DHS Recruiting and Hiring: DHS Is Generally Filling Mission-Critical Positions, but Could Better Track Costs of Coordinated Recruiting Efforts
Released: 2013-09-17T00:00:00

Letter

Background

Federal Recruiting and Hiring Process

Recruiting and hiring involves developing and implementing strategies to advertise positions and attract top candidates as well as assessing applicants’ relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job-related criteria to identify the most qualified candidates. The federal hiring process typically includes notifying the public that the government is accepting applications for a job; screening applications against minimum qualification standards; and assessing applicants’ relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job- related criteria to identify the most qualified applicants. Federal civil service employees, other than those in the Senior Executive Service, are employed in either the competitive service or the excepted service. The majority of the federal civilian workforce obtains positions through the open competitive service examination process, which is intended to ensure that hiring complies with merit principles. Applicants for competitive service positions generally compete against one another through the competitive examination process.

Federal agencies follow similar processes of identifying and selecting the most qualified candidates. This process generally includes, among other things, rating and ranking candidates and preparing ranked lists of the best-qualified candidates; selecting candidates to interview; conducting reference checks and applying veterans’ preference criteria; and making job offers, including conducting any preemployment checks (such as medical examinations) and security clearance checks. However, variation in how this process is carried out may occur across the four DHS components selected for our review. For example, TSA hires for all occupations as a member of the excepted service, while NPPD, USCIS, and USSS are part of the federal competitive service, though NPPD and USSS also hire for certain positions under excepted service appointing authorities. Specific to TSA, under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, TSA is generally exempt from the provisions of Title 5 of the U.S. Code as well as the policies and procedures OPM established under Title 5, in order to adapt hiring processes to align with the unique demands of the agency’s workforce.processes as needed to meet agency needs, and has established its own hiring flexibilities. For example, TSA has an approved interchange agreement from OPM to allow permanent TSA employees to apply and be selected for vacancies in competitive service agencies.

DHS Recruiting and Hiring Roles and Responsibilities

Within DHS, OCHCO is responsible for ensuring that DHS has the programs, policies, processes, and resources to recruit, hire, train, and retain its overall workforce. OCHCO’s strategic human capital agenda includes, among other things, recruiting a diverse workforce, hiring veterans, and improving the hiring process. Within OCHCO, specifically with respect to recruiting, D&I focuses on coordinating and leveraging component resources to achieve departmental recruiting and outreach goals, which are to reduce recruiting costs, increase efficiencies, and increase the diversity of applicant pools. While D&I administers human resource services related to recruiting and hiring for DHS headquarters, individual DHS components are primarily responsible for the active recruiting and hiring of employees for their components—that is, identifying their own occupational needs, including monitoring workforce data on grade, seniority, demographics, and attrition rates. Individual components also have their own recruiting and hiring budgets and are responsible for reaching out to potential applicants through job fairs, recruiting events, and other marketing efforts. Individual components manage their own application and hiring processes, including evaluation of potential candidates through selection.

OCHCO human capital programs and initiatives are supported, developed, and implemented through various cross-component councils, as well as implementation of DHS strategic human capital goals and priorities. For example, in May 2010, as part of its role in facilitating department-wide recruiting efforts, D&I led the development of the Corporate Recruiting Council (CRC), which holds monthly meetings with recruitment officers from DHS components as a means to encourage coordination and sharing of recruiting and hiring practices and strategies. CRC is chaired by D&I and has representatives from all of DHS’s components. Through the CRC, D&I focuses on presenting a “one DHS” image by serving as the focal point for department-wide recruitment procedures and guidance, leveraging resources, and facilitating coordination and information sharing among components on recruiting events, best practices, and strategies.

Recruiting and Hiring as an Element of Strategic Workforce Planning

We have previously reported on the importance of strategic workforce planning and focusing on developing long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining an organization’s total workforce. Strategic workforce planning includes the determination of critical skills and competencies—such as the identification of MCOs—to meet both current and future programmatic needs and developing strategies tailored to address gaps in the number, skills, competencies, and deployment of the workforce. DHS has developed and, in November 2012, updated a workforce planning guide that provides steps, tools, and resources that components are to use to plan for current and future organizational and workforce needs. One key element of strategic workforce planning is recruiting and hiring, which is intended to identify and acquire employees with the necessary skills and competencies to meet agency programmatic needs. In December 2012, we reported on strategic workforce planning efforts at DHS—specifically, that while DHS had taken steps that are generally consistent with leading principles in managing departmental strategic workforce planning, OCHCO had made limited progress in developing an oversight approach for monitoring and evaluating To provide a basis for monitoring and component-level efforts.assessment of department-wide workforce planning efforts, we recommended that DHS identify and document additional performance measures, document policies and procedures to use the results of audits related to component-level workforce planning, and integrate the results of these audits with components’ annual operational plans and review these plans. DHS concurred with these recommendations and has reported taking steps to address them, but they are not yet fully implemented.

