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Incorporates Many Leading Practices, but Improving Employees' 
Satisfaction with Their Workplace Remains a Challenge' which was 
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Report to the Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure, House of Representatives: 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO: 

October 2009: 

Federal Aviation Administration: 

Human Capital System Incorporates Many Leading Practices, but Improving 
Employees' Satisfaction with Their Workplace Remains a Challenge: 

GAO-10-89: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-10-89, a report to the Ranking Member, Committee on 
Transportation and Infrastructure, House of Representatives. 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

Aviation is critical to the nation’s economic well-being, global 
competitiveness, and national security. The Federal Aviation 
Administration’s (FAA) 48,000 employees guide aircraft, oversee safety, 
and maintain air traffic control equipment. FAA will need these skills 
and additional expertise to address evolving missions. As requested, 
GAO reviewed (1) how FAA’s human capital system compares with practices 
of leading organizations and (2) how FAA employees’ workplace 
satisfaction compares with that of other federal government employees. 
GAO reviewed documents and relevant studies, and interviewed FAA 
officials who implement human capital procedures and union 
representatives. GAO also reviewed survey data on workplace 
satisfaction. 

What GAO Found: 

FAA’s human capital system incorporates many practices used in leading 
organizations, but the agency’s placement near the bottom in best 
places to work rankings, published by the Partnership for Public 
Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public 
Policy Implementation, could pose challenges to employee recruitment, 
motivation, and retention. As part of strategic workforce planning, FAA 
determines the critical skills needed in its workforce and assesses 
individual worker skill levels. It also follows leading practices in 
performance management, but FAA officials and union representatives 
questioned the system’s fairness, echoing concerns that they have 
raised in the past. FAA follows fewer leading practices in diversity 
management, but has an opportunity to strengthen its efforts as it 
updates diversity outreach plans. Despite these efforts, FAA ranked 
214th out of 216 agencies in 2009 as the best place to work in the 
federal government, similar to its ranking in 2007. These low rankings 
could pose obstacles to FAA’s efforts to retain its existing workforce 
and recruit staff with the requisite skills needed to implement the 
Next Generation Air Transportation System. By fiscal year 2013, FAA 
projects that 38 percent of its employees who perform work that is 
critical to FAA’s mission will be eligible to retire. 

While FAA employee responses to governmentwide surveys indicate that 
they like their work, their responses are considerably less positive 
than the rest of the federal government regarding other factors that 
have an impact on employee recruitment, motivation, and retention (see 
figure). The percentage of FAA employees’ positive responses regarding 
communications, involvement in decisions that affect their work, and 
respect for their leaders were up to 19 points below those of the rest 
of the federal government (see figure). FAA has developed an action 
plan to improve leadership and create a performance-based culture that 
could improve employees’ workplace satisfaction. However, FAA has not 
established accountability for the plan’s success. 

Figure: FAA and Non-FAA Positive Responses to a 2008 Governmentwide 
Survey: 

[Refer to PDF for image: table with horizontal bar chart] 

Selected impact item: I like the kind of work I do. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 85%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 84%. 

Selected impact item: How satisfied are you with the information you 
receive from management on what’s going on? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 36%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 48%. 

Selected impact item: How satisfied are you with your involvement in 
decisions that affect your work? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 41%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 54%. 

Selected impact item: I have a high level of respect for my 
organization’s senior leaders. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 33%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 52%. 

Source: GAO analysis of Federal Human Capital Survey data. 

[End of figure] 

What GAO Recommends: 

GAO makes recommendations in this report to the Secretary of 
Transportation aimed at improving diversity management by incorporating 
leading practices and establishing accountability for increasing 
employees’ satisfaction with their workplace. In commenting on a draft 
of this report, the Department of Transportation generally agreed to 
consider GAO’s recommendations and provided technical corrections, 
which GAO incorporated as appropriate. 

View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-89] or key 
components. For more information, contact Gerald Dillingham, Ph.D., at 
(202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov. 

[End of section] 

Contents: 

Letter: 

Background: 

FAA Incorporates Many Leading Human Capital Practices, but Its Low 
Ranking in Best Places to Work Could Pose Challenges in Recruitment, 
Motivation, and Retention: 

FAA Is Considerably behind the Rest of the Federal Government in Key 
Measures of Workplace Satisfaction, and Is Taking Steps Aimed at 
Improvement: 

Conclusions: 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

Agency Comments: 

Appendix I: Scope and Methods: 

Appendix II: Key Leading Practices and FAA's Activities in Strategic 
Workforce Planning, Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and Performance 
Management: 

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

Tables: 

Table 1: FAA Human Resources Functions and Title 5 Exemptions: 

Table 2: Retirement Eligibility Projections in FAA's Mission-Critical 
Occupations: 

Table 3: Key Leading Practices in Strategic Workforce Planning, and 
Examples of FAA Activities: 

Table 4: Key Leading Practices in Training, and Examples of FAA 
Activities: 

Table 5: Key Leading Practices in Recruitment and Hiring, and Examples 
of FAA Activities: 

Table 6: Key Leading Practices in Performance Management, and Examples 
of FAA Activities: 

Figures: 

Figure 1: Percentage of Positive Responses to Impact Items on OPM's 
Survey from Employees at FAA and the Rest of the Federal Government in 
2008: 

Figure 2: FAA's Leadership Competencies: 

Abbreviations: 

AFSCME: American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees: 

ATO: Air Traffic Organization: 

EEO: equal employment opportunity: 

FAA: Federal Aviation Administration: 

ISPPI: Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation: 

MSPB: Merit Systems Protection Board: 

NAPA: National Academy of Public Administration: 

NATCA: National Air Traffic Controllers Association: 

NextGen: Next Generation Air Transportation System: 

OPM: Office of Personnel Management: 

OSI: Organizational Success Increase: 

PASS: Professional Aviation Safety Specialists: 

SCI: superior contribution increase: 

[End of section] 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

October 28, 2009: 

The Honorable John L. Mica: 
Ranking Member: 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure: 
House of Representatives: 

Dear Mr. Mica: 

Aviation is critical to the nation's economic well-being, global 
competitiveness, and national security. The Federal Aviation 
Administration (FAA) is tasked with ensuring that our nation's airspace 
system operates safely and efficiently. FAA's 48,000 employees[Footnote 
1] apply specialized skills to guide aircraft, ensure safety, install 
and maintain air traffic control systems, and coordinate with other 
countries. As significant portions of its employees retire in the 
coming years, FAA will need to replace these skills and also recruit 
employees with specialized acquisitions, systems integration, and 
program management skills required to support the transition of the 
current air traffic control system to the Next Generation Air 
Transportation System (NextGen), which will rely more on satellites and 
automation, than today's ground-based radars and aircraft-by-aircraft 
control. Additionally, FAA will also need to hire several thousand air 
traffic controllers to replace those who were hired in the years 
following a strike in 1981 and will become eligible to retire in the 
coming decade. A human capital system should provide the framework for 
recruiting, motivating, and retaining a talented and diverse workforce 
to enable an agency to achieve its missions and goals. However, FAA 
placed near the bottom of the ranking of the Best Places to Work in the 
Federal Government[Footnote 2] in 2007 and 2009. Additionally, FAA 
employees' expressed dissatisfaction with many facets of their 
workplace that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has determined 
affect recruitment, motivation, and retention of employees. This raises 
a concern about FAA's ability to recruit, motivate, and retain the 
talented employees needed to accomplish its mission. 

As you requested, this report reviews FAA's human capital system and 
discusses some of its key human capital challenges. We address the 
following questions: (1) How do FAA's human capital practices compare 
with those of leading organizations? and (2) How does FAA employees' 
workplace satisfaction compare with that of other federal government 
employees, and what areas, if any, are most in need of improvement? To 
address these questions, we compared the FAA's human capital practices 
with leading practices--those that we have identified through previous 
work as being present in public and private organizations that are 
viewed as leaders in strategic human capital management and managing 
for results. We reviewed FAA documents and regulations, and relevant 
studies by other organizations, and interviewed key FAA operating 
officials who have responsibility for implementing human capital 
procedures within FAA's major organizational entities. We also 
interviewed FAA's human resource management officials and obtained the 
perspectives of organized labor through semistructured interviews with 
union representatives. This report provides examples of FAA activities 
that mirror leading practices and discusses leading practices that FAA 
has not implemented. We did not evaluate the effectiveness of FAA's 
implementation of its human capital system. To compare FAA employees' 
workplace satisfaction with that of other federal government employees, 
we analyzed the results of OPM's Federal Human Capital Survey. Appendix 
I contains more detailed information on our scope and methodology. 

We conducted this performance audit from June 2008 to October 2009 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. We also conducted 
reliability assessments of the data we obtained electronically and 
determined those data to be of sufficient quality to be used for the 
purposes of this report. 

Background: 

Human Capital Systems: 

Federal agencies need effective human capital systems to support 
enhanced performance, ensure accountability, and help achieve their 
missions. Through our past work, we have identified five key components 
of human capital systems. 

* Strategic workforce planning: The steps an agency takes to (1) align 
its human capital program with its current and emerging mission and 
programmatic goals and (2) develop long-term strategies for acquiring, 
developing, and retaining staff to achieve programmatic goals.[Footnote 
3] 

* Training: Developing a strategic approach to establish training 
priorities and leveraging investment in training to achieve agency 
results; identifying specific training initiatives that improve 
individual and agency performance; ensuring effective and efficient 
delivery of training opportunities in an environment that supports 
learning and change; and demonstrating how training efforts contribute 
to improved performance and results.[Footnote 4] 

* Recruitment and hiring: Developing and implementing strategies to 
advertise positions and attract top candidates; assessing applicants' 
relative competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities against job- 
related criteria to identify the most qualified candidates; using a 
variety of candidate assessment tools, such as interviews, to make a 
selection; and coordinating the process of bringing a new hire on 
board.[Footnote 5] 

* Performance management: Planning work and setting individual 
performance expectations, monitoring performance throughout the year 
through ongoing feedback, developing individuals' capacities to 
perform, and rating and rewarding individual performance.[Footnote 6] 

* Diversity management: A process intended to create and maintain a 
positive work environment where the similarities and differences of 
individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and 
maximize their contributions to an organization's strategic goals and 
objectives.[Footnote 7] 

An agency's human resources organization, the agency's leaders, and 
staff have roles to play in implementing these components. For example, 
the human resources organization, with the participation of agency 
management, would develop performance management policies and 
procedures, but the agency's leaders implement those policies and 
procedures. Additionally the agency's leaders identify a requirement to 
recruit and the skill set needed to fill a vacancy, but the human 
resource organization performs the mechanics of posting the vacancy and 
ensuring that agency procedures are followed in reviewing applications 
and making the selection. The agency's staff may be involved in vetting 
new system proposals or participating in process improvement teams. In 
FAA, the Office of Human Resource Management has the primary 
responsibility for developing and implementing the agency's human 
capital system. However, senior officials in each of FAA's four major 
entities, called lines of business, oversee the implementation of human 
capital procedures within their respective organizations. 

FAA's Human Capital Reform: 

In September 1993, the National Performance Review concluded that 
federal budget, procurement, and personnel rules prevented FAA from 
reacting quickly to the needs of the air traffic control system. In 
response to a congressional mandate resulting from this review, the 
Secretary of Transportation prepared a report[Footnote 8] in 1995 that 
concluded that the most effective reform would be to exempt FAA from 
most federal personnel rules and procedures contained in title 5 of the 
United States Code. On November 15, 1995, Congress exempted FAA from a 
number of title 5 rules and procedures (see table 1) and directed the 
FAA Administrator to develop and implement a new personnel management 
system.[Footnote 9] The law also required that FAA's new personnel 
management system address the unique demands of the agency's workforce 
and, at a minimum, provide greater flexibility in the compensation, 
hiring, training, and location of personnel. Subsequent legislation 
added the requirement for FAA to negotiate with its labor unions any 
changes made to its personnel management system.[Footnote 10] On April 
1, 1996, FAA introduced its new personnel management system and, over 
the next several years, initiated a number of efforts to address the 
following reform objectives: 

* FAA acquires, develops, and deploys required expertise (people) where 
and when needed. 

