Foreign Languages: Workforce Planning Could Help Address Staffing
and Proficiency Shortfalls (12-MAR-02, GAO-02-514T).		 
								 
Federal foreign language needs have grown over the past decade	 
due to increasing globalization and a changing security 	 
environment. At the same time, many agencies have experienced	 
significant reductions-in-force and no-growth or limited-growth  
environments. As a result, some agencies must now contend with an
aging core of language-capable staff while recruiting and	 
retaining qualified new staff in an increasingly competitive job 
market. The four agencies covered in GAO's review reported	 
shortages of translators and interpreters as well as of staff,	 
such as diplomats and intelligence specialists, with foreign	 
language skills critical to successful job performance. These	 
shortfalls varied significantly between agency, job position,	 
language, and skill level. The agencies reported using strategies
that included providing staff with language training and pay	 
incentives, recruiting employees with foreign language skills,	 
hiring contractors, or taking advantage of information		 
technology. To address current and projected foreign language	 
needs, one of the four agencies has adopted a strategic approach 
to its workforce planning efforts. In contrast, the other three  
agencies have no overall strategic plans.			 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-02-514T					        
    ACCNO:   A02889						        
  TITLE:     Foreign Languages: Workforce Planning Could Help Address 
Staffing and Proficiency Shortfalls				 
     DATE:   03/12/2002 
  SUBJECT:   Foreign languages					 
	     Personnel recruiting				 
	     Federal employees					 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Labor force					 
	     Education or training				 
	     Employee incentives				 

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GAO-02-514T
     
United States General Accounting Office

GAO Testimony

Before the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and
Federal Services, Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

For Release on Delivery
Expected at
2:30 p.m., EST
Tuesday,
March 12, 2002

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Workforce Planning Could Help Address Staffing and Proficiency Shortfalls

Statement of  Susan S. Westin, Managing  Director, International Affairs and
Trade

                                      a

GAO-02-514T

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

I am pleased to be here today to discuss our recently completed report on
foreign language proficiency and personnel shortfalls at four federal
agencies.1 Federal agencies' foreign language needs have grown significantly
over the past decade with increasing globalization and a changing security
environment in light of such events as the breakup of the Soviet Union and
the terrorist attacks of September 11. Foreign language skills are
increasingly needed to support traditional diplomatic efforts and public
diplomacy programs, military and peacekeeping missions, intelligence
collection, counterterrorism efforts, and international trade. One sign of
this need is the budget devoted to hiring, training, and paying
language-skilled staff. For example, the Department of Defense estimates
that it currently spends up to $250 million annually to meet its foreign
language needs.

At the same time that federal agencies find their needs for staff with
foreign language skills increasing, these agencies have experienced
significant reductions-in-force and no-growth or limited-growth environments
during the last decade. As a result, some agencies must now contend with an
aging core of language-capable staff while recruiting and retaining
qualified new staff in an increasingly competitive job market.

Today I will discuss (1) the nature and impact of foreign language
proficiency and personnel shortages in selected federal agencies, (2) the
strategies that are being used to address these shortages, and (3) the
efforts that have been made to address current and projected foreign
language shortages. My observations are based on the results of our January
2002 report on the foreign language needs of the U.S. Army, the Department
of State, the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). This work was initiated at the request of the
House-Senate International Education Study Group, which includes Senators
Thad Cochran and Christopher Dodd and Representatives James Leach and Sam
Farr.

Finally, I would like to note that two other products supplement our
recently issued report on federal agency foreign language needs. One is a
"For Official Use Only" version of this report that includes information on

1U.S. General Accounting Office, Foreign Languages: Human Capital Approach
Needed to Correct Staffing and Proficiency Shortfalls, GAO-02-375
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31, 2002).

the National Security Agency/Central Security Service and its foreign
language operations.2 The other is a classified report providing detailed
foreign language staffing information about two of the agencies covered in
our review-the National Security Agency/Central Security Service and the
FBI.3 I encourage government staff with a need to know and the appropriate
clearance to read these supplemental products.

Before discussing the specifics of our work, let me provide a brief summary
of our findings.

Summary All four federal agencies covered in our review reported shortages
of translators and interpreters as well as shortages of staff, such as
diplomats and intelligence specialists, with foreign language skills that
are critical to successful job performance. These shortfalls varied
significantly depending on the agency, job position, language, and skill
level. Agency officials noted that these shortfalls have resulted in
workload backlogs which, in turn, affect the agency's performance. For
example, the FBI has thousands of hours of audio tapes and pages of written
material that have not been reviewed or translated due to the lack of
qualified translators. In addition, the State Department has long suffered
from a language proficiency shortfall whereby Foreign Service officers must
be placed in language-designated positions at lower-than-desired levels of
proficiency. According to agency officials, these types of shortfalls have
hindered the prosecution of criminal cases; limited the ability to identify,
arrest, and convict violent gang members; weakened the fight against
international terrorism and drug trafficking; and resulted in less effective
representation of U.S. interests overseas.

