Human Capital: Selected Agencies Have Opportunities to Enhance	 
Existing Succession Planning and Management Efforts (30-JUN-05,  
GAO-05-585).							 
                                                                 
As the federal government confronts an array of challenges in the
21st century, it must employ strategic human capital management, 
including succession planning, to help meet those challenges.	 
Leading organizations go beyond a succession planning approach	 
that focuses on replacing individuals and engage in broad,	 
integrated succession planning and management efforts that focus 
on strengthening current and future organizational capacity. GAO 
reviewed how the Census Bureau, Department of Labor (DOL), the	 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Veterans Health	 
Administration (VHA) are implementing succession planning and	 
management efforts.						 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-585 					        
    ACCNO:   A28619						        
  TITLE:     Human Capital: Selected Agencies Have Opportunities to   
Enhance Existing Succession Planning and Management Efforts	 
     DATE:   06/30/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Employee training					 
	     Federal employees					 
	     Human capital					 
	     Performance measures				 
	     Program evaluation 				 
	     Program management 				 
	     Staff utilization					 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Succession planning				 
	     Human capital management				 
	     Human capital planning				 
	     2010 Decennial Census				 

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GAO-05-585

                 United States Government Accountability Office

                     GAO Report to Congressional Requesters

June 2005

HUMAN CAPITAL

Selected Agencies Have Opportunities to Enhance Existing Succession Planning and
                               Management Efforts

                                       a

GAO-05-585

[IMG]

June 2005

HUMAN CAPITAL

Selected Agencies Have Opportunities to Enhance Existing Succession Planning and
Management Efforts

  What GAO Found

The Census Bureau, DOL, EPA, and VHA have all implemented succession
planning and management efforts that collectively are intended to
strengthen organizational capacity. However, in light of governmentwide
fiscal challenges, the agencies have opportunities to enhance some of
their succession efforts.

o  	While all of the agencies have assigned responsibility for their
succession planning and management efforts to councils or boards, VHA has
established a subcommittee and high-level positions that are directly
responsible for its succession efforts. Also, VHA and the Census Bureau
specifically mention succession planning and management as performance
expectations in their executives' performance plans.

o  	The four agencies have begun to link succession efforts to strategic
planning. For example, DOL plans to shift from a historical enforcement
role to a compliance assistance and consulting role, requiring stronger
skills in communication and analysis. To attract and retain employees with
such skills, DOL launched the Masters in Business Administration Fellows
program in 2002, which it considers one of its major succession training
and development programs.

o  	Monitoring mission-critical workforce needs helps make informed
planning decisions. DOL, EPA, and VHA have identified gaps in occupations
or competencies, have undertaken strategies to address these gaps, and are
planning or are taking steps to monitor their progress in closing these
gaps. The Census Bureau could strengthen the monitoring of its
mission-critical occupations more closely and at a higher level to ensure
it is prepared for the 2010 Decennial Census.

o  	Effective training and development programs can enhance the federal
government's ability to achieve results. All of the agencies' succession
efforts include training and development programs at all organizational
levels. However, in the current budget environment, there are
opportunities to coordinate and share these programs and create synergies
through benchmarking with others, achieving economies of scale, limiting
duplication of efforts, and enhancing the effectiveness of programs, among
other things. Performance measures for these programs can also help
agencies evaluate these programs' effects on organizational capacity and
justify their value.

o  	Finally, agencies have recognized the importance of diversity to a
successful workforce and use succession planning and management to enhance
their workforce diversity.

                 United States Government Accountability Office

Contents

  Letter

Results in Brief

Background

Agencies Reinforce Top Leadership Support by Assigning Responsibility for
Succession Efforts

Agencies Have Begun to Link Succession Efforts to Their Strategic Goals

Monitoring Mission-Critical Workforce Needs Helps Make Informed Succession
Planning Decisions

Enhanced Coordination and Evaluation of Training and Development Programs
Could Help Leverage Scarce Resources

Agencies Use Succession Efforts to Enhance Workforce Diversity

Conclusions

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation 1 4 7

9

13

16

21

28 30 31 32

Appendixes                                                              
                Appendix I:       Objectives, Scope, and Methodology       35 
               Appendix II:    Comments from the Department of Veterans    36 
                                               Affairs                     
              Appendix III:    Comments from the Department of Commerce    51 
              Appendix IV:      GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments      55 
                             Table 1: Agencies' Core Succession Training   
     Table                                 and Development                 
                                               Programs                    

Figures	Figure 1: Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Figure 4:

Figure 5:

VHA's Assigned Responsibility for Succession 10
EPA's Strategic Goals and Associated Human Capital
Focus 14
VISN 16 Workforce Assessment and VHA's National
Succession Plan 18
Selected DOL Performance Measures Designed to Gauge
Organizational Capacity 20
Selected DOL Human Capital Measures Related to
Succession Planning and Management 27

Contents

Abbreviations

CHCO Chief Human Capital Officers (Council)
DOC Department of Commerce
DOL Department of Labor
EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
Fed CDP Federal Candidate Development Program
MBA Masters in Business Administration
MSPB Merit Systems Protection Board
OPM Office of Personnel Management
SES Senior Executive Service
VA Department of Veterans Affairs
VHA Veterans Health Administration
VISN Veterans Integrated Service Network

This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in
its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this
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copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material
separately.

A

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, D.C. 20548

June 30, 2005

The Honorable George V. Voinovich

Chairman

Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce,
and the District of Columbia Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs United States Senate

The Honorable Jon Porter
Chairman
Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization
Committee on Government Reform
House of Representatives

The Honorable Jo Ann Davis
House of Representatives

Large, escalating, and persistent deficits that are unsustainable over the
long term are among an array of challenges that the federal government
confronts in the 21st century.1 To help meet government's challenges, we
have reported that agencies must employ strategic human capital
management. We also continue to designate strategic human capital
management as a high-risk area, one that threatens the federal
government's ability to serve Americans effectively, because federal human
capital strategies are still not appropriately constituted to meet current
and
emerging challenges or drive the transformations necessary for agencies to
meet these challenges.2 More specifically, agencies need to identify,
develop, and select the appropriate leaders, managers, and workforce to
meet 21st century challenges, and one critical step is through effective
succession planning and management. Leading organizations go beyond a
succession planning approach that focuses on simply replacing individuals
and engage in broad, integrated succession planning and management
efforts that focus on strengthening both current and future organizational
capacity. Particularly in an environment of likely continued budget
constraints, federal agencies must implement human capital strategies,

1 GAO, 21st Century Challenges: Reexamining the Base of the Federal
Government, GAO-05-325SP (Washington, D.C.: February 2005).

2 GAO, High-Risk Series: An Update, GAO-05-207 (Washington, D.C.: January
2005).

including succession planning and management, to transform their cultures
to achieve their long-term goals.

