The federal government is facing several significant challenges when it comes to its acquisition workforce: the number of workers is declining, while the workload and the demand for more sophisticated technical, financial, and management skills are increasing. DOD’s contracting workload, for example, has increased by about 12 percent in recent years, but the workforce available to perform that workload has been reduced by about half over the same period. Meanwhile, the federal government is implementing various ways of contracting, such as performance-based contracting methods, commercial-based pricing approaches, and the use of purchase cards. High-performing public organizations have found that strategic planning and management can address human capital shortfalls. Strategic human capital planning begins with establishing a clear set of organizational intents, including a clearly defined mission, core values, goals and objectives, and strategies, and then integrating a human capital approach to support these strategic and programmatic goals. It requires systematic assessments of current and future human capital needs and strategies— which encompass a broad array of initiatives to attract, retain, develop, and motivate a top quality workforce—to fill the gaps. To ensure lasting success, the top leaders of an organization need a sustained commitment to embracing human capital management. They need to see people as vital assets to organizational success and must invest in this valuable asset. While many organizations have developed models for workforce planning,putting aside variations in terminology, the models share the following common elements. They identify organizational objectives; identify the workforce competencies needed to achieve the objectives; analyze the present workforce to determine its competencies; compare present workforce competencies to those needed in the future (sometimes referred to as a “gap analysis”); develop plans to transition from the present workforce to the future periodically evaluate the workforce plans, review the mission and objectives to assure they remain valid, and make adjustments as required by changes in mission, objectives, and workforce competencies. This process is simple in concept, but it can be difficult to carry out. First, it requires a shift in the human resource function from a support role to a role that is integral to accomplishing an agency’s mission. Second, it requires developing accurate information on the numbers and locations of employees and their competencies and skills, data on the profile of the workforce, and performance goals and measures for human capital approaches. We have previously reported that agencies may find that they lack some of the basic tools and information to develop strategic plans, such as accurate and complete information on workforce characteristics and strategic planning expertise. Four organizations—the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the Procurement Executives Council (PEC), and the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI)— have roles to play in dealing with workforce and acquisition workforce issues. Highlights of these different roles are presented in table 1. All six agencies that we reviewed have published or drafted human capital strategic plans for their overall workforces and are taking actions specifically targeted at strengthening their acquisition workforces. Three agencies are developing specific acquisition workforce plans. Agencies are in varying stages of these efforts. The agencies are facing challenges in completing workforce plans—in particular, they are finding it difficult to predict and respond to future needs given the rapid pace of change occurring within acquisition and the lack of reliable data on workforce characteristics. Agencies are also hampered by difficulty in sharing information about best practices and lessons learned in addressing acquisition workforce issues. In developing strategic plans for their overall workforces, all six of the agencies we reviewed have identified their organizational objectives. Three of these, DOE, HHS, and Treasury, have gone as far as conducting a gap analysis, which involves comparing present workforce competencies to those that will be needed in the future. Some agencies are developing these plans at an agencywide level, while others are developing them at a bureau or operating division level. Four agencies included in our review—VA, GSA, DOE, and NASA—believe that the acquisition function is central to accomplishing their missions. There are clear reasons for this. About 90 percent of NASA’s funds, for example, is spent on contracts for projects such as the international space station and the space shuttle. DOE contracts out about 94 percent of its budget. VA purchases goods and services, such as medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, and information technology. And GSA’s primary function is to assist federal agencies in procuring goods and services. Recognizing the importance of acquisition to their missions, VA, GSA, and DOE are all developing or have developed strategic plans specifically targeted at strengthening their acquisition workforce. NASA is developing an overall workforce plan that will include the acquisition workforce. VA and GSA have defined the objectives for their future acquisition workforces. GSA has also established the competencies that workforce will need and has begun its gap analysis. DOE has studied its acquisition workforce, identified competencies and gaps, and is now implementing actions it believes are needed to strengthen the acquisition workforce. NASA is in the process of identifying the competencies its workforce possesses. All