The agencies we reviewed reported using a range of workforce strategies to
fill their specific foreign language needs. These strategies included
providing staff with language training and pay incentives, recruiting

2U.S. General Accounting Office, Foreign Languages: Five Agencies Could Use
Human Capital Strategy to Handle Staffing and Proficiency Shortfalls,
GAO-02-237 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31, 2002).

3U.S. General Accounting Office, Foreign Languages: Staffing Shortfalls and
Related Information for the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of
Investigation, GAO-C-02-258R (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 31, 2002).

employees with foreign language skills or hiring contractors, or taking
advantage of information technology. This technology includes using
networked computers and contractor databases to optimize existing foreign
language resources. While these assorted efforts have had some success,
current agency strategies have not fully met the need for some foreign
language skills.

To address current and projected foreign language needs, one of the four
agencies we reviewed has adopted a strategic approach to its workforce
planning efforts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has instituted an
action plan that links its foreign language program to the Bureau's
strategic objectives and program goals. This action plan attempts to define
the Bureau's strategies, performance measures, responsible parties, and
resources needed to address foreign language shortages. In contrast, the
other three agencies have yet to pursue overall strategic planning in this
area. The Army, the State Department, and the Foreign Commercial Service's
foreign language initiatives and programs are not part of a coordinated plan
of action in regard to recruitment, training, pay incentives, and workforce
restructuring.

In our report, we recommend that the Army, the State Department, and the
Foreign Commercial Service develop a comprehensive strategic approach to
human capital management and workforce planning in order to better address
current and projected shortages in foreign language skills. In their
responses, the agencies generally agreed with our findings and
recommendation.

Background Although more than 70 federal agencies have foreign language
needs, some of the largest programs are concentrated in the Army, the State
Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) records indicate that
the government employs just under a thousand translators and interpreters in
the job series reserved for this group. The government also employs tens of
thousands of individuals who use foreign language skills in positions such
as FBI special agents and legal attachï¿½s, State Department Foreign Service
officers, and Department of Commerce Foreign Commercial Service (FCS)
officers.4 For the four agencies we reviewed, a

4 OPM does  not  maintain comprehensive  records  on the  number of  federal
employees serving in positions requiring foreign language skills.

total of nearly 20,000 staff are employed in positions that require some
foreign language proficiency.

Agency management of these resources takes place against the backdrop of an
emerging federal issue-strategic human capital management. The foreign
language staffing and proficiency shortfalls we discuss in our report can be
seen as part of a broader pattern of human capital weaknesses and poor
workforce planning that has impacted the operations of agencies across the
federal government. In fact, GAO recently designated human capital
management as a governmentwide high-risk area on the basis of specific
problem areas identified in prior GAO reports.5 For example, GAO previously
testified that the Department of Defense faces looming shortages of
intelligence analysts, computer programmers, and pilots.6 In a subsequent
report on trends in federal employee retirements, we found that relatively
large numbers of individuals in key math and science fields will be eligible
to retire by the end of fiscal year 2006: These include physics (47
percent); chemistry (42 percent); computer specialists (30 percent); and
electronics and electrical engineering (27 percent and 28 percent,
respectively).7

In response to these risks, the administration, the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB), OPM, and GAO have issued guidance on how agencies can begin
the process of strategically managing their staffing resources. For example,
OPM has developed a five-step workforce planning model that outlines the
basic tenets of effective workforce planning.8 The president and OMB's
guidance stresses that agencies should seek to address shortages of skills
by conducting thorough workforce analyses, by using existing personnel
flexibilities available to federal agencies, and by identifying additional
authorities or flexibilities they might need to remove

5U.S. General Accounting Office, High Risk Series: An Update, GAO-01-263
(Washington, D.C.: Jan. 2001).

6U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Major Human Capital
Challenges at the Departments of Defense and State, GAO-01-565T (Washington,
D.C.: Mar. 29, 2001).

7U.S. General Accounting Office, Federal Employee Retirements: Expected
Increase Over the Next 5 Years Illustrates Need for Workforce Planning,
GAO-01-509 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 27, 2001).