Congress has recognized the important role of succession planning and
management in preparing federal workers for the future. The Federal
Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 requires the head of each agency to
establish, in consultation with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM),
a comprehensive management succession program to provide training for
employees and develop future managers for the agency.3 In addition, the
Chief Human Capital Officers Act led to the creation of a governmentwide
Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, which subsequently
established a leadership and succession planning subcommittee.4 This
subcommittee' s intended focus is on reviewing leadership development,
moving leaders from technicians to strategic thinkers, and meeting future
workforce needs in a planned manner. The act also calls for OPM to design
measures to assess, among other issues, the continuity of effective
leadership through the implementation of succession plans.

We previously identified how agencies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand,
and the United Kingdom are adopting a more strategic approach to managing
the succession of senior executives and other employees with critical
skills.5 We found that these agencies' succession planning and management
efforts (1) receive active support of top leadership; (2) link to the
agencies' strategic planning; (3) identify talent from multiple
organizational levels, early in their careers, or with critical skills;
(4) emphasize developmental assignments for high-potential employees in
addition to formal training; (5) address specific human capital
challenges, such as diversity; and (6) facilitate broader transformation
efforts.6 We observed that these experiences may prove valuable to
agencies in the United States.

3 5 U.S.C. S:4121.

4 5 U.S.C. S:1401.

5 GAO, Human Capital: Insights for U.S. Agencies from Other Countries'
Succession Planning and Management Initiatives, GAO-03-914 (Washington,
D.C.: Sept. 15, 2003).

6 For more information on transformation, see GAO, Forum: High-Performing
Organizations: Metrics, Means, and Mechanisms for Achieving High
Performance in the 21st Century Public Management Environment,
GAO-04-343SP (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 13, 2004).

As a follow up to that report, we reviewed how selected U.S. agencies are
implementing succession planning and management efforts. For purposes of
this report, we specifically address the first five practices given the
selected agencies' immediate succession challenges. We selected agencies
based on the nature of these succession challenges as well as their
diverse organizational structures and missions.

Specifically, we reviewed the

o 	Census Bureau, which has a unique, event-driven requirement, namely the
2010 Decennial Census, and projected that 45 percent of its workforce will
be eligible to retire by 2010;

o 	Department of Labor (DOL), which has reported a Senior Executive
Service (SES) retirement eligibility rate of more than 60 percent by the
beginning of fiscal year (FY) 2010;

o 	Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has reported that almost
60 percent of its SES will be eligible to retire by 2008 and projected a
loss of at least 20 percent of its supervisors in 10 of 18 priority
occupations; and

o 	Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which reported a 38 percent SES
retirement eligibility rate through 2008 and projects that 24 percent of
its Nurse Executives will be eligible for regular retirement in 2005.

To meet this objective, we analyzed strategic, human capital, workforce,
succession, and training and development plans; guidance for managers'
performance agreements; human capital team charters; and diversity
information from the selected agencies. In addition, we reviewed policies
and guidance on succession-related issues from OPM, as well as the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Merit Systems Protection
Board (MSPB) because of their responsibilities for ensuring the fair
application of personnel decisions, such as selection for training and
development programs. We also interviewed agency, OPM, EEOC, and MSPB
officials involved with strategic, human capital, and succession planning
and management. To get the varied perspectives of agencies' staff located
in headquarters and regional offices, we interviewed agency officials in
Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Los Angeles and San
Francisco, California. Appendix I provides additional information on our
scope and methodology. We conducted our study from June 2004

through April 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards.

Results in Brief	The Census Bureau, DOL, EPA, and VHA have all implemented
selected succession planning and management efforts that collectively are
intended to strengthen both current and future organizational capacity.
Generally, these efforts receive top leadership support and commitment,
link with strategic planning, identify critical gaps in occupations or
competencies, offer training and development programs, and enhance
diversity. However, each of the agencies should enhance some succession
efforts to better position themselves for the future.

All four agencies have the support and commitment of their organizations'
top leadership. For example, they have established councils or boards with
responsibility for human capital that involve top agency leadership.
Specifically, VHA has a dedicated subcommittee as well as high-level
positions that are directly accountable for succession planning and
management, while the other three agencies have councils or boards that
are responsible for human capital more broadly, including succession.
Furthermore, all four agencies include a performance expectation that in
general holds executives accountable for human capital management in their
performance plans. However, VHA and the Census Bureau include an
expectation that specifically holds executives accountable for succession
planning and management.

All four agencies have also begun to link their succession efforts to
their strategic goals. DOL states that to meet its strategic goal of
ensuring a competitive 21st century workforce, it plans to identify skill
gaps, assess training needs, and recruit new employees. For example, DOL
plans to shift from a historical enforcement role to compliance assistance
and consultation, requiring stronger skills in communication and analysis.
DOL seeks to develop more skills in technology and project management as
well as in strategic planning, quantitative analysis, and analytical
thinking for a more "business-like" management approach. To attract and
retain employees with such skills, DOL launched the Masters in Business
Administration (MBA) Fellows program in 2002, which it considers one of
its major succession development programs.

These agencies have identified the talent, and specifically the
missioncritical occupations or competencies required to achieve their
goals. For example, VHA projects the number of employees needed to fill
the gaps in

mission-critical occupations and monitors changes in its mission-critical
workforce. EPA has projected gaps by mission-critical occupations,
identified technical and cross-occupational competencies, and plans to
monitor its progress in closing these gaps. DOL assesses its
mission-critical requirements through skills inventories and monitors the
turnover of its workforce. The Census Bureau, on the other hand, has also
identified its mission-critical occupations, but does not monitor its
progress in closing gaps because decisions to fill vacancies are delegated
to line managers. However, without monitoring the readiness of its
mission-critical workers more closely and at a higher level than line
managers, the Bureau may not know overall if it is acquiring the skills it
needs to be prepared to conduct the 2010 Decennial Census.

Effective training and development programs can enhance the federal
government's ability to prepare its workforce and thereby achieve results.
Further, effective succession planning and management efforts identify
talent from multiple organizational levels and early in their careers as
well as provide both formal and developmental training to strengthen
highpotential employees' skills and to broaden their experience. All four
agencies have core succession training and development programs for
entry-level employees, middle-level management, and senior executives.
However, in the current budget environment, there are opportunities for
agencies to coordinate and share these programs and create synergies
through benchmarking with others, achieving economies of scale, limiting
duplication of efforts, and enhancing the effectiveness of programs, among
other things. Examples of such coordinated and shared training include a
partnership across three agencies to share best practices among their
acquisition workforces and OPM's program to help agencies meet their
senior executive succession goals and create a leadership corps. The
selected agencies generally had not sought out such opportunities for
their core succession programs.

Given this environment, agencies also need credible information to
evaluate how training and development programs affect organizational
capacity. All four agencies are able to report on measures such as
participant number and program cost. However, the Census Bureau, VHA, and
EPA could better demonstrate their programs' value in providing future
talent by identifying outcome-oriented measures and evaluating the extent
to which these programs enhance their organizations' capacity. For
example, DOL has identified measures that are intended to provide the
department with an understanding of the programs' impact on organizational
capacity, such as its SES "bench strength," a ratio of senior

executives who are in training or have completed training to those
projected to leave.