In 2011, at the direction of OCHCO, DHS’s components identified their MCOs. OCHCO validated that these MCOs represent those jobs that are most critical to accomplishment of the mission, rather than simply the jobs that are most populous within each component (although some MCOs are the most populous within a component). For example, USCIS’s sole MCO is the immigration services officer (ISO) position, while one of TSA’s five MCOs is its transportation security officer (TSO). DHS completed the process of revalidating the MCOs that represent those occupations most critical for DHS to fulfill its mission in August 2013 and plans to do so again every 2 years hereafter. See appendix I for a list of all MCOs for the four components in our review.

As shown in figure 1, the size of DHS’s workforce has grown in recent years and the majority of DHS’s workforce is composed of MCOs.

In January 2003, we designated implementing and transforming DHS as a high-risk area because DHS had to transform 22 existing agencies— several with major management challenges—into one department. Human capital—including recruiting and hiring efforts—is among the challenges we have identified that DHS faces in implementing and transforming itself. To address this high-risk designation, DHS needs to achieve 31 specific actions and outcomes, 1 of which is related to recruiting and hiring. These actions and outcomes are based on the issues we have identified and recommendations made through our work at DHS.

In January 2011, DHS issued its initial Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management, which included key management initiatives (e.g., Workforce Strategy, Workforce Planning and Balanced Workforce, and Outreach and Targeted Recruitment) and corrective actions to address these high- risk areas as well as the actions and outcomes we identified as needed to address the high-risk designation. DHS agreed with these actions and outcomes and designated senior DHS officials to be responsible for implementing them. DHS provided updates of its progress in implementing these initiatives, including recruiting and hiring, in later versions of the strategy in June 2011, December 2011, and June 2012. In its September 2012 update to the June 2012 Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management, describing DHS’s progress in implementing a recruiting and hiring strategy that is targeted to fill both short- and long- term needs, and specifically to fill identified human capital gaps, including diversity and foreign language gaps, DHS reported that it has partially addressed this outcome, which we validated in December 2012. In our most recent high-risk update, in February 2013, we reported that DHS needs to continue to demonstrate sustained progress in addressing this outcome. In its June 2013 update, DHS reported that it has now mostly addressed this outcome. We are continuing to evaluate the appropriateness of this designation as part of our ongoing high-risk work, and plan to use the results from this report to inform our own evaluations of this outcome in our future high-risk updates.

DHS and Selected Components Are Implementing Recruiting and Hiring Strategies to Fill Mission-Critical Occupations

DHS has developed and taken steps to implement a coordinated recruiting and outreach strategy and address resource constraints. In addition, the four components we selected for review have various efforts under way to develop and implement their own targeted recruiting and hiring strategies. Components reported that they have generally been successful in filling MCOs.

DHS Has Developed and Taken Steps to Implement a Coordinated Recruiting and Outreach Strategy and Address Budgetary Constraints

While DHS components are largely responsible for specific activities and efforts to recruit and hire for their MCOs, DHS has taken steps to help ensure greater coordination and resource sharing among components. Specifically, in 2011, D&I—through the CRC—developed the CROS to better coordinate and link component recruiting and outreach efforts to hiring for DHS mission and workforce needs (for all positions, including MCOs), and leverage resources as well as reduce recruiting costs, among other things. The CROS provides a high-level strategy that supports DHS’s goal from its Workforce Strategy for Fiscal Years 2011- 2016 to “recruit a highly qualified and diverse workforce.” It is designed to, among other things, guide outreach and recruitment efforts across DHS, leverage all outreach and recruiting resources, and integrate recruiting and outreach plans across DHS.

According to D&I officials, the CROS was largely developed to help relieve some of the fragmentation of component recruitment efforts, reflecting a recent DHS-wide emphasis on having components work together to present an image of “one DHS”—rather than individual components—to potential applicants at outreach events.doing this is by having components coordinate to share booth space under the DHS banner at recruiting events. For example, if USSS and TSA are both hoping to hire law enforcement officers, they might agree to share the registration fee at a recruiting event (or take turns paying fees at alternate events) and have staff from each component together at one table to speak to potential applicants about their respective positions. D&I officials state that this sharing of resources is important to the department, as devoting additional resources to increasing overall recruiting efforts has not been a high priority for DHS over the past year, given budget constraints. Other D&I efforts to implement the CROS across DHS are shown in table 1.

