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United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO: 

Report to Congressional Requesters: 

December 2012: 

DHS Strategic Workforce Planning: 

Oversight of Departmentwide Efforts Should Be Strengthened: 

GAO-13-65: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-13-65, a report to congressional requesters. 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

With more than 240,000 employees doing diverse jobs, DHS’s workforce 
supports the department’s multiple missions to prevent terrorism and 
enhance security, secure and manage the nation’s borders, and ensure 
resilience from disasters, amongst others. Strategic workforce 
planning focuses on developing long-term strategies for acquiring, 
developing, and retaining an organization’s total workforce, including 
federal staff and contractors, to meet the needs of the future. GAO 
has previously identified workforce-related challenges faced by DHS 
components. In light of these ongoing challenges, GAO was asked to 
review DHS’s strategic workforce planning efforts. This report 
assesses whether DHS has incorporated strategic workforce planning 
leading principles into the department’s management of strategic 
workforce planning efforts. GAO reviewed DHS strategies and guidance 
related to strategic workforce planning, compared them with leading 
principles identified in previous GAO work, and discussed ongoing 
strategic workforce planning efforts with officials from the seven 
components selected because they constitute the majority of DHS 
personnel. 

What GAO Found: 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken some relatively 
recent steps to enhance strategic workforce planning across the 
department. These steps are generally consistent with leading 
principles, but the department has not yet implemented an effective 
oversight approach for monitoring and evaluating components’ progress. 
Specifically, recent steps DHS has taken to develop and implement 
strategic workforce planning efforts are consistent with the leading 
principles GAO has reported that include involving management and 
stakeholders, identifying skills and competencies, developing 
strategies to fill gaps, and building capability through training. For 
example, the department demonstrated stakeholder involvement by 
including component-level stakeholders in the development of the DHS 
Workforce Strategy. Though DHS has taken steps to implement strategic 
workforce planning, recent internal audits, as well as GAO’s previous 
work, identified challenges related to workforce planning at the 
component level that could impair the continued implementation of 
recently initiated strategic workforce planning efforts. For example, 
GAO reported in July 2009 that the Federal Protective Service’s (FPS) 
workforce planning was limited because FPS headquarters did not 
collect data on its workforce’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and 
subsequently could not determine optimal staffing levels or determine 
how to modify its workforce planning strategies accordingly, amongst 
others. GAO recommended that FPS take steps to address these issues. 
FPS officials agreed with our recommendations, and in June 2010 
drafted a staffing plan consistent with our recommendation, but as of 
November 2012, FPS has not gained approval of its staffing plan. 

Although DHS began taking positive steps for managing strategic 
workforce planning in 2011, DHS officials have not yet taken steps to 
implement an effective oversight approach for monitoring and 
evaluating components’ progress in implementing strategic workforce 
planning. According to this principle, agencies should measure the 
effectiveness of the workforce plan and help ensure that the 
strategies work as intended by monitoring and evaluating the 
contributions workforce plans make to strategic results. To do this, 
agencies should determine how well the agency implemented its 
workforce plan and the contribution that its implementation made 
toward achieving programmatic goals. However, the Office of the Chief 
Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) has developed limited performance 
measures to provide a basis for monitoring and evaluating 
departmentwide strategic workforce planning efforts. GAO’s analysis 
identified performance measures that reported on only 2 of the 15 
elements in DHS’s strategic workforce planning model. OCHCO relies on 
an informal process to evaluate component workforce planning, though 
processes exist that it could leverage to provide oversight. For 
example, OCHCO performs internal audits and requires components to 
develop annual operations plans to implement the department’s 
workforce strategy. However, the results of the audits are not used to 
evaluate components’ workforce planning. Without (1) performance 
measures that more comprehensively address DHS’s strategic workforce 
planning process, and (2) policies and procedures for ensuring 
monitoring and evaluation of departmentwide workforce planning, DHS’s 
OCHCO does not have reasonable assurance that such efforts will be 
institutionalized. Further, the department will not be able to produce 
departmentwide evidence of component alignment with DHS strategic 
workforce planning guidance. 

What GAO Recommends: 

GAO recommends that, among other actions, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security (1) identify and document additional performance measures to 
assess workforce planning efforts and (2) document policies and 
procedures regarding the use of internal audit results. DHS concurred 
with our recommendations. 

View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-65]. For more 
information, contact David C. Maurer at (202) 512-9627 or 
maurerd@gao.gov. 

[End of section] 

Contents: 

Letter: 

Background: 

DHS's Recent Efforts to Manage Strategic Workforce Planning Reflect 
Leading Principles, but Increased Oversight of Component Planning 
Would Enhance Efforts: 

Conclusion: 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

Agency Comments: 

Appendix I: Comments from the Department of Homeland Security: 

Appendix II: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

Table: 

Table 1: The Five Steps and 15 Elements of DHS's Workforce Planning 
Model, and Related Performance Measures. 

Figure: 

Figure 1: Strategic Workforce Planning Process Incorporating Leading 
Principles: 

Abbreviations: 

BWPMO: Balanced Workforce Program Management Office: 

CBP: Customs and Border Protection: 

CHCO: chief human capital officer: 

DHS: Department of Homeland Security: 

DOD: Department of Defense: 

FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency: 

FPS: Federal Protective Service: 

HCPP: Human Capital Policy and Programs: 

HROA: Human Resources Operations Audit: 

ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement: 

MCO: mission-critical occupation: 

OCHCO: Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer: 

OPM: Office of Personnel Management: 

TSA: Transportation Security Administration: 

TSI: transportation security inspector: 

USCG: U.S. Coast Guard: 

USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: 

USSS: U.S. Secret Service: 

[End of section] 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

December 3, 2012: 

The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman:
Chairman:
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Daniel K. Akaka:
Chairman:
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal 
Workforce, and the District of Columbia:
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:
United States Senate: 

With more than 240,000 employees doing diverse jobs--for example, 
aviation and border security, emergency response, cybersecurity 
analysis, and chemical facility inspection--the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS) is the third largest cabinet-level department in the 
federal government. DHS's workforce supports the department's multiple 
missions to prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage 
the nation's borders, enforce and administer immigration laws, 
safeguard and secure cyberspace, and ensure resilience from disasters. 
DHS's Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) works to 
support the department's employees and managers to achieve DHS's 
missions. Human capital leaders across the government face workforce 
challenges such as increased turnover--for example, throughout the 
government, retirements have increased approximately 25 percent from a 
year ago--which may remain high for a while because of the combined 
impact of an aging workforce and a 2-year pay freeze with possible 
extensions, as well as ongoing operational and fiscal challenges. For 
example, a recent governmentwide survey of chief human capital 
officers (CHCO) found that over half of the 53 CHCOs originally 
surveyed 5 years ago have since left government.[Footnote 1] Further, 
more than half of the 25-member CHCO Council have served in that 
position for less than 2 years, including DHS's own CHCO, who has 
occupied that position since August 2011.[Footnote 2] 

Under the authority of DHS's OCHCO, departmental workforce planning is 
managed by the Balanced Workforce Program Management Office (BWPMO). 
DHS's components operate within the human capital framework 
established and overseen by OCHCO.[Footnote 3] There are also 
component-level OCHCOs, or their equivalent, that work with the DHS 
OCHCO to manage human capital efforts at each of the components. 

