Building a Flexible Workforce

he Defense Department, along with many other agencies, is struggling to identify the talents and skills required of its future workforce. The problem becomes even more urgent as the agency's civilian workforce fast approaches retirement age. By 2005 roughly half of DoD's acquisition workforce will be eligible for retirement or early outs.

What do you do when you're faced with replacing half your staff with no groundswell of applicants breaking down your doors? Some might suggest "chain them to their desks and don't let them leave," but that is hardly an enlightened human resource strategy.

DoD has established a task force to assess needs and investigate options under Keith Charles' leadership. Charles was recently appointed director of the Civilian Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Workforce Management Activity. He also is acting director of the Defense Acquisition Education Training and Career Development Office.

Over the past few years the Defense Department has tried to better define its acquisition workforce. The problem ties directly to the maxim that if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Complaints from Congress about Defense's hundreds of thousands of "shoppers and buyers" prompted officials to determine who are the real contributors to the acquisition mission. Defense's analysis showed that there were nowhere near the number of "buyers" that Congress was asserting. The result of this review is a template for the acquisition process and for linking Defense components in a common staffing structure.

The basis of the workforce count is derived from an algorithm first proposed in the mid-1980s by former Deputy Secretary David Packard's Blue Ribbon Presidential Commission on Defense Reform. It categorizes people according to their occupational designation as well as the nature of their organizations. For some occupations, such as contracting, the count includes civilians across the department. For others, such as engineers, it only includes employees in acquisition-related organizations such as the Army Materiel Command or NAVSEA.

This unique approach recognizes that contracting officers and purchasers (1102s and 1105s in Office of Personnel Management parlance) are only part of this workforce. In fact, they represent less than 15 percent.

DoD released a report in May, "9909 Refined Packard Count," citing an acquisition workforce total of 138,851 in September 1999-including 123,616 civilians and 15,235 military members. What's the largest civilian occupational specialty, making up almost a third of the workforce? Engineers, with roughly a third of those in the electronics field. Logistics management staff, computer specialists, quality assurance personnel and auditors represent other large segments of this population.

If these occupational breakdowns reflect the skill base of today's acquisition workforce, what will it look like over the next five years? And what kind of strategies and training programs must be developed to ensure the staff is available and capable of meeting new workload challenges?

From Charles' perspective, the issue is less about honing technical skills and more about major cultural adjustment in defining the roles senior civilians should play. For years, the military has done an outstanding job of producing leaders, generalists who can assume a multitude of responsibilities. On the civilian side however, the effort has been woefully weak. "I'm [a contracting officer]; I don't do management" reflects a narrow, stove-piped view, according to Charles.

The new model is multifunctional and agile, Charles says. People must have the technical skills their specialty demands, whether it be engineering or contracting. "We're not trying to develop jacks of all trades," he says. "People can be expert in one area, but then have enough information on others to be a solid generalist." The key is to prepare people to provide leadership in a variety of disciplines, not unlike the path the services carve out for their military officers.

The traditional role of civilians as deputies to military commanders would have to change to reflect the higher expectations and added responsibilities associated with this model.

This new career development model promoting flexibility and adaptability is just one of a series of ideas from Charles' task force. Streamlining hiring practices, developing strategic partnerships with colleges and universities, and better marketing of the Defense mission are other suggestions for recruiting needed staff.

A bigger challenge will be to establish a robust government-industry exchange program that would foster entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to adapt. Such an approach would expose mid-level employees to new ideas in the business world while benefiting the department with an exchange of talent from the private sector.

The Defense Department has already recognized that its acquisition workforce requires people with a variety of skills who can work in teams. Developing multifunctional staffs and providing leadership training and opportunities for employees are laying the groundwork for a resilient and agile workforce able to contend with future challenges.

Allan V. Burman, a former Office of Federal
Procurement Policy administrator, is president of
Jefferson Solutions in Washington.