8U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Strategic Human Resources Management:
Aligning With the Mission, (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 1999).

current obstacles and barriers to effective workforce management.9 GAO
guidance emphasizes the use of a self-assessment checklist for better
aligning human capital with strategic planning and core business
practices.10

Agencies Reported Varied Foreign Language Shortages

Officials in the four agencies we reviewed reported varied types and degrees
of foreign language shortages depending on the agency, job position,
language, and skill level. They noted shortages of translators and
interpreters and people with skills in specific languages, as well as a
shortfall in proficiency level among people who use foreign language skills
in their jobs. The Army's greatest foreign language needs were for
translators and interpreters, cryptologic linguists,11 and human
intelligence collectors.12 The State Department has not filled all of its
positions requiring foreign language skills. And, although the Foreign
Commercial Service has relatively few positions that require foreign
language proficiency, it had significant shortfalls in personnel with skills
in six critical languages. While the FBI does not have a set number of
positions for its special agent linguists, these agents must have some level
of foreign language proficiency that they can use in conducting
investigations. (When identified by language, FBI staffing and proficiency
data are classified and are discussed in the classified report mentioned
earlier.)

While our report provides detailed staffing and proficiency shortfall data
for four agencies, I would like to use the data we obtained for the U.S.
Army to illustrate the nature and extent of some of these shortfalls.

The Army provided us data on translator and interpreter positions for six
languages it considers critical: Arabic, Korean, Mandarin Chinese,
Persian-Farsi, Russian, and Spanish (our analysis excluded Spanish because
the Army has a surplus of Spanish language translators and interpreters). As

9OMB, Bulletin No. 01-07 (Washington, D.C.: May 8, 2001).

10U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: A Self-Assessment Checklist
for Agency Leaders, GAO/OGC-00-14G (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2000).

11 Cryptologic   linguists  specialize  in   intercepting  and  interpreting
intelligence information collected electronically.

12These  employees work  with individuals rather  than interpret information
intercepted electronically or by other means.

shown in table 1, the Army had authorization for 329 translator and
interpreter positions for these five languages in fiscal year 2001 but only
filled 183 of them, leaving a shortfall of 146 (44 percent).

Table  1:  Shortfalls of  Army  Translators and  Interpreters, by  Language,
Fiscal Year 2001

Source: U.S.
Army response to
GAO data
collection
instrument.

In addition to
its needs for
translators and
interpreters,
the Army also
has a need for
staff with applied language skills. We obtained detailed information on two
key job series involving military intelligence- cryptologic linguists and
human intelligence collectors. As shown in table 2, the Army had a shortfall
of cryptologic linguists in two of the six foreign languages it viewed as
most critical-Korean and Mandarin Chinese. Overall, there were 142 unfilled
positions, which amounted to a 25 percent shortfall in cryptologic linguists
in these two languages.

Table 2: Shortfalls of Army Cryptologic Linguists, by Language, Fiscal Year
2001

  Source: U.S.
Army response to
    GAO data
   collection
  instrument.

The Army also
had a shortfall
of human intelligence collectors in five of the six foreign languages it
viewed as most critical in this area-Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Korean, and
Mandarin Chinese.13 Overall, there were 108 unfilled positions, which
amounted to a 13 percent shortfall in these five languages. The greatest
number of unfilled human intelligence collector positions was in Arabic, but
the largest percentage shortfall was in Mandarin Chinese. Table 3 provides
data on these shortfalls, by language.

Table  3: Shortfalls  of  Army Human  Intelligence Collectors,  by Language,
Fiscal Year 2001

  Source: U.S.
Army response to
    GAO data
   collection
  instrument.

Impact of
Language
Shortages on
Agency
Operations

The shortages that agencies reported can have a significant impact on agency
operations. Although it is sometimes difficult to link foreign language
skills to a specific outcome or event, foreign language shortages have
influenced some agency activities. Here are a few examples:

* The Army has noted that a lack of linguists is affecting its ability to
conduct current and anticipated human and signal intelligence missions. As a
result, the Army said that it does not have the linguistic capacity to
support two concurrent major theaters of war.

* The need for Spanish speakers has been an issue in pursuing Florida health
care fraud cases. The assistant U.S. attorney in Miami in charge of health
care fraud investigations recently advised the FBI that his office would
decline to prosecute health care fraud cases unless timely

13There was no shortfall in Persian-Farsi speakers.

translations of Spanish conversations were available. This situation has
important implications, since the Miami region has the nation's largest
ongoing health care fraud investigation. The FBI estimates that Medicare and
Medicaid losses in the region are in excess of $3 billion.

* The FBI's Los Angeles office has also cited a critical need for Spanish
language specialists and language monitors for cases involving violent gang
members. According to the Bureau, being able to target these gang members
will save lives in Los Angeles but is contingent on the availability of
Spanish linguists to assist with these investigations.

* The need for foreign language speakers has hindered State Department
operations. The deputy director of the State Department's National Foreign
Affairs Training Center recently testified on this topic.14 She said that
shortfalls in foreign language proficiency have contributed to a lack of
diplomatic readiness. As a result, the representation and advocacy of U.S.
interests abroad has been less effective; U.S. exports, investments, and
jobs have been lost; and the fight against international terrorism and drug
trafficking has been weakened.