Within OCHCO, BWPMO provides management and oversight of the 
department's workforce planning efforts and develops policies to guide 
departmentwide implementation of strategic workforce planning efforts. 
Strategic workforce planning focuses on developing long-term 
strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining an organization's 
total workforce, including full-and part-time federal staff and 
contractors, to meet the needs of the future. Strategic workforce 
planning also requires defining the critical skills and competencies 
that an agency will require in the future and developing strategies 
tailored to address gaps in the number, skills and competencies, and 
deployment of the workforce.[Footnote 4] We previously reported that 
the five leading principles of strategic workforce planning include 
involving top management and stakeholders; conducting workforce gap 
analysis; developing strategies to fill those gaps; building 
capability to support strategies; and monitoring, evaluating, and 
revising those strategies.[Footnote 5] 

Moreover, we previously reported on workforce planning-related 
challenges at DHS and its components. These challenges include 
collecting and analyzing workforce data, determining optimal staffing, 
and identifying gaps in workforce needs, amongst others. For example, 
we reported in September 2012 that most of DHS's major acquisition 
programs experienced workforce shortfalls--specifically a lack of 
government personnel--increasing the likelihood their programs will 
perform poorly in the future.[Footnote 6] We also previously reported 
that a lack of adequate staff in DHS program offices--both in terms of 
skill and staffing levels--increased the risk of insufficient program 
planning and contractor oversight, which is often associated with cost 
growth and schedule slips.[Footnote 7] At the component level, we 
reported in April 2012 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA) had not developed processes to systemically collect and analyze 
agencywide workforce data, and made recommendations that the agency 
take steps to do so.[Footnote 8] FEMA officials agreed with our 
recommendations and in May 2012 said that senior FEMA officials 
convened a group to discuss ways of addressing some of the 
recommendations. 

In light of DHS's ongoing human capital challenges, you asked us to 
review DHS's strategic workforce planning efforts. This report 
assesses whether DHS has incorporated the five strategic workforce 
planning leading principles into the department's management of its 
workforce planning efforts. 

To address this objective, we assessed DHS's workforce planning 
strategies and guidance against strategic workforce planning and 
related leading principles previously identified in our work. We also 
reviewed DHS strategies and guidance including the following: the 
Balanced Workforce Strategy, the department's effort to identify the 
appropriate balance of federal and contractor employees; the 
Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management, which addresses our 
designation of the department's implementation and transformation as a 
high-risk area and includes multiple human capital initiatives, among 
others; the DHS Strategic Plan 2012-2016; and the DHS Workforce 
Strategy 2011-2016 to determine whether the department's workforce 
planning strategy and guidance aligned with the department's missions 
and goals. We also reviewed Human Capital Resources Audits--internal 
audits performed by OCHCO to assess component compliance with DHS's 
Human Capital Accountability Plan--and the Office of Personnel 
Management's Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. 
[Footnote 9] To determine the reliability of the audits, we reviewed 
the guide used by internal auditors that included descriptions of the 
steps taken and information collected during these audits. We also 
reviewed component-specific workforce planning documents and discussed 
ongoing strategic workforce planning efforts with officials from the 
seven operational components that encompass the vast majority of DHS 
personnel.[Footnote 10] We also interviewed officials from DHS's OCHCO 
as well as their component-level counterparts to assess to what extent 
strategic workforce planning had been implemented. 

We conducted this performance audit from April 2012 to December 2012 
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. 

Background: 

Strategic workforce planning addresses two critical needs: aligning an 
organization's human capital program with its current and emerging 
mission and programmatic goals and developing long-term strategies for 
acquiring, developing, and retaining staff to achieve programmatic 
goals.[Footnote 11] This process includes the determination of 
critical skills and competencies--such as the identification of 
mission-critical occupations (MCO)--to meet both current and future 
programmatic needs. Once skills and competencies are identified, 
strategies should be tailored to address gaps in number, deployment, 
and alignment. The development and implementation of strategic 
workforce planning should be collaborative, involving employees and 
other stakeholders. Further, organizations should monitor and evaluate 
progress of their workforce plans and the contributions that their 
implementation made toward achieving programmatic goals. 

In 2002, we reported that a consistent approach to the government's 
management of its people--its human capital--was the critical missing 
link in reforming and modernizing the federal government's management 
practices, noting that many agencies faced challenges in key areas, 
including leadership, strategic human capital planning, and creating 
results-oriented organizational cultures, amongst others.[Footnote 12] 
We also suggested actions to be taken, such as workforce planning to 
support the skilled talent needs of the government, the identification 
of solutions to skills gaps, and the measurement and evaluation of the 
performance of key initiatives. 

In 2003, we designated implementing and transforming DHS as a high-
risk area because DHS had to transform 22 agencies--several with major 
management challenges--into one department, and failure to effectively 
address DHS's management and mission risks could have serious 
consequences for U.S. national and economic security.[Footnote 13] 
Human capital was among the challenges we identified that DHS faces in 
implementing and transforming the department. For example, we 
identified the need for DHS to link workforce planning efforts to the 
department's strategic and program-specific planning efforts to 
identify current and future human capital needs, including the size of 
the workforce; the deployment of the workforce across the department 
and its components; and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and 
diversity needed for the agency to meet its goals and objectives. In 
our most recent update of the high-risk list in February 2011, we 
reported that the department needed to link workforce planning to its 
strategic and program-specific planning efforts to identify current 
and future human capital needs to address DHS's challenges within the 
department's management functions and in integrating those functions 
across the department.[Footnote 14] 

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) to address challenges identified 
for each management area--human capital, financial, information 
technology, acquisition, and management integration. DHS provided 
updates of its progress in implementing these initiatives in later 
versions of the strategy in June 2011, December 2011, and June 2012. 
We reported in September 2012 that successfully achieving and 
sustaining progress in these management areas would demonstrate the 
department's ability and ongoing commitment to addressing its high-
risk designation in this implementation and transformation area. 
[Footnote 15] 

Leading Principles of Strategic Workforce Planning: 

We have reported that strategic workforce planning includes five 
leading principles that address aligning an organization's human 
capital program with its current and emerging mission and programmatic 
goals, and developing long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, 
and retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals.[Footnote 16] The 
process for strategic workforce planning, along with a description of 
the five associated leading principles, is shown in figure 1. 

Figure 1: Strategic Workforce Planning Process Incorporating Leading 
Principles: 

[Refer to PDF for image: interactive graphic] 

Move mouse over the phase title to get more information on the phases. 

Build capacity: 

Involvement of management and employees: 
Involving employees and other stakeholders on strategic workforce 
planning teams can develop new synergies that identify ways to 
streamline processes and improve human capital strategies and help the 
agency recognize and deal with the potential impact that the 
oprganization's culture can have on the implementation of such 
improvements. 

Set strategic direction: 

Top management and stakeholder involvement: 
We have found that efforts that address key organizational issues, 
like strategic workforce planning, are most likely to succeed, if at 
their outset, agencies top program and human capital leaders set the 
overall direction, pace, tone, and goals of the efforts, and involve 
employees and other stakeholders in establishing a communication 
strategy that creates shared expectations for the outcome of the 
process. 

Workforce gap analysis: 

Identify critical skills and competencies: 
An agency needs to define the critical skills and competencies that it 
will require in the future to meet its strategic program goals. 
Fiscal, demographic, technological, and other forces are challenging 
to government agencies to change the activities that they perform and 
the goals that they must achieve, how they do their business, and even 
who does the government's business. 

Workforce strategies to fill the gaps: 

Strategies for addressing gaps: 
Once an agency identifies the critical skills and competencies that 
its future workforce must possess, it can develop strategies tailored 
to address gaps in the number, skills, competencies, and deployment of 
the workforce and alignment of human capital approaches that enable 
and sustain the contributions of all critical skills and competencies 
needed for the future. 

Monitor and evaluate progress: 

Evaluating the contribution that the workforce makes to strategic 
results measures the effectiveness of the workforce plan and helps 
ensure that the strategies work as intended. This involves two 
activities: determining (1) how well the agency implemented its 
workforce plan and (2) the contribution that the implementation made 
toward achieving programmatic goals. 

Source: GAO. 