* Human resource systems support employees' achievement of goals. 

* FAA has effective leadership and management. 

* FAA is perceived as a desirable place to work. 

* Human resource management systems are efficient and adaptable. 

Table 1: FAA Human Resources Functions and Title 5 Exemptions: 

Title 5 exempt: 
* Staffing; 
* Compensation; 
* Performance Management; 
* Training and Development; 
* Reduction-in-Force; 
* Employee Relations - Discipline and Removal; 
* Executive Systems; 
* Permanent Change of Station; 
* Human Resource Information System Technology; 
* Follow Merit System Principles (done voluntarily by FAA); 
* Most Prohibited Personnel Practices. 

Title 5 non-exempt: 
* Labor Relations; 
* Strike Prohibition; 
* Whistleblower Protection; 
* Veteran's Preference; 
* Retirement Systems; 
* Employee Relations - Appeals; 
* Prohibition of Discrimination; 
* Health, Life, Workers' Compensation and Unemployment Insurance; 
* Restrictions on Certain Political Activities. 

Source: Adapted from FAA. 

[End of table] 

In 2003, we reported that FAA had implemented many of its reform 
initiatives, but changes to its compensation system, workforce planning 
initiatives, and implementation of a new performance management system 
remained incomplete.[Footnote 11] FAA had (1) developed a new 
broadbanded, performance-based pay structure aimed at providing a wider 
range of pay and greater managerial flexibility to recruit, retain, and 
motivate employees and (2) implemented the pay structure in varying 
forms for about 75 percent of its workforce. FAA had planned to cover 
the remainder of the workforce under the new compensation plan as it 
negotiated new labor agreements with unions representing those 
workforces. As of July 2009, 88 percent of FAA's workforce was under 
one or more components of performance-based compensation. However, FAA 
and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)---the 
union representing FAA's air traffic controllers--agreed to a new 
contract in September 2009 that removed nearly 16,000 employees from 
performance-based compensation, thereby reducing the percentage of the 
workforce under performance-based compensation to about 55 percent. 
[Footnote 12] 

As part of its reform efforts, FAA also developed a new performance 
management system consisting of a narrative evaluation of employees' 
performance against performance standards combined with feedback and 
coaching. FAA began developing its new performance management system in 
1999 and first implemented it within segments of the agency in 2001. At 
the time of our 2003 report, about 20 percent of FAA's workforce was 
under the new performance management system. As of July 2009, FAA had 
expanded the performance management system's coverage to more than 95 
percent of its workforce. Under FAA's new contract with NATCA, air 
traffic controllers continue to be covered by the new performance 
management system. While the contract requires that controllers' 
performance be evaluated against written standards, and that the 
supervisor and controller discuss the evaluation, the contract does not 
provide for interim or midpoint performance feedback during the 
performance appraisal cycle. 

FAA also sought, received, and implemented flexibilities in hiring, 
relocating, and training employees. However, at the time of our 2003 
report, FAA had not completed efforts to incorporate these 
flexibilities into strategic workforce plans. Workforce planning should 
include developing strategies for integrating hiring, recruiting, 
training, and other human capital activities in a manner that meets the 
agency's long-term objectives to ensure that appropriately skilled 
employees are available when and where they are needed to meet an 
agency's mission. We reported that FAA had established agencywide 
corporate policies and guidance for developing workforce plans for 
executives, managers, and supervisors and for specific occupations, but 
these initiatives were at varying degrees of implementation. As we 
discuss later in this report, FAA has developed workforce plans for its 
major organizational segments and for specific workforces. 

In 2003, we also noted that FAA lacked baseline data against which to 
measure the impact of its initiatives, and that FAA had not adequately 
linked initiative goals to the agency's mission goals. While FAA's 
human resource officials maintained that the new compensation system 
addressed recruitment and retention objectives, FAA could not support 
this assertion with data because the agency did not establish any 
baseline data from which to measure improvements. Consequently, we were 
unable to evaluate the effectiveness of FAA's reform efforts. We 
recommended that FAA develop empirical data and establish performance 
measures, develop linkages between human capital reform initiatives and 
program goals, establish time frames for data collection and analysis, 
and hold managers accountable for the results of human capital 
management efforts. FAA has implemented these recommendations. 

FAA's Workforce Demographics and Expertise Requirements: 

In the coming years, FAA risks losing significant amounts of 
institutional knowledge as its employees retire. The dramatic shifts 
that are occurring in the nation's population are reflected in FAA's 
workforce, where more than three-fourths of its employees are age 40 or 
older. By fiscal year 2013, FAA projects that 38 percent of its 
employees who perform work that is critical to FAA's mission will be 
eligible to retire (see table 2).[Footnote 13] For example, in the next 
5 years, 42 percent of air traffic controllers, who ensure the safe and 
smooth movement of air traffic in the air and on the ground at 
airports; 31 percent of airway transportation system specialists, who 
install and maintain air traffic control systems; and 48 percent of 
aviation safety inspectors, who perform critical safety oversight of 
the aviation industry and air operators, are projected to be eligible 
to retire.[Footnote 14] However, the current economic downturn could 
affect FAA's retention and recruitment. FAA's losses from retirement 
and other causes, for all occupations, declined by 27 percent during 
the first 4 months of fiscal year 2009, compared with the corresponding 
months of the prior fiscal year. Additionally, a July 2009 vacancy 
announcement for controllers attracted nearly 9,000 applications and a 
recruitment fair for people with disabilities was successful. 

Table 2: Retirement Eligibility Projections in FAA's Mission-Critical 
Occupations: 

Title: Air traffic controllers; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 15,381[A]; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 6,447; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 42%. 

Title: Airway transportation system specialists; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 6,084; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 1,886; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 31%. 

Title: Aviation safety inspectors; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 4,162; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 1,991; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 48%. 

Title: Engineers; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 2,893; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 845; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 29v 

Title: Information technologists; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 1,845; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 485; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 26%. 

Title: Security/Certification/Compliance inspectors; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 452; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 154; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 34%. 

Title: Human resources specialists; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 420; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 176; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 42%. 

Title: Contract specialists; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 244; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 90; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 37%. 

Title: Community planners; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 29; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 9; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 31%. 

Title: Total; 
Employees (end of fiscal year 2008): 31,510; 
Employees eligible to retire by 2013: 12,083; 
Percentage of employees eligible to retire by 2013: 38%. 

Source: FAA. 

[A] This number does not include about 4,000 air traffic controllers 
who do not actively control aircraft. These employees are traffic 
management coordinators, supervisors, instructors at the FAA Academy, 
and staff specialists and those in leadership positions in headquarters 
and regions. 

[End of table] 

In addition to replacing institutional knowledge, FAA will need to 
obtain expertise to support the transition of the national airspace 
system to NextGen. NextGen envisions a fundamental change in air 
traffic management by moving to a structure that is adaptable to growth 
in operations as well as shifts in demand, and that is network-centric, 
meaning everyone using the system has easy access to the same 
information at the same time. NextGen will entail a number of 
transitions--from ground-based to satellite-based navigation and 
surveillance; from voice communications to digital data exchange; from 
a fragmented weather forecast delivery system to a system that uses a 
single, authoritative source; and from limited operations in poor 
visibility conditions to more operations that can proceed in adverse 
weather. While FAA plays a central role in these transitions, the 
Departments of Defense, Commerce, and Homeland Security; the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the White House Office of 
Science and Technology Policy also participate. In previous work, we 
questioned whether FAA had the required systems integration expertise, 
given the complexity of this effort.[Footnote 15] FAA responded by 
engaging the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to 
identify (1) the skills needed to accomplish the transition to NextGen 
and (2) strategies for acquiring the necessary workforce competencies. 
NAPA assembled a panel of experts (NAPA Panel) to perform the study and 
reported on the panel's findings in September 2008.[Footnote 16] 

The NAPA Panel found that acquisitions will be an important element in 
NextGen. FAA defines its acquisition workforce broadly, following the 
Office of Management and Budget's guidance, to include program and 
project managers, researchers and engineers, business and financial 
analysts, contracting officers and specialists, contracting officer's 
technical representatives, integrated logistics specialists, test and 
evaluation personnel, and other specialized support. Consequently, the 
acquisition workforce includes individuals who determine requirements; 
plan acquisition strategies; establish business relationships to obtain 
needed goods and services; and ensure that the government's needs are 
met by testing, evaluating, and monitoring contractor performance. 
FAA's acquisition workforce also includes experts in subject matter 
areas, such as finance, who support the business process. FAA recently 
estimated that it will need to hire several hundred additional staff to 
implement NextGen, and most of these staff will be part of the 
acquisition workforce. However, as FAA attempts to hire these staff, it 
will be competing with a projected governmentwide hiring surge. For 
example, the Partnership for Public Service's survey, "Where the Jobs 
Are 2009," indicates that from fiscal years 2010 through 2012, the 
federal government could hire more than 16,000 employees to fill needs 
in general administration/program management; engineering (electrical, 
aerospace, and computer); finance; and contracts.[Footnote 17] FAA is 
developing a 5-year acquisition workforce plan that the agency expects 
will address, among other things, challenges and strategies to address 
workforce requirements. FAA expects to complete the plan in October 
2009. 

FAA Incorporates Many Leading Human Capital Practices, but Its Low 
Ranking in Best Places to Work Could Pose Challenges in Recruitment, 
Motivation, and Retention: 

FAA's human capital system employs many leading practices in strategic 
workforce planning, training, recruitment and hiring, and performance 
management. FAA has implemented few leading diversity management 
practices, but is developing a diversity outreach plan. The agency's 
consistent placement near the bottom in published best places to work 
rankings could pose challenges in recruiting, motivating, and retaining 
employees to replace those retiring and to meet current and future 
mission requirements. 

FAA Incorporates Many Leading Human Capital Practices in Strategic 
Workforce Planning, Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and Performance 
Management: 

FAA's human capital system mirrors many leading human capital practices 
in strategic workforce planning, training, recruitment and hiring, and 
performance management, but FAA officials with responsibility for 
implementing human capital procedures in major segments of the agency 
and union representatives criticized FAA's practices in performance 
management. Union representatives also criticized FAA's training 
practices. Pending legislation to reauthorize FAA contains provisions 
related to a number of these practices. 

Strategic Workforce Planning: 

This practice focuses on developing long-term strategies for acquiring, 
developing, and retaining an organization's total workforce to meet the 
needs of the future. Such planning is essential to ensure that an 
agency's human capital program uses its workforce's strengths and 
addresses related challenges in a manner that is clearly linked to 
achieving missions and goals. Table 3 lists the key leading strategic 
workforce management practices that we identified in our past work and 
examples of FAA's activities. See appendix II for an expanded list of 
FAA's activities that align with key leading practices. 

Table 3: Key Leading Practices in Strategic Workforce Planning, and 
Examples of FAA Activities: 

Key leading practice: Involve top management, employees, and other 
stakeholders in developing, communicating, and implementing the 
strategic workforce plan; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA executives sign workforce planning 
documents for the workforces under their purview. Executives were 
actively engaged in developing and leading implementation of the plans 
for the controller and acquisition workforces. 

