stress and Fatigue

Because operational unit managers and staff were doing work to cover for vacancies, they were unable at times to perform other key tasks, according to officials across the NWS units we interviewed. Examples include the following:

Delivering impact-based decision support services. Managers we interviewed in six of eight operational units with vacancies said that because their units were short-staffed, they had been unable to provide some impact-based decision support services to core partners, such as local and state emergency managers. For example, managers in one operational unit said that given the vacancies in their office, they had been unable to provide in-person forecasting support to local emergency managers or to produce common impact-based decision support service products, such as informational webinars that provide more detailed information on the potential impacts of approaching severe weather. NWS officials said that providing this type of information is important for helping their core partners make decisions—such as the timing and locations for potential evacuations in advance of oncoming storms—that may affect their ability to save lives and property.

Obtaining training related to weather forecasting. Managers in six operational units we visited said that with ongoing vacancies in their operational units, staff were not able to complete critical training related to weather forecasting. This was in part, because managers had reduced or eliminated the number of supernumerary shifts afforded to staff—administrative shifts used by staff to, among other things, complete training. For example, staff in one operational unit said that they had gone from approximately 15 supernumerary shifts per year when they were fully staffed to 4 shifts per year, because of vacancies. According to staff in four operational units we visited, they were able to complete some, but not all, of their training during forecasting shifts on days with fair weather. Staff in an operational unit that has severe tropical weather said they had been unable to complete tropical weather training in advance of the upcoming hurricane season. Staff said that tropical weather training, though not required, is critical for honing meteorologists’ skills for correctly predicting tropical storms and hurricane-related weather. Officials in two NWS regional headquarters said they were concerned about the long-term effects of vacancies on the staffs’ forecasting skills.

Performing management and administrative activities. Operational unit managers were unable to perform certain management or administrative tasks, or were delayed in doing so, because they were covering for vacancies, according to officials in four NWS regional headquarters and the National Centers. For example, officials in one NWS regional headquarters said they have delayed conducting a number of administrative tasks, including processing the region’s budget, procurement, travel authorizations, and permanent change of station vouchers, because staff were completing the work of multiple vacant administrative positions. Officials expressed concern about these delays, because they can make monitoring the region’s finances difficult. Staff in one operational unit said because their managers were working forecasting shifts and performing other work to cover for vacancies, they were unable to review or approve projects that the staff developed as part of their focal duties. Focal duties, which are outside of meteorologists’ regular forecasting tasks, help incorporate new science, technology, and techniques into the unit’s operations.

Carrying out community outreach and education. Managers we interviewed in five of eight operational units said their staff had been unable to participate in community outreach and education events because of vacancies in their units. For example, one operational unit manager said that his office had curtailed community outreach and education efforts to have staff cover forecasting shifts left open by vacancies. He said the office had stopped taking applicants for their StormReady and TsunamiReady programs—programs to help communities develop skills to save lives and property when severe weather occurs—because the staff who would normally be working with new participants had instead been working forecasting shifts.

Launching weather balloons. Managers in two operational units said that their staff missed weather balloon launches because of vacancies in their units. For example, managers in one operational unit said during the summer of 2015, on multiple occasions staff were unavailable to launch weather balloons twice a day to collect upper air observations, as instructed by an NWS directive. Staff were unavailable in these instances because they were taking steps to address work resulting from vacancies, such as covering forecasting shifts to monitor the development of severe weather in the area, according to the operational unit manager. When weather balloons are not launched, critical observations from the upper air atmosphere are not collected and entered into the computer models that produce forecasts and warnings.

Every day, tw ice a day, NWS staff across the United States launch instruments—know n as radiosondes—with weather balloons to capture observations from the upper atmosphere. According to NWS documents, conducting upper air observations is important for producing w eather forecasts and w arnings as it is the primary method of capturing information on temperature, humidity, and other conditions in the upper atmosphere. NWS launches about 70,000 radiosondes a year from 92 NWS locations, tw ice a day, almost simultaneously at 00:00 and 12:00 Coordinated Universal Time. The data collected by the radiosondes are fed into the computer models used for producing the agency’s w eather forecasts and w arnings. In fiscal year 2017, NWS began testing and evaluating w ays to automate the w eather balloon launch process, which could eliminate the need for staff to manually launch the balloons, according to NWS headquarters officials.

