National Nuclear Security Administration: Contractors' Strategies
to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled Workforce Are
Generally Effective (02-FEB-05, GAO-05-164).
Responsibility for ensuring the safety and reliability of the
nuclear weapons stockpile rests upon a cadre of workers at eight
contractor-operated National Nuclear Security Administration
(NNSA) weapons facilities. Many of these workers including
scientists, engineers, and technicians have "critical" skills
needed to maintain the stockpile. About 37 percent of these
workers are at or near retirement age, raising concern about
whether these specialists will have time to pass on their
knowledge and expertise to new recruits. In this context, you
asked us to (1) describe the approaches that NNSA, its
contractors, and organizations with similar workforces are using
to recruit and retain critically skilled workers; (2) assess the
extent to which these approaches have been effective; and (3)
describe any remaining challenges, strategies to mitigate these
challenges, and the similarity of these challenges and strategies
to those of organizations with comparable workforces.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-05-164
ACCNO: A16737
TITLE: National Nuclear Security Administration: Contractors'
Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled Workforce
Are Generally Effective
DATE: 02/02/2005
SUBJECT: National Nuclear Security
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GAO-05-164
United States Government Accountability Office
GAO Report to Congressional Committees
February 2005
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Contractors' Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled Workforce Are
Generally Effective
a
GAO-05-164
[IMG]
February 2005
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Contractors' Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Critically Skilled Workforce Are
Generally Effective
What GAO Found
NNSA contractors have each developed and implemented a multifaceted
approach to recruit and retain critically skilled workers. These
approaches are similar to those used by six organizations with comparable
workforces with whom GAO spoke and consist of combinations of activities
tailored to meet the specific needs of each facility. These activities
include offering internships and providing knowledge transfer
opportunities. NNSA has supported the contractors' efforts by, for
example, providing additional funding to help them recruit workers to fill
critically skilled positions.
The efforts of NNSA's contractors to recruit and retain a critically
skilled workforce have been generally effective. The contractors' fiscal
year 2000 through 2003 data show that all eight facilities have maintained
the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill its current mission. In
addition, our review of the workforce planning processes of each facility
shows that they have incorporated, to varying degrees, the five principles
GAO has identified as essential to strategic workforce planning. Finally,
most of the program managers GAO spoke with believe their facilities have,
and are well poised to maintain, the critically skilled workforce needed
to fulfill their mission.
NNSA contractors and the six organizations with comparable workforces face
ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining a critically skilled
workforce, but are using a number of similar strategies to mitigate most
of these challenges. These challenges include the amount of time it takes
new staff to obtain security clearances and a shrinking pool of
technically trained potential employees. Beyond such identifiable
challenges, NNSA contractors also face future uncertainties, such as the
possibility that a new contractor might be awarded the contract and shifts
in their mission that could affect their ability to recruit and retain a
critically skilled workforce in the future.
Age Distribution of Critically Skilled Workers at NNSA Nuclear Weapons
Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003
United States Government Accountability Office
Contents
Letter
Results in Brief
Background
NNSA's Contractors Use Multidimensional Recruiting and Retention
Approaches Similar to Those Used by Organizations with Comparable
Workforces Contractors' Approaches for Recruiting and Retaining a
Critically Skilled Workforce Have Been Generally Effective
NNSA Contractors and Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face Ongoing
Challenges but Have Developed Strategies to Mitigate Most of Them
Conclusion Agency Comments
1 4 7
13
23
40 49 49
Appendixes
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology 52
Critical Skills Performance Measures in NNSA
Appendix II: Facilities'
Performance Evaluation Plans for Fiscal Year 56
2004
Appendix III: GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments 57
GAO Contacts 57
Acknowledgments 57
Table 1: NNSA Facilities' Critically Skilled
Tables Workers by Skill Area,
Fiscal Year 2003 11
Table 2: Critical Skill Replacement Rate at
Five NNSA Facilities,
Fiscal Years 2000 through 2003 26
Table 3: Challenges Facing NNSA Contractors
and Sample
Strategies to Mitigate Them 41
Figure 1: Locations and Functions of NNSA
Figures Facilities Figure 2: Number of Defense Program 8
and Critically Skilled
Workers at NNSA Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003 10
Figure 3: Turnover Rates for Critically
Skilled Workers, Fiscal
Years 2000-2003 25
Figure 4: Strategic Workforce Planning Process 30
Contents
This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright
protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in
its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this
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separately.
A
United States Government Accountability Office Washington, D.C. 20548
February 2, 2005
Congressional Committees:
Responsibility for ensuring the continued safety and reliability of the
several thousand nuclear weapons currently stored at strategic military
locations or deployed on military aircraft, missiles, or submarines rests
upon a cadre of scientists, engineers, and technicians-hereafter referred
to as "critically skilled workers"-within the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA). As of fiscal year 2003, this critically skilled
workforce numbered approximately 10,200, with about 37 percent of the
workforce older than 51, placing many of these workers at or near the
NNSA-wide average retirement age of 60 within the next 10 years. This
raises concerns about whether the exodus of these specialists will outpace
their replacement and whether the specialists will have time to pass on
their knowledge and expertise to new recruits.
Within the Department of Energy (DOE), NNSA's Office of Defense Programs
has primary responsibility for ensuring the safety and reliability of the
nuclear weapons stockpile.1 NNSA's nuclear weapons complex consists of
eight contractor-operated facilities: three national laboratories
(Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia); four production plants
(Kansas City, Pantex, Savannah River, and Y-12); and the Nevada Test
Site.2 NNSA oversees and supports these contractors, whose
responsibilities include ensuring that the facility can attract and retain
the workforce required to fulfill the facility's mission. Many of these
workers possess certain critical skills not readily available in the job
market, the loss of which could impair the facility's ability to maintain
the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons. While these
workers often have advanced degrees in scientific or engineering fields,
it generally takes an additional 2 to 3 years of on-the-job training to
achieve the skills necessary to fill a critical skills position.
With the end of the Cold War and the declaration of a moratorium on
nuclear testing in 1992, the Office of Defense Programs' total contractor
workforce fell from approximately 52,000 in fiscal year 1992 to
1The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Pub. L. No.
106-65, S: 3211) created NNSA as a separately organized agency within DOE.
2In addition to its main facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sandia
National Laboratories has a satellite facility in Livermore, California.
approximately 26,000 in fiscal year 2003, through targeted downsizing and
closing of production facilities. During this time, the Office of Defense
Programs restructured the nuclear weapons complex to focus on a new
mission-known as the Stockpile Stewardship Program-to maintain the safety
and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile indefinitely
without nuclear testing. In this test-free environment, the ultimate
success of the program depends on the expert judgment and capabilities of
NNSA's critically skilled workforce to maintain and assess the condition
of the stockpile.
To address concerns about the effect of the shrinking critically skilled
workforce on NNSA's ability to fulfill its stockpile stewardship
responsibilities, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
1997 established the Commission on Maintaining U.S. Nuclear Weapons
Expertise (known as the "Chiles Commission") and directed it to assess and
report to the Congress on, among other things, DOE's ongoing efforts to
recruit and retain scientific, engineering, and technical personnel.3 The
Commission's report projected that large numbers of retirements over the
next few years could further erode the experience and expertise of the
critically skilled workforce.4 The Chiles Commission warned that unless
DOE acted quickly to recruit and retain its critically skilled
employees-and sharpen the expertise already available-the department could
have difficulty ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the
nation's nuclear weapons. Although the Chiles Commission noted that many
DOE officials already understood the challenges, it found few initiatives
to change in any basic way the manner in which these officials approached
recruitment, career management, or retention.