D&I Is Taking Steps to Assess Implementation of the CROS, but Could Improve Tracking of Recruiting Costs

D&I has established performance measures to assess progress in implementing the goals and objectives of the CROS, and plans to develop performance targets in future iterations of the CROS to better track component performance. D&I could better measure department-wide recruiting and outreach costs by tracking recruiting costs from all DHS components in a consistent manner. In addition, DHS is taking steps to better measure return on investment for recruiting and outreach activities, a key focus of the CROS.

D&I Plans to Better Assess CROS Implementation through Performance Targets, but Could Better Measure Department wide Recruiting Costs

D&I assesses departmental and component progress in implementing the CROS by tracking and monitoring component efforts for six performance measures that are aligned with six corresponding objectives and two long-term goals (shown in table 6).

While these measures are aligned with and cover key aspects of performance related to the goals and objectives outlined in the CROS, they do not include performance targets to track long-term, short-term, or interim component progress toward achieving the goals of the CROS over the period the strategy covers (2012–2017). As shown in table 6, all six measures in the CROS use percentages to quantitatively indicate the extent to which the measure is being achieved. However, none of these measures identify a target percentage, or standard, against which to assess component performance. For example, the performance measure for objective 2.2 calls for a percentage decrease in component-specific participation at recruiting events, but it does not identify any target percentages to assess component performance in achieving the measure or goal 2 in the CROS, which is to optimize outreach and recruiting resources enterprise-wide. In addition, one of the measures (1.1) calls for components to have fully developed recruiting and outreach portfolios, which the CROS defines as including both short- and long-term workforce plans, strategic and tactical plans, and diversity snapshots. While D&I officials indicated that all components have fully developed recruiting and outreach portfolios—which D&I views as the CSORPs—the CSORPs do not uniformly include long-term planning as defined in the CROS (3 to 5 years). More specifically, CSORPs for the four components in our review focused on current-year efforts to reach out to underrepresented populations, and one contained a target for long-term veterans hiring. D&I revised the CSORP development template for fiscal year 2013 to focus on current-year efforts and did not request that components include long- term goals or targets in their CSORPs. Officials stated that they made this change to gather more baseline data before focusing on longer-term goals.

A performance measure should tell an organization how well it is achieving its goals, and GPRA defines a performance goal as a target level of performance expressed as a tangible, measurable objective, against which actual achievement can be compared, including a goal expressed as a quantitative standard, value, or rate. In addition, both the CROS and our prior work highlight the need for recruiting and outreach strategies to be linked directly to short- and long-range plans, and our prior work has also stated that measures, such as outputs or intermediate outcomes, can be used to show progress or contribution to intended results.

D&I officials stated that they and the components are in the early stages of implementing and assessing the CROS and are continuing to obtain performance data to establish a baseline level of performance for the six measures they have, including assessing the extent to which the measures themselves are appropriate and identifying the necessary actions and activities required to achieve their long-term goals. Given this, and the uncertainty associated with current federal budget and hiring constraints, D&I officials said that they felt it was premature to call for the CROS and CSORPs to identify short-term, interim, or long-term targets associated with their performance measures. However, D&I officials said they recognize the need to establish clearer links in the CROS between the actions being taken and the extent to which they are helping DHS and the components achieve the long-term goals of the CROS, in part by developing targets for measures. D&I officials told us they plan to address these issues in future updates to the CROS. Taking steps to update the CROS to include performance targets to measure and link component efforts with a desired set of outcomes is an important step to help clarify the ultimate desired outcomes of DHS’s recruiting and outreach strategy and the specific actions DHS and components need to take on a short- term or interim basis to achieve the long-term goals outlined in the CROS.

In addition, one of the objectives in the CROS (2.1) is to coordinate recruitment and outreach planning procedures to reduce duplication of effort and travel costs. D&I has developed a database for components to use to track recruiting and outreach efforts and costs, but it does not require that all components use this database or enter data in a consistent manner. As a result, D&I does not have the information required to accurately assess component performance for this objective. D&I officials said that since many components have their own systems for tracking the costs associated with recruiting outreach activities (e.g., events attended, occupations for which they are recruiting, and number of attendees), they do not want the components to duplicate efforts by having them enter the same type of information in the DHS shared database. D&I officials reported that components saved approximately $22,590 in fiscal year 2012 by sharing booth space at recruiting events coordinated through the CRC. However, D&I is unaware of the total costs of all recruiting and outreach activities department-wide, and D&I officials said this amount does not represent any savings from events or activities that may have been coordinated outside of the CRC. The CROS states that “consistent tracking and reporting of recruiting and marketing data will assist DHS and its components in informed decision-making and the development of resource allocation plans for strategic outreach, recruiting and marketing activities each fiscal year,” and one of its objectives calls for standardized tracking and data reporting of recruiting and outreach activities. The Standard for Program Management calls for an identification of program financial sources and resources, including the establishment of baseline costs as a primary financial target programs can be measured against.