four of these agencies have also developed training and career development programs that are aimed at ensuring their acquisition workforces have the skills to accomplish the agencies’ missions. Treasury and HHS view acquisition as critical to mission success. However, unlike GSA, for example, acquisition is not a primary function of these agencies. Each agency spends less than 25 percent of its budget on acquisitions. Nevertheless, Treasury and HHS have undertaken initiatives such as training, career development, and intern programs to ensure that their acquisition workforces have the necessary skills and training to accomplish their missions. Tables 2 and 3 highlight progress being made by the agencies we studied. Detailed information on each agency’s efforts is provided at the end of this section. Major challenges facing the agencies we reviewed were difficulty in forecasting their missions in the future because of shifting priorities and budgets and difficulty in predicting the characteristics that the future workforce will need. Also, acquisition rules and regulations are changing, making it difficult for agencies to predict what will be required of their acquisition workforce in years to come. Officials at DOE said that given the dynamic nature of the agency’s mission focus and budget direction, forecasting the future represented a formidable challenge. Officials at HHS also noted that improving the focus on the agency’s mission and the skills sets needed to accomplish the mission was their biggest challenge. Officials at VA told us that they are still trying to determine how the department would be conducting its acquisitions in the future, and therefore they could not yet predict the kind of acquisition workforce VA would need. Compounding the uncertainty of the future environment is the changing role of the acquisition professional from merely a purchaser or process manager to a business manager. Uncertainty is also caused by an increased focus on performance and outcomes, which requires greater integration of functions such as acquisition, financial management, and program management. In order to make this transition, acquisition workers will need to acquire an entirely new set of skills and knowledge, according to the agency officials with whom we spoke. For example, in addition to having a firm understanding of contracting rules and processes, acquisition workers will need to be adept at consulting and communicating with line managers, and they will need to be able to analyze business problems, identify different alternatives in purchasing goods or services, and assist in developing strategies in the early stages of the acquisition. Finally, a deeper understanding of market conditions, industry trends, and the technical details of the commodities and services being procured will be required. Another challenge for agencies is the lack of data on the characteristics of the current workforce (e.g., size of workforce; deployment across the organization; knowledge, skills and abilities; attrition rates; retirement rates; etc.). NASA and VA are developing their own management information systems to capture this data. In addition, the FAI is developing a management information system, called the Acquisition Career Management Information System, to help agencies and departments collect and maintain standardized data on their acquisition workforces. The director of the FAI stated that the system is expected to be operational by January 2003. An additional challenge cited by some agency procurement officials is the lack of a means to share information among agencies about best practices or lessons learned in dealing with acquisition workforce issues. One potential mechanism for providing such leadership is the PEC, which was created to provide a senior-level forum for monitoring and improving the federal acquisition system. The OFPP Administrator currently serves as the chair of the council. The council established an Acquisition Workforce Committee in 1999 to focus on the changing role of the acquisition workforce and to identify methods and strategies to equip this workforce with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully meet the challenges of change. According to the committee chair, the council has only recently recognized that it needs to take a leadership role in coordinating agencies’ efforts to strengthen the acquisition workforce. However, assuming this leadership role will present its own challenges. For example, the PEC has yet to reach a consensus on how best to fulfill this role, in part because of the difficulty in finding common ground among several federal agencies with different agendas and missions. In addition, agencies currently lack formal mechanisms for sharing information about best practices or lessons learned on dealing with acquisition workforce issues. The Acquisition Workforce Committee had chartered working groups to research acquisition workforce needs, establish a governmentwide Acquisition Management Intern Program, develop retention strategies and incentives, and determine the ideal skills and characteristics of the future acquisition professional. According to the chair of the committee, although some of these initiatives, such as the intern program, have been successful, the effort to develop a broader governmentwide approach to building and implementing a model for the future acquisition workforce has been slow because the PEC has been realigning itself and redefining its strategic initiatives to support the President’s Management Agenda and to respond to issues related to homeland security. The following information provides details of the civilian agencies’ efforts to address acquisition workforce issues.