GAO: Agency HR offices need better communication with officials in remote posts

Federal HR leaders need to do more to support officials working outside of the continental United States to combat higher-than-average attrition rates for government jobs in remote locations, the Government Accountability Office reported Tuesday.

Historically, attrition rates among federal workers in the “non-contiguous U.S.,”—that is, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands—has hovered moderately higher than within the continental U.S. Between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2022, attrition in the non-contiguous U.S. increased from 8.5% to 10.6%, while attrition in the continental U.S. federal workforce rose from 7.9% to 10.0%. In fiscal 2023, attrition fell to 8.2% for federal employees in the continental U.S. and 8.8% in Hawaii, Alaska and the territories.

Contributing to the higher attrition rate are a number of financial factors, of which only some can be ameliorated by employing agencies, including high housing costs and high prices for staple goods and low access to physicians who participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program or Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance program.

While initiatives like the federal government’s locality pay program, which aims to reduce the federal-private sector pay gap within a given region, and cash recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses exist to combat those costs, they are not particularly effective in practice.

While Alaska- and Hawaii-based feds receive 32% and 22% boosts to basic pay through the locality pay program, employees in the offshore territories only receive the base Rest of U.S. boost, in addition to the remains of the sunsetting Cost of Living Allowance program. And agency officials said that they often don’t have enough funding appropriated to make full use of retention and relocation bonuses.

Agency officials in the non-contiguous U.S. also report difficulty hiring for vacant positions, due to the remote locations and a much smaller talent pool than in the 48 contiguous states. Common complaints about the federal hiring process’ length and complexity are exacerbated when recruiting from the territories’ local population, GAO found.

“Agency officials across the locations we visited cited difficulties getting through the federal application process, including the time it takes to apply for a position, which dissuades candidates,” the report states. “In addition, various agency officials in Hawaii and Pacific territories shared that cultural barriers affect the application process. For example, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander culture places great importance on humility, and, therefore, may not be comfortable labeling themselves as experts in their respective fields despite having the qualifications, according to agency officials. This cultural difference can prevent certain applicants from moving forward in the process.”

And once people are hired, it can be harder to retain them. That’s in part because there frequently are fewer mid-level positions in these locations, meaning in order to ascend the career ladder, employees must leave federal service or transfer to the mainland to acquire new skills and experience.

And conducting training with employees outside of the continental U.S. is hampered as well, with multiple agencies reporting that their live training often occurs outside of business hours for employees in Alaska or the Pacific islands.

While some of the agencies surveyed for GAO’s report documented meetings between headquarters staff and officials at facilities outside of the contiguous U.S., GAO recommended that they redouble those efforts and provide more consistent and helpful guidance on how better to utilize the various hiring and pay authorities to improve hiring and retention.

While most of the agencies studied for this report, including the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Parks Service and Social Security Administration, concurred with GAO’s recommendations, the Homeland Security Department argued that its existing outreach efforts to remote officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Security Administration were sufficient to close the associated recommendation.

“DHS did not agree that FEMA needs to evaluate the agency’s efforts to obtain and use feedback on hiring and retention practices,” the report states. “DHS stated that FEMA holds regular and recurring meetings with hiring managers in the noncontiguous U.S. to obtain feedback and provide guidance on recruitment and retention practices. We provide examples of such meetings and guidance in the report. However, as discussed in the report, we heard from multiple officials in the noncontiguous U.S. that they experience challenges due to their headquarters office not fully understanding their needs.”