* Finally, the lack of translators has thwarted efforts to combat terrorism.
For instance, the FBI has raised concern over the thousands of hours of
audio tapes and pages of written material that have not been reviewed or
translated due to a lack of qualified linguists.

Agencies Use a Variety of Strategies to Meet Their Foreign Language Needs

Our second objective was to examine federal agencies' strategies to address
these foreign language shortages. The agencies we reviewed are pursuing
three general strategies to meet their foreign language needs. First,
agencies are focusing on staff development by training staff in foreign
languages, providing pay incentives for individuals using those skills, and
ensuring an attractive career path for linguists or language-proficient
employees. Second, agencies are making use of external resources. This
effort can include contracting staff as needed; recruiting native or
U.S.-ï¿½trained language speakers; or drawing on the expertise of other agency
staff, reservists, or retirees. Third, several agencies have begun to use
technology to leverage limited staff resources, including developing

14Senate Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, and Federal
Services, Committee on Governmental Affairs, Statement by the deputy
director, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Department of State,
106th Cong., 2nd sess., 14 September 2000.

databases of contract linguists, employing language translation software,
and performing machine screening of collected data. Figure 1 provides an
overview of these categories and related strategies.

Figure 1: Strategies That Four U.S. Agencies Use to Address Foreign Language
Shortages and Shortfalls

aState's Office of Language Services recruits and hires skilled linguists;
however, foreign language skills are not required to apply for Foreign
Service positions.

bAt the Foreign Commercial Service, hard-to-fill language-designated
positions are sometimes filled by individuals who are recruited and hired as
noncareer limited appointees who have the needed language skills.

Source: GAO analysis.

While these assorted efforts have had some success, current agency
strategies have not fully met the need for some foreign language skills, as
evidenced by the continuing staffing and proficiency shortfalls that each
agency we reviewed faces.

Limited Progress Made Our third objective was to analyze federal agencies'
efforts to implement an overall strategic workforce plan to address current
and projected foreign

on Workforce Planning language shortages. To help fill existing skills
shortages, some agencies have begun to adopt a strategic approach to human
capital management and workforce planning. As I mentioned earlier, OPM has
issued a workforce planning model that illustrates the basic tenets of
strategic workforce planning. We used this model to assess the relative
maturity of

workforce planning at the four agencies we reviewed. As shown in figure 2,
this model suggests that agencies follow a five-step process that includes
setting a strategic direction, documenting the size and nature of skills
gaps, developing an action plan to address these shortages, implementing the
plan, and evaluating implementation progress on an ongoing basis. This is a
model that could be used to guide workforce planning efforts as they relate
to other skills needed in the federal government such as math, science, and
information technology.

                   Figure 2: OPM Workforce Planning Model

Develop an action plan

Source: OPM's Workforce Planning Model
(http://www.opm.gov/workforceplanning/wfpmodel.htm).

We found that the FBI has made an effort to address each of the five steps
in OPM's model. For instance, the FBI has instituted an action plan that
links its foreign language program to the Bureau's strategic objectives and
program goals. This action plan defines strategies, performance measures,
responsible parties, and resources needed to address current and projected
language shortages. We found that the FBI's work in the foreign language
area was supported by detailed reports from field offices that documented
the Bureau's needs. The FBI reviewed these reports along with workload
statistics from its regional offices. FBI officials noted that
implementation progress is routinely tracked and adjustments to the action
plan are made as needed.

In contrast, the other three agencies have yet to pursue this type of
comprehensive strategic planning and had only completed some of the steps
outlined in OPM's planning model. The Army has limited its efforts to
developing a plan partially outlining a strategic direction and identifying
its available supply and demand for staff with foreign language skills
(addressing only steps 1 and 2 of the OPM model). The State Department has
not yet set a strategic direction for its language program; however, the
department has addressed step 2 in the workforce planning model through its
annual survey of ambassadors regarding foreign language needs at their posts
on a position-by-position basis. State has yet to develop an action plan and
the related implementation and monitoring steps described in OPM's model.
Finally, the status of the Foreign Commercial Service's language program
closely mirrored the situation we found at the State Department. One
difference, however, is that the agency surveys senior officers regarding a
post's foreign language needs every 3 years instead of annually. Another
difference is that FCS officials indicated that they have begun a workforce
planning initiative that is designed to address the key components outlined
in the OPM model.

In closing, I would like to note that foreign language shortages have
developed over a number of years. It will take time, perhaps years, to
overcome this problem. Effective human capital management and workforce
planning, however, offer a reasonable approach to resolving such
long-standing problems.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, this concludes my prepared
statement. I will be happy to answer any questions the Subcommittee members
may have.

Contacts and For future contacts regarding this testimony, please call Susan
S. Westin or Phillip  R. Herr at (202) 512-4128. Mike ten Kate also made key

Acknowledgements contributions to this testimony.
*** End of document. ***