Key leading practice: Determine the critical skills and competencies 
that will be needed to achieve current and future programmatic results; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA has identified 16 leadership 
competencies and is using these competencies to, among other things, 
select employees for leadership development programs. FAA also 
contracted with NAPA to help determine the workforce competencies 
needed to transition to and implement NextGen. 

Key leading practice: Develop strategies that are tailored to address 
gaps in number, deployment, and alignment of human capital approaches 
for enabling and sustaining the contributions of all critical skills 
and competencies; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA assesses the skill levels of its 
nonsupervisory and supervisory workforces to identify gaps between 
target and actual skill levels and formulates strategies to close the 
gaps. FAA establishes its goals in its strategic plan, known as the 
"Flight Plan," and develops workforce plans for major organizational 
segments and specific workforces, such as air traffic controllers. 
These plans detail the demographics of the workforce and strategies to 
address agency goals and missions and future workforce challenges. 

Key leading practice: Build the capability needed to address 
administrative, educational, and other requirements important to 
support workforce planning strategies; 
Examples of FAA activities: Building capability includes providing 
clear and transparent guidelines and holding managers accountable for 
following them. FAA has a Human Capital Planning Council that serves as 
an internal community of practice for workforce planning in the agency 
and a focal point for sharing best practices and disseminating 
guidance. FAA has established a system of accountability that holds the 
organization, managers, and human resource officers accountable for 
efficient and effective human resource management. Accountability and 
measurement is one of FAA's leadership competencies. 

Key leading practice: Monitor and evaluate the agency's progress toward 
its human capital goals and the contribution that human capital results 
have made toward achieving programmatic results; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA has established performance metrics for 
human capital goals, tracks performance, and posts the results on its 
Web site. 

Sources: GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 
Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003) and GAO 
analysis of FAA practices. 

[End of table] 

FAA has made progress in strategic workforce planning since 2003, when 
we issued our previous report. FAA has established an agencywide 
strategic human capital plan that lays out human capital goals, and 
strategies and initiatives under each goal. FAA annually updates its 
strategies and initiatives to maintain alignment with the strategic 
plan--the Flight Plan--and to reflect emerging or changing mission 
demands. FAA has also established workforce plans for each of its four 
major entities, called lines of business--the Air Traffic Organization 
(ATO), Aviation Safety, Airports, and Commercial Space Transportation--
and has established plans to manage specific workforces, such as air 
traffic controllers, and technical operations. 

The House has passed and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation has reported out FAA reauthorization bills that would 
require the agency to undertake additional workforce planning.[Footnote 
18] For example, the bills would require FAA to (1) study and prepare a 
report to Congress on the frontline manager staffing requirements at 
air traffic control facilities, taking into account, among other 
things, the facility type and complexity of air traffic handled and 
managerial responsibilities, and (2) develop a staffing model for 
safety inspectors. Additionally, the bills would require FAA to make 
the appropriate arrangements with the National Academies of Science for 
studies of the assumptions and methods used to determine the staffing 
needs for controllers and airway transportation systems specialists. 

Training: 

Training and development programs can assist the agency in achieving 
its mission and goals by improving individual and, ultimately, 
organizational performance. In our past work, we identified numerous 
leading training practices, which we have segmented into the four key 
components shown in table 4, along with examples of FAA's activities 
that align with these key components. See appendix II for an expanded 
list of FAA's activities that align with key leading practices. 

Table 4: Key Leading Practices in Training, and Examples of FAA 
Activities: 

Key leading practice: Planning/Front-End Analysis: Strategically link 
training and development programs to agency goals and to the skills and 
competencies needed for the agency to perform effectively; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA requires that training be based on a 
systematic analysis of knowledge, skills, and abilities required to 
achieve the organization's mission. FAA determines gaps between desired 
and current organizational performance; determines if training is the 
appropriate solution; and, if so, addresses those learning needs in 
annual business plans. For example, FAA's Human Resource Management 
business plan has a strategic initiative to identify leadership skill 
gaps for managers on the basis of the FAA Managerial Success Profile 
and to promote continuing managerial training to address these gaps. 

Key leading practice: Design: Conduct the appropriate analyses when 
designing training and development efforts; 
Examples of FAA activities: To determine whether to design training 
programs internally or use an external source, FAA developed criteria 
on the basis of industry Instructional Design Standards. Additionally, 
consistent with the standards, FAA conducts analyses to choose among 
different mixes of training delivery mechanisms. FAA officials noted 
that FAA is moving to a more "blended approach" to training delivery, 
including the use of computer-based training where possible. 

Key leading practice: Implementation: Agency leaders communicate the 
importance of training and developing employees and foster an 
environment conducive to effective training and development; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA's leadership promotes participation in 
training programs by encouraging employees to develop annual learning 
plans--identifying occupational performance requirements, job-and 
career-related learning needs, and learning strategies for meeting 
them--in conjunction with their annual performance plans. Additionally, 
FAA has communicated its commitment to ensuring that adequate funds 
will be set aside for position-essential training. 

Key leading practice: Evaluation: Systematically plan for and evaluate 
the effectiveness of agency training and development efforts, using the 
appropriate analytic approaches and performance data; 
Examples of FAA activities: According to FAA officials, the agency 
evaluates training at several levels. First, FAA evaluates the 
satisfaction of the training participant. Second, FAA evaluates whether 
the training improved the participant's skill, knowledge, or abilities 
by comparing pre-and posttraining test scores. According to FAA 
officials, the agency is working toward evaluating how the training 
affected the use of learning on the job. 

Sources: GAO, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training 
and Development Efforts in the Federal Government, GAO-04-546G 
(Washington, D.C.: March 2004) and GAO analysis of FAA practices. 

[End of table] 

In 2005, we reviewed FAA's technical training for aviation safety 
inspectors and found that the program followed some leading practices. 
For example, the training efforts are intended to support FAA's goals 
for improving aviation safety, and FAA has established clear 
accountability for ensuring that inspectors have access to technical 
training. Additionally, the technical training program contains an 
evaluation component. However, we made several recommendations aimed 
at, among other things, improving the timeliness of training, improving 
FAA's identification of gaps in inspectors' technical knowledge, and 
developing measures of the impact of training on achieving 
organizational goals. FAA has implemented most of these 
recommendations. For example, FAA has taken steps to deliver training 
in a more timely manner, such as developing new Web-based courses that 
inspectors can complete when the training is needed. Additionally, in 
2007, FAA conducted a feasibility analysis that explored different 
methods to measure training's impact on achieving organizational goals. 
In August 2009, FAA was working to address the remaining 
recommendations by providing more guidance on when accepting training 
for in-kind services is appropriate and revising inspector guidance to 
clarify that free training does not preclude FAA from fulfilling its 
oversight and enforcement role. The Senate's FAA reauthorization bill 
would require FAA to report on the training provided to safety 
inspectors. 

Union representatives provided comments regarding how FAA designs and 
implements training. The President of the Professional Aviation Safety 
Specialists (PASS)--the union representing, among others, FAA employees 
who maintain air traffic control equipment--said that the technical 
training for airway systems specialists is often unnecessarily time- 
consuming and costly, because FAA customizes the training to make it 
unique to FAA and then requires that employees travel to the FAA 
Academy to receive technical training. The union President said that 
FAA could streamline the process by allowing staff to take training 
courses from private vendors who offer the same training at locations 
closer to their home office. FAA noted that the academy is the only 
location that replicates every piece of equipment that aviation systems 
safety specialists use, and that equipment in air traffic control 
facilities cannot be taken off-line for training. However, FAA's 
Director of Technical Training and Development told us that FAA is 
exploring how to validate locally provided courses for equivalency to 
the training provided at the FAA Academy. Additionally, FAA is 
increasing the availability of Web-based training, simulations, and 
other alternative training methodologies that will allow greater 
opportunities for on-site training, according to another FAA training 
official. We are currently reviewing airway transportation system 
specialist training under another engagement. 

NATCA representatives criticized how FAA implements controller 
training. In their opinion, FAA relies too much on memorandums and 
other impersonal methods, rather than in-person training that would 
allow staff to directly pose questions to instructors and engage in 
open discussion on topics that require clarification. FAA's Director of 
Technical Training and Development believes this criticism to be an 
overstatement, and noted that FAA offers many specialized courses at 
the FAA Academy and fills the spaces allocated. 

NATCA representatives also believe that controllers have fewer 
opportunities to attend training because there are not enough 
experienced controllers to handle air traffic while others attend 
training. A 2008 report from the Department of Transportation Inspector 
General questioned whether FAA had sufficient numbers of experienced 
controllers to train the large numbers of new controllers that it was 
hiring. The report noted that the hiring process was outpacing the 
capabilities of many air traffic facilities to efficiently process and 
train new hires. The Inspector General made a number of 
recommendations, and FAA agreed or partially agreed with most of them. 
[Footnote 19] FAA notes that the agency continues to monitor its hiring 
and training programs to achieve a balance between a facility's 
trainees and the facility's training capacity,[Footnote 20] and to help 
ensure that trainees progress through each stage of training while 
ensuring safety. The House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills would 
require that FAA study the adequacy of training provided to air traffic 
controllers. 

Recruitment and Hiring: 

In a highly competitive job market, having an effective hiring process 
can help an agency compete for talented people who have the requisite 
knowledge and up-to-date skills to accomplish missions and achieve 
goals. Table 5 lists the key recruitment and hiring practices that we 
have identified in our past work and provides examples of FAA's 
activities. See appendix II for an expanded list of FAA's activities 
that align with key leading practices. 

Table 5: Key Leading Practices in Recruitment and Hiring, and Examples 
of FAA Activities: 

Key leading practice: Evaluate recruitment strategies to attract 
applicants; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA sets performance targets in the 
strategic planning process and reports on the extent to which these 
targets have been met in annual performance and accountability reports. 

Key leading practice: Ensure that the best candidates are selected by 
refining assessment tools; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA refined vacancy announcements for 
aviation safety inspector positions to better incorporate key 
competencies against which officials evaluate applicants. 

Key leading practice: Use an automated hiring process, including 
computerized systems to prescreen, rate, and rank applicants; 
Examples of FAA activities: For most externally advertised vacancies, 
FAA uses its Automated Staffing and Application system. The system 
automates vacancy announcement posting, the application process, 
applicant rating and ranking, and the selection process. 

Key leading practice: Use available flexibilities to recruit, hire, and 
manage workforces; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA's hiring flexibilities include on-the-
spot hiring and monetary incentives for recruitment, retention, and 
relocation. 

Sources: Merit Systems Protection Board, Reforming Federal Hiring: 
Beyond Faster and Cheaper, (Washington, D.C.); GAO, Human Capital: 
Transforming Federal Recruitment and Hiring Efforts, GAO-08-762T 
(Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2008) and Human Capital: Additional 
Collaboration Between OPM and Agencies Is Key to Improved Federal 
Hiring, GAO-04-797 (Washington, D.C.: June 7, 2004); and GAO analysis 
of FAA practices. 

[End of table] 

In recent years, FAA has used its flexibilities mostly to hire, 
relocate, and retain air traffic controllers. However, FAA also has 
used flexibilities to hire expertise in other fields, such as program 
management, aerospace engineering, and environmental protection. The 
House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills would require FAA to 
increase the number of safety-related positions, such as safety 
inspectors, commensurate with available funding. 

Performance Management: 

An effective performance management system can be a strategic tool to 
drive internal change and achieve desired results. Our work has 
identified numerous leading practices in performance management, which 
we summarize in table 6. The table also provides examples of FAA's 
activities that align with these key leading practices. See appendix II 
for an expanded list of FAA's activities that align with key leading 
practices. 