Maintaining equipment. One operational unit manager we interviewed said that as of fiscal year 2016 the unit had been unable to replace damaged precipitation gauges with new equipment because one electronic technician position has been vacant. According to the manager, precipitation gauges are important because they provide official recordings of rainfall that are used to calibrate radar precipitation estimates and track rainfall to assess the need for flood and flash flood warnings (see fig. 3).

In addition, officials we interviewed in most NWS regional headquarters, the National Centers, and four operational units indicated that operational unit managers and staff experienced stress, fatigue, and reduced morale resulting from their efforts to cover for vacancies. For example, officials in two regional headquarters said that managers and staff in operational units with vacancies had continued to meet their critical mission of issuing forecasts and warnings in large part because of their dedication and commitment to the NWS mission. But the long-term result has been that employees are fatigued and morale is low, according to the officials. An official in another NWS regional headquarters said that staff are getting worn down covering extra forecasting shifts because of vacancies in operational units that, in some instances, have lasted for a few years. One operational unit manager we interviewed said staff in his unit were demoralized because they had continued to cover the workload for multiple vacancies. Additionally, staff we interviewed at two operational units said that because positions remain vacant for extended periods, staff are concerned that the agency may be intentionally leaving vacant positions open to downsize the number of staff across operational units. These staff said this perception has negatively affected their morale. NWS headquarters officials acknowledged that vacancies had created challenges and stress for operational unit managers and staff.

NOAA’s WFMO Makes Limited Information Available to NWS Operational Unit Managers on the Status of Hiring Requests

WFMO makes available limited information on the status of hiring requests as the requests move through the phases of the hiring process. Through interviews and supporting documentation, we identified the following three phases of the NWS hiring process: (1) a regional headquarters or the director’s office of the National Centers enters a hiring request into WFMO’s data system; (2) a job announcement is developed and posted, applicants are interviewed, and a candidate is selected; and (3) the selected candidate enters on duty at NWS (see fig. 4).

Operational unit managers we interviewed said that information on the status of their hiring requests was critical to their ability to allocate resources and manage work schedules. It is also particularly important in light of the length of the hiring process, which, according to some operational unit managers, has sometimes taken as long as 2 years. WFMO data for fiscal year 2016 show that the time it took to fill hiring requests once they were selected for processing averaged 232 days (around 8 months) and ranged from 64 to 467 days.

On the basis of our interviews with NOAA’s WFMO and NWS headquarters and operational units, we determined that limited information on the status of hiring requests is available. For example, during phase 1 of the hiring process—from when a regional headquarters or the director’s office of the National Centers enters a hiring request into WFMO’s data system to when the request is selected for processing— information on the status of the hiring request is not made available to operational unit managers. After NWS headquarters’ approval, hiring requests are entered into the data system where they are then generally selected for processing in the order they are received. However, WFMO does not make available information to operational unit managers on when a request is likely to be selected for processing. The WFMO director said that the data system is unsophisticated and was not designed for reporting the length of time that hiring requests remain in the system or how many are likely to be processed before a specific request is selected for processing.

For phases 2 and 3 of the hiring process—from when the hiring request is selected for processing by WFMO to the time the newly hired staff enters on duty at NWS—the data system tracks and makes accessible to operational unit managers some information on the status of their hiring requests. Specifically, operational unit managers can log into the data system and view the status of their individual hiring requests once they have been selected for processing. For example, a manager can access the data system to see when a job opening was announced and the date when the announcement will close. However, WFMO officials acknowledged that some data fields in the system, such as job announcement open and close dates, have not consistently been updated in real time. According to the WFMO director, this occurs, in part, because contractors—who are largely responsible for making these updates—use a different system that is not integrated with the data system, and updating the WFMO’s system requires additional steps that contractors do not always take when they have heavy workloads and time constraints.

Additionally, information related to the security check process, which occurs at the end of phase 3, is not available in the data system because the system is not set up to track the steps involved in the security check. The NOAA Office of Security is responsible for processing security checks, and its data system is not integrated with WFMO’s data system. Officials we interviewed from the six regional headquarters and the National Centers, as well as several operational unit managers, characterized the security check part of the hiring process as lengthy, opaque, and difficult to track. For example, officials from one regional headquarters said they contacted WFMO to see where their candidate was in the security check process and were referred to the NOAA Office of Security, which told them that the security check had been completed weeks earlier. These regional headquarters officials cited this experience as an example of communication challenges arising between two organizational departments whose systems are not integrated. Similarly, some NWS operational unit managers said they were unable to obtain information about where their candidate was in the security check process from either the NOAA Office of Security or WFMO. The NOAA Office of Security director said he is aware of confusion about the security check process and, as a result, started providing NOAA-wide informational briefings in June 2016, with the goal of increasing transparency about his office’s functions and interaction with WFMO.