D&I officials said they are revisiting the usefulness of the shared database versus the time and resources spent by components to enter data, and are also considering other options for obtaining this cost information from components, including development of a template components could fill out and provide back to D&I. D&I officials acknowledged that obtaining comprehensive and consistent cost information from all components in a manner that will ensure consistent and complete reporting of such data would be a worthwhile endeavor, but officials have not determined whether and how they will do so. As a result, D&I does not have a baseline of all recruiting costs from which to measure ongoing cost savings, making it difficult to determine how well department resources are being leveraged through component coordination or assess the extent to which they are achieving the second goal of the CROS of optimizing outreach and recruiting resources department-wide. Requiring all components to provide recruiting cost information in a consistent manner would enable D&I to better track overall recruiting costs, which would help it to assess the extent to which recruiting costs are being reduced by components as a result of increased coordination and leveraging resources, as called for in the CROS.

DHS Is Taking Steps to Address Challenges in Determining Return on Investment for Recruiting and Outreach Activities

The CROS discusses the importance of establishing return on investment for recruiting and outreach events. According to D&I and all component officials we interviewed, tracking return on investment has primarily been the responsibility of each component, and has generally been conducted informally. D&I officials said that determining return on investment for their recruiting and outreach activities can be challenging. For example, D&I officials said information provided by candidates or new hires at recruiting events or during the hiring process is voluntary, which makes it difficult to reliably determine the reasons an individual was interested in DHS or became an employee. Nevertheless, components in our review have taken steps to better determine return on investment for recruiting and outreach events. For example, three of the four components prepare and review after-action reports to identify events that led to interaction with promising candidates.

D&I officials said that OPM is working with departments within the federal government to compile applicant data to help better link applicants and new hires to various recruiting and outreach efforts, which D&I officials said could help them better determine their return on investment for various recruiting and outreach events. D&I officials told us they anticipate obtaining data later this calendar year, noting that the data would provide information on each candidate through the entire hiring cycle from initial application up to selection. D&I officials told us that officials from other departments said that they believe the response rate will be about 40 to 50 percent. While this response rate would not represent all or most new hires, D&I officials said analysis of this information could help them better understand the nature of the applicants it is getting, including new hires that resulted from specific recruiting events or the percentage of new hires that came from colleges and universities it visited or targeted. This type of information could assist D&I in making more informed decisions in the future about where to spend limited funds on recruitment and outreach efforts.

Conclusions

As DHS faces increasingly complex national security challenges, it is important that it effectively recruit and hire employees with the appropriate skills to meet its mission requirements. In recent years, we and others have identified challenges to recruiting and hiring in the federal government in general and within DHS in particular. While DHS and selected components are implementing strategies to fill MCOs, and generally report that they are able to fill MCO positions, DHS could better assess its efforts to implement the CROS and achieve recruiting cost savings by requiring all components to provide recruiting cost information in a consistent manner. Doing so would help DHS better track the amount of resources being spent on recruiting and outreach throughout DHS and assess the extent to which increased coordination and leveraging resources have decreased recruiting costs.

Recommendation for Executive Action

To help ensure that DHS has comprehensive data to help track recruiting costs and coordinated efforts, we recommend that the Secretary of Homeland Security direct OCHCO to take the following action: require all components to provide D&I with recruiting cost information in a consistent manner to allow better tracking of overall recruiting costs and use this information to assess the extent to which recruiting costs are being reduced by components as a result of increased coordination and leveraging resources as called for in the CROS.

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to DHS for review and comment. On September 9, 2013, DHS provided written comments, which are reprinted in appendix II, and provided technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. DHS concurred with our recommendation and described actions planned to address it. Specifically, DHS stated that through the CRC, DHS will develop and implement a system to consistently track and analyze overall recruiting costs by all components. This information could help DHS assess the degree to which recruiting costs are being reduced through component coordination—as called for in the CROS. DHS expects to complete this effort by December 31, 2013. If fully implemented, DHS’s planned actions will address the intent of this recommendation.

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Homeland Security, appropriate congressional committees, and other interested parties. This report is also available at no charge on the GAO website at http://www.gao.gov.

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-9627 or maurerd@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III.

Appendix I: Mission-Critical Occupations for Selected Department of Homeland Security Components

Table 7 presents the occupational series and positions considered to be mission-critical occupations for the components in our review.

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Homeland Security

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

GAO Contact

Staff Acknowledgments

In addition to the contact named above, Adam Hoffman, Assistant Director; Adam Couvillion, Analyst-in-Charge; Dave Bieler; Chris Ferencik; Christine Hanson; Tracey King; Lara Miklozek; and Amanda Miller made significant contributions to the work.