Table 6: Key Leading Practices in Performance Management, and Examples 
of FAA Activities: 

Key leading practice: Align individual performance expectations with 
organizational goals; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA requires that each supervisor and 
employee develop a performance plan that describes employee tasks and 
responsibilities and provides a line of sight from those items to the 
goals in FAA's Flight Plan. 

Key leading practice: Define competencies that individuals need to 
effectively contribute to organizational results; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA uses performance standards--which 
include necessary skills and supporting behaviors--to describe each 
employee's major responsibilities and expected outcomes. 

Key leading practice: Provide and routinely use objective performance 
information to track progress toward achieving organizational 
priorities; 
Examples of FAA activities: At the organizational level, FAA tracks 
progress toward multiple agency performance targets, as outlined in the 
Flight Plan, and reports its performance in annual performance reports. 
FAA officials told us that each organizational unit rolls up 
subordinate levels of individual performance progress to ultimately 
determine organizational progress toward meeting the agency's 
performance targets, and reports the status annually in performance and 
accountability reports, which FAA posts on its Web site. 

Key leading practice: Make meaningful distinctions in individual 
performance; 
link pay to organizational and individual performance; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA uses a two-phased process to make 
distinctions in performance and distribute performance-based 
compensation linked to organizational and individual performance. 
However, FAA and union officials told us that implementation of the 
performance management system does not make meaningful distinctions in 
performance. 

Key leading practice: Involve employees and other stakeholders in the 
development of the performance management system; 
Examples of FAA activities: During the development of its current 
performance management system, FAA involved its employees to verify 
employee survey results and obtain employee suggestions for 
improvements in the system. 

Key leading practice: Employ safeguards to ensure the transparency of 
the performance management system; 
Examples of FAA activities: FAA publishes information on internal Web 
sites about the results of pay decisions, such as the average pay 
increase. 

Sources: GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Creating a Clear Linkage 
between Individual Performance and Organizational Success, GAO-03-488 
(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 14, 2003) and GAO analysis of FAA practices. 

[End of table] 

FAA officials responsible for implementing human capital procedures 
within the lines of business, as well as representatives of several 
unions, criticized components of FAA's performance management system. 
For example, because FAA's system calls for a performance rating of 
either "meets expectations" or "does not meet expectations," an 
official from FAA's largest line of business and union officials 
characterized the system as "pass/fail." Because nearly everyone is 
rated "meets expectations," they believe that the system does not make 
distinctions above the "meets expectations" level.[Footnote 21] 

For employees who have met expectations, FAA further distinguishes 
performance by distributing performance-based "superior contribution 
increases" (SCI). FAA distributes the SCI based on supervisors' 
summaries of employee performance that are based on (1) personal 
observations of employees' performance and contributions and (2) the 
employees' self-assessments. The supervisor's summary focuses on three 
areas: collaboration, customer service, and impact on organizational 
success. A fourth area, management and leadership, applies only to 
managers. Up to 65 percent of employees who meet expectations can 
receive either a 1.8 percent or 0.6 percent SCI. 

FAA's practice of awarding pay increases based on employee 
contributions aligns with its reform objective that human resource 
systems support employees' achievement of organizational goals, but FAA 
officials with responsibility for implementing human capital procedures 
in the ATO, Aviation Safety, and Airports lines of business, as well as 
union representatives, expressed fairness concerns about the impacts of 
these increases, similar to the concerns on which we reported in 2003. 
[Footnote 22] The FAA officials believe that the SCI is not large 
enough to motivate performance, and because more than one-half of the 
employees receive the increase, it creates morale problems among those 
employees whom officials believe are solid performers, but received no 
SCI. Union representatives said that, from the employee's perspective, 
it is not clear how supervisory recommendations are translated into 
decisions about which employees receive these increases. Union 
representatives also expressed fairness concerns in saying that, in 
some cases, the same employees receive the increases every year and 
that, in other cases, increases appear to be given on a rotating basis, 
without respect to level of performance. 

All employees who meet expectations also receive an Organizational 
Success Increase (OSI), which FAA provides when the agency has met at 
least 90 percent of its performance targets. The total funding pool for 
the OSI consists of the amount of the governmentwide General Schedule 
increase for a given year, plus an additional 1 percent. As with the 
SCI, the OSI aligns with the reform objective of supporting employees' 
achievement of organizational goals. However, FAA and union officials 
criticized the OSI component of performance pay because, in their 
opinion, it rewards or penalizes employees for organizational 
performance that they cannot influence. For example, FAA may withhold a 
portion of the OSI because the agency did not achieve its target for 
reducing operational errors, even though there are many employees, such 
as contract specialists, whom FAA officials and union representatives 
believe have no influence over such activities. 

FAA has taken actions to improve the implementation of its performance 
management system. For example, in 2008, FAA issued a memorandum to 
senior leadership and managers emphasizing policy requirements for, and 
reiterating the importance of, midcycle progress reviews. Additionally, 
one FAA organization is developing guidance for managers on providing 
feedback and, according to FAA officials, managers receive automatic 
notifications that midpoint feedback and end-of-cycle reviews are due 
to help ensure that these activities take place. FAA also recently 
initiated a series of briefings for employees and managers regarding 
the performance management and pay for performance systems.[Footnote 
23] Additionally, FAA is assessing the percentage of employees who 
receive midterm feedback to identify whether corrective action is 
needed. Recently, FAA developed an action plan aimed, in part, at 
creating a performance culture within the agency. The plan contains 
steps to improve managers' use of the performance management system. We 
discuss this action plan in more detail later in this report. 

FAA Has Implemented Few Leading Diversity Management Practices: 

Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a 
positive work environment where the similarities and differences of 
individuals are valued, so that all can reach their potential and 
maximize their contributions to an organization's strategic goals. The 
concept of managing diversity focuses on inclusion, which involves 
engaging the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and capabilities of 
individuals and groups working toward common goals and therefore serves 
as a complement to equal employment opportunity (EEO). Implementing 
effective diversity management helps an organization foster a work 
environment in which people are enabled and motivated to contribute to 
mission accomplishment and provide both accountability and fairness for 
all employees. Through our past work, we identified the following key 
practices that experts agree are leading diversity management 
practices.[Footnote 24] 

* Develop a diversity strategy and plan that are developed and aligned 
with the organization's strategic plan. 

* Establish a recruitment program that attracts a supply of qualified, 
diverse applicants for employment. 

* Encourage employee involvement to drive diversity throughout the 
organization. 

* Ensure that top leadership provides a vision of diversity that it 
demonstrates and communicates throughout an organization. 

* Conduct diversity training to inform and educate management and staff 
about diversity. 

* Establish a set of quantitative and qualitative measures of the 
impact of various aspects of an overall diversity program. 

* Establish a means to ensure that leaders are held accountable for 
diversity by linking their performance assessment and compensation to 
the progress of diversity initiatives. 

* Include in succession planning an ongoing, strategic process for 
identifying and developing a diverse pool of talent for an 
organization's potential future leaders. 

* Link diversity to performance by understanding that a more diverse 
and inclusive work environment can yield greater productivity and help 
improve individual and organizational performance. 

Rather than emphasizing the broad range of these leading practices, 
FAA's diversity plans and activities more narrowly focus on recruitment 
activities and compliance with EEO. In response to a congressional 
concern about diversity in FAA's controller and aviation safety 
workforces, FAA has prepared plans and annual updates aimed at 
increasing diversity in these workforces.[Footnote 25] FAA's recruiting 
efforts, as described in these plans and other FAA documents, focus on 
attracting a supply of qualified, diverse applicants for employment and 
FAA has implemented efforts that could serve to expand its applicant 
pool. Additionally, FAA officials told us that they have partnered with 
the League of United Latin American Citizens through which information 
pertaining to FAA careers can be forwarded throughout the league's 
leadership network, and that they have reached out to other groups, 
such as the Professional Society of Black Engineers. FAA also provides 
training to newly appointed managers on EEO-related topics such as 
antidiscrimination laws, sexual harassment awareness and prevention, 
and the administrator's policy on nondiscrimination. 

FAA's actions are important steps toward creating a more diverse 
workforce, but they fall short of the full range of leading diversity 
management practices that we have observed in high performing 
organizations. For example, rather than focusing training on EEO- 
related topics, diversity training would provide employees with an 
awareness of their differences--including cultural, work style, and 
personal presentation--and an understanding of how diverse perspectives 
can improve organizational performance. Diversity training would also 
teach employees about the importance of the organization's diversity 
goals and the skills required to work effectively in a diverse 
workforce. Without diversity training, FAA is missing an opportunity to 
maximize performance by drawing on the strengths of employees at all 
levels and of all backgrounds. Insights from the efforts of agencies 
that we profiled in our diversity management report,[Footnote 26] as 
well as the nine leading practices that we have previously listed, 
could be instructive to FAA as it develops annual updates to its plans 
to increase diversity in its controller and aviation safety workforces. 

FAA's Low Ranking in Best Places to Work Could Pose Challenges in 
Recruitment, Motivation, and Retention: 

FAA's ranking near the bottom in Best Places to Work in the Federal 
Government in 2007 and 2009, as published by the Partnership for Public 
Service (the Partnership) and American University's Institute for the 
Study of Public Policy Implementation (ISPPI), could present a barrier 
to recruiting, motivating, and retaining the talented employees that 
FAA needs to meet future mission requirements. The Partnership and 
ISPPI develop their ranking on the basis of analysis of OPM's biannual 
Federal Human Capital Survey results. The survey contains over 80 items 
that gauge employee satisfaction with pay, leadership, and 
collaboration, among other things. The Partnership and ISPPI ranked FAA 
204th out of 222 agencies in 2007 and 214th out of 216 agencies in 
2009.[Footnote 27] 

These published rankings are important to FAA because an agency's 
reputation is a key factor in recruiting and hiring applicants. A 
recent Partnership report noted that a good reputation is the most 
frequently mentioned factor in choosing potential employers, and 
agencies with high satisfaction and engagement scores were seen as 
desirable by college graduates seeking employment.[Footnote 28] The 
Partnership report also noted that college students are rating some 
government agencies as ideal employers. 

Similarly, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) reported that 
employees' willingness to recommend the federal government or their 
agency as a place to work can directly affect an agency's recruitment 
efforts, the quality of the resulting applicant pool, and the 
acceptance of employment offers.[Footnote 29] In 2005, compared with 
1989, MSPB found that considerably more federal employees would 
recommend the government as a place to work, and that more federal 
employees reported satisfaction with their pay. Moreover, the job 
security that federal employment offers is a major selling point in the 
current economic downturn. While FAA generally follows leading 
recruitment and hiring practices, FAA may be able to take only limited 
advantage of these favorable trends, since only about one-half of FAA 
employees' responses to the OPM survey item, "I would recommend my 
organization as a good place to work," were positive in 2008.[Footnote 
30] About 65 percent of the employees in the rest of the federal 
government responded positively, putting FAA about 15 percentage points 
behind other agencies. Moreover, MSPB noted that prospective employees 
would rather work for an agency billed as one of the best places to 
work as opposed to an agency at the bottom of the list. Clearly, when 
Congress passed legislation allowing FAA to implement a new personnel 
management system, FAA recognized the importance of this point by 
establishing the reform objective that FAA be perceived as a desirable 
place to work. However, FAA's low rankings in 2007 and 2009 would not 
indicate to prospective applicants that FAA is perceived as a desirable 
place to work. 