In this context, you asked us to (1) describe the approaches that NNSA,
its contractors, and organizations with comparable workforces are using to
recruit and retain critically skilled workers; (2) assess the
effectiveness of the NNSA contractors' approaches; and (3) describe any
ongoing challenges NNSA's contractors face in recruiting and retaining
this specialized workforce, any strategies they are using to mitigate
these
3Pub. L. No. 104-201, S: 3162, 110 Stat. 2843 (1996), as amended by Pub.
L. No. 105-85, S: 3163, 111 Stat. 2049 (1997).
4"Report of the Commission on Maintaining United States Nuclear Weapons
Expertise: Report to the Congress and Secretary of Energy, Pursuant to the
National Defense Authorization Acts of 1997 and 1998" (Washington, D.C.:
March 1, 1999).
challenges, and the extent to which such challenges and strategies are
similar to those of organizations with comparable workforces.
To describe the approaches NNSA contractors are using to recruit and
retain a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with human resource and
workforce planning managers at each of the eight NNSA nuclear weapons
complex facilities. Furthermore, we spoke with human resource managers
from six research and advanced technology organizations with comparable
workforces to validate the extent to which the ongoing challenges
identified by NNSA exist in other comparable organizations and to gather
information on strategies these organizations are using to mitigate their
challenges.5 We selected organizations with similar workforces based on
their selection by the Chiles Commission as a benchmarking organization;
their geographic dispersal; and their representation of different
high-technology, laboratory, or manufacturing industry segments. We also
spoke with two industry associations representing manufacturing and
nuclear materials industries to validate whether the challenges cited by
these organizations were consistent with those noted by other groups in
similar industries.6
To assess the effectiveness of the approaches used to recruit and retain
critically skilled workers, we collected a variety of workforce data from
each facility, including total numbers of Defense Program and critically
skilled workers and average ages of these workers broken out by job
classification, hiring and attrition trends, average retirement ages, and
forecasted needs for critically skilled workers. To assess the reliability
of these data, we reviewed relevant documentation, interviewed cognizant
contractor officials, obtained data from key database officials, and
reviewed responses to a series of data reliability questions covering
issues such as data entry, access, quality control procedures, and the
accuracy and completeness of the data. We added follow-up questions
whenever necessary. We determined that the data were sufficiently reliable
for the purposes of this report. In addition, we conducted structured
interviews with 20 managers in the Stockpile Stewardship Program,
including at least
5The six research and advanced technology organizations are the Charles
Stark Draper Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Johns Hopkins
University's Applied Physics Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory,
the Exelon Corporation, and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
6The two industry associations are the National Association of
Manufacturing and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management.
2 managers at each of the eight facilities, and evaluated each facility's
workforce planning process using our five principles of strategic
workforce planning.7 These five principles are (1) involving management
and employees in developing and implementing the strategic workforce plan,
(2) determining critical skills needs through workforce gap analysis, (3)
developing workforce strategies to fill gaps, (4) building needed
capabilities to support workforce strategies, and (5) monitoring and
evaluating progress in achieving goals.
To describe the ongoing challenges NNSA contractors face in recruiting and
retaining a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with contractor human
resource, workforce planning, and Stockpile Stewardship Program managers.
We also interviewed human resource representatives at the eight
organizations with comparable workforces to determine the extent to which
they face similar challenges and are using similar approaches to address
their challenges. We conducted our work from February 2004 through January
2005 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
More details on the scope and methodology of our review are presented in
appendix I.
Results in Brief NNSA contractors, with support from NNSA, have each
developed and implemented a multifaceted approach to recruit and retain
critically skilled workers. The contractors' approaches are similar to
each others and to those used by organizations we contacted with
comparable workforces and consist of combinations of activities tailored
to meet the specific needs of individual facilities. These activities are
primarily aimed at hiring recent college graduates and to a lesser extent
on hiring mid-career workers. NNSA contractors use a number of recruiting
activities, including providing internships and other educational outreach
programs to increase awareness about job opportunities at NNSA facilities,
monitoring compensation programs to maintain competitiveness in the
marketplace, and providing professional development and knowledge transfer
programs to improve retention rates. For example, as part of its approach,
Sandia National Laboratories targets its recruiting efforts by using teams
of program managers, recruiters, and alumni of graduate programs at 22
strategically selected colleges and universities. In addition, Sandia
makes over 1,200 internship positions available annually to both
undergraduate
7GAO, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective Strategic Workforce
Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: Dec. 11, 2003).
and graduate-level students. The laboratory also continually monitors its
salary and benefits packages to ensure that they remain competitive with
those of similar regional industries. Furthermore, Sandia offers a variety
of in-house courses and a mentoring program aimed at enhancing the
transfer of knowledge from more experienced workers to those just starting
out at the laboratory. Organizations with comparable workforces have
adopted similar multifaceted approaches to recruit and retain their needed
workforces, according to officials of the six organizations we spoke with.
For example, one organization used a combination of university recruiting,
student co-op and internship programs, recruitment bonuses, and
competitive compensation packages, among other strategies, to recruit and
retain its target workforce. For its part, NNSA has supported the
contractors' efforts to recruit and retain their critically skilled
workforce by, for example, reviewing contractors' salary and benefits
packages and providing additional funding for internship programs and
recruitment bonuses to help the contractors recruit workers to fill
critically skilled positions.
The efforts of NNSA contractors to recruit and retain a critically skilled
workforce have been generally effective, according to our analysis of
contractors' data, our review of contractors' workforce planning
processes, and information we gathered from stockpile stewardship program
managers. First, the contractors' workforce data for fiscal years 2000
through 2003 show that all eight facilities have hired, on average, 69
percent more critically skilled staff in fiscal years 2000 through 2003
than retired or left during that period. This additional hiring should
help ensure that each facility will have workers in place who have
completed the needed 2 to 3 years of training, or are close to doing so,
by the time the anticipated future retirements occur. Second, our review
of the workforce planning processes of all eight nuclear weapons
facilities shows that they have incorporated, to varying degrees, the five
principles we have identified as essential to strategic workforce
planning. Specifically, all of the 20 stockpile stewardship program
managers said they are involved to at least a moderate extent with
workforce planning and participate in recruiting or retention activities,
such as identifying and interviewing prospective staff and mentoring newer
staff. Each of the facilities also has, to some degree, analyzed its
workforce, identified critical skills needed to achieve current and future
goals, and determined if and where gaps exist. To fill these identified
gaps, the facilities have designed and implemented a mix of strategies
specific to each facility's needs. In addition, the facilities have
increased their capabilities to support these workforce planning
strategies by, for example, assigning human resource specialists to
critical
skill areas to help ensure that new staff are being retained. To ensure
that the facilities' critical skill workforce needs are being met, NNSA
monitors and evaluates contractor progress by reviewing periodic reports
and uses these reports, along with other measures, to determine the size
of the bonus the contractor is eligible for. Third, almost all of the 20
stockpile stewardship managers we interviewed believe their facilities
have, and are well poised to maintain, the critically skilled workforce
needed to carry out their current mission. According to these managers,
their facilities have been able to achieve this workforce, in part,
because they have effective recruiting and training programs and a
commitment to workforce planning that has allowed them to identify their
needs.