Finally, all four agencies report using their succession planning and
management efforts to enhance diversity. For example, VHA has integrated
diversity planning into its succession and workforce planning process.
Initially, each regional office that has primary responsibility for health
care-or Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN)-submits a regional
succession plan that includes diversity information. VHA then analyzes
these data, highlights underrepresentation of certain demographic groups
in specific mission-critical occupations, and provides guidance to focus
recruiting efforts to enhance diversity.

To improve and refine their succession planning and management efforts, we
are recommending that all four agencies actively seek opportunities to
coordinate and share their core succession training and development
programs with other outside agencies. By doing so, agencies can enhance
efficiency and increase the effectiveness of their programs, among other
things. We are also making other recommendations to individual agencies to
enhance their succession planning and management efforts.

We provided a draft of this report to the Acting Director of OPM and the
CHCO Council's Leadership and Succession Planning Subcommittee for their
information. We also provided a draft of this report to the Secretaries of
Commerce, Labor, and Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Administrator of EPA
for their review and comment. VA agreed with our findings and
recommendations, and we present their written comments in appendix II. The
Department of Commerce (DOC) and the Census Bureau agreed with our
findings and our recommendations to seek opportunities to coordinate core
succession training and development programs and to evaluate the extent to
which these programs enhance organizational capacity. In response to our
recommendation to strengthen the monitoring of its mission-critical
workforce, the Census Bureau stated that its existing approach is
effective. However, without strengthened monitoring of its
mission-critical workforce, the Census Bureau is at increased risk that it
will not have the skills it needs to be prepared to conduct the 2010
Census as efficiently or effectively as possible. For example, a lesson
from the 2000 Census was that while contracts for various projects
supported decennial census operations, they did so in many instances at a
higher cost than necessary because the Census Bureau did not have
sufficient contracting and program staff with the training and experience
to manage them. We present DOC's and the Census Bureau's written comments
in appendix III.

DOL did not take issue with our findings, stated that it will consider our
recommendations, and provided technical comments, which we incorporated as
appropriate. EPA did not comment on our recommendations, but provided a
technical comment, which we incorporated.

Background	We have found that other countries are experiencing challenges
in managing their human capital, and their experiences may prove valuable
to federal agencies in the United States. For example, they are using
their performance management systems to connect employee performance with
organizational success to help foster a results-oriented culture.7 They
are also implementing succession planning and management initiatives that
are designed to protect and enhance organizational capacity.8
Collectively, these agencies' initiatives demonstrated the following
practices.

o 	Receive active support of top leadership. Top leadership actively
participates in, regularly uses, and ensures the needed financial and
staff resources for key succession planning and management initiatives.
New Zealand's State Services Commissioner, whose wide-ranging duties
include the appointment and review of public service chief executives,
formulated a new governmentwide senior leadership and management
development strategy.

o 	Link to strategic planning. To focus on both current and future needs
and to provide leaders with a broader perspective, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police's succession planning and management initiative figures
prominently in the agency's multiyear human capital plan and provides top
leaders with an agencywide perspective when making decisions.

o 	Identify talent from multiple organizational levels, early in their
careers, or with critical skills. For example, the United Kingdom's Fast
Stream program targets high-potential individuals as well as recent
college graduates, and aims to provide individuals with experiences and
training linked to strengthening specific competencies required for
admission to the Senior Civil Service.

7 GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Insights for U.S. Agencies from Other
Countries' Performance Management Initiatives, GAO-02-862 (Washington,
D.C.: Aug. 2, 2002).

8 GAO-03-914.

o 	Emphasize developmental assignments in addition to formal training.
Initiatives emphasize developmental assignments in addition to formal
training to strengthen high-potential employees' skills and broaden their
experiences. For example, Canada's Accelerated Executive Development
Program temporarily assigns executives to work in unfamiliar roles or
subject areas, and in different agencies.

o 	Address specific human capital challenges, such as diversity,
leadership capacity, and retention. For example, the United Kingdom
created a centralized development program that targets minorities with the
potential to join the Senior Civil Service.

o 	Facilitating broader transformation efforts. The United Kingdom
launched a wide-ranging reform program know as Modernising Government,
which focused on improving the quality, coordination, and accessibility of
the services government offered to its citizens and restructured the
content of its leadership and management development programs to reflect
this new emphasis on service delivery. In Australia, to find individuals
to champion recent changes in how it delivers services and interacts with
stakeholders, the Family Court of Australia identifies and prepares future
leaders who will have the skills and experiences to help the organization
successfully adapt to agency transformation.

We at GAO have also undertaken a variety of succession planning and
management initiatives consistent with these leading practices to
strengthen our own internal efforts. For example, we have constructed a
detailed workforce planning model and analyzed it to ensure that it hired,
retained, and contracted for the appropriate number of staff with the
needed competencies. In addition, we have developed certain "people
measures" to assess its performance in human capital management, including
measures for the attraction and retention of staff, staff utilization and
development, and organizational leadership.

  Agencies Reinforce Top Leadership Support by Assigning Responsibility for
  Succession Efforts

Effective succession planning and management programs have the support and
commitment of their organizations' top leadership. Our past work has shown
that demonstrated commitment of top leaders is perhaps the single most
important element of successful management reform.9 We have reported that
to demonstrate its support of succession planning and management efforts,
top leadership actively participates in and regularly uses these
initiatives to develop and promote individuals, and ensures that these
programs receive sufficient resources.10 As a next step, federal agencies
are to hold their senior executives accountable to address human capital
issues, such as succession.11 We found that VHA has assigned
responsibility for succession planning and management initiatives to a
dedicated subcommittee, while DOL, the Census Bureau, and EPA have
councils or boards that are responsible for human capital more broadly,
including succession efforts.

VHA has established a subcommittee and high-level positions that are
directly responsible for succession planning and management. The
Succession and Workforce Development Management Subcommittee reports to
the Human Resources Committee of the National Leadership Board, as
illustrated in figure 1. VHA's Chief Executive Officer-the Department of
Veterans Affairs' Undersecretary for Health-chairs the board, which
consists of VISN directors, chief officers, and heads of offices.

9 GAO, Management Reform: Elements of Successful Improvement Initiatives,
GAO/T-GGD-00-26 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 15, 1999).

10 GAO-03-914.

11 GAO, Results-Oriented Cultures: Using Balanced Expectations to Manage
Senior Executive Performance, GAO-02-966 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 27,
2002).

Figure 1: VHA's Assigned Responsibility for Succession

Source: GAO.

In addition, VHA has established (1) a workforce planner position to help
coordinate and manage VHA workforce planning activities, and (2) a nurse
workforce planner position to help respond to its nursing shortage and
consult with the workforce planner on certain issues, such as
regionalspecific recruiting challenges and training. Also, this year, VHA
seeks to establish a director of succession management, a senior
executive-level position. According to a VHA human capital official, the
new director's duties will include overseeing national coordination of
VHA's succession activities.