Officials we interviewed from most regional headquarters and several operational unit managers said it is often difficult to obtain information on hiring requests from WFMO staff. In particular, several operational unit managers said that they have been unable to obtain updates through telephone or e-mail communications with WFMO staff, and several officials described WFMO and the hiring process as a “black hole” for information. According to a WFMO policy document, human capital specialists should respond to telephone calls and e-mails as part of their regular duties. However, the WFMO director added that since sequestration, WFMO has been understaffed, and the human capital specialists have been unable to fully manage their workload, including returning telephone calls and e-mails to respond to requests for information. Most operational unit managers we interviewed said it is difficult to allocate resources and develop work schedules without information about the status of their hiring requests, which would help them estimate how long the hiring process may take and, therefore, when they might expect new staff to enter on duty.

According to federal standards for internal control, management should internally communicate the necessary quality information to achieve the entity’s objectives. For example, management communicates quality information down and across reporting lines to enable personnel to perform key roles. This could include communicating information to operational unit managers on the status of their hiring requests throughout the hiring process, which could help managers effectively plan and distribute their unit’s workload.

The WFMO director acknowledged the difficulty operational unit managers have had in obtaining complete and timely information, and said that as part of the broader Commerce-wide effort to transition to ESO for processing hiring requests, WFMO is providing support in the development of a new Commerce-wide data system. In developing the system, officials said they are exploring ways to enhance information available to managers. For example, WFMO officials said that a new system could automatically update certain milestones as they occur, which would enhance the timeliness and quality of information available to operational unit managers. The WFMO director said the Department of Commerce plans to develop the new system, potentially in 2017, but the design and capabilities have yet to be finalized. In the interim, without access to complete and real-time information on the status of their requests throughout the three phases of the hiring process, NWS operational unit managers are limited in their ability to plan for and distribute their unit’s workload in the most efficient and effective manner.

NOAA’s WFMO and NWS Have Taken Some Actions to Help Address the Hiring Backlog but Have Not Evaluated These Actions

NWS has faced challenges in supporting its goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce in part because of its hiring backlog, according to NWS headquarters officials we interviewed. To help address the hiring backlog, NOAA’s WFMO and NWS are taking several actions, including the following.

Employing contractors to process hiring actions. Beginning in June 2014, WFMO started using contractors to process the majority of NWS’s hiring requests. It did so because WFMO staff were unable to meet the demand for processing hiring requests as a result of a number of resource-related factors, including being short-staffed, according to WFMO officials. However, the contractors have been unable to fully meet NWS’s demand. For example, the primary contractor generally processed about 50 hiring-related actions per month for NWS and another NOAA agency, representing a fraction of NWS hiring requests in the system, according to WFMO officials. Additionally, the officials said that though WFMO has begun transitioning toward using the Commerce-wide ESO for hiring, it has faced challenges with the transition because of funding limitations. WFMO’s director said that until funding becomes available and ESO is fully established, WFMO will continue using contractors to help process hiring requests for NWS. NWS officials expressed concern that once the transition to ESO is complete, the move away from contractors who are focused on NWS and another NOAA agency toward one serving all Department of Commerce agencies may increase NWS’s hiring backlog, as more NOAA agencies will be vying for the same services from a single contractor.

Combining multiple hiring requests into a single job announcement. In March 2015, NWS began identifying hiring requests for similar positions and requesting that WFMO process those requests in bundles instead of individually, as had been past practice. For example, in July 2016, NWS combined hiring requests for 30 entry-level meteorologist positions at 24 locations into a single job announcement. While the announcement was open, six more hiring requests were approved, and NWS was then able to fill 36 positions from the combined announcement. Combining job announcements for similar positions is intended to accelerate and streamline hiring, according to NWS officials.

Developing an inventory of lead meteorologist candidates. In June 2015, NWS issued a lead meteorologist job announcement—a position NWS typically fills by hiring internal general meteorologists— to develop an inventory of qualified candidates. The job announcement was open for 1 year, and applicants could identify specific operational units they wanted to be considered for, even if those units did not have a vacancy at that time. Once an operational unit had a vacancy that was approved to fill, the manager could request a list of qualified and interested candidates from the inventory to interview and potentially hire. Previously, vacant lead meteorologist positions were advertised through individual job announcements, each of which required a unique job announcement and subsequent hiring action. NWS officials said they plan to continue using this inventory approach to fill lead meteorologist positions by posting one announcement biannually or annually to maintain a current inventory of qualified candidates. By developing this inventory through one announcement, NWS officials said the process of identifying qualified candidates is more efficient, and operational units may be able to fill vacant positions more quickly.