Both NNSA contractors and the six organizations with comparable workforces
we contacted face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining a
critically skilled workforce, but they are using a number of similar
strategies to mitigate most of these challenges. The first immediate
challenge cited by human resources and program managers is the amount of
time it takes newly hired staff to obtain security clearances. NNSA
contractors said that security clearances have been taking from 1 to 2
years and that these delays have prevented new employees waiting for a
clearance from obtaining needed critical skills training and from doing
the work for which they were hired. To mitigate this challenge, most
facilities have been able to place the employees on other projects that
allow them to gain exposure to unclassified, yet cutting edge, work. In
addition, contractors pointed to a shrinking pool of employees with the
needed critical skills caused by a decline in the number of students with
U.S. citizenship seeking advanced degrees or technical training in these
skill areas. The laboratories have mitigated this challenge by, for
example, establishing institutes in local high schools that help encourage
students to pursue college and advanced degrees in technical fields by
providing pathways to jobs at the laboratories. Organizations with
comparable workforces face similar challenges and are using similar
strategies to mitigate them. For example, officials at some of these
organizations mentioned the time it takes for new workers to obtain
security clearances. One organization reported mitigating this challenge
by hiring staff who already possess clearances. Officials of these
organizations also cited the challenge of a dwindling pool of candidates
pursuing education in critical skill areas. As NNSA facilities have done,
these organizations have implemented programs designed to attract younger
students and encourage them to pursue careers in technical fields.
Beyond such identifiable challenges, each of the eight NNSA facilities
also face future uncertainties, such as the possibility that a new
contractor might be awarded the contract to manage and operate the
facility, budget constraints, and shifts in their mission, that could
affect their ability to recruit and retain a critically skilled workforce
in the years ahead. The facilities are cognizant of these future
uncertainties and have taken some actions to proactively guard against
them. For example, DOE is currently rebidding the contract at Los Alamos.
The possibility that a new contractor may not be linked to the University
of California system may potentially result in early retirements and
affect the facility's ability to perform its mission. To lessen the
potential impact, NNSA recently issued an acquisition plan requiring
bidders on the contract to offer current workers at Los Alamos the same
level of pension benefits as the current contractor. Until this process is
completed, it will be difficult to determine how Los Alamos' critical
skills capabilities would be affected.
Background To ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's
nuclear weapons stockpile, NNSA relies on contractors who manage and
operate government-owned laboratories, production plants, and a test site.
The number of workers and facilities involved in the nuclear weapons
program has changed since the program began in the early 1940s at various
locations, such as the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Each
facility performs a different function, all collectively working toward
fulfilling NNSA's nuclear weapons related mission. Figure 1 shows the
locations of the facilities and describes their functions.
nonnuclear tests, computer modeling, experimentation, and simulation to
make expert judgments about the safety, security, and reliability of the
nuclear weapons.
The scaling back of operations and the cessation of nuclear testing led
DOE to reduce its workforce by downsizing existing staff and reducing its
emphasis on recruiting. The number of defense program workers declined by
about 50 percent, from a high of about 52,000 in fiscal year 1992 to about
26,000 in fiscal year 2003. The remaining workers needed to develop skills
that were critical to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the
nuclear stockpile without conducting tests. Also, since the United States
was no longer designing and producing nuclear weapons, the workers needed
to develop new surveillance and maintenance skills to detect potential or
actual defects in the aging weapons and replace components to extend the
life of the warheads. Currently, the three laboratories report that it
takes at least 3 years of specialized training and work experience-and
sometimes more for unique jobs, such as safety engineers-for workers to
obtain the skills needed to be considered critically skilled. According to
the four production plants and the Nevada Test Site, it takes at least 2
years of specialized training and work experience for workers to gain the
critical skills necessary to fulfill their mission. As of the end of
fiscal year 2003, of the nearly 26,000 defense program workers, 10,186
were classified as critically skilled. Figure 2 shows the total number of
defense program workers, as well as the number of workers classified as
critically skilled, at each of the facilities as of the end of fiscal year
2003.
Figure 2: Number of Defense Program and Critically Skilled Workers at NNSA
Facilities, Fiscal Year 2003 Number of workers
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000 Lawrence Los Alamos Sandia Kansas City Pantex Savannah River Y-12
Livermore
Nevada test site
Weapons laboratories Production plants
Defense program workers
Critically skilled workers
Source: NNSA.
NNSA and the contractors broadly categorize their workers by the type of
work they do. Over 70 percent of all the critically skilled workers fall
into the engineer, scientist, or technician categories. The remaining
critically skilled workers perform a diverse set of critical job
functions. For example, operators operate machines, systems, equipment,
and plants for the purposes of producing, destroying, and storing
materials and supplies. The tasks operators perform require a high degree
of precision, and it often takes several years for operators to achieve
proficiency. Professional administrative positions include health
physicists, who develop programs to protect personnel from the effects of
radiation, and security specialists, who develop, conduct, monitor, and
maintain security-related programs. Crafts workers are involved in
fabricating materials and equipment and constructing, altering, and
maintaining buildings, bridges, pipelines, and other structures. It
generally takes at least 2 years of training and education for crafts
workers to obtain the hand or machine skills required. NNSA gathers
information from the contractors and, twice each year, issues
reports on certain characteristics of critically skilled workers, such as
age and vacancy rates. NNSA uses this information to monitor the progress
of the laboratories in meeting critical skill needs. Table 1 shows the
numbers of critically skilled workers by skill area at each facility for
fiscal year 2003.
Table 1: NNSA Facilities' Critically Skilled Workers by Skill Area, Fiscal Year
2003
Professional Facility Engineers Scientists Technicians Management
Operators administrators Crafts Othera Total Laboratories
Lawrence
Livermore 310 754 249 0 0 0 59 0 1,372
Los Alamos 441 549 441 326 60 128 41 4 1,990
Sandia 803 649 531 403 8 71 88 0 2,553
Production plants
Kansas City 562 10 103 132 67 52 11 20 957
Pantex 315 66 236 215 288 93 33 0 1,246
Savannah River 56 14 12 15 0 1 0 0
560 102 130 13 287 212 305 0 1,609
Test site
Nevada 101 53 153 36 4 211 1 361
Total 3,148 2,197 1,855 1,140 714 559 548 25 10,186
Source: NNSA contractors.
aIncludes positions classified as general administrative and labor.
By the late 1990s, concerns were raised about the ability of DOE's
contractors to fulfill the goals of the Stockpile Stewardship Program
because the workforce had aged, which could potentially leave gaps in
knowledge as older workers retired. In response, the Congress created the
Commission on Maintaining United States Nuclear Weapons Expertise,
commonly known as the Chiles Commission, and mandated that it review
ongoing DOE efforts to attract scientific, engineering, and technical
personnel; recommend improvements and identify actions to implement these
improvements where needed; and develop a plan for recruitment and
retention within the DOE nuclear weapons complex.
