Strategic workforce planning—an integral part of human capital management—is an iterative, systematic process that helps organizations determine if they have staff with the necessary skills and competencies to accomplish their strategic goals. We have previously reported that having the right workforce mix with the right skill sets is critical to achieving DOD’s mission, and that it is important for DOD, as part of its workforce planning, to conduct gap analyses of its critical skills and competencies. Since 2001, GAO has included strategic human capital management as a government high-risk area. In 2002, we reported that DOD recognized that human capital strategic planning is fundamental to effective overall management. Further, we reported that DOD was working to identify and address problems that have been hampering this effort, which included a lack of accurate, accessible, and current workforce data; mature models to forecast future workforce requirements; a link between DOD’s planning and budgeting processes; and specific planning guidance. In 2015, we reported that DOD has demonstrated sustained leadership commitment to address its acquisition workforce challenges, underscored by the department’s emphasis on growing and training the acquisition workforce through its Better Buying Power initiatives. As part of our larger body of work examining human capital management issues, we and the Office of Personnel Management have identified six key principles of strategic workforce planning that organizations should incorporate in their processes, including: aligning workforce planning with strategic planning and budget formulation; involving managers, employees, and other stakeholders in planning; identifying critical gaps and competencies and analyzing workforce gaps; developing workforce strategies to address gaps in numbers, skills, building the capabilities needed to support workforce strategies through steps that ensure the effective use of human capital flexibilities; and monitoring and evaluating progress toward achieving workforce planning and strategic goals. Several offices within DOD play key roles in strategic planning activities, such as determining the size and makeup of the acquisition workforce, budgeting for the workforce, assessing workforce competencies, and addressing skill gaps (see table 1). Pursuant to the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act, DOD identified 13 career fields and designated acquisition-related positions held by military or civilian personnel. DOD also established certification requirements that included education, training, and experience elements for each acquisition position. Certification is the procedure through which DOD components determine that an employee meets these requirements for one of three levels in each acquisition career field. DOD components fund their acquisition workforce personnel through a variety of accounts, including (1) operation and maintenance; (2) research, development, test and evaluation; and (3) working capital. Additionally, Congress established the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund in 2008 to provide funds dedicated to recruiting, training, and retaining the acquisition workforce. There are two boards that oversee acquisition workforce programs, including the Fund and related initiatives. The Senior Steering Board is expected to meet quarterly and provide strategic oversight, while the Workforce Management Group is expected to meet bimonthly and oversee the fund’s operations and management (see table 2). DOD has increased the size of its workforce since September 2008, exceeding its 20,000 personnel growth target by over 7,000 as of March 2015. The growth varied within individual components. For example, the Air Force and Navy, as well as the other DOD agencies collectively, have more acquisition personnel now than in fiscal year 2008. Conversely, the Army has experienced an 8 percent decrease in the size of its acquisition workforce since fiscal year 2008 due to Army-wide cost savings measures that have impacted the size of the civilian workforce. The reported increase in DOD’s acquisition workforce was accomplished through hiring of additional personnel, converting functions previously performed by DOD contractors to performance by DOD civilian personnel (referred to as insourcing), adding military personnel to the acquisition workforce, and administratively recoding existing personnel, the last of which does not result in an increase in DOD’s workforce capacity. Shortfalls, however, exist in certain career fields. For example, 6 of DOD’s 13 acquisition career fields, including 3 priority career fields— contracting, engineering, and business—did not meet growth goals. DOD increased the size of its military and civilian acquisition workforce by 21 percent, from about 126,000 to about 153,000, between September 2008 and March 2015. This equates to a nearly 27,000 personnel increase and 7,000 personnel more than identified in DOD’s April 2010 acquisition workforce plan. Figure 1 shows that most of this growth occurred in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Acquisition workforce growth outpaced losses between fiscal years 2008 and 2012. However, in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, the department experienced a small decrease. During this time, DOD components were faced with sequestration and other cost-cutting measures. In preparation for these cuts, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics issued a memorandum in September 2012 that specified