[End of figure] 

OCHCO Manages Strategic Workforce Planning for DHS: 

The department created BWPMO within OCHCO in March 2010 and issued its 
Balanced Workforce Strategy in 2010. The Balanced Workforce Strategy 
refers to the department's effort to identify the appropriate balance 
of federal and contractor employees required to support critical 
agency functions. For example, we reported in December 2011, as a 
result of the balanced workforce efforts, the Transportation Security 
Administration (TSA) hired 12 individuals in watch officer support 
positions, which involve collecting information and monitoring 
domestic events that affect air passenger security, positions that had 
previously been filled by contractors.[Footnote 17] Program officials 
said they plan to convert the remaining contractor positions to 
positions for federal employees in the near future. Further, we 
reported that DHS developed the Balanced Workforce Strategy in 
response to congressional concerns about the department's use of 
contracted services and our 2007 report on its use of professional and 
management support services.[Footnote 18] BWPMO issued the Balanced 
Workforce Strategy in 2010 and subsequently developed an automated 
tool to help components perform the necessary analysis to determine 
the appropriate mix of federal employees versus contractors. 

With the balanced workforce effort established, in January 2011, BWPMO 
began preparing for a Workforce Planning Summit to focus on Strategic 
Workforce Planning within DHS that it held in May 2011. From February 
through May 2011, DHS held four meetings featuring presentations from 
TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), FEMA, and Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP) to discuss workforce planning best practices. DHS 
also revised and reissued the department's Workforce Planning Guide in 
March 2011. 

Another office in OCHCO, the Human Capital Policy and Programs (HCPP) 
office, also plays a role in the oversight of component workforce 
planning efforts. Specifically, HCPP performs Human Resources 
Operations Audits (HROA) to determine components' compliance with 
DHS's Human Capital Accountability Plan and the Human Capital 
Assessment and Accountability Framework. Along with ensuring 
compliance with statutes and regulations, these internal audits assess 
the degree to which policies, programs, and practices provide 
efficient and effective support of the components' respective missions. 

The HROAs assess components in five areas related to human capital 
using a three-point scale (having met, partially met, or not met 
desired outcomes). Specifically, the five areas of the HROAs are (1) 
strategic alignment, (2) leadership and knowledge management system, 
(3) results-oriented performance culture system, (4) talent management 
system, and (5) accountability system. Within each of the five areas 
there are a total of 44 outcomes that, taken together, provide a basis 
for the assessment. Depending on the results of their findings, 
auditors can either require actions or make recommendations to the 
components for further action, which are included in the final report 
sent to the component. 

DHS's Recent Efforts to Manage Strategic Workforce Planning Reflect 
Leading Principles, but Increased Oversight of Component Planning 
Would Enhance Efforts: 

While DHS has recently taken steps that are generally consistent with 
leading principles in managing departmental strategic workforce 
planning, OCHCO has made limited progress in developing an oversight 
approach for monitoring and evaluating component-level efforts. As a 
result, and since OCHCO's efforts are in the relatively early stages, 
it is too early to determine the potential impact of its strategic 
workforce planning policies and initiatives on the departmentwide 
implementation of these efforts. Since January 2011, DHS has developed 
and disseminated guidance and procedures to guide workforce planning 
at the component level and has taken steps to enhance workforce 
planning across the department. These steps are generally reflective 
of some leading principles we have identified for strategic workforce 
planning. However, the performance measures contained in various DHS 
strategies primarily focus on monitoring progress in implementing a 
single aspect of strategic workforce planning--that is determining 
whether staff performing certain jobs should be federal or contract 
employees. In addition, OCHCO officials have not developed a 
documented evaluation system to institutionalize its oversight 
efforts. Further, internal audits and our previous work have 
identified component-level challenges related to workforce planning. 

DHS Has Taken Steps for Managing Strategic Workforce Planning, but 
Challenges Remain: 

DHS has taken steps relatively recently that are generally consistent 
with strategic workforce planning principles. Specifically, since 
January 2011, DHS has taken steps to develop and implement strategic 
workforce planning efforts that are generally consistent with the 
leading principles including involving management and stakeholders, 
identifying skills and competencies, developing strategies to fill 
gaps, and building capability through training. 

* Involving top management and stakeholders: We have found efforts 
that address key organizational issues, like strategic workforce 
planning, are most likely to succeed if, at their outset, agencies' 
top program and human capital leaders set the overall direction, pace, 
tone, and goals of the effort, and involve employees and other 
stakeholders in establishing a communication strategy that creates 
shared expectations for the outcome of the process. We reported in 
March 2012 that DHS has demonstrated top leadership commitment by 
identifying roles and responsibilities at the departmental level for 
its key management initiatives, including those in the human capital 
management area, it included in the December 2011 Integrated Strategy 
for High Risk Management.[Footnote 19] At the component level, BWPMO 
began efforts in 2011 to obtain input from component stakeholders and 
communicated information departmentwide via councils and committees, 
such as the Workforce Planning Council, which meets monthly.[Footnote 
20] In addition, from June through October 2011, BWPMO regularly held 
committee meetings of its Workforce Indicators Working Group to 
incorporate component input into new strategic workforce planning 
initiatives, such as providing common definition of terms so that 
human capital data, such as rates of attrition, reported by components 
are uniform.[Footnote 21] DHS also included component input in the 
development of the DHS Workforce Strategy Fiscal Years 2011-2016. 
Internal audits found evidence that components are taking steps to 
involve top managers and stakeholders. For example, internal audits of 
CBP in December 2011 found that agency workforce planning officials 
meet with their program-level counterparts at least three times a year 
to discuss changes within their workforce, develop strategies to 
retain the workforce, and to provide updated workforce analysis 
statistics. 

* Identifying critical skills and competencies: Our work has shown 
that in order to effectively meet department challenges, agencies must 
identify the workforce skills and competencies that are critical to 
achieving strategic goals and identify how the agency will obtain 
these requirements. OCHCO began working with components in 2011 to 
help identify critical skills and competencies needed to achieve their 
current and future workforce needs to achieve the department's 
missions. OCHCO provided components guidance for identifying critical 
skills and competencies, among other things, and DHS also developed a 
common framework for DHS competencies to be used across all components 
through DHS's Competency Working Group. Specifically, this framework 
includes a standard set of departmentwide competencies that would 
apply to all staff, which would be augmented by two further sets of 
competencies within each component: one set specific to all 
occupations and the other set specific to individual jobs. OCHCO also 
worked directly with components to identify MCOs. Internal audits 
found evidence that components are taking steps to identify critical 
skills and competencies, as well as the gaps that exist. For example, 
auditors found in their March 2010 audit that TSA identified mission-
critical positions throughout its organization and that information 
related to the competencies necessary to fill mission-critical 
positions was housed in a tool utilized as part of a midlevel 
leadership development program.[Footnote 22] 

* Developing strategies for addressing gaps: Our work on strategic 
workforce planning principles indicates that once an agency identifies 
the critical skills and competencies needed, strategies should be 
developed to address gaps in the number, skills and competencies, and 
deployment of the workforce needed for the future. Developing such 
strategies creates a road map for an agency to use to move from the 
current to the future workforce needed to achieve program goals. In 
September 2011, OCHCO began participating in the governmentwide 
Executive Steering Committee and Integrated Product Team as part of 
the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of Defense 
(DOD)-led Strategic Human Capital High Risk Initiative to develop 
strategies for addressing workforce skill gaps.[Footnote 23] According 
to BWPMO officials, its efforts on this governmentwide initiative 
supplemented the gap analysis detailed in the DHS Workforce Planning 
Guide, which BWMPO officials planned to update with additional tools 
and templates developed based on information from the governmentwide 
initiative. BWPMO officials reported they plan to complete the update 
by the end of November 2012. In addition, DHS required components to 
develop an initial assessment strategy for developing plans to address 
the skill gaps by the end of fiscal year 2012, and the department 
reported in June 2012 that 100 percent of its components had developed 
an initial assessment strategy. For example, officials at the U.S. 
Secret Service (USSS) said they developed a series of action plans to 
ensure full staffing of the Uniformed Division officer position, a 
position designated as a high-risk MCO through efforts related to the 
work of the governmentwide high-risk initiative. This included the 
identification and analysis of staffing gaps and the development of 
action plans to close them. 

