DOD Depot Workforce: Services Need to Assess the Effectiveness of Their Initiative to Maintain Critical Skills [Reissued with revisions on Dec. 26, 2018.]
Fast Facts
DOD employs about 80,000 civilians at maintenance depots to keep helicopters, ships, and other weapon systems working. This workforce is aging and DOD faces challenges in hiring and retaining workers with key skills. Officials cited examples of maintenance taking months or years longer than expected, in part due to shortages in skilled personnel.
Some of the services' plans for dealing with depot workforce needs are outdated or are not in use. The services have also not evaluated training programs and other steps depots have taken to maintain key skills.
We recommended the services assess the effectiveness of their depot workforce programs.
A DOD Depot Training Lab
Skilled Civilian Workforce Training to Become Proficient in Specialized Skills Such as Metal Fabrication and Welding at a DOD Depot Training Lab
Reissued with Revisions Dec 26, 2018This report was revised on December 26, 2018 to adjust the formatting of Appendix I on pages 31 to 47.
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Defense's 17 facilities that perform major depot-level maintenance on weapon systems, such as repairing tank engines or overhauling navy submarines, are generally able to fill occupations requiring personnel to possess certain critical skills (“skilled occupations”), such as machinery mechanic and sheet metal specialist. GAO's analysis of depot personnel data showed that most of the military services were generally able to fill skilled occupations to at least 80 percent of their authorization during fiscal years 2013 through 2017. According to Marine Corps officials, contractors are used to meet maintenance and repair workload requirements even when authorizations for skilled civilian workforce are not fully met.
However, the depots identified a variety of workforce challenges, such as hiring personnel in a timely manner and providing inexperienced personnel with the training necessary to become proficient in skilled occupations. According to DOD officials, these challenges contributed to delays in the maintenance of some weapon systems. DOD officials also identified weapon systems for which maintenance was delayed by shortages in skilled personnel. For example, at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, two submarines were delayed approximately 23 and 20 months past their scheduled maintenance dates in part as a result of shortages in ship fitters and welders, among others. At Ogden Air Logistics Complex, shortages in avionics technicians delayed the maintenance of the F-16 aircraft, and shortages in low observable coater specialists delayed the maintenance of the F-22 aircraft.
Since 2008, all four military services have developed strategic plans that identify and address workforce challenges at the depots. However, some of these strategies are either outdated or have not been implemented. The service components told GAO that they plan to revise, update, and utilize them by the end of fiscal year 2019 at the latest. In the interim, the depots maintain their own planning processes and have taken a variety of actions to help maintain critical skills in their workforces, such as offering recruiting and hiring incentives to skilled workers, implementing training and apprenticeship programs and partnering with local vocational schools.
While the services have collected some data regarding these actions, the depots and the services do not know how effective they have been, because they have not assessed the results of these actions in helping the depots to hire, train, and retain skilled personnel—including determining whether the actions are cost effective. By assessing the cost and effectiveness of these actions, the services would be better able to identify the hiring, training, and retention actions that work, and identify those that are ineffective or cost prohibitive. This would allow them to better tailor their actions to ensure that the depots hire, train, and retain personnel for skilled occupations, and help ensure they are positioned to provide effective depot maintenance for DOD's weapon systems.
Why GAO Did This Study
DOD employs over 80,000 civilian personnel at its 17 major maintenance depots to maintain weapon systems such as aircraft, combat vehicles, and ships. The depot workforce has unique skills, and the depots must compete with the private sector for qualified personnel. Increasing numbers of depot workers have been retiring, and the number eligible to retire is expected to increase. Because it takes 5 years or more to become proficient in some occupations, DOD must systematically plan and prepare to hire, train and retain the workforce it needs to support its vital maintenance and repair mission.
GAO was asked to review DOD's efforts to maintain critical skills at its maintenance depots. GAO examined (1) DOD's challenges in filling skilled occupations and maintaining critical skills in the depot workforce, and any potential effects of these challenges on maintenance activities and (2) actions DOD has taken to hire, train, and retain personnel with critical skills, including its efforts to determine the effectiveness of those actions. GAO analyzed personnel data from fiscal years 2013 through 2017, reviewed depot strategic plans, and met with depot officials responsible for developing initiatives to recruit and train depot personnel.
