Imagine the world’s largest employer capable of designing and implementing workforce planning and forecasting models far into the future, so there is never a lack of skills or competencies to meet the Nation’s needs.

Hard to imagine? Not really. The President’s Human Capital Initiative has launched a Government-wide effort to focus Federal agencies on designing workforce planning and forecasting models to ensure that the Government has the right people, at the right time, to meet mission accomplishment.

IDENTIFY THE SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes that translate into effective on-the-job performance. They describe what an employee knows, what they do and how they do it. Two-thirds of the PMC agencies have completed workforce analyses to assess the competencies they need, the competencies they have, and the gaps they need to fill. Click on an agency to see their preliminary skill/competency/occupation assessments.

IMPLEMENTING A WORKFORCE PLANNING AND FORECASTING MODEL

Some Federal agencies have begun to implement their workforce planning and forecasting models. The Department of Army has developed a Workforce Planning and Forecasting tool that really works. As an automated tool it accurately details a historic view of the agency as well as forecasts into the future.  The system enables you to construct simple queries, conduct statistical analyses, as well as manipulate data bases by merging data, creating longitudinal data bases or data tables for specific time periods and running your queries or analyses on the data bases you created. It also shows a variety of forecasts of projected voluntary separations, retirements, involuntary separations, accessions, reassignments etc by a number of data elements users wish to view (for example, projected retirements for civil engineers in federal government).

OPM is adopting this model as part of the Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) E-Government Initiative and making it available to government oversight agencies in December 2002 and available to all agencies in 2003.

There are other models being used. For example, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) developed a strategic workforce planning model to identify and monitor its human capital assets and needs. It is results-driven and focuses on business outcomes and outputs for the next five years. The plan identifies agency core competencies and provides a baseline of competencies relative to those requirements. The web-enabled system allows managers to specify their short term and long term skill needs. The system also provides a self assessment component, allowing employees to indicate their level of expertise in mission critical areas. The model was initially rolled out with a skills-assessment survey for core occupations and is now available to the rest of the NRC workforce. The information is presented to managers in the form of a Tool Box that describes the Human Capital available tools and flexibilities to recruit and retain star performers.

QUESTION: Is workforce planning and forecasting enough to successfully manage human capital? ANSWER: No, but it is a critical step. Workforce Planning and Deployment is one of six Standards for Success in Human Capital Management. You will also need to address: Strategic Alignment Leadership and Knowledge Management Results-Oriented Performance Culture Talent Accountability

OPM, OMB and GAO collaborated in the development of the revised Standards for Success. The six Standards embody areas of concentration addressed by high-performing organizations and have been fully integrated into the Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework. The Framework as well as additional guidance on the strategic management of human capital can be found on the new OPM’s Human Capital website at: www.opm.gov

OPM is committed to your success in the strategic management of human capital and stands ready to support your efforts to identify the critical competency gaps in your agency and to design strategies that address all the Standards for Success.

Sincerely,

Kay Coles James



The Five Initatives:

• Strategic Management of Human Capital - Kay Coles James
• Competitive Sourcing - Angela Styles
• Improving Financial Performance - Linda Springer
• Expanded Electronic Government - Mark Forman
• Budget & Performance Integration - Robert Shea