In March 1999, the Chiles Commission reported that the downsizing
resulting from the change from weapons production to stockpile stewardship
left a considerably smaller and older contractor workforce. Recognizing
that the contractors had already lost some of their critically
skilled workers, the Commission projected that large numbers of
retirements over the next few years could further erode the experience and
expertise at the facilities. The Commission warned that unless DOE acted
quickly to retain and sharpen the expertise already available and
"recruit, train, retain, and inspire an evolving nuclear workforce of
great breadth, depth, and capability,"8 DOE could have difficulty ensuring
the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons.
In addition, the Chiles Commission found that many workers were anxious
about job security and the nation's commitment to the nuclear weapons
program in the wake of DOE's downsizing. This anxiety fostered an
unfavorable environment for recruiting and retaining highly skilled
workers. In addition, the Commission predicted that recruitment and
retention of highly skilled workers would become more competitive because,
in general, only U.S. citizens may obtain the security clearances required
to work in the nuclear weapons program and contractors faced a shrinking
pool of U.S. citizens graduating with degrees in science and engineering,
especially compared with the growing pool of non-U.S. citizens graduating
with those degrees. Furthermore, the Commission found that contractors
needed to identify their requirements for critically skilled workers early
because of the time it takes to complete security background checks and
for workers to gain the experience necessary through specialized or
on-the-job training. As a result of its review, the Chiles Commission made
12 recommendations based on its findings at DOE and its review of
industries with similar workforces. Four of the Commission's
recommendations focused on improving recruitment, training, and retention
strategies. Specifically, the Commission recommended that DOE and its
contractors should (1) establish and implement plans for replenishing
essential critical skill workforce needs, (2) provide contractors with
expanded latitude and flexibility in personnel matters, (3) expand
training and career planning programs, and (4) expand the use of former
nuclear weapons program employees. In response to the Chiles Commission
report, Defense Programs developed a point-by-point action plan to address
each of the 12 recommendations.
8Chiles Commission Report, 1999.
NNSA's Contractors Use Multidimensional Recruiting and Retention Approaches
Similar to Those Used by Organizations with Comparable Workforces
Since the Chiles Commission report was issued, the contractors for NNSA's
weapons laboratories, production plants, and the Nevada Test Site have
developed a variety of recruitment and retention approaches, blending them
to meet their specific critical skill needs. These approaches are similar
to each others and to those used by organizations with comparable
workforces. NNSA has supported its contractors by clarifying the roles and
responsibilities of the contractors and providing additional funding to
help them recruit workers to fill critically skilled positions.
Each Contractor Addresses the Facility's Specific Needs through a
Combination of Activities
Focusing Recruitment Efforts for Better Results
NNSA contractors developed multifaceted approaches to recruiting and
retaining critically skilled workers that primarily focus on hiring recent
graduates from universities and colleges. These approaches include
targeted recruitment activities, educational outreach programs,
competitive compensation and benefits packages, and professional
development and knowledge transfer programs. Despite the array of
initiatives used across facilities, the contractors for the laboratories
and for the production plants have used generally similar approaches for
recruiting and retaining critically skilled workers.
All the contractors reported that, over the past few years, they have
refocused their recruiting efforts at universities and other educational
institutions to improve their chances of recruiting highly qualified job
candidates in an increasingly competitive job market. Whether at a
laboratory or production plant, NNSA contractors have done this by
establishing recruiting teams to work with the faculty in scientific and
engineering departments to attract highly qualified candidates. These
recruiting teams generally involve both human resources officials and
technical recruiters-scientists, engineers, technicians, or stockpile
stewardship program managers with knowledge about the technical needs of
the facility. The teams attend recruiting fairs, professional workshops,
and other similar events. Some of the technical recruiters said that their
involvement enables them to more reliably and quickly assess the job
candidates, as well as answer questions the candidates have about specific
technical programs.
At the laboratories, technical recruiters bring valuable contacts to the
recruitment process, having already established working or professional
relationships with faculty and students at various colleges and
universities. Some of the contractor officials stated that these contacts
enable the technical recruiters to evaluate potential job candidates
before they apply for jobs. The type and depth of the relationships vary,
but many have been built from joint research efforts, adjunct teaching at
local universities, or similar collaborations. According to human resource
officials, these relationships have proven extremely valuable in
identifying and recruiting high quality students for internships,
fellowships, post-doctoral appointments, and full-time positions. For
example, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which the University of
California operates under contract, collaborates with several of the
University of California college campuses. The laboratory sponsors and
partially funds joint research efforts involving both faculty and
students. In addition, many laboratory scientists have access to faculty
and students through teaching segments of science or math classes.
According to Lawrence Livermore officials, these collaborations have
resulted in productive recruitment opportunities.
All three laboratories also indicated that their relationships with
colleges and universities have served as a key component of recruitment
plans. Contractors use these relationships, as well as their reviews of
past recruitment successes and comparisons of critical skill needs with
course curricula, to target specific colleges and universities for
recruitment. For example, on the basis of an initial analysis of its
collaborative research efforts, Sandia narrowed its list of places to
recruit to 22 universities. The laboratory further prioritized those
universities according to four key variables: academic quality, research
investment, past recruitment successes, and diversity of students.
According to Sandia officials, this approach has allowed Sandia to
effectively meet its critical skill needs.
Similar to the laboratories, the production plants also use technical
recruiters in their efforts to recruit critically skilled workers,
focusing on recent graduates from high schools, technical schools,
community colleges, and universities. While these recruitment efforts have
been fruitful, many of the contractors at NNSA's production plants and at
the Nevada Test Site have also relied on recruiting mid-career workers to
fill other critical skill positions because of the level of expertise that
these positions need. For example, the Pantex plant has sought out
mid-career workers to fill key critical skills positions, such as
production technicians. Pantex has partnered with the Amarillo Community
College and the Texas Workforce Center to develop a range of technical
courses, from 6 weeks to 6 months long, that generates trained production
technicians. Most of these trainees are currently employed elsewhere
locally. While trainees cover all
course costs, Pantex offers each graduating technician an interview for
employment, which allows the plant to fill vacancies with the most
qualified graduates. As of July 2004, Pantex officials stated that the
year-old program has graduated 70 participants and that they plan to hire
24 production technicians this spring.
In addition, a manager who works for the contractor operating the Nevada
Test Site said that about 15 percent of his new hires must come on board
with at least 10 years' work experience to perform the required work. He
noted that, given the demands placed on the contractor to conduct
experiments developed by the weapons laboratories and record the resulting
data, he cannot always wait the 3 to 4 years required for inexperienced
new hires to obtain their security clearances and gain the skills
necessary to perform the work. Some production plants have addressed this
issue by recruiting at professional or trade association meetings and
seeking out experienced workers from other NNSA facilities that are being
downsized or closed, such as the Rocky Flats production facility, located
outside Denver.9
Providing Educational Outreach The NNSA contractors, primarily the
laboratories, provide a wide range of programs including postdoctoral
positions, internships, fellowships, and summer employment to attract and
develop critically skilled workers. According to the contractors,
educational programs at the facilities further the education of
participants, increase awareness of the facilities as places of
employment, and develop pools of potential job candidates. The contractors
reported that these programs are a significant source of new hires.