FAA Is Considerably behind the Rest of the Federal Government in Key 
Measures of Workplace Satisfaction, and Is Taking Steps Aimed at 
Improvement: 

FAA employee responses to OPM's 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey 
placed the agency well behind the rest of the federal government in 
overall job and organizational satisfaction, as well as satisfaction 
with their leaders and their leaders' competencies in communications 
and building teamwork and cooperation. FAA is taking steps that could 
improve employee satisfaction, but has not established accountability 
for improvements. 

FAA Employees Indicated Less Satisfaction Than the Rest of the Federal 
Government with Their Jobs; Organization; and Items That Affect 
Recruitment, Motivation, and Retention: 

Compared with employees in the rest of the federal government, FAA 
employees indicated less satisfaction with key items in OPM's 2008 
Federal Human Capital Survey. FAA employees provided 59 percent 
positive responses regarding overall job satisfaction--9 percentage 
points lower than employees in the rest of the federal government, and 
41 percent positive responses regarding overall satisfaction with their 
organization--17 percentage points lower than employees in the rest of 
the federal government. Moreover, FAA employees were less positive 
concerning many of the items that OPM has identified as indicators of 
an agency's ability to recruit, motivate, and retain employees. On the 
basis of its analysis of its past two Federal Human Capital Surveys, 
OPM determined that responses to 16 items--called "impact items"-- 
really make a difference in whether people want to come, stay, and 
contribute their fullest to an agency. FAA's percentage of positive 
responses to these impact items and the difference between FAA's 
percentage of positive responses and that of the rest of the federal 
government appear in figure 1. 

Figure 1: Percentage of Positive Responses to Impact Items on OPM's 
Survey from Employees at FAA and the Rest of the Federal Government in 
2008: 

[Refer to PDF for image: table with horizontal bar chart] 

Impact item: I like the kind of work I do. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 85%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 84%. 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: not statistically significant. 

Impact item: My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 70%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 73%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: not statistically significant. 

Impact item: My talents are used well in the workplace. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 57%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 62%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -5%. 

Impact item: My workload is reasonable. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 54%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 60%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -6%; 

Impact item: Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your 
pay? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 54%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 61%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -7%. 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with the training you receive for 
your present job? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 48%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 55%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -7%. 

Impact item: I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills in my 
organization. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 55%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 64%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -9%. 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with your opportunity to get a 
better job in your organization? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 29%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 39%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -10%; 

Impact item: How good a job do you feel is being done by your immediate 
supervisor/team leader? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 56%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 66%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -10%; 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with the recognition you receive for 
doing a good job? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 40%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 51%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -11%. 

Impact item: Employees have a feeling of personal empowerment with 
respect to work processes. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 33%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 44%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -11%. 

Impact item: Managers communicate the goals and priorities of the 
organization. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 48&; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 60%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -12%. 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with the information you receive 
from management on what’s going on? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 36%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 48%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -12%; 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions 
that affect your work? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 41%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 54%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -13%; 

Impact item: How satisfied are you with the policies and practices of 
your senior leaders? 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 28%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 43%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -15%; 

Impact item: I have a high level of respect for my organization’s 
senior leaders. 
Percentage of positive responses, FAA: 36%; 
Percentage of positive responses, Non-FAA: 48%; 
Difference between percentage of FAA positive responses and the rest of 
the federal government: -19%. 

Source: GAO analysis of Federal Human Capital Survey data. 

Note: All percentage estimates have 95 percent confidence intervals of 
within +/-3.1 percentage points of the estimate. Percentage differences 
between FAA and the rest of government are statistically significant, 
except where noted. 

[End of figure] 

FAA responses to the top two items in figure 1 indicate that FAA 
employees said they like the work they do and derive considerable 
satisfaction from it; and FAA employees' satisfaction on these topics 
was close to that of employees in the rest of the federal government. 
However, for the remainder of the items, FAA employees expressed less 
satisfaction than employees in the rest of the federal government. 
These lower levels of workplace satisfaction represent potential 
hurdles when competing for talent with other federal agencies. FAA's 
strained labor-management relations could be contributing to the low 
percentages of positive responses. Several bargaining units have had 
contract negotiations stretch over many years with no settlement. For 
example, nearly 4,000 employees, represented by PASS, remain under the 
provisions of contracts that date back to 1988 and 1993, while new 
contracts are under negotiations. Additionally, in 2006, FAA 
encountered difficulties in negotiating a new labor contract with 
NATCA, which represents about one-third of FAA employees.[Footnote 31] 
In May 2009, FAA and NATCA began mediated bargaining to reach agreement 
on a new contract. In September 2009, FAA and NATCA signed a new 3-year 
contract. FAA and NATCA reached agreement on most contract items, but 
required binding decisions from the mediators for some items, including 
compensation. FAA views the new contract as a framework for helping to 
meet the challenges of implementing NextGen. 

While improvement in any of the impact items that OPM identified could 
help FAA improve its attractiveness as an employer of choice, the items 
for which FAA is farthest behind the rest of the federal government 
provide a focus for FAA to target its improvement efforts. Those items 
revolve around employee perceptions of their leaders and the leadership 
competencies of communication and building teamwork and cooperation. 
Research has shown that employees who are led by strong leaders are 
more satisfied, engaged, and loyal than employees with weak leaders. 
[Footnote 32] 

FAA employees provided 28 percent positive responses regarding 
satisfaction with the policies and practices of senior leaders, and 33 
percent positive responses regarding having a high level of respect for 
senior leaders. These two items were the farthest behind the positive 
responses to impact items from the rest of the federal government. 
Additionally, positive responses to "How good a job do you feel is 
being done by your immediate supervisor or team leader?" were 10 
percentage points behind the positive responses from the rest of the 
federal government. 

Consistent with FAA's reform objective, FAA has identified 16 
leadership competencies grouped under 4 dimensions (see figure 2). 
[Footnote 33] 

Figure 2: FAA's Leadership Competencies: 

[Refer to PDF for image: illustration] 

Achieving Results[A]: 
* Managing organizational performance; 
* Accountability and measurement; 
* Problem solving; 
* Business acumen; 
* Customer focus. 

Building Relationships: 
* Communication; 
* Building alliances; 
* Interpersonal relations and influence; 
* Integrity and honesty. 

Leading People: 
* Building teamwork and cooperation; 
* Building the model equal employment opportunity program; 
* Developing talent. 

Leading Change[B]: 
* Vision; 
* Strategy formulation; 
* Agility; 
* Innovation. 

[A] Listed as "Achieving Operational Results" in the Executive Success 
Profile. 

[B] Listed as "Leading Strategic Change" in the Executive Success 
Profile. 

[End of figure] 

FAA's assessed the competency levels of its leaders in 2005, 2007, 
2008, and 2009. The results showed that the communications competency 
approached or slightly exceeded the agency target level each year. 
However, as figure 1 shows, employee perceptions of communications from 
managers remained 12 percentage points behind the rest of the federal 
government, suggesting that further work remains. The senior executives 
who assisted the NAPA Panel[Footnote 34] also perceived a need for 
FAA's leaders to improve communications about NextGen. They pointed out 
that FAA's leaders will need to better communicate a clear vision for 
NextGen, better define what it is, and get support and buy-in from 
staff at all levels of the organization. FAA officials believe that the 
NextGen Implementation Plan, issued in January 2009, addresses these 
concerns.[Footnote 35] In developing the plan, FAA's objective was to 
allow a broad audience to gain a common understanding of NextGen. The 
plan provides technical information in its appendixes, which officials 
said address the needs of specific stakeholders. 

The way leaders communicate with their employees can impact employees' 
perceptions of leaders' honesty and integrity, which, in turn, can 
affect the level of employees' respect for their senior leaders-- 
another impact item among those for which FAA's responses were farthest 
behind the rest of the federal government. The president of a local 
union of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal 
Employees (AFSCME) provided an example that he believes demonstrates 
the relationship between these competencies.[Footnote 36] The union 
representative said that FAA provided little information to employees 
between 2003 and 2004 as FAA planned for and implemented a sweeping 
reorganization that created the 36,000 employee ATO. After the 
reorganization, FAA management characterized ATO as a model 
organization, but after the first Chief Operating Officer departed, FAA 
reorganized the responsibilities of ATO's Vice Presidents.[Footnote 37] 
The representative believes that FAA's lack of communications regarding 
these reorganizations likely contributed to a decline in trust of FAA 
management. 

FAA employees also provided fewer positive responses for impact items 
related to the supervisory competency, building teamwork and 
cooperation. The survey items related to teamwork and cooperation are 
"How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect 
your work?" and "Employees have a feeling of personal empowerment with 
respect to work processes." We and others have reported on this as an 
area of governmentwide concern under topics such as empowerment, 
collaboration, teamwork, and employee engagement. For example, we have 
reported that empowering employees plays a crucial role in establishing 
a results-oriented culture. Additionally, as we previously noted in 
this report, a leading diversity management practice is to understand 
that a more diverse and inclusive workforce can yield greater 
productivity, and that diversity training could provide an awareness of 
how diverse perspectives can improve organizational performance. 
Moreover, MSPB has concluded that further engaging the federal 
workforce is critical as agencies attempt to improve their operations 
within budget constraints, and as they face increasing numbers of 
retirement-eligible employees in a labor market where there is intense 
competition for top talent.[Footnote 38] MSPB found that engaged 
employees have less intention to leave their current agency, use less 
sick leave, and work in agencies that produce better programmatic 
results. For the purposes of this report, we use collaboration to 
include teamwork, cooperation, employee engagement, and employee 
empowerment. 

Improving collaboration has implications for FAA's successful 
implementation of NextGen, because 98 percent of FAA's employees who 
are eligible to be members of a bargaining unit are represented by a 
union. The NAPA Panel noted that although FAA's labor-management 
relations had been strained for years, FAA had no clear strategy to 
engage the unions. In the past, FAA's failure to collaborate with the 
ultimate users early in a system's design contributed to cost growth 
and schedule delays.[Footnote 39] The panel concluded that FAA's 
success in leading the transition to NextGen will depend, in part, on 
its willingness to review its past efforts and learn from challenges 
and mistakes. 

Although controllers will be end users of NextGen's technology, NATCA 
representatives told us they perceive that FAA management has little 
interest in collaboration. NATCA testified to Congress (1) that NextGen 
will only be successful if it is done with complete participation and 
agreement from government, labor, and industry groups and (2) that 
collaboration will help FAA to identify and address potential issues 
early on in the process, thereby saving time, money, and resources and 
avoiding safety risks. 

In FAA's view, the agency has always desired to include end users in 
developing NextGen technology and procedures. According to FAA, a 
dispute arose over whether FAA or NATCA would make the final 
determination concerning the specific union members who would serve as 
subject matter experts. At the present time, FAA is using controllers 
as subject matter experts in testing and developing new technology and 
procedures, but NATCA has not endorsed their participation, according 
to a senior FAA official. 

Other union representatives discussed collaboration in more general 
terms. A PASS representative described a culture in which employees 
speak only when asked, and said that speaking up and suggesting 
solutions to problems is not encouraged. The representative also said 
that many supervisors feel frustrated because they would like to change 
this culture, but FAA does not provide any encouragement to do so. A 
representative of the American Federation of Government Employees said 
the union had been optimistic years ago about a 1996 contract that had 
an emphasis on partnership, but nothing materialized in subsequent 
years. 

The following section of this report describes several actions that FAA 
is taking to improve elements of workplace satisfaction, including 
collaboration. Additionally, the Senate FAA reauthorization bill 
contains provisions aimed at increasing collaboration with employee 
groups. For example, the bill would require FAA to establish a process 
for collaborating with employees, who are selected by the bargaining 
unit, in planning and developing projects that would affect them. 

