The Homeland Security Act of 2002 created DHS, bringing together 22 agencies and programs responsible for important aspects of homeland security. The intent behind the creation of a single department was to improve coordination, communication, and information sharing among these previously separate entities, thereby increasing their effectiveness in protecting the nation’s security. Each of these organizations brought with it the capacity and expertise to provide training for its particular aspect of homeland security. For example, in several cases such as the Coast Guard and FLETC, this training capacity, as well as the management systems supporting it was transferred intact with the creation of the new department. In other cases, such as CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the training functions of legacy organizations were merged. Table 1 presents information on selected training characteristics of components in our review, including the origin of each component’s training function. In addition, the Act led to the creation of the CHCO position in DHS responsible for, among other human capital topics, oversight and planning of the training of employees. The CHCO, who reports directly to the department’s Under Secretary for Management, has primary responsibility for defining and developing the department’s role regarding training. Figure 1 depicts these positions as well as the department’s major components in the context of DHS’s overall organizational structure. Training both new and current staff to fill new roles and work in different ways will play a crucial part in the ability of federal departments and agencies, such as DHS, as they work to successfully transform their organizations. In 2004, we issued an assessment guide that introduces a framework for evaluating the management of training in the federal government. As presented in our guide, the training process can be segmented into four broad, interrelated phases: (1) planning/front-end analysis, (2) design/development, (3) implementation, and (4) evaluation. For each of these phases, we summarize key attributes of effective training programs and offer related issues and questions. Using this framework, this report identifies selected strategic training practices, with a focus on the planning and evaluation phases, that may offer an opportunity for others in DHS to build on experiences and practices discussed below. The results of a governmentwide survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management in 2004 on human capital practices and employee attitudes suggest that efforts to identify and build upon examples of good training practice within DHS may be particularly relevant. For each of the eight questions in the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey that focused on training related topics, the percentage of DHS respondents providing positive responses (typically the top two options on a five-point scale) was lower than the governmentwide average. In fact, the DHS response ranged from 5 to 20 percentage points lower than the governmentwide average for the same questions. For example, 54 percent of respondents at DHS indicated that they received the training they needed in order to perform their jobs, compared to 60 percent governmentwide. Half (50 percent) of DHS respondents said that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the training they received for their present jobs, as opposed to 55 percent that expressed these levels of satisfaction governmentwide. The largest difference involved having electronic access to learning and training programs, where 51 percent of DHS respondents responded positively, compared to 71 percent governmentwide. A DHS official told us that the department is aware of the challenges reflected in these data and is currently exploring options with the Office of Personnel Management to conduct further analysis. The aim of this work would be to identify areas where DHS might target additional attention as well as provide a baseline for future attitude measures. DHS has made progress in addressing departmentwide training issues and these efforts reflect some of the elements of a strategic approach toward training as described in our previous work. Most training-related activities at DHS—such as planning, delivery, and evaluation—primarily take place at the component level and relate to mission issues. Therefore, any successful approach regarding departmentwide training issues will require the concerted and coordinated efforts of multiple components within DHS as well as the ability of the CHCO to effectively lead a network of different training organizations. The department’s current efforts, although promising, are still in the early stages and they face significant challenges. Unless these challenges are successfully addressed they may impede DHS’s ability to achieve its departmentwide training goals. DHS recently developed a coordinated departmental training strategy that supports broader human capital and organizational goals and objectives. We have previously reported that effective organizations establish clear goals with an authority structure able to carry out strategies and tactics, that is, the day-to-day activities needed to support the organization’s vision and mission. By so doing, a well-designed training function can be directly linked to the organization’s strategic goals and help to ensure that the skills and competencies of its workforce enable the organization to perform its mission effectively. DHS’s department-level training strategy is presented in its human capital and training strategic plans. Issued in October 2004, its human capital strategic plan includes selected training strategies, such as developing a leadership