Civilian Workforce Planning in the Department of Defense: Different Levels, Different Roles

Abstract

In response to more than a decade of downsizing and restructuring, the Department of Defense (DoD) is engaged in a human-resources strategic planning effort to address resulting imbalances in both skills and experience levels in many parts of DoD. The current human-resources strategic plan addresses the need to provide management systems and tools to support total workforce planning and informed decision-making (U.S. Department of Defense, 2003b). Attention to Department-wide civilian workforce planning stems in part from the President's Management Agenda of 2001 and the continuing assessments of Department-level progress on workforce planning. DoD civilian workforce planning efforts are complicated and, at the same time, made more important by the implementation of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), slated to begin in 2006. The NSPS will replace the traditional federal civil service personnel management system within DoD, providing DoD managers with more management flexibility. To support Department-wide efforts, the DoD asked the RAND Corporation to explore how workforce planning and requirements determination are accomplished at specific installations, to identify potential roles for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) in the planning process, and to identify potential data sources for Department-wide workforce planning.