FAA Is Working to Address Workplace Satisfaction, but Has Not 
Established Accountability for Improvement: 

FAA is taking actions that could improve employee satisfaction with 
their leaders over time. In 2007, FAA established its Senior Leadership 
Development Program to provide a pipeline of senior managers qualified 
to fill executive-level vacancies. To identify emerging leaders among 
its nonsupervisory employees, FAA initiated the Program for Emerging 
Leaders in 2009. FAA evaluates applicants for these programs on the 
basis of their demonstration of the leadership competencies shown in 
figure 2. Over time, as more of FAA's leaders graduate from these 
programs, perspectives of employees about their leaders could change 
for the better. 

Evaluating the outcome of FAA's leadership development programs will 
help FAA assess its progress in meeting its reform objective to improve 
leadership and management. To evaluate the outcome of its leadership 
development programs, FAA collects evaluations of participants' 
satisfaction with the training and the classroom experience and obtains 
progress reviews that focus on the demonstrated achievement of 
developmental objectives. FAA is also measuring overall programmatic 
outcomes tied to succession planning goals, such as the ratio of 
candidates in development to projected vacancies, number of graduates 
appearing on best-qualified lists, and graduates placed in leadership 
positions. However, because FAA has so far graduated 1 cohort of 16 
participants from its leadership development programs, substantial data 
are not yet available. To measure the impact of these programs on 
leadership within the agency, FAA is beginning to track movement in the 
results of its periodic leadership competency assessments. 

FAA also has recently taken some steps to create a more collaborative 
climate. For example, in February 2009, FAA invited NATCA to 
collaborate on the implementation phase of the En Route Automation 
Modernization system--a key component of the NextGen transition. 
According to NATCA, FAA and the union have held several constructive 
negotiation sessions on the system's implementation. In another 
example, FAA agreed, in collaboration with NATCA, to provide immunity 
from discipline for employees who report safety issues under certain 
conditions, through program implementation by a joint union-management 
committee. FAA credits this agreement for allowing significant strides 
toward a safety management culture, with the support of organized 
labor. FAA also used a collaborative approach to reach agreement in 
2008 on a contract covering headquarters employees represented by 
AFSCME. This was the first successful contract negotiation since the 
units were first certified in 1999. A representative of PASS also noted 
some positive initiatives. He said the union recently attended a few 
meetings regarding development of ATO's 5-year strategic plan, 
suggesting that FAA management is starting to embrace the idea that 
collaboration with union groups results in a better product. 

Additionally, FAA's new Administrator is emphasizing employee 
engagement.[Footnote 40] FAA has established an Employee Engagement 
Steering Committee comprised of FAA executives. According to FAA, these 
executives will engage, listen to, and act upon the issues, ideas, 
suggestions, and recommendations made by employees to improve the FAA 
work environment, management practices, and organizational culture, 
with the goal of becoming one of the best places in government to work. 
Moreover, the Administrator has expressed his commitment to employee 
engagement in a speech to one of the agency's largest unions and sent 
an e-mail to all FAA employees describing a number of initiatives aimed 
at hearing what employees are thinking. According to FAA Human Resource 
Management officials, the Administrator also plans to provide monetary 
awards to individuals and teams that make significant contributions to 
improving workplace satisfaction. 

FAA's actions, as we have previously described, align with 
governmentwide initiatives to improve workplace satisfaction. OPM, in 
collaboration with the Office of Management and Budget, has requested 
agencies to develop action plans to increase employee satisfaction in 
areas where the Federal Human Capital Survey indicated low 
satisfaction, and to include their plans as part of their fiscal year 
2011 budget submissions. FAA has developed a Federal Human Capital 
Survey 2009-2010 Action Plan, which it intends to include with its 2011 
budget submission. 

FAA's action plan focuses on improving FAA's positive response rates to 
selected survey items related to leadership and creating a performance 
culture. Some of these items are among those that OPM has identified as 
affecting an agency's recruitment, motivation, and retention. FAA has 
included the activities envisioned for the Employee Engagement Steering 
Committee, as we have previously described, as part of its plan to 
improve leadership. These activities could help increase positive 
responses regarding employee empowerment and employees' involvement in 
decisions that affect their work. FAA's positive responses for these 
items were, respectively, 11 and 13 percentage points behind the rest 
of the federal government in the 2008 Federal Human Capital Survey. 
Additionally, the section of the plan focused on creating a performance 
culture contains actions aimed at improving the performance management 
system's effectiveness, which FAA officials and union representatives 
criticized. For example, the plan includes providing training on 
effectively applying the performance management system, with the 
expectation of achieving a better understanding of how to use the 
system so that employees and managers establish clear performance 
expectations as a basis for ongoing performance feedback and coaching. 
The plan also includes improving FAA's policies and evaluation process 
to better ensure that the performance management system is used 
effectively. 

These efforts represent a good start. MSPB noted that among the steps 
that agencies can take to improve collaboration is recruiting 
supervisors on the basis of their supervisory abilities, something that 
FAA has already begun to do. FAA is also striving to create a line of 
sight between an employee's work and the goals of the agency, which is 
another step toward increased employee engagement, according to MSPB. 
Also, MSPB encourages agencies to ensure a good person-to-job fit. 
Based on survey responses, FAA appears to have achieved some success in 
this area. As figure 1 shows, the impact items "I like the kind of work 
I do," "My work gives me a feeling of personal accomplishment," and "My 
talents are used well in the workplace" received the three highest 
percentages of positive responses from FAA employees and were the 
closest to the percentage of positive responses from employees in the 
rest of the federal government. 

However, FAA has not established accountability for the plan's success. 
Although the action plan sets a goal of a 7 percent improvement in 
positive response rates to the eight selected survey items, FAA has not 
made successful achievement of this goal a performance expectation for 
managers, according to FAA Human Resource Management officials. Because 
strong leadership is key to creating a performance culture, adding an 
expectation for improvement in survey responses could increase chances 
for success. Disclosing the plan and its actions, goals, and outcomes 
in publicly available reports to Congress, such as the annual 
performance and accountability report, would also help to ensure 
accountability. 

Conclusions: 

FAA has made good progress in developing a human capital system that 
addresses many of its reform objectives and has structures and 
processes that exhibit leading practices. FAA's efforts to increase its 
workforce diversity by developing an expanded applicant pool are 
important, but they do not embrace the full range of leading diversity 
management practices. FAA could take steps to move beyond recruitment 
activities and toward diversity management by incorporating leading 
practices in future updates of its congressionally directed plans to 
increase diversity in the controller and aviation safety workforces. 

FAA employees' dissatisfaction with their workplace, expressed in their 
responses to OPM's Federal Human Capital Survey, suggests that FAA has 
not achieved the reform objective to be perceived as a desirable place 
to work, and could hinder FAA's effort to recruit, motivate, and retain 
the workforce it needs for current and future missions. FAA's Federal 
Human Capital Survey Action Plan represents a positive step to reach 
beyond the structures and processes of its human capital system and 
address the underlying causes of employee dissatisfaction with their 
workplace. Establishing accountability within FAA, and externally to 
Congress and the American people, represents the next step to increase 
the probability of the plan's success. 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

To ensure that FAA can hire, motivate, and retain the talented staff it 
needs to operate the national airspace system and implement the 
transition to NextGen, we recommend that the Secretary of 
Transportation direct the FAA Administrator to take the following three 
actions: 

1. ensure that key leading practices in diversity management are 
incorporated in future updates of FAA's plans to increase diversity in 
the controller and aviation safety workforces; 

2. hold its managers accountable for the outcomes of the Federal Human 
Capital Survey Action Plan by establishing a performance expectation 
that FAA managers will achieve the plan's stated increases in positive 
responses to designated survey items; and: 

3. hold the agency accountable to Congress and the American people by 
disclosing the plan, actions, goals, and outcomes in publicly available 
reports to Congress, such as the annual performance and accountability 
report. 

Agency Comments: 

In commenting on a draft of this report, the Department of 
Transportation generally agreed to consider GAO's recommendations and 
provided technical corrections that GAO incorporated as appropriate. 

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents 
of this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 14 days 
from the report date. At that time, we will send copies of this report 
to interested congressional committees, the Secretary of 
Transportation, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation 
Administration, and other parties. In addition, the report will be 
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov]. 

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please 
contact me at (202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov. Contact points for 
our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found 
on the last page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions 
to this report are listed in appendix III. 

Sincerely yours, 

Signed by: 

Gerald L. Dillingham, Ph.D. 
Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues: 

[End of section] 

Appendix I: Scope and Methods: 

To determine how the components and practices of the Federal Aviation 
Administration's (FAA) human capital system compare with those of 
leading organizations, we reviewed FAA documents and regulations--which 
detailed FAA policies and practices in the functional areas of 
workforce planning, training, recruiting and hiring, performance 
management, and diversity management. We also reviewed relevant studies 
by other organizations, including the National Academy of Public 
Administration. We discussed the structure and processes of FAA's human 
capital system, and how the system is addressing FAA's challenges, with 
officials from the Office of Human Resource Management and the Office 
of Civil Rights, and with FAA officials who have responsibility for 
implementing human capital procedures within each line of business-- 
Commercial Space Transportation, Aviation Safety, Airports, and the Air 
Traffic Organization. We conducted our interviews with FAA officials at 
FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and, via teleconference, Oklahoma 
City, Oklahoma. Additionally, we obtained perspectives of organized 
labor on the human capital system through semistructured interviews 
with representatives of FAA's four largest unions--the National Air 
Traffic Controllers Association (about 19,000 members); the 
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (about 11,100 members); the 
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (about 
2,200 members); and the American Federation of Government Employees 
(about 1,800 members)--which, collectively, represent about three- 
fourths of FAA's workforce. We conducted a high-level comparison of 
FAA's practices to leading practices. More detailed comparisons could 
disclose specific leading practices that FAA is not following, beyond 
those discussed in this report. We did not assess the effectiveness of 
FAA's human capital system, because other factors--outside of FAA's 
human capital system--may also affect FAA's performance. 

To determine how FAA employees' workplace satisfaction compares with 
that of other federal government employees, and what steps FAA is 
taking to improve workplace satisfaction, we reviewed FAA employee 
responses to the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) biennial 
Federal Human Capital Surveys for 2004, 2006, and 2008. We specifically 
analyzed the responses to 16 "impact items" that, according to OPM, 
make a difference in employee recruitment, motivation, and retention. 
Through document review and interviews with FAA officials, we 
determined FAA's actions and plans to improve employee satisfaction for 
those items for which FAA employee satisfaction was the farthest behind 
the rest of the federal government. 

We conducted this performance audit from May 2008 to October 2009 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. We also conducted 
reliability assessments of the data we obtained electronically and 
determined those data to be of sufficient quality to be used for the 
purposes of this report. 

[End of section] 

Appendix II: Key Leading Practices and FAA's Activities in Strategic 
Workforce Planning, Training, Recruitment and Hiring, and Performance 
Management: 

Strategic workforce planning: 

Key leading practices: Involve top management, employees, and other 
stakeholders in developing, communicating, and implementing the 
strategic workforce plan; 
FAA activities: 
* Works with stakeholders in annually reviewing and updating the 
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Human Capital Plan; 
* Has executives sign workforce planning documents for the workforces 
under their purview. 