Contractors may offer full-time positions to program participants who
already have earned degrees by the time they complete their program
participation; program participants without degrees may apply for
full-time positions at the facilities after graduating.
The laboratories typically hire a greater proportion of graduates with
Ph.D. and master's degrees than the production facilities and the test
site do-about 62 percent of the critically skilled workers at the
laboratories have postgraduate degrees, in contrast with about 18 percent
of the critically skilled workers at the production plants and the test
site.
9The Rocky Flats site began operations in 1952, manufacturing plutonium
components for nuclear weapons until 1989, when operations were suspended
because of environmental problems. The plant never resumed work and is
scheduled for closure in 2006, once environmental cleanup and building
dismantlement activities have been completed.
Laboratory officials said they offer a variety of graduate-level and
post-doctoral programs in an effort to recruit and retain workers with the
level of education needed. For example, Sandia offers about 1,200
internships each year, generally evenly split between undergraduate and
graduate students. Many of the interns return to the facility for
successive internships, allowing them to gain additional skills and
creating a pipeline of future job candidates for the laboratory.
Generally, the laboratory converts about 15 percent of its interns to
full-time positions each year. In addition to internships, Sandia also
offers fellowships, sometimes partnering with professional societies such
as the National Physical Sciences Consortium, which awards fellowships to
U.S. citizens pursuing graduate study in the physical sciences. Similarly,
Lawrence Livermore instituted the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in 1998. The laboratory typically receives
300 to 400 applications a year for three to five fellowships. Since the
program's inception, the laboratory has appointed 15 fellows, 6 of whom
have been converted to full-time employees. The laboratory has also hired
about 40 other workers who were identified from the fellowship applicant
pool.
In addition to the shorter term recruiting approach of offering
internships and fellowships, the laboratories have also adopted a
longer-term strategy for developing candidates to fill future critical
skill needs. All of the laboratories offer educational outreach programs
that seek to promote basic science, math, and engineering at local middle
and high schools. The contractors cited their concern with statistics that
show shrinking pools of U.S. students graduating with science and math
degrees as a reason for these programs. The programs range from organizing
informal school activities to offering specialized curricula, or
academies, at local schools. In one program, Sandia partners with
professional societies and industry to create a pool of potential
technicians in photonics and optical engineering, which are considered
critical skill areas at the laboratory and certain industries and include
work with lasers, fiber optics, and various optical systems. Sandia's
program begins at the middle school level by exposing students to science
and math and encouraging them to pursue careers in those fields. At the
high school level, the program recruits the most promising students to
participate in the Photonics Academy, which offers a 4-year packaged
curriculum and coursework in science and math and the opportunity for an
internship at Sandia. Students can pursue their education in photonics and
optical engineering at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute or
the University of New Mexico. According to Sandia officials, the program
has become very successful, and other
entities, including the State of New Mexico, have begun to establish
similar programs to promote careers in scientific and mathematical
disciplines.
While the laboratories offer a more extensive variety of internship and
fellowship programs, the production plants have also established
educational programs that help the facilities recruit critically skilled
workers. For example, Pantex has partnered with Texas Tech University and
other universities to promote student work programs in an effort to
encourage students to pursue educations in areas related to science and
engineering, such as mathematics, physics, materials science, and nuclear
engineering. Pantex officials said that 40 students participated in the
student work programs in fiscal year 2003.
Maintaining Competitiveness NNSA's contractors at the laboratories,
production plants, and test site all cited the opportunity to do a variety
of challenging and cutting-edge work as their most important assets in
competing against industry to attract critically skilled workers. Many of
the facilities, particularly the laboratories, perform work unrelated to
the nuclear weapons program for customers other than NNSA. For example,
the Los Alamos National Laboratory performs advanced research in such
areas as medical technology, genetics, space sciences, and nanoscience,
which involves using machines and their components to do research on a
molecular level. NNSA laboratories participate in the Laboratory Directed
Research and Development program, which allows them to use up to 6 percent
of their budgets to fund basic research selected on their scientific and
technical merits. Similarly, NNSA production plants can set aside up to 2
percent of their budgets through the Plant-Directed Research and
Development program, for basic science research that is competitively
awarded in areas to be determined by the facilities' directors. Contractor
officials noted that these research funds have helped to attract and
retain workers. For example, the Savannah River plant is using some of its
research dollars to fund unclassified hydrogen research. Savannah River
officials anticipate that the opportunity to contribute to a growing area
of important work will attract new workers and help retain current
workers.
The contractors also noted that the cutting-edge nature of the work done
in the nuclear weapons program, particularly work relating to elements of
the Stockpile Stewardship Program, offers many challenges in basic science
research that are unique to NNSA facilities. Contractor recruiters said
that they use the cutting-edge nature of this work as an incentive to
attract workers to critical skill positions during recruitment events. For
example, a manager who works for the contractor operating the Nevada Test
Site
stated that the opportunity to perform sophisticated measurements and
capture data during stockpile stewardship program experiments, some of
which have never been done before, is a major factor in attracting
engineers for critical skill positions.
In addition to the nature of the work, all the contractors noted the
importance of being able to offer salaries and other forms of compensation
and benefits to remain competitive with industry and other government
entities for highly skilled workers. The contractors said they have
adopted some changes to their compensation or benefits programs as a
result of comparing their programs with those of industry. For example,
laboratories, production facilities, and the test site have considered
such options as bonuses for critically skilled new hires; bonuses to
retain critically skilled workers; various forms of bonuses, such as
lump-sum payments and stock options; increased base salaries in specialty
areas; and awards and recognition programs. To be more competitive in
attracting critically skilled workers, some contractors have also begun
providing day care facilities, flexible work hours, and fitness centers to
improve workers' quality of life.
Providing Professional All of the contractors reported having developed or
enhanced their Development and Knowledge professional development programs
and knowledge transfer opportunities
Transfer Opportunities
in an effort to attract and train new workers, retrain current workers to
fill certain critical skill positions, and help retain the current
workforce. Most of the professional development programs provide benefits
to workers to further their training or education. Some programs may
provide an avenue for attending professional workshops or conferences;
others may help workers earn a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree.
For example, Sandia offers the One Year On Campus program as a hiring tool
for prospective employees. This program allows the employee to pursue a
nonthesis master's degree over an 18-month period. Sandia will pay the
full tuition and fees for the degree, as well as paying the participant a
partial salary and full benefits during the program's duration.
Similarly, the production plants offer professional development programs.
For example, Pantex pays the educational expenses for workers to earn
bachelor's or master's degrees in areas relevant to work performed at the
plant. Workers pursue their degrees through community colleges or
long-distance learning opportunities, such as correspondence courses or
Internet-based education. Furthermore, Pantex and Amarillo Community
College have partnered with Texas Tech University, situated about 2 hours
away, to offer evening or weekend courses taught by Texas Tech
professors. Pantex also has a fellowship program that allows employees to
take leave from work and return to school full-time, while still earning a
salary, if they commit to working for Pantex for an agreed-upon time after
completing the degree. According to Pantex officials, their professional
development program is one key tool used to attract and retain workers.
They also noted that many technicians take advantage of the opportunities
offered to earn degrees in engineering.