that DOD components were to take a strategic view in workforce decisions and protect the rebuilding investments, especially in light of ongoing contractor support reductions. For the most part, components were able to sustain the acquisition growth levels they had already achieved, with the exception of the Army, which lost several thousand personnel. In fiscal year 2015, each component again experienced an increase, with the exception of the Army. According to Army Defense Acquisition Career Management officials, the Army’s cost-cutting efforts have affected all aspects of Army operations, including acquisition. Since 2008, the number of overall Army military and civilian personnel has decreased by 91,000, or 12 percent, from 790,000 to 699,000. The acquisition portion of this reduction was almost 3,400 personnel. The department grew the acquisition workforce through a combination of hiring and insourcing actions, as originally planned, as well as by adding military personnel and administratively recoding existing positions. Figure 2 shows how DOD increased the acquisition workforce through fiscal year 2014, the most recent year for which DOD could provide complete data. About 72 percent of the workforce growth has been achieved through hiring new civilian employees, with more than half of this increase attributable to funds provided through the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund. Since 2009, DOD has spent about $1.8 billion from the fund to recruit and hire about 10,400 new civilian employees. DOD used the majority of the funding to pay their salaries for a 2- to 3-year period, after which the components fund the personnel through their own budget accounts. The hiring actions generally were in the career fields that DOD indicated were a priority in the 2010 acquisition workforce plan. For example, about three-quarters of all Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund hiring was targeted toward five priority career fields— contracting, business, engineering, program management, and auditing— identified in DOD’s April 2010 acquisition workforce plan. DOD components used their own funds to hire the balance of the new civilian and military employees identified in the figure above. Overall, insourcing accounted for about 14 percent of the workforce growth. DOD originally planned to insource 10,000 contractor positions for the acquisition workforce by fiscal year 2015. Components insourced about 3,400 positions prior to a March 2011 revision to DOD’s insourcing policy. According to the memorandum revising the policy, which was issued jointly by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer, a case-by-case approach would be used for additional insourcing of acquisition functions based on critical need, whether a function is inherently governmental, and the benefit demonstrated by a cost-benefit analysis. DOD officials stated that the revised policy effectively curtailed any additional efforts. Based on data provided by DOD’s Human Capital Initiatives Directorate, we estimate that recoding accounted for at least an 11 percent increase in DOD’s overall acquisition workforce. Acquisition officials stated that administrative recoding efforts, which resulted in both increases and decreases to the acquisition workforce, were made to ensure that all acquisition personnel were properly accounted for within each component and career field. According to acquisition officials, recoding was necessary because some personnel were performing acquisition functions the majority of the time, but were not counted as a part of the acquisition workforce. These personnel generally continued to perform the same duties and do not equate to an increase in the capacity of the organization. The recoded personnel are required to meet acquisition professional certification standards, including training, education, and experience requirements. According to Human Capital Initiatives and DOD component officials, recoding primarily occurred in three career fields—facilities engineering, life cycle logistics, and science and technology manager. For example, Air Force Materiel Command estimated that it recoded approximately 3,600 personnel at its maintenance depots as acquisition personnel, some of which were recoded to the life cycle logistics career field. Increases in the number of military positions accounted for 3 percent of the workforce growth. According to Army and Air Force acquisition officials, one of the primary reasons DOD increased the number of military personnel serving in the acquisition workforce was to provide increased capacity. Much of this growth was in the contracting career field during contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall, Human Capital Initiatives statistics show that growth efforts have helped DOD reshape the civilian workforce. In fiscal year 2008, DOD found that about half of its civilian acquisition workforce had 10 years or less before they were eligible for retirement, with far fewer mid-career individuals ready to take their place or provide mentoring and supervision to those workforce members who were early in their career. Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund hiring has helped strategically reshape the workforce by bolstering critical functions and building early and mid-career workforce size. Although no specific goals were set, figure 3 shows the progress DOD has made increasing the number of early- career staff (those eligible to retire in 20 years or more) and mid-career staff (those eligible to retire in 11 to 20 years).