* Building workforce planning capability: Our work on strategic 
workforce planning principles indicates that agencies should build the 
capability needed to address administrative, education, and other 
requirements important to supporting the workforce strategy. BWPMO 
leadership hosted the May 2011 Strategic Workforce Planning Summit, 
which involved human capital officials from each component. The summit 
provided training for component officials on strategic workforce 
planning to identify workforce indicators, competency and skill gaps, 
and revise MCOs. The training also included building components' 
planning capability to address current and future workforce needs 
using alternative futures scenarios. Officials at FEMA credited the 
summit with providing them the training they needed to better define 
their MCOs. In addition, representatives from each of the seven major 
components we interviewed said that OCHCO staff provided multiple 
opportunities for building their workforce planning capability through 
shared knowledge, including leading principles, identifying challenges 
and solutions, and general sharing of information between DHS and the 
components and also among the components. OCHCO has also provided 
resources for components to work directly with each other regarding 
sharing workforce leading principles. For example, BWPMO manages a 
shared website that allows officials at each component to share 
information and utilize resources, such as presentations or leading 
principles shared by other components.[Footnote 24] Internal audits 
found evidence that components are also building workforce planning 
capability. For example, in March 2012, internal auditors reported 
that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had established 
communities of practice composed of eight offices tasked with 
addressing the strategic direction of human capital and improving 
communications for accuracy and timeliness among the ICE human capital 
leaders. 

While DHS has taken relatively recent steps, since January 2011, to 
implement strategic workforce planning, recent internal audits, as 
well as our previous work, identified challenges related to workforce 
planning at the component level. Specifically, these audits, as well 
as our previous work, have reported findings of component-level 
deficiencies that could impair the continued implementation of recent 
OCHCO efforts. For example, internal audits and our previous work 
found challenges related to the following. 

* Involving stakeholders: In July 2010, internal auditors recommended 
that human capital professionals in the Coast Guard work with 
component and program-level human capital stakeholders to determine 
the workforce needed to meet organizational goals.[Footnote 25] 
Similarly, in August 2009, internal auditors recommended that U.S. 
Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) educate all managers, 
supervisors, and employees on the significance of the strategic 
workforce plan, including their roles and responsibilities in 
implementing the plan.[Footnote 26] 

* Identifying critical skills: Internal auditors found in March 2012 
that ICE had performed the preliminary identification of MCOs in 
fiscal years 2010 and 2011, and recommended that ICE continue efforts 
to identify competency gaps, among other things.[Footnote 27] 
Additionally, internal auditors found in July 2010 that while USCG 
identified a list of MCOs, the list was inconsistent across the 
functional areas of human capital and that a comprehensive list should 
be compiled and shared amongst the various program areas.[Footnote 28] 
In July 2009 we reported that, among other things, the Federal 
Protective Service's (FPS) workforce planning was limited because FPS 
headquarters did not collect data on its workforce's knowledge, 
skills, and abilities.[Footnote 29] We reported that without such 
information, FPS was unable to determine what its optimal staffing 
levels should be or identify gaps in its workforce needs, or determine 
how to modify its workforce planning strategies to fill these gaps, 
and we made recommendations that FPS take steps to address these 
issues. FPS officials agreed with our recommendations and in June 2010 
drafted a staffing plan consistent with our recommendations, but as of 
November 2012, FPS has not gained approval of its staffing plan. 

* Developing strategies for addressing gaps: A March 2012 internal 
audit reported that although ICE had made significant progress in the 
development of a draft succession plan demonstrating progress in 
moving toward a strategically aligned workforce plan, the agency had 
not yet finalized a comprehensive agencywide workforce and succession 
plan, and that this area remains a source of concern.[Footnote 30] 
Further, we reported in February 2009 that TSA did not have a 
reasonable basis for determining the workforce needed to achieve 
inspection goals of its transportation security inspector (TSI) 
workforce.[Footnote 31] According to TSA officials, planned aviation 
inspection goals were met in fiscal year 2007, but aviation cargo 
inspection goals were not met because, among other reasons, TSA did 
not fill all of its cargo TSI positions. TSA reported that it had 
plans to conduct a staffing study in fiscal year 2009 to identify the 
optimal workforce size to address its current and future program 
needs. In September 2011, we further reported that TSA had completed 
the workforce study in March 2010 to provide the agency with a more 
reasonable basis for determining the optimal workforce size needed to 
achieve its current and future inspector workload needs of its 
aviation and air cargo inspectors.[Footnote 32] We did not assess the 
extent to which the results of this study were informing TSA's 
resource allocation decisions as part of this review. 

* Building capability: In internal audits conducted from August 2009 
through May 2010, auditors found that three of the seven components' 
human capital managers and staff had insufficient awareness of the 
linkage between human capital planning and the department's missions 
and goals. Specifically, as mentioned above, in August 2009, auditors 
recommended USCIS educate all managers, supervisors, and employees in 
Human Capital on the significance of the human capital strategic plan 
and how its strategic objectives affect the mission, including their 
roles and responsibilities in executing the plan.[Footnote 33] Audits 
conducted in October 2009 and May 2010 resulted in similar 
recommendations for both ICE and USSS.[Footnote 34] 

DHS Efforts to Monitor and Evaluate Components Progress: 

Although the department recently began taking positive steps for 
managing strategic workforce planning in 2011, DHS officials have not 
yet taken steps to implement an effective oversight approach for 
monitoring and evaluating components' progress in implementing 
strategic workforce planning, consistent with strategic workforce 
planning principles. 

Monitor Progress: 

According to leading principles, agencies should measure the 
effectiveness of the workforce plan and help ensure that the 
strategies work as intended by evaluating the contributions workforce 
plans make to strategic results. To do this, agencies should determine 
how well the agency implemented its workforce plan and determine the 
contribution that the implementation made toward achieving 
programmatic goals. Periodic measurement of an agency's progress 
toward human capital goals and the extent that human capital 
activities contributed to achieving programmatic goals provides 
information for effective oversight by identifying performance 
shortfalls and the need for appropriate corrective actions.[Footnote 
35] Further, OPM's Human Capital Assessment and Accountability 
Framework calls for agencies to develop a system for monitoring and 
evaluating the results of its human capital management policies, 
programs, and activities, and identifying and monitoring necessary 
improvements based on the principle that agency human capital 
management decisions should be guided by a data-driven, results-
oriented planning and accountability system. 

OCHCO has developed limited performance measures to provide a basis 
for monitoring and evaluating departmentwide strategic workforce 
planning efforts.[Footnote 36] Our analysis shows that DHS had three 
performance measures related to strategic workforce planning and that 
two of these three measures gauge components' efforts to determine 
whether positions should be filled with federal or contract employees. 
[Footnote 37] Determining whether a function should be staffed by 
either a federal employee or a contractor is one element of the first 
of five steps (strategic direction setting) in DHS's workforce 
planning model, which includes five steps made up of a total of 15 
elements. The five steps and 15 elements of the DHS Workforce Planning 
Model, as well as whether there are any related performance measures 
for these elements, are described in table 1.[Footnote 38] 

Table 1: The Five Steps and 15 Elements of DHS's Workforce Planning 
Model, and Related Performance Measures. 