In addition, all the facilities offer knowledge transfer programs, such as
training programs led by senior workers and mentoring programs. For
example, the Los Alamos National Laboratory offers the Theoretical
Institute for Thermonuclear and Nuclear Studies program, which Los Alamos
officials describe as a 3-year, highly intensive training program taught
by senior scientists. According to Los Alamos officials, completing the
program is comparable to earning a Ph.D. Although not required as a
condition of employment, participating in the program is highly
encouraged, and managers see it as an opportunity for workers to improve
their technical knowledge. Through Sandia's Weapons Intern Program,
individuals participate in a 1-year technically oriented work study
program designed to accelerate the development of engineers and scientists
in understanding stockpile stewardship tools, processes, and techniques.
Most facilities also offer mentoring programs that pair new hires with
senior workers to assist with on-the-job training and other aspects of
working at the facility. For example, the Y-12 plant has a mentoring and
job rotation program that pairs new hires with senior workers for the
first 6 months of employment, during which time the new hires rotate among
several job assignments. A second phase of the program identifies
technical workers in the early to middle stages of their careers for
rotation through assignments to further their professional development.
Organizations with Comparable Workforces Use Recruiting and Retention
Approaches Similar to Those Used by NNSA Contractors
As with NNSA, officials we contacted at organizations with comparable
workforces explained that they relied on a mixture of recruitment and
retention approaches that best addresses their needs. The approaches they
described paralleled those used by NNSA contractors and included focusing
their recruitment efforts, providing educational outreach programs,
assessing their compensation packages to ensure that they remain
competitive, and providing professional development programs.
Officials from these organizations utilize strategies to target
universities that result in hiring top workers. Many of the organizations
described efforts to develop networks with faculty and students, some
based on
collaborative research programs. For example, officials at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory noted that the laboratory recruits at 52
universities, but selects 20 to 30 each year as the top priorities for
their recruitment efforts, on the basis of specific criteria. The criteria
include comparing the laboratory's critical skill needs to course
curricula, as well as targeting the universities with which the laboratory
has a collaborative research effort.
Many of the officials at organizations with similar workforces also
mentioned relying upon educational outreach programs, internships, and
fellowships as a way of addressing their recruitment and retention needs.
These programs can promote interest in basic science and math to younger
students at local schools, increase the awareness about employment
opportunities at the organization among universities and professional
societies, and serve as a means to develop staff who may eventually be
hired full time at the facility. For example, an official at the Charles
Stark Draper Laboratory stated that the laboratory implements several
programs intended to engage students at local schools in math and science
activities. One such program allows high school students to shadow
employees at the laboratory. The laboratory also offers fellowships and
cooperative work programs for students at various universities. Some of
the participating students are offered full-time positions at the
laboratory once their education is complete.
Officials at each of the organizations noted the importance of being
competitive in order to attract the workers with the required skills. Most
of the officials cited challenging work as one of the key incentives to
attract new workers. The officials also cited competitive salaries and
benefits as being crucial to recruiting and retaining their workers, and
several noted that they compared their compensation and benefits packages
with those of competing organizations. The officials cited examples of
other benefits that help in their recruiting and retention efforts, such
as providing signing bonuses, paying for relocation expenses, and offering
recognition and awards programs.
Finally, officials at most of the organizations said they use a variety of
professional development programs and cited their importance in recruiting
and retention efforts. Similar to NNSA facilities, the other organizations
have programs that pay for educational expenses for obtaining a bachelor's
or master's degree. For example, the Applied Physics Laboratory, a
division of the Johns Hopkins University, offers on-site master's degrees
through the university in six different subject areas. The information
taught in these subject areas directly applies to the Applied
Physics Laboratory's research. Moreover, senior staff at the laboratory
are given the opportunity to teach some of the courses.
NNSA Supports Contractors' Efforts by Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities
and Providing Additional Funding
NNSA Has Clarified Contractors' Roles and Responsibilities
NNSA has supported the contractors' efforts to recruit and retain their
critically skilled workforce in a couple of ways. NNSA has worked with the
contractors to clarify the roles and responsibilities of its contractors
and has provided additional funding to help the contractors obtain workers
to fill critically skilled positions.
In response to Chiles Commission concerns regarding systemic problems with
DOE management and policies that hindered recruitment and retention
efforts, NNSA has reorganized to streamline contract oversight. In
December 2002, NNSA reorganized to move its operational oversight from its
regional-based operations offices to facility-based site offices. By
eliminating its operations offices and setting up site offices, NNSA
removed a layer of management and placed the contracting officers, a
crucial element of the oversight process, closer to the contractors for
which they have oversight responsibility. Also, NNSA consolidated business
and technical support functions, including support for human resources and
contracting issues, to a single service center in Albuquerque, New
Mexico.10
In addition, NNSA has worked with the contractors to clarify and act on
programs proposed by the contractors intended to improve their ability to
recruit and retain critically skilled workers. Each contract references
DOE Order 350.1 and contains Appendix A, which set forth certain
contractor human resource management policies and which describe, among
other things, the types of programs that the contractors can charge to the
contract. These contract elements lay out the flexibility afforded the
contractors in making changes to compensation and benefits programs to be
more competitive. Certain types of changes, such as a variable pay
program, require approval by NNSA. Many of the contractors
10Although the reorganization has resulted in improved communications and
contract management, we reported in June 2004 that uncertainties with the
reorganization still remain, particularly regarding NNSA's ability to
exercise effective oversight in the wake of NNSA downsizing. See GAO,
National Nuclear Security Administration: Key Management Structure and
Workforce Planning Issues Remain as NNSA Conducts Downsizing,
GAO-04-545 (Washington, D.C.: June 25, 2004).
acknowledged that NNSA responded quickly to clarify and act on proposed
programs. For example, in July 2000, Los Alamos reported to NNSA that it
had difficulty recruiting computer scientists and that the turnover rate
for these workers was twice that of other workers. Los Alamos proposed to
improve its recruitment and retention efforts by increasing the base
salaries of the computer scientists and offering other benefits, such as
hiring bonuses and relocation expenses. In August 2000, after a series of
meetings and correspondences between NNSA and Los Alamos, NNSA approved
Los Alamos' request to increase the base salaries of computer scientiests
and to offer them hiring bonsues. However, NNSA denied Los Alamos' request
to approve the relocation benefits.
In addition to describing the types of programs that the contractors can
charge to the contracts for human resources management programs, DOE Order
350.1 also requires that DOE periodically review contractor studies of how
their compensation and benefits programs compare with those of other
organizations to ensure the programs are reasonable. In April 2004, we
reported that contractor studies regarding benefits did not cover all
sites and were inconsistent from one contractor location to another,
calling into question the validity and comparability of the results.11
NNSA officials told us they have contracted with a human resources
consultant on a new benefits valuation study. This study compares the
laboratories' benefits against those of market competitors, using such
data as pension and health care programs, vacation, and disability. NNSA
officials plan to use the results of the study to assess the contractors'
benefits programs, including the reasonableness of benefits and the
contractors' requests for increases in benefits. NNSA plans to commission
a second benefits valuation study on two production plants and the test
site. Also, NNSA officials indicate that they are working with the
contractors to develop a common methodology to assess their compensation
programs. NNSA plans to use the results of this analysis to assess the
contractors' compensation programs, including the reasonableness of the
programs and the contractors' requests for increases in compensation.