At DOL, the Management Review Board, chaired by the Assistant Secretary
for Administration and Management, is responsible for a variety of
business issues, including human capital. The board is composed of top
senior leaders from each of the agencies within DOL. According to DOL, the
board's senior leaders helped garner support for departmentwide succession
planning and management efforts. For example, the board recommended
funding the development of departmentwide competencies required for
mission-critical occupations.

The Census Bureau's Human Capital Management Council, consisting of
representatives from each of the Census Bureau's directorates, reports to
the Deputy Director of Census. According to Census Bureau human resource
officials, the Council plays a key role in involving and advising top
leadership on human capital issues. For example, the Council developed

and presented a succession management plan that recommended, among other
things, piloting job rotations and assignments to address missioncritical
priorities and resources. In addition, according to a Census Bureau human
resource official, the Council assesses various succession-related issues,
such as recruiting and competency development for the Bureau's senior
management. In turn, senior management recently tasked a Council
representative to provide monthly updates on succession-related issues.

EPA's Human Resources Council, composed of senior leaders who are to
advise the EPA Administrator on human capital issues, released EPA's
"Strategy for Human Capital," a planning document outlining EPA's longterm
human capital goals. The strategy names the offices responsible for
leading each of its goals. For example, the Office of Human Resources, the
Executive Resources Board, and human resources officers are to implement a
strategy to "Ensure the Continuity of Leadership, Critical Expertise, and
Agency Values through Succession Planning and Management/Executive
Development." According to agency human capital officials, EPA's assistant
and regional administrators and their senior managers are responsible for
executing succession planning initiatives.

As a next step, federal agencies are to hold their senior executives
accountable for human capital issues, thus explicitly aligning individual
performance expectations with organizational goals. VHA and the Census
Bureau specifically mention succession planning and management in their
executives' performance plans. DOL and EPA senior executive performance
expectations also include aspects of succession planning and management as
part of more general human capital management responsibilities.

o 	At VHA, in their FY 2005 performance plans, chief officers and program
officials are to assure that the regional strategic plans address
workforce development, including a succession plan that projects workforce
needs. A VHA official also stated that VHA is considering including
specific succession-related performance measures, such as turnover rates
for selected priority occupations, in applicable executive performance
plans.

o 	The Census Bureau's FY 2005 executive performance plans state that each
senior executive "effectively develops and executes plans to accomplish
strategic goals and organizational objectives, setting clear priorities
and acquiring, organizing, and leveraging available resources (human,
financial, budget, etc.,) and succession planning to ensure

timely delivery of high quality services and products in compliance with
applicable laws, regulations and policies." Senior executives are also to
demonstrate a planned approach to workforce development for managers and
staff.

o 	At DOL, executives are to ensure that "staff are appropriately
selected, utilized, appraised, and developed..." Executives are also to
develop the talents of the staff and qualified candidates for positions in
the organization, according to DOL's latest senior executive performance
management plan, revised in 2004.

o 	EPA' s FY 2004 performance plan for senior executives states that
executives should identify current and projected skill gaps and develop
strategies for addressing these gaps. According to an EPA executive
resource policy official, the FY 2005 senior executive performance plan is
under revision, but the expectations concerning skill gaps will not
change.

We have also reported that to demonstrate its support of succession
planning and management, top leadership ensures that these programs
receive sufficient financial and staff resources and are maintained over
time.12 DOL uses a centrally managed "crosscut fund" to supplement its
succession planning and management initiatives. Component agencies within
DOL submit project proposals, which DOL evaluates against established
criteria, such as supporting initiatives in the department's Human Capital
Strategic Plan. According to DOL, from FY 2003-2004, the agency allocated
about $6.1 million for 18 human capital projects, such as competency
assessments for mission-critical occupations, and the Management
Development Program, one of DOL's major succession development programs.
The Census Bureau, EPA, and VHA allocate money to various programs,
including succession efforts, intended to contribute to human capital
goals, but detailed funding information was not readily available from the
agencies.

12 GAO-03-914.

  Agencies Have Begun to Link Succession Efforts to Their Strategic Goals

Leading organizations use succession planning and management as a
strategic planning tool that focuses on current and future needs and
develops pools of high-potential staff in order to meet the organization's
mission over the long term. That is, succession planning and management is
used to help the organization become what it needs to be, rather than
simply to recreate the existing organization. We have previously reported
on the importance of linking succession planning and management with the
forward-looking process of strategic planning.13 Specifically, discussing
how workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities will contribute to the
achievement of strategic and annual performance goals, how significant
gaps are identified, and what mitigating strategies are proposed (such as
hiring and training) can show the connection between succession planning
and strategic planning. All four agencies have begun to link their
succession planning to their strategic goals.

We previously reported that EPA's human capital strategy lacked some key
elements, including the linking of human capital objectives to strategic
goals.14 Since then, EPA's current strategic plan recognizes that human
capital management spans its 5 strategic goals and identifies specific
workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve each goal. For
example, as illustrated in figure 2, to achieve its goal for "Clean Air
and Global Climate Change," EPA states that its workforce planning,
hiring, and training activities will emphasize risk assessment, including
environmentalrisk modeling and monitoring, economic analysis, and standard
setting, among other factors.

13 GAO, Human Capital: A Self-Assessment Checklist for Agency Leaders,
GAO/OCG-00-14G (Washington, D.C.: September 2000).

14 GAO, Human Capital: Implementing an Effective Workforce Strategy Would
Help EPA to

Achieve Its Strategic Goals, GAO-01-812 (Washington, D.C.: July 31, 2001).

Figure 2: EPA's Strategic Goals and Associated Human Capital Focus

                                  Source: EPA.

Separately, the succession plan states that the agency faces a number of
future challenges, such as global pollution, and identifies key drivers
shaping the agency's future work, such as science and technology
advancements, budget constraints, administration priorities, agricultural
practices, public expectations, and the media's influences. To respond to
these drivers, EPA states that its employees must have the capacity to
build stronger working partnerships, increase on-site problem solving, and
enhance internal and external communication practices.

As a component of VA, VHA recognizes VA's strategic objective to "recruit,
develop and retain a competent, committed and diverse workforce that
provides high quality service to veterans and their families" in its
Workforce Succession Strategic Planning Guide. To achieve this objective,
VHA identifies a number of strategic assumptions about the future of
veterans' health care. For example, it states that health care delivery
will become more patient centered, that patients will be seen based on
need instead of a predetermined schedule, and the use of in-home and
interactive technology will increase, along with noninstitutional
long-term care. Although VHA states that technological advances will
improve access and quality of care for veterans, it does not anticipate
significant impacts on the need for health care professionals over the
next 5 years, and expects to continue to compete for scarce health care
professionals in certain occupations.