Limiting entry-level job announcements to external candidates.

In July 2016, NWS changed the way it announced its entry-level meteorologist positions—the positions with the highest vacancy rate across weather forecast offices at the time—so that these positions would be available exclusively to candidates outside the agency. NWS officials said they made this change because previously NWS often hired internal candidates to fill open entry-level meteorologist positions, which filled a vacancy in one location but created a vacancy in another. According to our analysis of WFMO data, during fiscal years 2010 through 2016, over half of all NWS hiring actions were for internal candidates. Of these, about two-thirds were for promotions, and about one-third were for lateral reassignments, which typically involve staff keeping the same position but moving to a different operational unit—such as current entry-level meteorologists accepting a position in a new unit (see fig. 5 for an annual breakdown of NWS hiring actions). Additionally, according to NWS data, 42 percent of the agency’s workforce will be eligible to retire by 2020. Therefore, NWS officials said they recognized the need to bring in new employees to the agency. They also noted that limiting entry-level hiring to external candidates is intended to help increase the overall number of employees, reduce the number of vacancies, and reduce the number of hiring actions to be processed by WFMO.

Exploring a change in the entry-level meteorologist promotion process. NWS is exploring changing its promotion process so that entry-level meteorologists will be able to progress to general meteorologists based on merit promotion criteria. The current process requires entry-level meteorologists to apply through a competitive announcement, which requires WFMO to post a job announcement and complete the associated hiring action. The change under consideration would allow entry-level meteorologists to accept a promotion while staying in their current operational unit, rather than requiring them to change units to obtain a promotion—which occurs if no openings are available in their unit. According to our analysis of NWS data, 35 percent of the agency’s hiring actions from fiscal year 2010 through 2016 were for promotions. NWS officials we interviewed said that the change under consideration may help reduce the human capital workload and, in turn, help reduce the hiring backlog. NOAA officials indicated that they plan to begin implementing this change late in fiscal year 2018 for meteorologist positions in weather forecast offices and some National Centers.

NWS headquarters officials stated that reducing the hiring backlog is a high priority but that they have not evaluated the extent to which their hiring actions have helped reduce the hiring backlog or helped to achieve their goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce. Under federal standards for internal control, management should design control activities, such as comparing actual performance with planned or expected results and analyzing significant differences, to achieve objectives. NWS officials said they believe the hiring actions to date have helped allow the agency to streamline hiring but said they have not evaluated the actions. However, the officials added that they intend to develop a strategic human capital plan with WFMO’s assistance that may, in part, provide a framework for integrating and evaluating the effectiveness of the various hiring actions. The officials said they do not have a time frame for developing such a plan because WFMO staff will be unavailable until the transition to using ESO is complete, and they are uncertain when that will happen. In the interim, by evaluating whether its actions are reducing the hiring backlog or achieving the goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce, NWS would have better assurance that its actions were achieving expected results and could better determine where to devote resources.

Conclusions

In light of vacancies that have increased since fiscal year 2010, NWS operational managers and staff have taken several steps to help ensure forecasts and warnings are issued. However, in taking these steps, managers and staff have faced challenges, including an inability at times to complete key tasks, and have experienced stress, fatigue, and reduced morale. WFMO and NWS officials recognize the need to fill vacant positions across NWS operational units, but the hiring process has been lengthy and WFMO makes limited information available to managers on the status of requests. This has limited managers’ ability to effectively plan and distribute workloads. WFMO officials agree that it is important to provide complete and timely information to managers, and said that, as WFMO moves to using a new Commerce-wide data system, they may be able to enhance the information that is made available to operational unit managers during the hiring process. In the interim, without access to complete and real-time information on the status of their requests throughout the three phases of the hiring process, NWS operational unit managers are limited in their ability to plan for and distribute their units’ workload in the most efficient and effective manner.

Additionally, WFMO and NWS are taking several actions intended to streamline hiring, but NWS has not evaluated the success of these actions in reducing the hiring backlog or achieving the goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce. NWS intends to develop a strategic human capital plan that may, in part, provide a framework for integrating and evaluating the effectiveness of the various hiring actions, but officials do not have a time frame for its development. In the interim, by evaluating whether its actions are reducing the hiring backlog or achieving the goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce, NWS would have better assurance that its actions were achieving expected results and could better determine where to devote resources.