NNSA Has Provided Contractors In recognition of the need to ensure
contractors can meet their critical skill
with Additional Funding requirements, NNSA has provided additional funding
for the three laboratories through the Laboratory Critical Skills
Development Program.
11See GAO, Department of Energy: Certain Postretirement Benefits for
Contractor Employees Are Unfunded and Program Oversight Could Be Improved,
GAO-04-539 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 15, 2004).
This program is designed to encourage the laboratories to identify
projected gaps in critical skills and develop programs that attract
potential candidates at an early age to fill those gaps. The program is
also designed to be flexible, allowing the laboratories to submit
proposals to NNSA for the funds. The proposals vary considerably, some
targeting middle school or high school, while others target college-age
students. Some of the proposals include summer school opportunities,
internships and fellowships, or more formal education programs in high
school or college. NNSA provided $4.35 million for fiscal year 2004, a
decrease from fiscal year 2003 funding of about $0.23 million. The program
also requires that the contractor running each laboratory match NNSA's
funding on a one-to-one basis and track success of the program.
An official at Sandia reported that, at first, line management did not
support the Critical Skills Development Program, particularly because of
the matching funds requirement. However, the program has become very
successful and is seen as a means of recruiting critically skilled workers
at a lower cost than in the past. In fiscal year 2003, Sandia converted 20
student participants to full-time staff from such programs as College
Cyber Defenders Institute, Microsystems and Engineering Sciences
Applications Institute, Materials Science Research Institute, and National
Collegiate Pulsed Power Research Institute. According to Sandia officials,
the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program has become so popular
that, collectively, line managers fund their share of the program at 2.5
times NNSA's one-to-one matching requirement.
Contractors' Approaches for Recruiting and Retaining a Critically Skilled
Workforce Have Been Generally Effective
The efforts of NNSA's contractors to recruit and retain a critically
skilled workforce have been generally effective, according to our analysis
of the contractors' data, our review of the contractors' workforce
planning processes, and information gathered from stockpile stewardship
program managers.
Data Generally Demonstrate Hiring Levels Are Sufficient to Offset Current
and Anticipated Attrition
Facilities Have Experienced Low Turnover and the Average Age of Critically
Skilled Workers Is Generally Steady
Contractors' data on critical skill positions indicate that the eight
facilities have experienced low turnover rates and that the average age of
critically skilled workers is expected to remain steady or decrease at
almost all of the facilities. The data also demonstrate that most
facilities have been hiring at a level sufficient to offset current and
anticipated attrition. However, some facilities have limited or no data
available on the number of new critically skilled workers hired because
their method of organizing their critically skilled workforce, which is
different from the ways the other facilities organize these employees,
makes data on new hires difficult to collect.
Contractors' data show that turnover rates for critically skilled workers
have been low. Of the 10,186 positions across the eight nuclear weapons
facilities classified as critically skilled as of the end of fiscal year
2003, only 2 percent were vacant at any point during the year. From fiscal
years 2000 through 2003, the turnover rate for critically skilled workers
across facilities-including both retirement and non-retirement related job
termination-was 3.92 percent.12 The highest turnover for this time period
was 5.35 percent at the Nevada Test Site, and the lowest turnover was .067
percent at Savannah River (see fig. 3).
12Critical skill workforce data and/or separation data were not available
from Los Alamos for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 or from Lawrence Livermore
for fiscal year 2000.
Figure 3: Turnover Rates for Critically Skilled Workers, Fiscal Years
2000-2003
Percentage of turnover rates
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Lawrence Los Sandia Kansas Pantex Savannah Y-12 Nevada Livermore Alamos
City River Test Site
Source: NNSA.
The average age of critically skilled workers across the complex has
remained relatively steady since the end of 2001, at approximately 47
years of age. According to NNSA program managers, this is the result of a
steady increase in the average age at the production plants, and a
counterbalancing steady decrease at the laboratories and test site. For
example, among the laboratories, NNSA has projected the trend in the
average age of critically skilled workers to be decreasing for Sandia and
Los Alamos, and remaining flat for Lawrence Livermore through 2005. Among
the production plants, NNSA is projecting that the average age will
decrease at Kansas City, increase at Savannah River, and hold steady at
Pantex and Y-12 through 2005. NNSA also projects the average age at the
Nevada Test Site to be decreasing through 2005. While the overall average
age across the nuclear weapons complex has been holding steady, NNSA
program managers believe that the average age will decrease starting in
2006, when staff at or beyond retirement age who had remained at the
facilities to, among other things, train newer workers in critical skill
areas, begin to leave the facility.
Most Facilities Have Hired a Sufficient Number of Staff with Critical
Skills to Meet Current and Near Future Needs
Table 2 shows that for fiscal years 2000 through 2003, five NNSA
facilities for which data were available hired, on average, 94 percent
more critically skilled staff than they needed to replace because of
retirements or other separations (i.e., for every one critically skilled
worker who separated, the facilities hired 1.94 people). These facilities
adopted this hiring pattern to maintain the critically skilled workforce
needed to fulfill the current mission of the Stockpile Stewardship
Program, to make up for past hiring shortages, and to proactively plan for
the next 10 years, when as much as 39 percent of the current workforce is
or will soon be eligible to retire.
Table 2: Critical Skill Replacement Rate at Five NNSA Facilities, Fiscal
Years 2000 through 2003
Total critical Total critical Critical skills
skill skills
Facility separations hires replacement rate
Nevada Test 72 195
Site
Sandia 438 866
Y-12 278 543
Kansas City 108 192
Pantex 198 326
Total 1,094 2,122
Source: NNSA contractors.
Note: Because Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Savannah River do not
hire, or hire limited numbers, directly into critical skill positions,
data are not available on the number of new workers hired to fill these
positions.
The human resource managers at many of the facilities stressed the
importance of bringing in new staff early enough to take advantage of
knowledge transfer opportunities before more experienced workers retire.
While most of the critically skilled hires have advanced degrees, these
workers often require additional, job-specific training because of the
specialized and often classified nature of work in the nuclear weapons
complex. Furthermore, the managers pointed out that it has been taking 1
to 2 years on average for new hires to obtain security clearances. In
order for the new hire to be cleared and trained to take on critical work
when the experienced staff member leaves, it is useful for the new staff
member to be hired 2 to 3 years ahead of the retirees' anticipated
departure.
To compensate for recent attrition, an aging workforce, and an increasing
number of critical skill positions, the Nevada Test Site has been hiring
at a greater rate than any of the other facilities in recent years-2.71
new staff
were hired for every 1 that left. With an average retirement age of
approximately 62 and approximately 30 percent of its workforce over the
age of 55, the facility has been planning ahead to replace staff who are
expected to retire in the near future, according to site officials. They
believe the rate at which the facility has been hiring will ensure that
the workforce will maintain the skills necessary to complete its mission.
