Bringing human capital to the forefront at USDA: the HR director of a major federal department offers a case illustration of how human capital management is supporting the goals of the President's management agenda

Public Manager, The, Summer, 2003 by Joe Colantuoni

The second part of the workforce planning effort involved looking at competencies. USDA managers and HR worked together to determine the key competencies within each of the occupations. We identified both general and occupational competencies that the workforce would need for the next five years and compared that information to the competencies already on board. We asked ourselves several questions. Are the competencies mission critical? Are the competencies difficult to recruit for? And what are the current gaps? From the information gathered, our contractor performed a skills gap analysis ranking where the biggest gaps would exist. We learned from this effort that we would be understaffed by more than 15 percent in critical occupations unless we focus on closing the gaps today.

We are now in the process of designing solutions like our automated workforce-planning model to close the critical skill gaps. The PC-based workforce-planning model is in the early stages of implementation. It is closely linked to USDA's strategic planning process and incorporates succession planning and skills gap analysis. Ultimately the human capital team envisions the tool to be in the hands of all USDA managers to drive recruitment, training, and succession planning.

For now, the USDA-wide effort is focused on closing the gaps identified in the 14 critical occupations through improved recruitment. We need to do a better job of marketing USDA. Our new plans call for a national approach that incorporates both departmental and agency perspectives and educates new recruits on all the programs in which USDA is involved. In addition, we are working internally to make our managers aware of all the hiring flexibilities available to them and how best to apply them.

Assuring a Leadership Pipeline

Also key to our effort is ensuring the department is replenishing its pipeline of supervisors and managers. A projected 65 percent of our SES workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years, and we know we have to take aggressive steps to ensure leadership talent. To address this dilemma, USDA has embarked on a new SES candidate development program. We are also working with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior to develop a tri-agency rotational program. Each agency has its own leadership program, and we are looking for a forum for sharing best practices across the agencies as well as a toolkit for succession planning. We have begun to develop a process for identifying best practices and making them available through a central Web-based resource. We believe that this will enhance the sharing of program ideas and save costs and streamline processes.

Knowledge Management and Employee Development

USDA has recently designed and is in the process of launching a departmentwide coaching, mentoring, and distance-learning program. We realize that the linkage between employee development and mission accomplishment needs to be strengthened. In addition, the USDA has invested heavily in GoLearn. The electronic system provides us an infrastructure for courses that are general and specific to USDA and its agencies. The system also tracks expenditures, attendance, and race national origin data. We can now monitor all training that is occurring in the agencies and provide competency management and individual development planning for employees. USDA also has a cross-agency knowledge management team that will work to improve how our corporate knowledge is organized and accessed.