Workforce planning model step: Step 1--strategic direction setting; 
Workforce planning elements: 

* Linking strategy to the workforce; 
Related performance measures: No. 

* Defining and evaluating work to be performed; 
Related performance measures: Yes[A]. 

* Defining the source to perform the work; 
Related performance measures: Yes[A]. 

* Consider the workforce planning scope; 
Related performance measures: No. 

Workforce planning model step: Step 2--supply, demand discrepancies[B]; 

Workforce planning elements: 

* Supply analysis; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Demand analysis; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Discrepancies and gap analysis; 
Related performance measures: None. 

Workforce planning model step: Step 3--develop action plan; 

Workforce planning elements: 

* Design a workforce plan to address gaps; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Identify strategies and action items; 
Related performance measures: None. 

Workforce planning model step: Step 4--implement action plan; 

Workforce planning elements: 

* Management, leadership, and support; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Conduct recruitment, hiring, training, and placement; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Implement retention strategies; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Other important considerations; 
Related performance measures: None. 

Workforce planning model step: Step 5--monitor, evaluate, revise; 

Workforce planning elements: 

* Monitor, evaluate, and revise workforce plan; 
Related performance measures: None. 

* Monitor, evaluate, and revise process steps; 
Related performance measures: None. 

Source: GAO analysis of DHS data. 

[A] Both elements relate to efforts to determine whether positions 
should be filled with federal or contract employees. There are two 
different performance measures related to these elements in the DHS 
Integrated Strategy for High Risk Management. One of these performance 
measures is essentially duplicated in the DHS Workforce Strategy. 

[B] There is a single performance measure in the DHS Integrated 
Strategy for High Risk Management that relates to this step. However, 
because it measures components' progress in developing an initial 
skill gap assessment strategy, it is not actually a measure of any of 
the elements included in this step. 

[End of table] 

The remaining performance measure gauges the percentage of components 
that have developed an initial assessment strategy for determining 
skills gaps for an analysis of workforce supply, which is a precursor 
to step 2 of the workforce planning model. OCHCO also uses what it 
refers to as the Human Capital Dashboard to monitor and report to 
senior DHS officials regarding targeted indicators of workforce 
health, such as attrition, aligned with the MCOs.[Footnote 39] For 
example, in DHS's first mission area, Preventing Terrorism and 
Enhancing Security, the Dashboard identifies workforce information 
such as number of staff and attrition rates for job series identified 
as MCOs, including transportation security officers from TSA and 
special agents from USSS. 

Thus, on the basis of our evaluations, OCHCO has established 
performance measures that monitor only 2 of the 15 elements in the 
department's workforce planning model. When we asked BWPMO officials 
about developing performance measures for other steps or elements of 
the DHS Workforce Planning Model, officials agreed that the existing 
measures did not adequately report the state of strategic workforce 
planning at the component level. BWPMO officials said that they 
intended to include additional performance measures in revising the 
Workforce Strategy, sometime in 2016. In subsequent discussions, BWPMO 
officials said that, in response to our inquiries, they planned to 
discuss how to accelerate their efforts to incorporate additional 
performance measures for reporting components' progress implementing 
strategic workforce planning at a future Workforce Planning Council 
meeting.[Footnote 40] However, as of November 2012, OCHCO had no plans 
in place to develop and implement additional workforce planning-
related performance measures. Without performance measures that 
provide BWPMO a basis to monitor all aspects of departmentwide 
strategic workforce planning, DHS has limited means of determining 
components' progress toward achieving human capital goals or the 
contribution of human capital activities toward achieving programmatic 
goals. Additional performance measures that monitor additional steps 
and elements of DHS's workforce planning model could enhance the 
department's oversight of these efforts. 

Evaluate Progress: 

BWPMO officials rely on an informal management approach to assess 
component workforce planning, which provides it with a limited means 
of evaluating components' progress in implementing departmental 
policies and procedures governing workforce planning. BWPMO's reliance 
on an informal management approach to evaluate components' progress in 
implementing departmental policies and procedures governing workforce 
planning provides limited oversight of components' efforts because it 
fails to leverage and institutionalize existing processes. 

Two processes exist within OCHCO that BWPMO could leverage to more 
effectively evaluate components' progress implementing workforce 
planning, though these have limitations. Specifically, components 
develop and provide to OCHCO for review, annual operational plans to 
report on the components' progress implementing the department's 
Workforce Strategy, though OCHCO has not provided timely review of 
components' annual operational plans. Additionally, HCPP uses internal 
audits in its evaluation of component-level human capital-related 
efforts, but BWPMO has not used the results of these audits to 
evaluate the implementation of the components' workforce planning 
efforts. 

The department's Workforce Strategy requires components to submit 
annual operational plans to OCHCO that describe, among other things, 
how their strategic workforce planning supports the strategy's goals 
and objectives.[Footnote 41] Specifically, the annual operational 
plans are the method by which components report to the Secretary of 
Homeland Security and the CHCO on component-specific actions in 
support of the department's goals, objectives, and associated 
performance measures identified in the Workforce Strategy. OCHCO is 
responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Workforce 
Strategy and also for providing oversight and feedback on the 
components' annual operational plans, among other things. In order for 
these annual plans to be an effective tool for component leadership to 
ensure that their workforce planning efforts are aligned to the 
department's Workforce Strategy, component officials need departmental 
feedback in time to make any corrections or revisions so they can 
fully develop the operational plans prior to the start of the fiscal 
year and then implement them once the fiscal year begins. 

However, OCHCO has not provided feedback on operational plans in time 
for the components to revise and implement their plans before the 
start of the fiscal year. Specifically, when we spoke with component 
officials from April through May 2012, they said they had previously 
provided their fiscal year 2012 operational plans to OCHCO for review, 
but at that time had not yet received feedback on these plans. An 
official from the OCHCO Chief of Staff's office, the office 
responsible for overseeing the implementation of the workforce 
strategy and for providing feedback on the components operational 
plans, said that as of September 2012, nearly 1 year after the 
beginning of fiscal year 2012, the components' had not received 
feedback on their operational plans for fiscal year 2012, and 
subsequently the department had not begun working with components to 
develop their plans for fiscal year 2013. Further, fiscal year 2013 
had already begun yet OCHCO had not completed the process for 
finalizing the fiscal year 2012's plans. This official agreed that 
components' operational plans should be finalized and in place prior 
to the start of the fiscal year for which they are intended in order 
to guide components' operations for the coming year. 

When we asked the official from the OCHCO Chief of Staff's office 
whether the component operational plans were an effective tool for the 
department to use in its evaluation of component-level workforce 
planning, the official acknowledged that the plans do not serve as an 
effective management tool for OCHCO to evaluate component workforce 
strategy-related activities, including workforce planning. The plans 
do not serve as an effective management tool because there have been 
delays in preparing, reviewing, and approving component annual 
operational plans, as well as in providing feedback. Such feedback 
serves as the basis for revising and finalizing the plans, as well as 
providing baseline information to develop the following year's plans. 
OCHCO officials agreed that they have not provided components with 
feedback regarding their operational plans in a timely manner, which 
has delayed the implementation of the fiscal year 2012 plans as well 
as the development of fiscal year 2013 plans. OCHCO officials agreed 
these plans should have been developed and implemented prior to the 
start of the fiscal year for which they are to be used to evaluate the 
implementation of the DHS Workforce Strategy. As a result, without 
timely feedback and implementation, OCHCO is unable to use the annual 
operational plans to determine the effectiveness of components' 
efforts to implement the department's workforce strategy. 