Recommendations for Executive Action

We recommend that the Secretary of Commerce take the following two actions: To enhance information available to operational unit managers, we recommend that the Secretary of Commerce direct the director of NOAA’s WFMO to ensure that complete information on hiring requests is routinely communicated to NWS managers throughout the three phases of the hiring process, such as by supporting the development of improved tracking and reporting capabilities in the planned new Commerce-wide data system.

To help ensure NWS’s hiring actions are achieving expected results, we recommend the Secretary of Commerce direct the NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services to evaluate the extent to which NWS’s actions are reducing the hiring backlog and achieving the goal of sustaining a highly skilled workforce; for example, NWS could evaluate these actions as part of the development of its strategic human capital plan.

Agency Comments

We provided a draft of this report for review and comment to the Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce transmitted written comments from NOAA, which are reproduced in appendix V. NOAA agreed with our recommendations, and stated that the report provides a factual account of the status of NWS hiring, efforts NWS and WFMO have taken to expedite hiring, the resources challenges NWS and WFMO have faced, and the impact that understaffing has had on the NWS’s ability to carry out its mission. NOAA agreed with our two recommendations to communicate complete information on hiring requests and evaluate the extent to which NWS’s actions are reducing the hiring backlog; regarding the first, NOAA stated that WFMO will work with ESO to continue to develop the requirements and tools needed to track human capital service delivery. NOAA also provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of Commerce, 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 members have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3841 or fennella@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. GAO staff members who made key contributions to this report are listed in appendix VI.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Our objectives were to examine (1) information available on vacancies at National Weather Service (NWS) operational units for fiscal years 2010 through 2016; (2) steps, if any, NWS operational unit management and staff have taken to address the impact of vacancies at their units; (3) the extent to which National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Workforce Management Office (WFMO) makes information available to operational unit managers on the status of hiring requests; and (4) the extent to which NOAA’s WFMO and NWS are taking actions to address the hiring backlog at operational units.

To conduct our work, we reviewed relevant laws and NOAA, WFMO, and NWS policies, directives, and other documents. We also reviewed congressionally requested studies, including studies by the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Public Administration. To define NWS operational units for the purposes of this report, we developed criteria based on our review of documents and interviews with knowledgeable NWS officials. We defined NWS operational units as all units in any category of units (e.g. weather forecast offices) in which at least one of the units met at least two of the following three criteria: (1) issues forecasts, (2) issues warnings, and (3) has personnel that are essential emergency employees. We analyzed a list of NWS essential emergency employees by operational unit, and cross-referenced this list with information on which units issue forecasts or warnings to determine which units met our criteria. As long as one of the operational units in a particular unit category met our criteria, we included all of the units in the category in our analysis. On the basis of these criteria, we identified six categories of operational units and a total of 168 individual operational units (see table 2). Appendix II provides a complete list of the operational units included in our scope.

To examine the information available on vacancies at NWS operational units for fiscal years 2010 through 2016, we obtained data for the end of those fiscal years from the agency’s organizational table, a database that tracks information on the number, type, and location of positions across the agency, including whether each position is filled. We calculated the number of vacancies—which we define as unfilled positions—and vacancy rates by dividing the number of unfilled positions by the total number of positions for each fiscal year, operational unit category, and position type. To assess the reliability of NWS’s organizational table data, we reviewed relevant documentation and interviewed knowledgeable NWS and NOAA officials about how data are entered and maintained. We also conducted a review of the organizational table data for obvious errors and completeness. On the basis of this review, we determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of reporting available information on the number of vacancies across NWS operational units.

We also reviewed data NWS provided that adjusted information from the organizational table to factor in the level of positions the agency indicated it had resources to support. NWS developed these data because, according to NWS officials, the organizational table does not reflect resources the agency had available to fill many of the vacancies. However, the additional data the agency prepared did not identify which positions listed on the organizational table it did not have resources to fill. Rather, NWS developed these data by proportionally distributing vacancies across the operational units to show the number of positions the agency had resources to fill, according to NOAA and NWS officials. At an agencywide level (across all operational units collectively), these data were helpful to see the vacancy levels NWS estimated having, based on its resource levels. However, we determined that the additional data did not provide an accurate reflection of vacancies for a particular unit or position type and did not reflect how NWS has been managing its staffing levels or vacancies. In particular, the regional headquarters and director’s office of the National Centers have discretion to allocate resources according to their needs, including identifying which positions to leave vacant to ensure they do not exceed available resources, according to NWS headquarters officials. They do not, according to officials at regional headquarters and the director’s office of the National Centers, spread vacancies proportionally across their operational units. Given these limitations, we report data directly from the organizational table as described above.