DOL states that to meet its strategic goal of ensuring a competitive 21st
century workforce, it plans to identify skill gaps, assess training needs,
and recruit new employees. For example, DOL plans to shift from a
historical enforcement role to compliance assistance and consultation,
requiring stronger skills in communication and analysis. DOL seeks to
develop more skills in technology and project management as well as in
strategic planning, quantitative analysis, and analytical thinking for a
more "business-like" management approach. To attract and retain employees
with such skills, DOL launched the MBA Fellows program in 2002, which it
considers one of its major succession development programs. The 2-year
developmental program includes rotational assignments, mentoring, and
promotional opportunities for successful graduates. In FY 2004, DOL
reported retaining 89 percent of its MBA Fellows after 2 years.

Among the Census Bureau's strategic goals is its unique requirement to
conduct the Decennial Census. According to the agency strategic plan, the
Bureau plans to reengineer the 2010 Census so that it "is cost-effective,
provides more timely data, improves coverage accuracy, and reduces
operational risk." The agency will accomplish this by collecting

information on a yearly basis, enhancing address databases, using local
geographic information, and undertaking operational tests of these new
sources and methods. In its human capital plan, the Bureau acknowledges
that reengineering the 2010 Census requires new skills in project,
contract, and financial management; advanced programming and technology;
and statistics, mathematics, economics, quantitative analysis, marketing,
demography, and geography. To help obtain these skills, the Bureau has
established training programs and developed competency guides. For
example, it has instituted a Project Management Master's Certificate
Program and an Information Technology Master's Certificate Program. All
program managers now are to receive project management training.

  Monitoring Mission-Critical Workforce Needs Helps Make Informed Succession
  Planning Decisions

Leading organizations use succession planning and management to identify
the talent required to achieve their goals. We have also identified key
principles for effective workforce planning including determining the
critical skills and competencies that will be needed to achieve current
and future programmatic results; developing 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; and monitoring and evaluating the agency's
progress toward its human capital goals and the contribution that human
capital results have made toward achieving programmatic results.15

VHA, EPA, and DOL have identified gaps in occupations or competencies in
their mission-critical workforce to achieve their goals, have undertaken
strategies to address these gaps, and plan to or are taking steps to
monitor their progress. By doing so, they can make more informed planning
decisions and help appropriately focus succession efforts. While the
Census Bureau has identified and is recruiting for its mission-critical
occupations, it could achieve similar benefits if it more closely monitors
its mission-critical workforce as it plans for the 2010 Decennial Census.

15 GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce
Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).

VHA has identified 13 occupations it deems as national priorities for
recruitment and retention, including registered nurses, physicians, and
nuclear medicine technicians, among others. VHA uses a Web-based tool with
a workforce strategic planning template to help project its needs in these
mission-critical occupations. Each VISN completes a comprehensive and
detailed regional workforce assessment that projects staffing needs for
priority occupations for at least the next 5 years. These projections are
based on anticipated resignations, retirements, other separations, and
future mission needs. VHA's workforce planner considers these data when
projecting national staffing needs. For example, as illustrated in figure
2, VHA anticipates hiring 3,403 nurses in FY 2005 and 21,796 nurses from
FY 2006 through FY 2011. This national projection includes, for example,
the VISN 16 assessment that it will need from 220 to 238 nurses from FY
2005 to FY 2008.

Figure 3: VISN 16 Workforce Assessment and VHA's National Succession Plan

                                  Source: VHA.

VHA also monitors and reports changes in its mission-critical workforce
based on these data. For example, VHA reports that it increased the total
nurses it had on-board by 6.2 percent or 2,184 from FY 1999 to FY 2004.
VHA states that the succession programs implemented since 1999 have helped
it to meet these mission-critical needs and, therefore, it does not plan
to implement additional programs.

We previously recommended that EPA comprehensively assess its workforce
needs.16 Subsequently, EPA identified 18 priority occupations, including
physical scientists, biologists, chemists, and attorneys. EPA projects
each occupation's retirement, attrition, and accession rates based on
historical averages. For example, EPA estimates that approximately 20
percent of the managers and supervisors in 10 of the 18 priority
occupations will leave by 2008, mostly due to retirements. In addition,
human capital officials stated that the agency's strategy has been on
strengthening mission-critical competencies among their priority
occupations. For example, EPA has identified 12 technical competencies,
such as information management and sciences and biological sciences, and
12 cross-occupational competencies, such as teamwork and oral
communication, that are essential for the agency to acquire, retain, or
develop to accomplish its future mission. EPA plans to address emerging
mission-critical competencies and gaps in priority occupations through
recruitment and development. EPA also plans to update its 2004 strategic
workforce planning effort on a cyclical basis to monitor progress in
closing any gaps, but the agency did not indicate specific time frames for
these updates.

DOL has identified 27 mission-critical occupations, such as investigators,
workforce development specialists, and mining engineers as well as the
skills needed for each occupation, which it specifies in competency
models. For example, for criminal investigators, DOL identified skills
such as external awareness and interpersonal communication in addition to
the knowledge and conduct of investigations. DOL has also inventoried the
skills of its on-board mission-critical workers through the department's
mission-critical Skills Assessment Initiative. DOL reports that its
component agencies are developing action plans to reduce or close skill
gaps which DOL is incorporating into its human capital planning and
reporting process.

16 GAO-01-812.

In addition, DOL has developed performance measures that are designed to
help it gauge its organizational capacity, as illustrated in figure 4. For
example, for FY 2004 DOL reported a 5 percent turnover rate of its
missioncritical employees during their first year, meeting its goal of
less than 10 percent. Likewise, DOL reported a 19.5 percent turnover rate
during their first 3 years, meeting its goal of less than 25 percent. In
addition, DOL reported a 95.4 percent FTE utilization rate, the percentage
of filled and authorized, full-time equivalent positions, for FY 2004,
compared with a 98 percent goal.

  Figure 4: Selected DOL Performance Measures Designed to Gauge Organizational
                                    Capacity

Source: DOL.

The Census Bureau has identified its mission-critical occupations and is
recruiting for statisticians, mathematical statisticians, information
technology specialists, cartographers, and geographers on its employment
Web site. According to an agency human capital official, the Census Bureau
does not monitor or assess gaps in numbers by mission-critical occupation,
but focuses on "building infrastructure" by recruiting and developing
competencies. The same official stated that the Bureau delegates decisions
to line managers to fill vacancies, and thus there is no need to assess
workers by mission-critical categories. To assist these managers, the
Bureau reports that an electronic hiring system allows them to identify
competencies for each vacancy, and that line managers engage in a
continuing dialogue with senior managers, the Hiring Coordinators Group,
and the Human Capital Management Council to address hiring needs.
Nevertheless, while line managers are appropriately concerned with filling
vacancies, as noted earlier, the Bureau has also acknowledged that
reengineering the 2010 Decennial Census requires new competencies. By not
monitoring its mission-critical occupations more closely and at a higher
level, Census may not know overall if it is acquiring the skills it needs
to be prepared to conduct the 2010 Decennial Census as efficiently or
effectively as possible.