In addition to OCHCO's requirement that components report annually on 
the status of their implementation of workforce planning efforts, HCPP 
conducts internal audits called Human Resources Operations Audits on 
each operational component every 3 years.[Footnote 42] Our analysis 
determined that 11 out of 44 total outcomes in the HROAs related to 
workforce planning. Within the first section of the HROA, strategic 
alignment, there are three outcomes that explicitly assess components' 
workforce planning efforts. For example, one outcome assesses whether 
workforce planning is strategically approached. In addition to the 
three outcomes explicitly identified in the audits as related to 
workforce planning, our analysis determined there are an additional 
eight outcomes within the audits that relate to the strategic 
workforce planning leading principles our previous work has 
identified. For example, one outcome DHS components are assessed 
against is whether they have documented and communicated human capital 
accountability policies, processes, measures, and results throughout 
their organization. This outcome directly relates to the strategic 
workforce planning leading principle regarding monitoring and 
evaluating. 

The most recently completed audits conducted on the seven operational 
components included in our review revealed that five of the seven 
components had not taken needed steps to ensure that human capital 
accountability policies, processes, measures, and results are 
documented and communicated throughout the organization. Additionally, 
four components had not fully incorporated systems to continually 
assess and improve human capital planning and investment as well as 
their impact on mission accomplishment. For example, in their most 
recent HROAs, CBP and TSA met all four outcomes pertaining to 
accountability; however, audits of the other five components included 
recommendations to develop accountability programs. For example, in 
March 2012 auditors recommended that ICE officials develop a 
formalized accountability program that describes a system for 
measuring accountability goals and compliance with applicable legal 
authorities and continue developing standardized policies and 
procedures that will be used to hold program areas accountable. 
[Footnote 43] Similarly, USCIS's most recent audit report in August 
2009 recommended that USCIS officials develop and implement a human 
capital accountability plan.[Footnote 44] 

Further, HCPP and BWPMO, the two offices in OCHCO responsible for 
providing oversight of components' workforce planning, have not 
coordinated their efforts. Specifically, within OCHCO, HCPP uses the 
HROAs to evaluate components' compliance with certain statues and 
regulations, among other things, while BWPMO, the OCHCO office 
primarily responsible for departmentwide workforce planning, had no 
knowledge that HROAs included workforce planning-related required 
actions and recommendations. 

According to the OCHCO Human Resources Audit Manual, the guide used by 
audit teams to perform HROAs on the components, the component is 
responsible for preparing an action plan for the accepted required 
actions and recommendations. This plan must be submitted to the audit 
team lead for review and approval and must include a timeline of 
activities to fulfill each action and must identify the documentation 
that will be provided to the audit team lead upon completion of each 
item. 

When we asked OCHCO officials how the required action plans were 
evaluated, they said that as part of their follow-up and tracking of 
component HROA responses, HCPP reviews component action plans and 
closes out audit reports. This process includes issuing the final 
audit results to the component and, in response, the component 
develops an action plan. Once HCPP receives the required component 
action plan, HCPP staff evaluates the plan to determine its 
sufficiency in addressing the required actions from the audits and 
adds notes to the report to indicate their final determination or 
provide further direction to the component. Finally, HCPP issues a 
close out report to the component documenting the status of the 
findings. 

Despite BWPMO's responsibility for departmentwide workforce planning, 
officials in that office did not use the workforce planning-related 
portions of the HCPP HROAs to evaluate component workforce planning. 
When we asked BWPMO officials how they used the results of these 
audits for departmental management and oversight, they said that they 
were not aware that the HROAs included recommendations or required 
components to take certain actions pertaining to workforce planning. 
Thus, these officials said that they had not integrated the results of 
these audits into their strategic workforce planning efforts. Because 
HCPP performs the human resources operational audits and BWPMO had not 
used the results to assess compliance, the BWPMO officials relied on 
informal discussions with component officials to gather information on 
the status of component strategic workforce planning efforts. 

As a result of our inquiries, BWPMO officials said they planned to 
coordinate with HCPP in the future to ensure that workforce planning 
analysis conducted during the audits is consistent with BWPMO 
workforce planning efforts, and that the results of required actions 
and recommendations from the final audit reports related to workforce 
planning are evaluated across components. However, BWPMO had no 
documented plans regarding using these audits to evaluate components' 
implementation of strategic workforce planning efforts. Though BWPMO 
and HCPP officials stated they planned to revise the Human Resources 
Audit Manual to incorporate changes, as of November 2012, BWPMO was 
unable to provide specific information regarding how these audits 
would be used in the future. Standards for Internal Control in the 
Federal Government calls for agencies to have appropriate 
documentation of transactions and internal controls, which should 
appear in management directives, administrative policies, or operating 
manuals. Moreover, the standards state that such policies and 
procedures should provide reasonable assurance that ongoing monitoring 
and evaluation is institutionalized in the agency's operations. 
Without policies and procedures in place to ensure that monitoring and 
evaluation is institutionalized, OCHCO will continue to have limited 
oversight of the implementation of strategic workforce planning at the 
component level. 

In addition, although components are required to develop annual 
operational plans to report on their efforts to implement the 
department's workforce strategy and the HROAs are performed on 
components to assess the extent to which they are contributing to 
mission accomplishment, among other things, the two efforts are not 
linked. In conjunction with additional strategic workforce planning 
performance measures, incorporating the results of human resources 
operations audits, including the status of addressing required actions 
and recommendations, in the components' annual operational plans could 
provide OCHCO with a greater ability to oversee departmentwide 
strategic workforce planning. Moreover, monitoring and evaluating the 
results of components' implementation of OCHCO's strategic workforce 
planning policies and procedures is essential to ensure that issues 
and concerns identified in prior internal audits are consistently and 
comprehensively resolved and to provide a means of assessing the 
impact of OCHCO's recent initiatives. 

Conclusion: 

DHS's ability to successfully meet its multiple, diverse, and 
essential missions involves the efforts of more than 240,000 
employees, the vast majority of which work within the seven 
operational components. To ensure DHS has the workforce it needs to 
accomplish these missions, and effectively manage the human capital 
challenges it is facing along with the government as a whole, such as 
increasing turnover, the department needs to align its strategic 
planning with programmatic goals and budgetary realities to develop 
long-term strategies for acquiring, developing, and retaining staff to 
achieve these goals. DHS has recently taken steps to implement more 
strategic, departmentwide workforce planning by working 
collaboratively with components though various committees and councils 
to focus the department on strategic workforce planning. Nonetheless, 
as DHS moves forward, it will need to determine how to assess its 
progress and ensure components are achieving workforce planning goals. 
DHS currently has limited performance measures and lacks policies and 
procedures regarding how to use the results of audits for departmental 
oversight of component workforce planning. Without additional 
performance measures related to workforce planning to hold components 
accountable for making progress in implementing these efforts, DHS's 
OCHCO does not have an effective means of monitoring progress. 
Similarly, without policies and procedures for integrating the results 
of audits into component workforce plans and annual reports, DHS lacks 
reasonable assurance that evaluation of such efforts will be 
institutionalized, nor can it provide evidence of component alignment 
with departmental strategic workforce planning guidance. 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

To help ensure that DHS strategic workforce planning is effectively 
implemented departmentwide, we recommend that the Secretary of 
Homeland Security direct the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer 
to take the following three actions to provide a basis to monitor and 
assess the effectiveness of departmentwide strategic workforce 
planning: 

* identify and document additional performance measures, such as 
measures to monitor component efforts to develop and implement action 
plans to address workforce supply and demand discrepancies, and use 
them to assess and report on components' progress in implementing 
DHS's strategic workforce planning process; 

* document policies and procedures for the Balanced Workforce Program 
Management Office and the Human Capital Policy and Programs Office 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 the plans and provide timely feedback to 
enhance components' implementation of strategic workforce planning 
efforts. 