Key leading practices: Determine the critical skills and competencies 
that will be needed to achieve current and future programmatic results; 
FAA activities: 
* Develops workforce plans for major organizational segments and for 
specific workforces, such as air traffic controllers; 
plans provide workforce demographics and strategies to address 
workforce challenges; 
* Strives to achieve strategic alignment among people, goals, and 
mission accomplishments when annually updating workforce plans; 
* Examines human capital challenges to determine the extent to which 
the current workforce, systems, and practices meet future business 
requirements and determines where challenges exist; 
* Developed a 16-competency leadership success profile and revalidates 
it every 2 years through a managementwide survey; 
* Mandates annual skill assessments for all managers and establishes 
recurring management training requirements; 
* Uses a competency model for human resource specialists that includes 
numerous technical and general competencies; 
* Enlisted the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) for 
assistance in determining the workforce competencies needed to lead and 
implement NextGen; 
* Bases its human capital planning framework on guidance from the 
Office of Management and Budget, GAO, and the Office of Personnel 
Management (OPM); 
* Developed an acquisition workforce plan that officials said will 
include acquisitions competencies, based in part on information from 
the NAPA Panel's review; 
* Partnered with agencies across the federal government to establish a 
federal certification program for program and project managers based on 
recognition of common, essential competencies. 

Key leading practices: Develop strategies that are tailored to address 
gaps in the number, deployment, and alignment of human capital 
approaches for enabling and sustaining the contributions of all 
critical skills and competencies; 
FAA activities: 
* Established a Senior Leadership Development Program to provide a 
pipeline of candidates to compete for leadership positions; 
uses leadership competencies to evaluate candidates for the program; 
* Established a Program for Emerging Leaders to assess, develop, and 
demonstrate candidates' management potential; provide structured 
training; and provide a corporate perspective of FAA; uses leadership 
competencies to evaluate candidates for the program; 
* Participates in several governmentwide competency analysis efforts 
for mission critical workforces, such as information technologists, 
engineers, community planners, and human resource specialists; 
* Identifies gaps in workforce competencies and formulates closure 
strategies. 

Key leading practices: Build the capability needed to address 
administrative, educational, and other requirements important to 
support workforce planning strategies; 
FAA activities: 
* Established a Human Capital Planning Council to serve as an internal 
community of practice for workforce planning and to provide a focal 
point for sharing best practices and disseminating guidance; 
* Engages in knowledge transfer by partnering with OPM, the Department 
of Transportation, the Chief Human Capital Officers Council, NAPA, GAO, 
and other government agencies; learning institutions; and the private 
sector to ensure that the best possible decisions are made through 
shared lessons learned, feedback, and expertise; 
* Uses a six-stage process that includes aligning human capital 
policies, practices, and initiatives with the Flight Plan; 
scanning external trends to identify those that can affect the 
organization; scanning trends in workforce supply; and establishing and 
measuring progress against human capital goals; 
* Established a system of accountability that holds the organization, 
managers, and human resource officers accountable for efficient and 
effective human resources management; 
* Included accountability as a leadership competency. 

Key leading practices: Monitor and evaluate the agency's progress 
toward its human capital goals and the contribution that human capital 
results have made toward achieving programmatic results; 
FAA activities: 
* Established performance metrics in the Flight Plan for the time to 
fill vacancies, workplace injury rates, grievance processing time, and 
meeting staffing targets for air traffic controller and safety 
workforces; 
* Uses an automated system to track performance; 
* Administrator reviews progress on initiatives against performance 
targets and goals in monthly meetings; 
* Posts performance results against the human capital goals on its Web 
site; 
* Analyzes the results of employee surveys and takes action to improve 
specific areas. 

Training: 

Key leading practices: Planning/Front-End Analysis: Strategically link 
training and development programs to agency goals and to the skills and 
competencies needed for the agency to perform effectively; 
FAA activities: 
* Establishes training programs that align with agency goals; 
* Requires that training be based on a systematic analysis of the 
knowledge, skills, and abilities required to achieve the organization's 
mission; 
* Determines gaps between desired and current organizational 
performance, determines if training is the appropriate solution, and, 
if so, addresses those learning needs in annual business plans; 
* Incorporates training strategies as a significant part of workforce 
planning efforts by, for example, establishing corporate employee 
training programs to build leadership competence within the FAA 
workforce, support professional development, and promote continuous 
learning. 

Key leading practices: Design: Conduct the appropriate analyses when 
designing training and development efforts; 
FAA activities: 
* Developed criteria based on industry Instructional Design Standards 
to determine whether to design training programs internally or use an 
external source. FAA officials stated that these criteria also capture 
FAA's processes for developing training internally; 
* Uses a mixed approach to centralizing management of training 
programs; 
- Conducts managerial and leadership training on an agencywide basis to 
enable consistent training across the agency; 
- Conducts technical or professional training on a decentralized basis 
to accommodate subordinate organizations' unique requirements. For 
example, officials from the Commercial Space line of business noted 
that, because much of its work is very technical and different from 
that of other lines of business, it designs and conducts much of its 
training internally; 
* Conducts analyses to choose among different mixes of training 
delivery mechanisms. For example, FAA officials noted that FAA is 
moving to a more "blended approach" to training delivery, using 
computer-based training where possible, which can help ensure that an 
agencywide audience receives the same message. 

Key leading practices: Implementation: Agency leaders communicate the 
importance of training and developing employees and foster an 
environment conducive to effective training and development; 
FAA activities: 
* Encourages employees to work with their supervisors in creating 
individual development plans--identifying occupational performance 
requirements, job-and career-related learning needs, and learning 
strategies for meeting them--in conjunction with their annual 
performance plans; 
* Communicates management team commitment to ensuring that adequate 
funds will be set aside for position-essential training and has noted 
that funding for training in support of employees' career development 
will be provided when possible; 
* Vests accountability for the enhanced performance of the workforce in 
the Office of Corporate Learning and Development and with line of 
business executives; 
- The Office of Corporate Learning and Development is responsible for 
managerial/leadership training and is accountable for improvements in 
that area; 
-The lines of business are responsible for developing technical and 
professional training and are accountable for employee technical 
performance. The Air Traffic Organization, for example, has several 
layers of training accountability for air traffic controller technical 
training, starting with the Vice President of Technical Training, who 
is responsible for Air Traffic technical training. 

Key leading practices: Evaluation: Systematically plan for and evaluate 
the effectiveness of agency training and development efforts using the 
appropriate analytic approaches and performance data; 
FAA activities: 
* Evaluates learning and development activities to determine how well 
these activities meet short-and long-range program needs; 
* Establishes standards that address the quality of learning and 
development activities and delivery systems, achievement of learning 
objectives, impact on performance, accomplishment of organizational 
requirements and expectations, and written end-of-activity evaluation; 
* Uses performance data from end-of-course evaluations to assess 
participant reaction, vendor and instructor performance, transfer of 
learning, learning outcomes, and the effectiveness of participatory 
learning techniques; 
* Compiles training evaluation results for use in future planning; 
* Assesses leadership skills every spring and uses the results of these 
assessments to refine the leadership curriculum for the following year; 
* Requires lines of business and staff organizations to plan and 
justify their training needs as part of the regular budget process; 
* Lines of business are responsible for maintaining records of all 
training activities, expenditures, and plans; 
* Manages costs through electronic delivery of Web-based courses. 

Recruitment and hiring: 

Key leading practices: Evaluate recruitment strategies to attract 
applicants; 
FAA activities: 
* Monitors the effectiveness of the Air-Traffic Selection and Training 
tool--the screening test for air traffic controller applicants--and has 
commenced a study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the tool over 
the long term; 
* Uses the Chief Human Capital Officers Council Management Satisfaction 
survey to obtain hiring manager feedback on the hiring process and the 
quality of applicants; 
* Evaluates the success of its strategies by setting performance 
targets and reporting on its success in meeting them in annual 
performance and accountability reports. 

Key leading practices: Ensure that the best candidates are selected by 
refining assessment tools; 
FAA activities: 
* Refines vacancy announcements so that they better incorporate key 
competencies and evaluates applicants against these competencies; 
* Uses feedback collected from job applicants to redesign its systems 
to improve usability. 

Key leading practices: Use an automated hiring process, including 
computerized systems to prescreen, rate, and rank applicants; 
FAA activities: 
* Uses its Automated Staffing and Application system for most 
externally advertised vacancies to post vacancy announcements, obtain 
applications, rate and rank applicants, and complete the selection 
process. 

Key leading practices: Use available flexibilities to recruit, hire, 
and manage workforces; 
FAA activities: 
* Uses on-the-spot hiring authority based on factors such as the number 
of applications received and the adequacy of job advertising efforts; 
* Uses recruitment incentives when extreme difficulty has existed for a 
prolonged period of time in attracting an adequate number of 
candidates, or when necessary to attract a candidate with unique 
competencies critical to an important agency mission; 
* Pays retention incentives when the unique qualifications of the 
employee or a special need for the employee's services makes it 
essential to retain the employee and the employee would be likely to 
leave the federal service in the absence of a retention incentive. 

Performance management: 

Key leading practices: Use performance management system to improve 
performance by helping individuals see the connection between their 
daily activities and organizational goals and encouraging individuals 
to focus on their roles and responsibilities to help achieve these 
goals; 
FAA activities: 
* Aligns individual performance expectations with organizational goals 
by requiring that each supervisor and employee develop a performance 
plan that describes employee tasks and responsibilities and provides a 
line of sight from those items to the goals in the Flight Plan; 
* Clearly defines and widely communicates FAA's performance 
expectations for the organization in FAA's Flight Plan and business 
plans, and for individuals in employee performance plans; 
* Ties performance-based pay increases to an employee's "Impact on 
Organizational Success"; 
- Rates employees on their ability to successfully set priorities and 
complete work that directly affects the ability of the organization to 
meet its performance objectives and deliver high-quality products and 
services. 

Key leading practices: Use competencies to examine individual 
contributions to organizational results. Competencies, which define the 
skills and supporting behaviors that individuals are expected to 
exhibit to carry out their work effectively, can provide a fuller 
picture of an individual's performance; 
FAA activities: 
* Uses two types of performance standards to describe employee's major 
responsibilities and expected outcomes; 
- Uses "common" or "generic" performance standards when the work is 
repetitious in nature and is characterized by consistent processes, 
standard outcomes and expectations, and is task-or procedurally based. 
These plans contain standardized outcomes and expectations that apply 
to all employees doing the same or similar job(s). For example, all air 
traffic controllers are expected to recognize adverse and emergency 
situations and take timely corrective actions; 
- Uses a customized plan that applies to specific individuals for their 
specific duties when work is programmatic in nature and is 
characterized by unique processes and diverse outcomes, and 
expectations are project-oriented. 

Key leading practices: Provide objective performance information to 
individuals to show progress in achieving organizational results; 
FAA activities: 
* Tracks progress toward multiple agency performance targets, as 
outlined in the Flight Plan, and issues periodic performance reports; 
* Reports the status quarterly on the agency Web site and annually in 
performance and accountability reports. 

Key leading practices: Create pay, incentive, and reward systems that 
clearly link employee knowledge, skills, and contributions to 
organizational results. A key aspect of implementing such a system is 
making meaningful distinctions in individual performance and 
appropriately rewarding those who perform at the highest level; 
FAA activities: 
* Uses a two-phased process to appraise the performance of most 
employees and distribute performance-based pay increases; 
* Uses a secondary pay decision process to make more meaningful 
performance distinctions in determining performance-based pay 
increases; 
* Provides monetary awards for outstanding performance in categories 
such as ensuring safety, customer service, and leadership; 
- Granted over $5 million in cash awards and over 64,000 hours of time 
off under the incentive awards program in fiscal year 2007. 