Reissued with revisions on Dec. 26, 2018.
This report was revised on December 26, 2018 to adjust the formatting of Appendix I on pages 31 to 47.Recommendations
GAO recommends that the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force assess the effectiveness of the actions they have taken to maintain critical skills in the depot workforce. The Department of Defense concurred with GAO's recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of the Army, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Materiel Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Army depots' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 1) |
The Army concurred with our recommendation. The Army has taken some actions to address GAO recommendations to assess Army depot hiring programs since fiscal year 2020. For example, to assess the effectiveness of hiring processes, Army officials stated that Army Materiel Command (AMC) established routine reporting for critical skill shortages by the depots, including detailed information on actions taken to offset the loss of artisans with critical skills and report on the effectiveness of direct hiring authority. In addition, AMC established a policy requiring Life Cycle Management Commands to perform bi-annual workload assessments--current year and two future years--that include the planned need for critical skilled workers, according to Army officials. However, as of June 2024, the Army has not updated GAO on efforts to assess training and retention programs at Army depots. Therefore, as of June 2024, we are leaving this recommendation open.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of the Navy, in conjunction with the Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Air Systems Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Navy's shipyards' and fleet readiness centers' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 2) |
The Navy concurred with our recommendation and we are closing it as implemented. According to documentation we reviewed, the Navy has taken multiple actions to address GAO recommendation to assess Navy Shipyard and Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) hiring, training, and retention programs. For example, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) conducts periodic briefs to monitor shipyard hiring, training, and retention efforts, among other topics. These meetings analyze hiring and attrition to established goals, efforts to improve training and development, and efforts to develop and retain expert tradespersons in selected skilled occupations. In addition, specific shipyards have also assessed hiring and retention data to identify selected engineering and technical, and skilled traded occupations to request higher salaries to be competitive with the local labor market. Other actions include identifying recruitment and retention efforts for various occupational specialties at each shipyard. Further, Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) monitors hiring, training, and retention of FRC skilled personnel. For example, each FRC undergoes periodic workforce development inspections that identify beneficial practices and challenges at the FRCs. In addition, COMFRC dashboards monitor hiring and retention, including hiring status, reasons for leaving, and occupations with the highest attrition rates.
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| Department of Defense | The Commandant of the Marine Corps, in conjunction with the Marine Corps Logistics Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Marine Corps depots' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 3) |
The Marine Corps concurred with our recommendation. The Marine Corps has taken some actions to address GAO recommendations to assess its logistics bases' hiring and training programs since fiscal year 2020. For example, since 2018, the Marine Corps conducted quarterly reviews of its hiring processes to identify the number of hiring actions for its logistics bases, among other organizations, that are over the federal government-wide hiring goal of 80 days. In addition, the Marine Corps, took actions to standardize competencies and training strategies to support these competencies for multiple occupational specialties, including information technology specialists, welders, machinists, and sheet metal mechanics, among others. However, the Marine Corps has not updated GAO on efforts to assess retention programs at its logistics bases. Therefore, as of June 2024, we are leaving this recommendation open.
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| Department of Defense | The Secretary of the Air Force, in conjunction with the Air Force Materiel Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Air Force air logistics complexes' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 4) |
The Air Force concurred with our recommendation, and we are closing it as implemented. According to documentation we reviewed, the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) and Air Logistics Complexes (ALCs) have taken multiple actions to assess depot hiring, training, and retention programs, as we recommended. For example, the ALCs review hiring timelines to reduce the number of days to bring new hires onboard and initiated a pilot hiring program to institutionalize hiring practices at one of the ALCs. For training programs, a specific ALC uses dashboards to manage personnel and workload by identifying employee level of training through certification and qualifications. Another ALC also uses a gated training process to ensure consistency of training programs for its skilled workers. For retention efforts, AFSC completed a review on retention of new federal wage system employees within the first 3 year of employment to identify any trends or gaps. Also, AFSC has increased use of retention incentives at the ALCs to increase salaries to improve retention and reduce the need for retention incentives for software and engineering specialties.
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