  Enhanced Coordination and Evaluation of Training and Development Programs
  Could Help Leverage Scarce Resources

Effective training and development programs can enhance the federal
government's ability to achieve results. Further, effective succession
planning and management efforts identify talent from multiple
organizational levels, early in their careers, or with critical skills as
well as provide both formal training and opportunities for rotational,
developmental, or "stretch" assignments, to strengthen high-potential
employees' skills and to broaden their experience and perspective.17 While
all four agencies offer core succession training and development programs,
they each can seek opportunities to achieve efficiencies through more
coordination and sharing of these programs. In addition, establishing
valid measures to better evaluate how these programs affect organizational
capacity can give agency decision makers credible information to justify
training and development programs' value.

17 GAO-03-914.

Agency Succession Efforts All four agencies offer programs to train and
develop their entry-, middle-, Include Training and and senior-level
employees. These programs provide opportunities for Development for
Employees formal training, and all but one program offers rotational or
developmental

assignments.18 Table 1 provides a summary of core succession training
andacross Organizational development programs by agency. Levels

 Table 1: Agencies' Core Succession Training and Development Programs Level of
       training Program Entry Middle Senior Census Bureau (DOC Programs)

Aspiring Leaders Development Program x x

Executive Leadership Development Program x x

SES Candidate Development Program x

DOL

MBA Fellows Program x x

Management Development Program x

SES Candidate Development Program x

EPA

EPA Intern Program x

EPA Rotational Program x

Mid-level Development Programs x x

SES Candidate Development Program x

VHA

Facility LEAD Program x

VISN LEAD Program x

Executive Career Field Candidate Development Program x

Source: Census Bureau, DOC, DOL, EPA, and VHA.

Note: Agency human capital officials identified these as their core
succession training and development programs.

18 EPA's Mid-level Development Programs do not offer formal rotational
assignments but rotations are available to all employees.

At the senior level, all four agencies have succession training and
development programs intended to enhance leadership skills, primarily
through SES candidate development programs. For example, EPA's SES
Candidate Development Program-designed to prepare a cadre of leaders to
fill future vacant executive positions in the agency and to maintain
valuable institutional knowledge-requires candidates to complete an
executive development plan and work with an SES mentor and executive coach
to help define career goals and provide guidance. The program also
requires participants to complete at least 80 hours of formal leadership
development training, as well as complete a 4-month developmental
assignment. DOL and VHA have similar programs in place. The Census Bureau,
as a component of DOC, participates in DOC's SES Candidate Development
Program.

The four agencies also have programs intended to develop the leadership
and supervisory skills for middle-level managers. For example, VHA's
program named "VISN LEAD" provides an opportunity for high-potential
employees in field locations to receive coaching and mentoring, create a
personal development plan, and join with special VISN-wide project task
teams, while retaining their current responsibilities. EPA's Mid-level
Development Programs, DOL's Management Development Program, and DOC's
Executive Leadership Development Program-in which the Census Bureau
participates-all offer similar opportunities.

At the entry level, all agencies have programs intended to develop
employees and provide them with the foundation for future leadership. For
example, DOL's MBA Fellows program requires participants to take a minimum
of four rotational assignments and core training classes, complete a
personal development plan, and work with a senior-level mentor, among
other activities. Targeting recent MBA graduates, DOL established its
program not only to address increased departmentwide needs for business
and project-management skills, but also to create a cadre of future
department leaders. EPA's Intern Program and Rotational Program, VHA's
Facility LEAD Program, and DOC's Aspiring Leaders Development Program, in
which the Census Bureau participates, are similar in nature.

According to agency human capital officials, other programs also
contribute to their succession efforts. For example, the Census Bureau has
established certificate programs in project management and leadership for
all employees to develop and enhance these specific skills. The Bureau
also has a mathematical statisticians program, which, according to the
Deputy

Director, provides career enhancement opportunities designed to help
develop and retain employees in this critical occupation. Similarly, DOL
has a Career Assistance Program that provides employees at all levels with
career planning advice and other development assistance. In addition, the
agencies use formal mentoring or coaching programs to help guide employees
throughout their career.

    Coordination and Sharing of Training and Development Programs Can Achieve
    Efficiencies

As agencies implement their core succession training and development
programs, they must plan and prepare for the possibility of significant
and recurring constraints on their resources, in light of fiscal and
budgetary constraints. Recognizing this, leading agencies look for
opportunities to coordinate and share their efforts and create synergies
through benchmarking with others, achieving economies of scale, limiting
duplication of efforts, and enhancing the effectiveness of programs, among
other things.19 An example of such a coordinated and shared training
effort is the recent announcement of a new partnership by the Office of
Federal Procurement Policy, Department of Defense, and the General
Services Administration. The initiative is geared toward the civilian and
defense acquisition workforces, and is intended to provide similar
training and development opportunities for acquisition personnel across
all three agencies with the goal of sharing best practices, among other
things.

OPM has begun to serve as a bridge for agencies to seek opportunities to
coordinate their succession training and development programs as it shifts
its role from less of a rule maker and enforcer to more of a strategic
partner in leading and supporting agencies' human capital management. For
example, OPM established a governmentwide Federal Candidate Development
Program (Fed CDP). OPM expects the 14-month program to help agencies meet
their SES succession planning goals and contribute to the government's
efforts to create a high-quality SES leadership corps. Participating
agencies may select, without further competition, people who have
successfully completed the Fed CDP training program. In addition, we have
testified that approaches to interagency collaboration, such as the CHCO
Council, have emerged as an important central leadership strategy

19 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 that agency collaboration can serve to institutionalize many
management policies governmentwide.20 The Leadership and Succession
Planning Subcommittee of the CHCO Council is charged with reviewing
leadership development, among other things, and is a possible mechanism to
help agencies coordinate succession training and development programs.

While some agencies' human capital officials acknowledged the potential
benefits of coordinating succession training and development programs with
other agencies or departments, they all could do more to seek coordination
and sharing opportunities. Cognizant human capital and training officials
stated that they had not actively sought opportunities to coordinate core
succession training and development programs. Although EPA plans to select
one senior executive through the Fed CDP, human capital officials stated
they had not extensively explored the idea of coordinating with other
agencies for their core succession training and development. VHA human
capital officials said they did not coordinate further because they have
specialized skill needs. DOL and Census Bureau human capital managers also
stated that they had not partnered with other outside agencies to
coordinate their core succession training and development programs. By not
actively seeking to coordinate and share core succession training and
development programs, agencies may miss a potentially valuable opportunity
to gain efficiency, which may be especially important in the current
budget environment.