Key leading practices: Provide the necessary information and 
documentation to deal with poor performers; 
FAA activities: 
* Established procedures to deal with unacceptable performers, which 
require that supervisors provide employees with an opportunity to 
improve before taking performance-based action. Employees are placed on 
a performance improvement plan, called an "Opportunity to Demonstrate 
Performance," for a period of time as specified in the governing labor 
agreement and, if the employee remains on the plan at the end of the 
performance cycle, the employee does not receive a performance-based 
increase[A]. 

Key leading practices: Provide candid and constructive feedback to help 
individuals maximize their contribution and potential in understanding 
and realizing the goals and objectives of the organization; 
FAA activities: 
* Requires that supervisors conduct meetings with their employees 
halfway through the performance cycle and provide ongoing, informal 
feedback on the employee's progress against the performance plan and 
identify opportunities for improvement; 
* Provides automatic notifications to managers that midpoint feedback 
and end-of-cycle reviews are due, to help ensure that these activities 
take place; 
* Disseminated a broadcast message to all FAA managers to remind them 
of the midcycle review requirement, the due date, and the reasons for 
the review. 

Key leading practices: Actively involve employees and stakeholders, 
such as unions or other employee associations, when developing results- 
oriented performance management systems in order to help improve 
employees' confidence and belief in the fairness of the system and 
increase their understanding and ownership of organizational goals and 
objectives; 
FAA activities: 
* Involved employees in Performance Management System design by 
conducting over 50 focus groups with more than 500 total participants 
across all lines of business, unions, and pay grades to verify employee 
survey results and to obtain employee suggestions for improving the 
system; 
* Provided training for supervisors, managers, and employees when 
originally implementing its performance management system, by 
developing a variety of classroom training modules and interactive 
video sessions; 
* Developed an instructional guide for employees on the performance 
management system; 
* Developed a desk guide for managers on distributing superior 
contribution increases; 
* Recently conducted a series of briefings regarding the pay for 
performance system. 

Key leading practices: Provide adequate safeguards that help to ensure 
transparency, which can improve the credibility of the performance- 
based pay system by promoting fairness and trust; 
FAA activities: 
* Established a process for handling disputes in its performance 
management system. The process is designed to be collaborative in 
nature, beginning with the jointly developed performance plans. FAA 
uses a grievance procedure or bargaining unit contracts, whichever 
apply, to resolve disputes and/or disagreements that are not resolved 
through the initial efforts; 
* Publishes information for employees on internal Web sites about the 
results of performance pay decisions. 

Sources: GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic 
Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003); 
Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and Development 
Efforts in the Federal Government, GAO-04-546G (Washington, D.C.: March 
2004); Human Capital: Transforming Federal Recruitment and Hiring 
Efforts, GAO-08-762T (Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2008); Human Capital: 
Additional Collaboration Between OPM and Agencies Is Key to Improved 
Federal Hiring, GAO-04-797 (Washington, D.C.: June 7, 2004); Results- 
Oriented Cultures: Creating a Clear Linkage between Individual 
Performance and Organizational Success, GAO-03-488 (Washington, D.C.: 
Mar. 14, 2003); Merit Systems Protection Board, Reforming Federal 
Hiring: Beyond Faster and Cheaper (Washington, D.C.); and GAO analysis 
of FAA practices. 

[A] The performance tool option does not apply to temporary employees 
or to employees in a probationary period. However, supervisors are 
encouraged to use the other elements of the system to mentor or counsel 
these employees or supervisors early in the process if their 
performance declines. 

[End of table] 

[End of section] 

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contact: 

Gerald L. Dillingham, Ph.D., (202) 512-2834 or dillinghamg@gao.gov: 

Staff Acknowledgments: 

In addition to the contact named above, Maria Edelstein, Assistant 
Director; Edmond Menoche, Senior Analyst; Sherwin Chapman; Peter 
DelToro; Jessica Evans; Colin Fallon; Cynthia Heckmann; Bert Japikse; 
Janice Latimer; Steven Lozano; Grant Mallie; Belva Martin; Sara Ann 
Moessbauer; Carol Petersen; Colleen Phillips; Mark Ramage; Beverly 
Ross; and Kiki Theodoropoulos made significant contributions to this 
report. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] FAA's total employee count, including temporary employees, as of 
September 12, 2009. 

[2] The Partnership for Public Service and American University's 
Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation publish 
rankings of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government using 
data from the Office of Personnel Management's biennial Federal Human 
Capital Survey. 

[3] 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). 

[4] GAO, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and 
Development Efforts in the Federal Government, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-546G] (Washington, D.C.: March 
2004). 

[5] Merit Systems Protection Board, Reforming Federal Hiring: Beyond 
Faster and Cheaper (Washington, D.C.) and GAO, Human Capital: 
Transforming Federal Recruitment and Hiring Efforts, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-762T] (Washington, D.C.: May 8, 
2008); and Human Capital: Additional Collaboration Between OPM and 
Agencies Is Key to Improved Federal Hiring, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-797] (Washington, D.C.: June 7, 
2004). 

[6] GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Creating a Clear Linkage between 
Individual Performance and Organizational Success, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-488] (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 14, 
2003). 

[7] GAO, Diversity Management: Expert-Identified Leading Practices and 
Agency Examples, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-90] 
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 14, 2005). 

[8] Federal Aviation Administration, Background Paper: Personnel 
Management Reform for the Federal Aviation Administration (Washington, 
D.C.: August 1995). 

[9] Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations 
Act, Pub. L. No. 104-50, § 347. 

[10] 49 U.S.C. § 40122(a). 

[11] GAO, Human Capital Management: FAA's Reform Effort Requires a More 
Strategic Approach, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-03-156] 
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 3, 2003). 

[12] This percentage is based on FAA's total employee count, including 
temporary employees, as of September 12, 2009. 

[13] FAA's projections are based on end of fiscal year 2008 data. 

[14] FAA's operational air traffic controllers--those who are actively 
involved in the separation and control of aircraft--are eligible to 
retire at age 50 with 20 years of service and cannot control air 
traffic after age 56 without a special waiver. 

[15] GAO, Next Generation Air Transportation System: Progress and 
Challenges Associated with the Transformation of the National Airspace 
System, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-07-25] (Washington, 
D.C.: Nov. 13, 2006). 

[16] National Academy of Public Administration, Volume 1: Identifying 
the Workforce to Respond to a National Imperative...the Next Generation 
Air Transportation System (NextGen) (Washington, D.C.: September 2008). 
The report states that the views expressed are those of the panel and 
do not necessarily reflect the views of NAPA as an institution. 

[17] Partnership for Public Service, Where the Jobs Are 2009: Mission- 
Critical Opportunities for America, available at [hyperlink, 
http://data.wherethejobsare.org/wtja/home] (last accessed on Sept. 9, 
2009). 

[18] The House passed H.R. 915, titled "FAA Reauthorization Act of 
2009." The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 
has reported out S. 1451, titled "FAA Air Transportation Modernization 
and Safety Improvement Act." 

[19] Department of Transportation, Office of the Inspector General, 
Review of the Air Traffic Controller Facility Training Program, AV- 
2008-055 (Washington, D.C.: June 5, 2008). 

[20] A facility's training capacity is affected by the number of 
experienced controllers, training contractors, and simulators. 

[21] During fiscal year 2008, 33 of about 45,000 FAA employees did not 
meet expectations. 

[22] The ATO, Aviation Safety, and Airports lines of business include 
about 43,000 of FAA's 48,000 employees. 

[23] The sessions will be offered at headquarters, in each of the nine 
regions, and at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical and William J. Hughes 
Technical Centers. 

[24] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-90]. 

[25] House Report 110-238, which accompanied the Departments of 
Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Bill, 2008, contained an expectation that FAA would 
prepare plans to increase diversity in the controller and aviation 
safety workforces, submit these plans to the House and Senate 
Committees on Appropriations, and provide annual updates of the plans. 
See Federal Aviation Administration, Aviation Outreach Plan, Air 
Traffic Controller Workforce, Fiscal Year 2008 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 
23, 2008); and Aviation Safety Diversity Plan, Fiscal Year 2008 
(Washington, D.C.: undated). As of October 19, 2009, the 2009 updates 
of these plans were being reviewed by the Secretary of Transportation. 

[26] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-90]. 

[27] In 2005, the Partnership and ISPPI did not publish the rankings of 
subagencies (e.g., FAA), that ranked in the bottom half of all ranked 
subagencies. FAA was in the bottom half in the 2005 subagency rankings, 
according to a Partnership official. 

[28] Partnership for Public Service, Great Expectations: What Students 
Want in an Employer, and How Federal Agencies can Deliver It 
(Washington, D.C.: January 2009). 

[29] Merit Systems Protection Board, The Federal Government: A Model 
Employer or a Work in Progress? Perspectives from 25 Years of the Merit 
Principles Survey (Washington, D.C.: September 2008). 

[30] Positive responses, as discussed in this report, are aggregates of 
the top two most positive responses, such as strongly agree and agree; 
very good and good; and very satisfied and satisfied. 

[31] 49 U.S.C § 40122 (a)(2) provides that if FAA and labor cannot 
reach an agreement, and mediation is not successful, FAA's proposed 
changes to the human capital system may not become effective until 60 
days after FAA sends the proposed change to Congress, along with 
labor's objections and the reasons for the objections. After an 
unsuccessful period of mediation, FAA sent its proposal to Congress, 
and it became legally effective 60 days later, in June 2006. However, 
FAA did not implement the terms until September 3, 2006, due to the 
programmatic changes necessary to effectuate them. The changes resulted 
in lower pay bands for newly hired controllers. Incumbent controllers 
retained their pay levels, but if their pay levels were above the 
maximum of the new pay bands, they received performance pay as a bonus, 
rather than as a permanent pay increase. 

[32] P. Bernthal and R. S. Wellins, Leadership Forecast: 2003-2004 
(Bridgeville, Pa.; Development Dimensions International, Inc.: 2004), 
cited in Robert M. Fulmer, Ph.D., and Jared L. Bleak, Pepperdine 
University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, Strategic 
Leadership: Part 1: Applying Lessons Learned from Research about 
Strategic Leadership Development, [hyperlink, 
http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/072/leadership.html] (downloaded June 3, 
2009). 

[33] Although the dimensions and competencies are essentially the same 
for managers and executives, the behavioral indicators listed for each 
competency differ somewhat between those for managers and those for 
executives. 

[34] NAPA held two colloquia to seek advice from senior executives with 
broad experiences in the public and private sectors about the knowledge 
requirements, skills, and leadership competencies needed to deliver 
NextGen. The participants included government executives, executives 
from aerospace and information technology industries, as well as 
academia. 

[35] Federal Aviation Administration, FAA's NextGen Implementation Plan 
2009 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2009). 

[36] At the time of our interview, AFSCME had a number of local unions 
that represented different groups of FAA employees. The representative 
who provided this information was president of one of those local 
unions. Since that time, AFSCME consolidated several local unions. As 
of October 5, 2009, the former president was designated as a local 
point of contact, pending establishment of a structure within the 
consolidated unit. 

[37] FAA's Chief Operating Officer is the head of the ATO. 

[38] Merit Systems Protection Board, The Power of Federal Employee 
Engagement (Washington, D.C.: September 2008). 

[39] We reported that FAA's failure to include stakeholders during the 
development phase of the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement 
System, also known as STARS, contributed to unplanned work, which, in 
turn, contributed to cost growth, schedule delays, and eventually a 
reduction in the number of systems to be deployed. See GAO, National 
Airspace System: Transformation will Require Cultural Change, Balanced 
Funding Priorities, and Use of All Available Management Tools, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-154] (Washington, D.C.: 
Oct. 14, 2005). 

[40] J. Randolph (Randy) Babbitt was sworn in as FAA's 16TH 
Administrator on June 1, 2009. 

[End of section] 

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