curriculum to ensure consistency of organizational values across the department and using training to support the implementation of the new DHS human capital management system, MAXHR. In July 2005, DHS issued its first departmental training plan, Department of Homeland Security Learning and Development Strategic Plan, which provides a strategic vision for departmentwide training. This plan is a significant and positive step toward addressing departmentwide training challenges. The plan identifies four short-term goals for fiscal year 2006 and one long-term goal for fiscal years 2006 through 2010. Among the short-term goals are such tasks as defining the scope of training activities and improving the governance process between the CHCO office and individual organizational components, supporting the rollout of MAXHR, identifying/implementing best practices, and addressing specific concerns regarding DHS’s training facilities and advanced distributed learning studies. The plan also articulates a long-term goal for DHS to “become a recognized world-class learning organization where managers and supervisors effectively lead people.” Each of these goals is followed by supporting strategies and tactics. For example, to achieve its goal of ensuring the best use of training resources through the identification and implementation of best practices, the plan identifies specific strategies, one of which is to improve the awareness of ongoing DHS training activities among organizational components. This strategy is, in turn, supported by still more specific tactics such as developing a site on the DHS Interactive system to facilitate the sharing of information across the training community. More significant than the fact that DHS issued a training strategic plan document is the fact that DHS followed an inclusive and collaborative process while developing it. We have previously reported that for high- performing, results-oriented organizations, a strategic plan is not simply a paper-driven exercise or onetime event, but rather the result of a dynamic and inclusive process wherein key stakeholders are consulted and involved in the identification of priorities and the formation of strategies. When creating its plan, DHS consulted training leaders at components throughout the department, in addition to others, to help develop and review its content. Several training leaders we spoke with thought highly of this process and the extent to which it provided them opportunities to contribute and comment on the draft plan. DHS has made considerable progress in addressing departmentwide training issues through the development of its first training strategic plan. However, there are areas where future efforts can be improved. Linkage to DHS organizational and human capital strategic plans. Our past work on strategic planning and management practices shows that effective strategic plans describe the alignment between an agency’s long- term goals and objectives and the specific strategies planned to achieve them. Clearly linking training tactics with particular organizational objectives creates a direct line of sight that can both facilitate the ability of staff to work toward mission goals and enable stakeholders to provide meaningful oversight. In the introduction to the DHS training strategic plan, the department’s CHCO highlights the value of this practice stating that “the key purpose of plan is to align our education, training and professional development efforts with the President’s Management Agenda and the Department’s vision, mission, core values and strategic plan.” The DHS training strategic plan contains examples of goals, strategies, and tactics that align with and support goals found in the department’s human capital and organizational strategic plans; however, these linkages are never actually identified or discussed in the plan itself. For example, the DHS training strategic plan contains a goal and several tactics related to MAXHR training. These, in turn, support a MAXHR goal and strategy in the department’s human capital strategic plan as well as the “organizational excellence” goal of the DHS strategic plan. However, the training strategic plan does not show these linkages. Identifying such linkages, either in the training plan itself or in an appendix, would more clearly communicate to both internal and external stakeholders the connections and justifications for specific training goals, strategies, and tactics. DHS’s own human capital strategic plan provides an illustration of one way to communicate linkages between goals and strategies contained in the plan and the broader organizational goals they are intended to support. For example, in an appendix, the DHS human capital strategic plan contains a matrix that directly links strategies, such as developing a new Senior Executive Service (SES) performance management system, with specific objectives contained in the DHS strategic plan as well as the President’s Management Agenda human capital standards for success. Usefulness of performance measures. We have previously reported several key characteristics of effective strategic and management plans, including the need for performance measures. Appropriate performance measures along with accompanying targets are important tools to enable internal and external stakeholders to effectively track the progress the department is making toward achieving its training goals and objectives. To this end, organizations may use a variety of performance measures— output, efficiency, customer service, quality, and outcome—each of which focuses on a different aspect of performance. The DHS training strategic plan contains few specific performance measures for its goals or strategies and all of these are output measures.