To examine any steps NWS operational unit management and staff have taken to address the impact of vacancies at their units, we conducted interviews and obtained documentation when available from officials from the six NWS regional headquarters and nine National Centers and the director’s office. In addition, we visited a nongeneralizable sample of nine operational units across the United States that were selected to represent a range in (1) the number of vacancies in the unit; (2) the types of weather typical for the unit’s area of coverage, as demonstrated by types of forecasts produced; (3) the size of the population of the warning area covered by the unit; (4) the region in which the unit is located; and (5) the category of operational unit. Table 3 shows the operational units we selected and visited during our review. During our site visits we conducted separate interviews with management and staff and analyzed available documentation to corroborate steps they described having taken to address the impact of vacancies. The results from our interviews and site visits cannot be generalized to those operational units and employees we did not interview but rather provide illustrative examples of steps being taken to address vacancies.

We analyzed the information we obtained from our interviews and site visits to identify themes and develop a summary of the types of impacts from vacancies and any steps management and staff have taken to address vacancies.

We also collected and analyzed data on the number of temporary promotions for fiscal years 2010 through 2016 from NOAA’s WFMO to obtain additional context, as temporary promotions were commonly cited as an action taken to address vacancies in operational units we visited. To assess the reliability of these data, we interviewed knowledgeable NWS and NOAA officials and reviewed relevant documentation. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of our report.

To examine the extent to which NOAA’s WFMO makes information available to operational unit managers on the status of hiring requests and the extent to which NOAA’s WFMO and NWS have taken actions to address the hiring backlog at operational units, we examined documentation regarding the process for hiring at NWS operational units, as well as any actions NWS and WFMO have taken to address the hiring backlog. We analyzed available data on NWS and WFMO attrition, the number and types of hiring actions completed by WFMO and its contractors for NWS, and data on the amount of time it took to complete NWS hiring actions for fiscal years 2010 through 2016. According to a WFMO official, these data were not available at the operational unit level; therefore, we analyzed them for all NWS employees. To assess the reliability of these data, we reviewed relevant documentation, interviewed knowledgeable NWS and NOAA officials, and reviewed the data for obvious errors and completeness. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of reporting the number and types of hiring actions and the amount of time the hiring actions took from fiscal years 2010 through 2016.

We interviewed NWS and WFMO officials regarding ongoing and planned actions to address the hiring backlog. We also interviewed officials from NOAA’s Office of Security, which is directed by the Department of Commerce’s Office of Security, regarding the process for completing security checks and background investigations as well as to determine the information available to operational unit managers during the security check step of the hiring process. In addition, we interviewed officials from the NOAA Budget Office and the Enterprise Services Organization about NOAA’s transition to a shared services model. Finally, we compared activities related to information WFMO makes available to operational unit managers, as well as information on actions NWS and WFMO have taken to address the hiring backlog, with federal standards for internal control.

We conducted this performance audit from November 2015 to May 2017 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.

Appendix II: National Weather Service Operational Units, by Operational Unit Category and Location

Appendix III: Information on Vacancies by National Weather Service Region

Appendix IV: Information on Vacancies in National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) 122 weather forecast offices comprise the majority of the 168 operational units (73 percent) included in our review. At the end of fiscal year 2016, 2,720 of NWS’s 3,629 operational unit employees (75 percent) worked in weather forecast offices. Table 6 provides vacancy rates by the positions in weather forecast offices for fiscal years 2014 through 2016, based on data from NWS’s organizational table, which is a database that tracks information on the number, type, and location of positions across the agency, including whether each position is filled. Table 7 provides a brief summary of the roles and responsibilities for positions in weather forecast offices.

Appendix V: Comments from the Department of Commerce

Appendix VI: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Anne-Marie Fennell, (202) 512-3841 or fennella@gao.gov.

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the individual named above, Alyssa M. Hundrup (Assistant Director), Amy R. Bowser, John W. Delicath, Tanya Doriss, Cindy K. Gilbert, Amanda K. Goolden, Steven Gregory Lozano, Ryan B. Millendez, Colleen M. Phillips, and Sara A. Sullivan made key contributions to this report.