    Performance Measures Can Help Agencies Assess Programs' Effects on
    Organizational Capacity

Decision makers need credible information to justify training and
development programs' value. We have also reported that agencies need
credible information to assess how their training and development programs
affect organizational performance and enhance organizational capacity.21
We have observed in our guide for assessing strategic training and
development that while not all training and development programs require,
or are suitable for, higher levels of evaluation, establishing valid
performance measures can ensure that agencies adequately address their
development objectives. Moreover, our guide states that such measures

20 GAO, Human Capital: Observations on Agencies' Implementation of the
Chief Human Capital Officers Act, GAO-04-800T (Washington, D.C.: May 18,
2004) and Posthearing Questions Related to Agencies' Implementation of the
Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Act, GAO-04-897R (Washington, D.C.:
June 18, 2004).

21 GAO-04-546G.

should go beyond input and output data, and can include data on quality,
costs, and time. We also recognize, however, that agencies need to scale
their efforts depending on the program. Factors to consider when deciding
on the appropriate level of evaluation include the estimated costs of
training efforts, size of training audience, and program visibility, among
other things.

All four agencies are able to report on participation and cost related to
their succession training and development programs. For example, 12 Census
Bureau employees participated in DOC's Aspiring Leaders Development
Program in FY 2004, with an average cost of $6,267 per participant,
according to the Bureau. In addition, the Census Bureau and DOL have also
identified outcome measures related to the performance of some of their
succession-related training and development programs. For example, the
Census Bureau evaluates, among other things, the extent to which certified
project managers are using the skills they have learned in the Project
Management Masters Certificate Program. Only DOL has identified measures
intended to provide an understanding of core succession training and
development programs' effects on organizational capacity. Figure 5
illustrates a selection of these measures.

Figure 5: Selected DOL Human Capital Measures Related to Succession Planning and
                                   Management

Source: DOL.

aPromoted to date. Candidates are eligible for promotion through February
2006. bCurrently retained after 2 years.

For example, by considering the retention rate for MBA Fellows, DOL can
make informed planning decisions about the potential availability of
certain skill sets in the department as well as when to initiate a new
program and how many students to include in it. DOL reported that in FY
2004, it retained 89 percent of its MBA fellows after 2 years and has a

goal of 75 percent after 3 years. DOL also tracks SES "bench strength," a
ratio of senior executives who are in training or have completed training
to those projected to leave. DOL reported a 96 percent "bench strength"
for its senior executives in FY 2004, exceeding its goal of 70 percent.
The Census Bureau, VHA, and EPA could better demonstrate their programs'
value in providing future talent by identifying outcome-oriented measures
and evaluating the extent to which these programs enhance their
organizations' capacity.

  Agencies Use Succession Efforts to Enhance Workforce Diversity

Leading organizations recognize that diversity, ways in which people in a
workforce are similar and different from one another, is an organizational
strength and that succession planning is a leading diversity management
practice.22 Given the retirement projections for the federal government
that could create vacancies, agencies can use succession planning and
management as a critical tool in their efforts to enhance diversity in
their leadership positions. All of the selected agencies have recognized
the importance of diversity to a successful workforce and use succession
planning and management efforts to enhance their workforce diversity.

VA requires all of its administrative staff offices to produce workforce
and succession plans aligned with overall VA strategic planning. VHA
states that although its overall workforce is fairly diverse, women and
minorities are not well represented in leadership positions nor are they
well represented in the pipeline to such positions. We have reported that
VHA has integrated diversity planning into its succession efforts.23 As
part of their regional succession plans, VISNs submit diversity
information to VHA for national planning. VHA then analyzes the diversity
of its top-priority occupations, highlights underrepresentation of certain
demographic groups in specific mission-critical occupations, and provides
guidance to focus recruiting efforts to enhance diversity. For example,
VHA states that White females and American Indian/Alaskan Native females
are underrepresented in the nurse occupation and advises that recruitment
efforts should focus on them. In addition, VHA tracks applicant diversity
for the Executive Career Field Candidate Development Program, one of

22 GAO, Diversity Management: Expert-Identified Leading Practices and
Agency Examples, GAO-05-90 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 14, 2005).

23 GAO-05-90.

VHA's core succession training and development programs, and reports that
applicants to this program are drawn from a diverse pool.

EPA has stated in its human capital plan that a diverse workforce makes
the agency a more effective and healthy organization that is better able
to relate to the American people and develop more creative and workable
solutions. EPA credits its Intern Program, one of its core succession
training and development programs, with attracting and retaining a diverse
group of employees based on a 2003 assessment of the program. For example,
the assessment found that EPA interns were more ethnically diverse than
other comparable groups of hires. As part of its diversity action plan,
EPA reports that it is expanding targeted recruitment initiatives to
identify well-qualified candidates for mission-critical occupations. In
addition, regional offices report succession-related efforts intended to
enhance diversity initiatives, such as mentoring, leadership, and career
development programs, and workforce demographic analyses, among other
activities.

DOL identifies a strategic initiative to enhance diversity in management
and mission-critical occupations in its human capital plan. To help it
achieve this initiative, DOL monitors and evaluates diversity information
for its mission-critical occupations annually, and has identified "pockets
of low participation" for certain minority groups, such as Hispanics. In
addition, DOL has reported a higher percentage of women and Hispanics in
its three core succession training and development programs than in its
general workforce.

The Census Bureau has established a diversity program office to manage the
Bureau's diversity efforts. Bureau officials stated that because of the
highly specialized nature of the Bureau's work, such as the use of
statistics and mathematics, and the relatively small pool of people
trained in these areas, it is difficult to enhance diversity in several
critical occupation categories. As part of its combined diversity and
recruiting initiative, the Bureau has established a specific recruiting
team for mathematical statisticians, one of its highlighted
mission-critical occupations. The Bureau also has various targeted
recruiting efforts at academic institutions and community organizations
with high Hispanic and other minority enrollment, and various Hispanic or
Latino Chambers of Commerce.

Conclusions	The Census Bureau, DOL, EPA, and VHA have all implemented
succession planning and management efforts that collectively are intended
to strengthen organizational capacity. Generally, these efforts receive
top leadership support, link with strategic planning, identify critical
skills gaps and strategies to fill them, offer training and development
programs for high-potential employees, and enhance diversity.
Nevertheless, given the nation's large current budget deficit and
long-range fiscal imbalance, Congress is likely to place increasing
emphasis on agencies to exercise fiscal restraint.

Given this environment, these agencies can look for opportunities to
coordinate and share their succession training and development programs to
achieve economies of scale, limit duplication of efforts, increase
efficiency, and enhance the effectiveness of their programs. For example,
all four agencies emphasize rotational or developmental assignments and
formal training, and they may have opportunities to coordinate and share
these assignments and training with each other or other federal agencies
or departments. Agencies can also work with OPM and the CHCO Council to
determine how they can better leverage other agencies' succession training
and development programs.

Furthermore, it is increasingly important for agencies to evaluate their
training and development programs to be able to demonstrate how these
efforts enhance organizational capacity. While the Census Bureau, EPA, and
VHA have some information on their succession training and development
programs, such as participation and cost, they can take additional steps,
such as enhanced evaluations, to justify these programs' value. DOL has
identified measures intended to provide an understanding of these
programs' effects on organizational capacity.

