Recommendation: The Director of the Office of Personnel Management should assist the 24 CFO Act agencies by using OPM FEVS data to analyze the key drivers of retention for veterans in the agencies' workforces to identify strategies for improving veteran retention. OPM should also be available to non-CFO Act agencies that request assistance with the veteran retention analysis.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Director of OPM should routinely track and report retention data for employees with disabilities and make such data available to federal agencies, including EEOC, through a centralized web portal—such as MAX.gov. For example, OPM could track and report such data by General Schedule level pay groupings, which could help pinpoint root causes that contribute to retention rates, inform assessments of government-wide progress on employee retention, and identify needed improvements. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Attorney General of the United States should develop and implement policies and procedures for assessing the impact of training provided to agency hiring managers and human resources staff on Schedule A hiring authority. This includes assessing the impact of its training on agency performance goals related to increased hiring of individuals with disabilities and targeted disabilities. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Justice
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Attorney General of the United States should develop and implement policies and procedures for obtaining employee feedback about the agency's reasonable accommodations efforts and use such information to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the program. This may include identifying any effects on employee retention, identifying potential risks, and determining any improvements that may be warranted. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Justice
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of SBA should develop and implement policies and procedures for assessing and tracking the impact of training provided to agency hiring managers and human resources staff on Schedule A hiring authority. This includes assessing the impact of its training on agency performance goals related to increased hiring of individuals with disabilities and targeted disabilities. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Small Business Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Administrator of SBA should develop and implement policies and procedures for obtaining employee feedback about the agency's reasonable accommodations efforts and use such information to evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of the program. This may include identifying any effects on employee retention, identifying potential risks, and determining any improvements that may be warranted. (Recommendation 5)

Agency: Small Business Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Commissioner of SSA should develop and implement policies and procedures for assessing and tracking the impact of training provided to agency hiring managers and human resources staff on Schedule A hiring authority. This includes assessing the impact of its training on agency performance goals related to increased hiring of individuals with disabilities and targeted disabilities. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Social Security Administration
Status: Open

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy should clarify whether and how to use the laboratory initiated research authority within the Capital Investment Program. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy
Status: Open

Comments: In December 2018, DOD agreed with our recommendation. In March 2019, DOD reported that the Navy was working on establishing a process for its laboratories to use the funds made available to them through the laboratory initiated research authority and planned to have this new policy in place by September 1, 2019 but was subsequently changed to a new date of October 1, 2019. However, the Navy was unable to finalize its policy prior to the start of the 2020 fiscal year. In February 2020, a senior USD(R&E) official stated that internal discussions between Navy acquisition officials and Navy financial management officials were ongoing. This official further noted that the Navy planned to finalize its policy by December 1, 2020, in time to influence the Navy's fiscal year 2022 budget request.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Army, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Materiel Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Army depots' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Army concurred with our recommendation. In February 2020 the Army provided GAO with an outline of a corrective action plan that identified how the Army plans to address our recommendation. Some of the planned milestone dates for these action items occur in fiscal year 2021. As of June 30, 2020 we consider the actions the Army taking to address our rec as ongoing, and will follow up with the Army later this year or early 2021 to obtain a status update on this rec and attempt to close the rec.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Navy, in conjunction with the Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Air Systems Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Navy's shipyards' and fleet readiness centers' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Navy concurred with our recommendation. In response to our recommendation that the Secretary of the Navy, in conjunction with the Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Air Systems Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Navy's shipyards' and fleet readiness centers' hiring, training, and retention programs; the Navy is in the process of collecting information to assess the effectiveness of these programs and considers these efforts ongoing.

Recommendation: The Commandant of the Marine Corps, in conjunction with the Marine Corps Logistics Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Marine Corps depots' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Marine Corps concurred with our recommendation. In December of 2019 we began working with the Department of Defense, including each of the Military Service Components to determine how each component would address our recommendation. We successfully heard back from each component except the Marine Corps. As of June 30, 2020 GAO is still engaging with the Department of Defense and the Marine Corps to obtain a status update on the actions taken by the Marine Corps to address our recommendation. GAO will continue following up on this recommendation in 2020 and during the 2021 fiscal year to determine how the Marine Corps has addressed our recommendation so we can close this recommendation if possible.

Recommendation: The Secretary of the Air Force, in conjunction with the Air Force Materiel Command, should assess the effectiveness of the Air Force air logistics complexes' hiring, training, and retention programs. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: The Air Force concurred with our recommendation. In December 2019 the Air Force provided GAO with an outline of a corrective action plan that identified how the Air Force plans to address our recommendation. Many of the planned milestone dates for these action items occur in fiscal year 2021. As of June 30, 2020 we consider the actions the Air Force is taking to address our rec as ongoing and will follow up with the Air Force later this year or early 2021 to obtain a status update on this rec and attempt to close the rec.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Defense Laboratories Office routinely obtain and monitor defense laboratory hiring data to improve the oversight of the defense laboratories' use of hiring authorities. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation and cited steps the department was and would be taking to improve oversight and coordination of the defense laboratories' hiring efforts. In June 2018, DOD acknowledged receipt of our final report and stated that the department's overall position on the report had not changed. We will provide further updates once additional information is received.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Defense Laboratories Office develop performance measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the defense laboratories' use of hiring authorities as part of the labs' overall hiring to better inform future decision making about hiring efforts and policies. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation and cited steps the department was and would be taking to improve oversight and coordination of the defense laboratories' hiring efforts. In June 2018, DOD acknowledged receipt of our final report and stated that the department's overall position on the report had not changed. We will provide further updates once additional information is received.

Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should ensure that the Defense Laboratories Office, in collaboration with the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and the Laboratory Quality Enhancement Panel's Personnel Subpanel, establish and document time frames for its coordination process to direct efforts across the relevant offices and help ensure the timely approval and implementation of hiring authorities. (Recommendation 3)

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD concurred with our recommendation and cited steps the department was and would be taking to improve oversight and coordination of the defense laboratories' hiring efforts. In June 2018, DOD acknowledged receipt of our final report and stated that the department's overall position on the report had not changed. We will provide further updates once additional information is received.

Recommendation: To enhance information available to operational unit managers, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the director of NOAA's WFMO to ensure that complete information on hiring requests is routinely communicated to NWS managers throughout the three phases of the hiring process, such as by supporting the development of improved tracking and reporting capabilities in the planned new Commerce-wide data system.

Agency: Department of Commerce
Status: Open

Comments: The agency agreed with our recommendation. As of June 2020, the agency had taken some action, but had not fully implemented it. We will update this recommendation's status as we receive more information.

Recommendation: To help ensure Interior can hire, retain, and train staff it needs to provide effective oversight of oil and gas activities on federal lands and waters, the Secretary of the Interior should direct the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget to annually evaluate the bureaus' training programs, including: (1) staff training needs, (2) training effectiveness, and (3) potential opportunities for the bureaus to share training resources.

Agency: Department of the Interior
Status: Open

Comments: In January 2017, Interior officials said the bureaus were developing, or had developed, the means by which they would assess their training needs and review, evaluate, and update their training programs for technical staff. Interior also told GAO that as part of its quarterly review of performance data, the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget will ensure that BLM, BSEE and BOEM are coordinating their training needs. Interior officials said that their Office of Strategic Employment and Organizational Development will validate the bureaus' active engagement in this activity and provide support in the fulfillment of this recommendation where needed. In February 2018, Interior officials said the agency had examined results from the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to gauge how the bureaus' training program activities were being perceived by their workforce. In July 2019, Interior officials said they were looking at opportunities to share training resources, and that they would add in their scope an evaluation of training needs and effectiveness. However, as of March 2020, Interior had not provided us with evidence that it has conducted an evaluation of training needs, training effectiveness and sharing training resources.

Recommendation: To help strengthen the government's ability to compete in the labor market for top talent, and to improve the federal hiring process, the Director of OPM, in conjunction with the CHCO Council, should use this information to determine whether opportunities exist to refine, consolidate, eliminate, or expand agency-specific authorities to other agencies and implement changes where OPM is authorized, including seeking presidential authorization (as necessary) in order to do so. In cases where legislation would be necessary to implement changes, OPM should work with the CHCO Council to develop legislative proposals.

Agency: Office of Personnel Management
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: OPM agreed with this recommendation and has taken actions to address it since GAO's August 2016 report. In April 2019, OPM issued final regulations implementing changes to direct hire authority to provide certain agencies with the ability to hire urgently needed information technology professionals more quickly. It also plans to provide in-person support to the Chief Human Capital Office council, Chief Information Officers Council, and human resources professionals and managers on how to use this new authority. In its fiscal year 2021 Congressional Budget Justification released on February 10, 2020, OPM noted that it was seeking to improve hiring by using flexibilities that exist within current authority. These include, for example, noncompetitive term-limited appointments of highly qualified experts, expansion of term/temporary hiring authorities, and limited noncompetitive hiring of students and recent graduates. However, some of these plans were initially introduced in the prior year's justification and progress continues to be unclear. Additionally, OPM said that it is currently reassessing administration priorities and was unable to provide further updates. While OPM has made some progress in this area, it will be important for the agency to prioritize and follow through on its planned actions to streamline hiring authorities. Expanding access to hiring authorities found to be highly efficient and effective while eliminating those found to be less effective would help simplify and improve the federal hiring process.

Recommendation: To help ensure that DOD is better informed in its decision-making processes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to utilize comprehensive and up-to-date furlough cost-savings information as it becomes available in the event that DOD decides to implement another administrative furlough in the future.

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation, but did not elaborate as to why. As of November 2019, DOD has not implemented an administrative furlough since our 2014 report nor has it produced any guidance regarding the recommendation. We will continue to monitor for the development of guidance or a potential DOD administrative furlough.

Recommendation: To enhance collaboration among the various entities involved in delivering employment services to military spouses and to better monitor the effectiveness of these services, the Secretary of Defense should consider incorporating key practices to sustain and enhance collaboration when developing and finalizing its spouse employment guidance, such as agreeing on roles and responsibilities and developing compatible policies and procedures.

Agency: Department of Defense
Status: Open

Comments: DOD partially concurred with this recommendation. As of September 2019, DoD has addressed some but not all aspects of this recommendation. According to DoD officials, the Spouse Education and Career Opportunities (SECO) programs have mechanisms for operating across agency boundaries by fostering open lines of communication and other collaborative practices. Specifically, according to DoD officials, these mechanisms provide SECO program and military service officials, who operate employment assistance programs at military installations, full knowledge of the relevant resources and activities focused on military spouse employment. For example, SECO provides quarterly webinars to military service employment program officials; and, leaders at SECO and installations have bi-monthly calls to provide updates on their respective initiatives. However, SECO has not fully developed guidance describing its overall strategy and how its various programs should coordinate to help military spouses obtain employment, which could include clarifying the roles and responsibilities of SECO and the military service programs. Our prior work has found that such documentation can help improve coordination by clarifying who does what in a partnership. Although DoD had intended to develop a separate policy (or DoD Instruction) for spouse employment, agency officials said they abandoned this effort. DoD plans to issue new guidance, but as of September 2019, DoD has not provided an update on this guidance or other examples of documentation that outline roles and responsibilities. Until DoD develops guidance, these programs face increased risk for poor coordination and program overlap.