Agency Comments: 

We requested comments on a draft of this report from DHS. On November 
16, 2012, DHS provided written comments, which are reprinted in 
appendix I, and provided technical comments, which we incorporated as 
appropriate. DHS concurred with our three recommendations and 
described actions planned to address them. Specifically, DHS stated 
that: 

* The department has taken steps to implement an effective oversight 
approach for monitoring and evaluating components' progress in 
implementing strategic workforce planning. These steps include an 
effort by BWPMO and HCPP to develop a checklist outlining specific 
performance measures to be used in future HROAs to determine component 
compliance with workforce planning guidance, among other things. 

* BWPMO plans to document oversight policies in the next update of its 
workforce planning guidance, and that HCPP will provide audit findings 
to BWPMO staff in order to ensure appropriate internal control 
processes and component compliance with workforce planning guidance. 
The procedures outlined in the planned update to the DHS Workforce 
Planning Guide will also be used by BWPMO to monitor and provide 
workforce planning oversight of components. 

* OCHCO will use HROA audit results as a source of component 
information as OCHCO conducts reviews of component annual operational 
plans. OCHCO will begin this integration of HROA information and 
component operational plans with the issuance of HCPP's next HROA 
audit report scheduled for the end of November 2012. 

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, selected congressional committees, and other interested 
parties. In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO 
website at [hyperlink, 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 II. 

Signed by: 

David C. Maurer: 
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues: 

[End of section] 

Appendix I: Comments from the Department of Homeland Security: 

Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer: 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security: 
Washington, DC 20528: 

November 16, 2012: 

David C. Maurer: 
Director, Homeland Security & Justice Issues: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street, NW: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

Re: Draft Report GAO-13-65, "DHS Strategic Workforce Planning: 
Oversight of Department-wide Efforts Should Be Strengthened" 

Dear Mr. Maurer: 

Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on this draft 
report. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appreciates the 
U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO's) work in planning and 
conducting its review and issuing this report. 

The Department is pleased to note the report's positive description of 
recent steps taken by DHS to enhance its strategic workforce planning 
efforts across the Department, consistent with GAO leading principles 
for workforce planning. These steps include involving management and 
stakeholders; identifying skills and competencies; developing 
strategies to fill gaps; and building capability through training. 

The draft report contained three recommendations with which the 
Department concurs. Specifically, GAO recommended that the Secretary 
of Homeland Security direct the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer (OCHCO) to: 

Recommendation 1: Identify and document additional performance 
measures, such as measures to monitor component efforts to develop and 
implement action plans to address workforce supply and demand 
discrepancies, and use them to assess and report on components' 
progress in implementing DHS's strategic workforce planning process. 

Response: Concur. The Balanced Workforce Program Management Office 
(BWPMO) and the Human Capital Policy and Programs Office (HCPP) have 
taken steps to implement an effective oversight approach for 
monitoring and evaluating components' progress in implementing 
strategic workforce planning, consistent with strategic workforce 
planning principles. 

Specifically, since July 2012, BWPMO and HCPP have developed an audit 
checklist to be applied during the Human Resources Operations 
Assessment (HROA) to determine each component's compliance with DHS's 
guidance for Workforce Planning and the Office of Personnel 
Management's Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. 
The checklist outlines specific performance measures (to include the 
five steps and fifteen elements of DHS's Workforce Planning Model) 
that provide a basis for evaluating each components' compliance with 
department-wide strategic workforce planning guidance. 

The workforce planning audit checklist is scheduled to be piloted the 
last week of November 2012, modified if needed based on pilot results, 
and finalized by December 31, 2012. BWPMO staff members will 
participate as members of the HCPP audit team. 

Recommendation 2: Document policies and procedures for the Balanced 
Workforce Program Management Office and the Human Capital Policy and 
Programs Office (HCPP) to use the results of audits related to 
component-level workforce planning. 

Response: Concur. BWPMO has documented oversight policies and 
procedures within the revised DHS Workforce Planning Guide, which was 
provided to the components for review and comment on September 28, 
2012. BWPMO staff are adjudicating and incorporating comments. The 
guide will be completed by November 30, 2012. 

HCPP routinely conducts audit follow-up with the components to ensure 
their corrective action plans have been implemented as required. Going 
forward, HCPP will provide audit findings to BWPMO staff in order to 
ensure appropriate internal control processes and component compliance 
with workforce planning guidance. The procedures outlined in the DHS 
Workforce Planning Guide will also be used by BWPMO to monitor and 
provide workforce planning oversight to components. 

Recommendation 3: Integrate the results of these audits with 
components' annual operations plans and review the plans and provide 
timely feedback to enhance components' implementation of strategic 
workforce planning efforts. 

Response: Concur. OCHCO will use HROA audit results as an important 
source of component information as OCHCO conducts reviews of the 
components' annual operations plans. OCHCO will begin this integration 
of HROA information and component operational plans with the issuance 
of HCPP's next HROA audit report. That audit is scheduled for November 
26-30, 2012. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on this 
draft report. Technical comments were previously provided under 
separate cover. Please feel free to contact me if you have any 
questions. We look forward to working with you in the future. 

Sincerely, 

Signed by: 

Jim H. Crumpacker: 
Director: 
Departmental GAO-OIG Liaison Office: 

[End of section] 

Appendix II: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contact: 

David C. Maurer, (202) 512-9627 or maurerd@gao.gov: 

Staff Acknowledgments: 

In addition to the contact named above, Chris Keisling, Assistant 
Director; Scott Behen, Analyst-in-Charge; David Garcia; Steve Lozano; 
and Katherine Davis made significant contributions to the work. Mary 
Denigan-Macauley, Tracey King, and Amanda Miller also contributed to 
this work. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] Partnership for Public Service, Bracing for Change: Chief Human 
Capital Officers Rethink Business as Usual, (Washington, D.C.: August 
2012). 

[2] The CHCO Council advises and coordinates human resources 
activities governmentwide and is composed of the director of the 
Office of Personnel Management, the Deputy Director for Management of 
the Office of Management and Budget, the CHCOs of the 15 executive 
departments, and the CHCOs of eight additional agencies designated by 
the OPM Director. CHCOs serve as their agencies' chief policy advisors 
on all human resources management issues. 

[3] The human capital framework includes the development of strategic 
goals and an implementation plan that are achievable, realistic, and 
focused on strategic priorities. It also ensures integration with 
related DHS business cycles, particularly the DHS Planning, 
Programming, Budget, and Execution cycles. 

[4] Critical skills are those skills critical to achieving strategic 
goals including those skills that the agency will need to acquire, 
develop, and retain to meet its goals. A competency is an observable, 
measurable set of skills, knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and other 
characteristics an individual needs to successfully perform work roles 
or occupational functions. 

[5] GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 
Workforce Planning, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-39] 
(Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003). These principles are discussed in 
more detail later in this report. 

[6] GAO, Homeland Security: DHS Requires More Disciplined Investment 
Management to Help Meet Mission Needs, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-833] (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 18, 
2012). DHS generally defines major programs as those expected to cost 
at least $300 million over their respective life cycles, and many are 
expected to cost more than $1 billion. 

[7] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Assessments of Selected 
Complex Acquisitions, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-588SP] (Washington, D.C.: June 30, 
2010). 

[8] GAO, Federal Emergency Management Agency: Workforce Planning and 
Training Could Be Enhanced by Incorporating Strategic Management 
Principles, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-487] 
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 26, 2012). 

[9] The DHS Human Capital Accountability Plan establishes policy as 
well as a framework for assessments to evaluate current human capital 
activities in the department. The Office of Personnel Management's 
Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework, developed in 
conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget and GAO, defines 
standards for success for the federal government and can serve as a 
road map for human capital transformation. 

[10] The seven operational components, as defined by DHS, are Customs 
and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security 
Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 
Services, and the U.S. Secret Service. 

