United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-07-31 monographic deposited born digital 56 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-812 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812 P0b002ee180380d64 f:d01812 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812 GAO-01-812 Environmental monitoring Human resources training Human resources utilization Personnel management Personnel recruiting Senior Executive Service Candidate Program Other Written Product A01393 During the last decade, as most federal agencies downsized, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) workforce grew by about 18 percent. Much of this growth occurred in EPA's 10 regional offices, which carry out most of the agency's efforts to encourage industry compliance with environmental regulations. Currently, EPA's workforce of 17,000 individuals includes scientists, engineers, lawyers, and environmental protection specialists, and mission-support staff. Some Members of Congress have questioned whether EPA is giving enough attention to managing this large and diverse workforce. The workforce management practices of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)--which takes direct action against violators of environmental statutes and oversees the environmental enforcement activities of states--have come under particular scrutiny because enforcement activities span all of EPA's programs and regions. Although EPA has began several initiatives during the last decade to better organize and manage its workforce, they have not received the resources and senior level management attention needed to realize them. This report reviews the (1) extent to which EPA's strategy includes the key elements associated with successful human capital strategies, (2) the major human capital challenges EPA faces in the successful implementation of its strategy, and (3) how OECA deploys the enforcement workforce among EPA's 10 regions to ensure that federal environmental requirements are consistently enforced across regions either by OECA or by states with enforcement programs that OECA oversees. GAO found that EPA's November 2000 human capital strategy is a promising first step towards improving the agency's management of its workforce, but it lacks some of the key elements that are commonly found in the human capital strategies of high-performing organizations. EPA's major challenges in human capital management involve assessing the work requirements for its employees, ensuring continuity of leadership within the agency, and hiring and developing skilled staff. OECA does not systematically deploy its workforce to ensure the consistent enforcement of federal regulations throughout all EPA regions and bases deployment decisions on outdated and incomplete information regarding key regional workload factors. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812.pdf GAO-01-812 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-812 Other Written Product GAO-01-812; Human Capital: Implementing an Effective Workforce Strategy Would Help EPA to Achieve Its Strategic Goals; Environmental monitoring Human resources training Human resources utilization Personnel management Personnel recruiting Senior Executive Service Candidate Program