Finally, although the Census Bureau has identified and is recruiting for
its mission-critical occupations, it can better monitor its
mission-critical workforce. By not monitoring more closely and at a higher
level than line managers, the Bureau may not know how to best focus its
succession planning efforts, and ultimately how well it is prepared for
major tasks, such as the 2010 Decennial Census.

  Recommendations for Executive Action

To help agencies reinforce their succession planning and management
efforts, and make well informed planning decisions, we recommend a number
of actions.

The Secretary of Commerce should ensure that the Director of Census takes
the following three actions:

o 	Strengthen the monitoring of its mission-critical workforce by
identifying mission-critical workforce gaps, developing strategies to
address gaps, evaluating progress toward closing gaps, and adjusting
strategies accordingly.

o 	Seek appropriate opportunities to coordinate and share core succession
training and development programs with other outside agencies to achieve
economies of scale, limit duplication of efforts, benchmark with
high-performing agencies, keep abreast of current practices, enhance
efficiency, and increase the effectiveness of its programs.

o 	Evaluate core succession training and development programs to assess
the extent to which programs contribute to enhancing organizational
capacity. When deciding the appropriate analytical approach and level of
evaluation, the Bureau should consider factors such as estimated costs of
training efforts, size of training audience, and program visibility, among
other things.

The Administrator of EPA should take the following two actions:

o 	Seek appropriate opportunities to coordinate and share core succession
training and development programs with other outside agencies to achieve
economies of scale, limit duplication of efforts, benchmark with
high-performing agencies, keep abreast of current practices, enhance
efficiency, and increase the effectiveness of its programs.

o 	Evaluate core succession training and development programs to assess
the extent to which programs contribute to enhancing organizational
capacity. When deciding the appropriate analytical approach and level of
evaluation, EPA should consider factors such as estimated costs of
training efforts, size of training audience, and program visibility, among
other things.

The Secretary of Labor should take the following action:

o 	Seek appropriate opportunities to coordinate and share core succession
training and development programs with other outside agencies to achieve
economies of scale, limit duplication of efforts, benchmark with
high-performing agencies, keep abreast of current practices, enhance
efficiency, and increase the effectiveness of its programs.

The Secretary of VA should take the following two actions:

o 	Seek appropriate opportunities to coordinate and share core succession
training and development programs with other outside agencies to achieve
economies of scale, limit duplication of efforts, benchmark with
high-performing agencies, keep abreast of current practices, enhance
efficiency, and increase the effectiveness of its programs.

o 	Evaluate core succession training and development programs to assess
the extent to which programs contribute to enhancing organizational
capacity. When deciding the appropriate analytical approach and level of
evaluation, VHA should consider factors such as estimated costs of
training efforts, size of training audience, and program visibility, among
other things.

  Agency Comments and Our Evaluation

We provided a draft of this report to the Secretaries of Commerce, Labor,
and VA and the Administrator of EPA for their review and comment. In
addition, we provided a draft of this report to the Acting Director of OPM
and the CHCO Council's Leadership and Succession Planning Subcommittee for
their information.

VA agreed with our findings and recommendations. In response to our
recommendation to seek opportunities to coordinate and share core
succession training and development programs, VA suggested that OPM could
act as a "clearinghouse" by gathering and publishing curricula and other
relevant training information from agencies, thus enabling agencies to
identify existing training programs across the government. We present VA's
written comments in appendix II. DOC and the Census Bureau agreed with our
findings and our recommendations to seek opportunities to coordinate core
succession training and development programs and to evaluate the extent to
which these programs enhance organizational capacity. In response to our
recommendation to strengthen the monitoring

of its mission-critical workforce, the Census Bureau stated that its
existing approach is effective in meeting its needs. However, as we
discussed earlier, the Census Bureau acknowledges that reengineering the
2010 Decennial Census requires new competencies. By not strengthening the
monitoring of its mission-critical workforce, the Census is at increased
risk that it will not have the skills it needs to be prepared to conduct
the 2010 Census as efficiently or effectively as possible. For example, a
lesson from the 2000 Census was that while contracts for various projects
supported decennial census operations, they did so in many instances at a
higher cost than necessary because the Census Bureau did not have
sufficient contracting and program staff with the training and experience
to manage them.24 We present DOC's and the Census Bureau's written
comments in appendix III. DOL did not take issue with our findings, stated
that it will consider our recommendations, and provided technical
comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. EPA did not comment on our
recommendations, but provided a technical comment, which we incorporated.

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days
after its date. At that time, we will provide copies of this report to
other interested congressional parties; the Secretaries of Commerce,
Labor, and VA; the Administrator of EPA; the Director of Census; the
Acting Director of OPM; and the CHCO Council's Leadership and Succession
Planning Subcommittee. We will also make this report available at no
charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov.

24 U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Inspector General, What Census
2000 Can Teach Us in Planning for 2010, Report No. OIG-14431 (Spring
2002).

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact
me on (202) 512-6806 or at [email protected]. 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 IV.

Eileen Larence Director, Strategic Issues

Appendix I

                       Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

To review how federal agencies are implementing succession planning and
management efforts, we selected the Department of Labor (DOL), the
Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), and the Census Bureau for our review. We considered the nature of
their succession challenges, agency missions, and prior GAO human capital
work conducted at these agencies. These agencies represent an array of
organizational structures, missions, and succession challenges.

We analyzed strategic, human capital, workforce, succession, and training
and development plans, performance contracts, human capital team charters,
and diversity information from the selected agencies. In addition, we
reviewed policies and guidance on succession-related issues from the
Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) because
of their responsibilities for ensuring the fair application of personnel
decisions, such as selection for training and development programs. We
also interviewed agency, OPM, EEOC, and MSPB officials involved with
strategic, human capital, and succession planning and management.

The scope of our work did not include independent evaluation or
verification of the effectiveness of the succession planning and
management initiatives used in the four agencies, including any
performance results that agencies attributed to specific practices or
aspects of their programs. We assessed the reliability of staffing and
projection data provided to us by the Census Bureau, DOL, EPA, VHA, and
OPM to ensure the data we used in this report were complete and accurate
by (1) interviewing agency officials knowledgeable about the data and (2)
performing manual and electronic testing, when applicable. We determined
that these data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this
engagement.

To get the varied perspectives of agencies' staff located in headquarters
and regional offices, we interviewed agency officials in Washington, D.C.;
Charlotte, North Carolina; and Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.
We conducted our study from June 2004 through April 2005.

Appendix II

Comments from the Department of Veterans Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix II
Comments from the Department of Veterans
Affairs

Appendix III

Comments from the Department of Commerce

Appendix III
Comments from the Department of
Commerce

Appendix III
Comments from the Department of
Commerce

Appendix III
Comments from the Department of
Commerce

Appendix IV

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