[11] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-39]. 

[12] GAO, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-02-373SP] (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 15, 
2002). 

[13] GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-278] (Washington, D.C.: February 
2011). 

[14] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-278]. 

[15] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Continued Progress Made 
Improving and Integrating Management Areas, but More Work Remains, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-1041T] (Washington, 
D.C.: Sept. 20, 2012). 

[16] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-39]. 

[17] GAO, Managing Service Contracts: Recent Efforts to Address 
Associated Risks Can Be Further Enhanced, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-87] (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 7, 
2011). 

[18] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Improved Assessment and 
Oversight Needed to Manage Risk of Contracting for Selected Services, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-07-990] (Washington, D.C.: 
Sept. 17, 2007). 

[19] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Continued Progress Made 
Improving and Integrating Management Areas, but More Work Remains, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-365T] (Washington, 
D.C.: Mar. 1, 2012). 

[20] For example, officials from CBP presented information at the 
January 2012 Workforce Planning Council meeting on the progress the 
agency had made in identifying mission-critical occupations, such as 
Customs and Border Protection officers, and how these occupations 
aligned with DHS mission areas, in this case, its mission known as 
Securing and Protecting the Borders. 

[21] The DHS Workforce Indicators Working Group was a series of 
workshops composed of OCHCO and component officials. 

[22] HCPP, Final Report from the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer Regarding the Human Resources Operations Audit at the 
Transportation Security Administration conducted September 20-24, 2010. 

[23] The OPM-DOD Strategic Human Capital Management Government-Wide 
High Risk Initiative is a governmentwide committee led by the Office 
of Personnel Management and the Department of Defense whose primary 
objective includes institutionalizing a comprehensive strategic human 
capital management approach to reduce high-risk skill gaps in targeted 
governmentwide and agency-specific mission-critical occupations. 

[24] DHS utilizes an online database known as the share point site to 
store presentations and documents utilized for workforce planning, and 
a library of competency models organized by job series for use by all 
DHS components. 

[25] HCPP, Final Report from the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer of the Human Resources Operations Audit at the United States 
Coast Guard Conducted July 12-16, 2010. It is unclear what actions 
USCG officials took in response to the July 2010 HROA since, according 
to DHS, no record exists of the Coast Guard's required action plan 
response to the findings of the July 2010 audit. 

[26] HCPP, Final Report from the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer of the Human Resources Operations Audit at USCIS Conducted on 
August 10-14, 2009. It is unclear what actions USCIS officials took in 
response to the August 2009 HROA since, according to DHS, no record 
exists of USCIS's required action plan response to the findings of the 
August 2009 audit. 

[27] HCPP, Final Report from the Office of the Chief Human Capital 
Officer for the ICE HROA Conducted March 5-9, 2012. The internal audit 
in October 2009 identified the need for ICE to expand the mission-
critical occupations it identified to include other series included in 
the Office of Personnel Management's list and utilize competency 
analyses to drive human-capital strategic planning and workforce 
planning efforts. It is unclear what actions ICE officials took in 
response to the March 2012 HROA because ICE did not submit the 
required response plan to HCPP until the end of October 2012. Because 
ICE did not submit the plan until the end of October 2012, we were 
unable to assess the plan as part of this review. 

[28] HCPP, Final Report USCG HROA Conducted July 12-16, 2010. It is 
unclear what actions USCG officials took in response to the July 2010 
HROA since, according to DHS officials, no record exists of the Coast 
Guard's required action plan response to the findings of the July 2010 
audit. 

[29] GAO, Homeland Security: Federal Protective Service Should Improve 
Human Capital Planning and Better Communicate with Tenants, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-749] (Washington, D.C.: 
July 30, 2009). 

[30] HCPP, Final Report ICE HROA March 5-9, 2012. The internal audit 
in March 2012 identified the need for ICE to continue its efforts to 
identify competency gaps and develop streamlined recruitment 
strategies for all designated MCOs. It is unclear what actions ICE 
officials took in response to the March 2012 HROA because ICE did not 
submit the required response plan to HCPP until the end of October 
2012. Because ICE did not submit the plan until the end of October 
2012, we were unable to assess the plan as part of this review. 

[31] GAO, Aviation Security: Status of Transportation Security 
Inspector Workforce, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-123R] (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 6, 
2009). Transportation security inspectors (TSI) conduct on-site 
inspections of all regulated entities in the aviation, air cargo, and 
surface transportation modes of transportation to determine their 
compliance with federal requirements involving transportation 
security. For example, at airports, TSIs may check the integrity of 
access control systems, alarms, security lighting, and biometric 
devices used to restrict public access to secure areas. 

[32] GAO, Department of Homeland Security: Progress Made and Work 
Remaining in Implementing Homeland Security Missions 10 Years after 
9/11, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-881] (Washington, 
D.C.: Sept. 7, 2011). 

[33] HCPP, Final Report of the HROA at USCIS Conducted on August 10-
14, 2009. It is unclear what actions USCIS officials took in response 
to the August 2009 HROA since, according to DHS officials, no record 
exists of the USCIS's required action plan response to the findings of 
the August 2009 audit. 

[34] See HCPP, Final Audit Report Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
October 19-23, 2009; Final Report ICE HROA March 5-9, 2012. The 
required action plan developed by ICE did not respond to this 
recommendation, though auditors did not make a similar recommendation 
in their 2012 audit of ICE. See also HCPP, Final Report from the 
Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer of the Human Resources 
Operations Audit at USSS Conducted May 17-21,2010. In its required 
response plan, USSS reported that its Human Capital Strategic Plan was 
in the final stages of publication and that the Director of the USSS 
Office of Human Resources and Training would lead an effort to 
communicate the publication to all USSS employees. 

[35] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-39]. 

[36] We identified these performance measures in two different 
strategy documents, DHS's Workforce Strategy and its Integrated 
Strategy for High Risk Management. 

[37] Specifically, one of the three performance measures assesses the 
"proportion of component contract work that has been analyzed and 
documented using the balanced workforce methodology to determine 
appropriate balance" regarding federal and contract employees. 
Additionally, a second measure monitors the percentage of major 
contracts that have been evaluated by the components to determine 
whether the positions should be converted to ones held by federal 
employees or remain as ones held by contractors. 

[38] BWPMO officials reported that some of the elements in the DHS 
Workforce Planning Model are to be modified in the next update of the 
DHS Workforce Planning Guide. 

[39] The Human Capital Dashboard report is given to DHS leadership and 
provides the status of the DHS workforce overall, as well as changes 
to the workforce in mission-critical occupations that may signal 
potential mission risk. Further, though the dashboard presents 
information on items such as attrition, DHS has not yet established, 
for example, any criteria or standard for what is "acceptable" or 
"unacceptable" attrition. 

[40] BWPMO officials also discussed applying a governmentwide measure 
in fiscal year 2012 to measure staffing gaps as part of its annual 
reporting to OPM. 

[41] Strategic workforce planning is referred to under goal 2, recruit 
a highly qualified and diverse workforce, of the department's 
Workforce Strategy and is one of four goal 2 objectives. 

[42] OCHCO Human Capital Policy and Program Officials noted that 
beginning with the planned audit of USCIS in November 2012, the HROAs 
will be conducted every 4 years, on a rotating basis. 

[43] It is unclear what actions ICE officials took in response to the 
March 2012 HROA because ICE did not submit the required response plan 
to HCPP until the end of October 2012. Because ICE did not submit the 
plan until the end of October 2012, we were unable to assess the plan 
as part of this review. 

[44] It is unclear what actions USCIS officials took in response to 
the HROA reported in June 2010. According to DHS officials, no record 
exists of USCIS's required action plan response to the findings of the 
audit. 

[End of section] 

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