GAO Human Capital Management: Efforts Taken to Ensure Effective Campus Recruitment

This testimony discusses GAO's campus recruitment program. As an organization committed to having a high-performing, diverse workforce, GAO places great importance on attracting, hiring, training, and retaining employees with the skills needed to support GAO's mission to serve Congress and the American public. GAO has a multi-disciplinary workforce, with most staff having backgrounds in public policy, public administration, law, business, computer science, accounting, social sciences, or economics. While our current and future hiring will be shaped by today's constrained budget environment, over the past 5 years, on average, GAO has hired about 300 employees each year. The majority of these hires were for analyst and analyst-related positions at the entry level. GAO also has a robust paid student intern program each year. Many of these interns return as entry-level analysts. Having a strong campus recruitment program has played a key role in attracting highly qualified candidates for our permanent and intern positions and building our workforce. In response to congressional request, the remarks will focus on (1) the strong partnerships developed through our campus recruitment program, (2) recent actions GAO has taken to enhance the program and the positive outcomes GAO has experienced, and (3) the programs and policies we have in place to support new staff.