Sandia has also been hiring aggressively over the past 4 years, bringing
in almost twice the number of critical skill hires needed to replace
critical skill workers who separated during that period. According to
human resource officers, the laboratory had recently fallen behind in its
efforts to replace critically skilled workers who retired or left the
facility for other reasons. As a result, Sandia embarked on an aggressive
hiring effort to replace these needed critical skill workers. Human
resource managers stated that their efforts have been successful and that
future hiring will more closely match the number of separating critical
skill workers, assuming no significant programmatic changes.
Y-12 has also hired almost twice the workers needed to replace those who
left. Human resource managers at Y-12 stated that they decided to take
this course of action so that the facility would have the necessary
critically skilled workers in place prior to the anticipated retirements
of experienced workers. The average retirement age for critically skilled
workers at Y-12 is approximately 59 years, and 364 of its critically
skilled workers as of fiscal year 2003, or about 23 percent, are over the
age of 55. Furthermore, human resource managers stated that the job market
for many of the critical skill positions required at Y-12 is relatively
good at the moment; therefore, the facility is trying to stay ahead of the
perceived future market crunch by bringing these highly skilled workers
into Y-12 now. Similarly, Kansas City has recently been hiring more
critically skilled workers than needed to replace those leaving-1.78
workers for every 1 departing. According to human resource managers, this
hiring was done so the facility would be better positioned to meet its
future needs in the Stockpile Life Extension Program-a component of
Defense Programs that is focused on maintaining and refurbishing existing
nuclear weapons. Because of anticipated retirements in the next decade,
the contractor has estimated that it has a 5-year window in which to
ensure that essential knowledge gets transferred from experienced
employees to newer staff so that the facility will be able to fulfill the
program's mission. Pantex has also been hiring at elevated levels-bringing
in 1.65 new hires for every employee who left-in order to replace
departing critically skilled employees due to retirements or other
separations and to accomplish its expanding work. For example, in fiscal
year 2007, the facility will need to increase its cadre
of critically skilled technicians and operators by over 50 positions,
which reflects a growth of about 4 percent, when it takes on new
responsibilities in the Stockpile Life Extension Program.
While these facilities reported that they generally have the critically
skilled workers needed, they pointed out that isolated gaps exist for
specific positions at some facilities and efforts are ongoing to fill
these openings. For example, Y-12 mentioned the high market demand for
metallurgists and fire protection engineers as posing a challenge in
hiring for these positions. The Nevada Test Site, whose turnover rates
have exceeded 10 percent in 1 year, has had difficulty retaining the
number of critically skilled crafts people needed, in part because it is
competing with the building construction industry in Las Vegas. The site
officials we interviewed said that they are continuing to overcome these
workforce challenges and believe they will be able to fill these positions
in the years to come; however, they acknowledge that this will require
extra effort and emphasis.
Data on Critically Skilled New Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and
Savannah River generally bring in
Hires Are Limited for Three Facilities because They Generally Do Not Hire
Staff Directly into Critical Skills Positions
new staff to supply a pipeline of qualified workers to fill future
critical skills openings, rather than assigning new hires to fill a
specific current or future critical skills position. Because of this,
these facilities have little or no information on the number of new
critically skilled workers hired. For example, Lawrence Livermore is
organized as a matrix system in which a worker's designation as
"critically skilled" changes depending on the work he or she is doing and
the amount of time spent doing that work. Lawrence Livermore defines a
position as a critical skill position, in part, by the amount of time the
worker spends doing Defense Program work, with the minimum requirement for
this designation being 25 percent of the time. At any given point, there
is a core set of Defense Program positions classified as "critical skills"
positions and a set of workers filling those positions. However, there are
also a number of other workers with skills that would qualify them for a
critical skill position, but who are presently doing work for other
missions of the laboratory. While not categorized as "critically skilled"
at that moment, these workers are able to fill critical skill position
openings when they arise and provide depth to the pipeline of qualified
critical skill workers.
The arrangement is somewhat similar at Savannah River, where workers are
hired into the facility's pipeline of employees who can fill critical
skill positions when needed. In fiscal year 2003, there were 698 Defense
Program workers at the facility, 98 of whom were categorized as critically
skilled. When any of these workers leave, Savannah River fills the opening
with a worker possessing the needed critical skills, but who has been
working in another area of the facility. Los Alamos also depends upon its
internal pipeline to a great extent to fill critical skill needs, as well
as conducting limited hiring of new staff from outside the facility. In
fiscal year 2003, Los Alamos filled 631 critical skill positions. Of
these, 550 were filled via development of internal candidates, with the
remaining 81 being hired from outside this internal pipeline. This
distribution is partly reflected in the data showing that Los Alamos had
hired fewer new staff to fill critical skill positions than had separated
from the facility (i.e., 0.79 new workers hired for every 1 separating).
Facilities Have Incorporated Key Strategic Workforce Planning Principles to
Varying Degrees
While NNSA defines the mission of each facility, the contractor is
responsible for determining what resources are needed to meet that
mission, including the type and number of critically skilled workers
needed. To ensure that they will be in a position to meet their future
critical skill needs, all eight nuclear weapons facilities have
incorporated to some degree into their planning processes the five key
principles we have identified as essential to strategic workforce
planning: (1) involving management and employees in developing and
implementing the strategic workforce plan, (2) determining critical skill
needs through workforce gap analysis, (3) developing workforce strategies
to fill gaps, (4) building needed capabilities to support workforce
strategies, and (5) monitoring and evaluating progress in achieving
goals.13 (See fig. 4.)
13See GAO-04-39.
Managers and Employees Are Involved in the Planning Process
Figure 4: Strategic Workforce Planning Process
Source: GAO.
All of the 20 stockpile stewardship program managers said that they are
involved with workforce planning to at least a moderate extent at their
facilities. Their involvement encompasses a variety of activities,
including identifying current and future critical skill needs, identifying
and recruiting candidates for employment, and helping to retain current
employees through training and mentoring.
All of the eight NNSA contractors undertake annual reviews of their
critical skill needs, with managers playing a key role in this assessment.
For example, managers at Sandia, as part of the facility's annual
Strategic Capabilities Assessment, are responsible for identifying
workforce skills required and developing projections of the number and
type of staff needed to meet their mission. These managers are also asked
to identify any
increases or decreases in future staffing levels that may result from
programmatic changes and any staff who may require specific training to
ensure they will be prepared to handle upcoming segments of work. The
information gathered from the managers during the Strategic Capabilities
Assessment process is used to develop a facilitywide hiring plan that
ultimately guides Sandia's recruiting efforts. At Los Alamos, managers
prepare annual workforce reviews that identify present and future
capabilities of the workforce, including critical skills. These reviews
provide an opportunity for managers to identify both strengths and gaps in
the capabilities needed to achieve programmatic missions. Each review
considers, among other items, projections of upcoming retirements,
succession planning, recruitment goals and approaches, plans for replacing
the lost skills, and mentoring and training needs. While these workforce
reviews are comprehensive and help map out workforce needs, they have not
yet been used to develop an overall hiring plan for Los Alamos; however,
human resource managers said that they plan to begin to do this by the end
of fiscal year 2006.
In addition, almost all of the 20 stockpile stewardship managers said that
they participate in recruiting efforts to at least a moderate extent.
Program managers identify the critical skill positions needing to be
filled; recruit on campus; and interview prospective candidates when they
visit the laboratory, production plant, or test site. For example,
division managers at the Kansas City plant identify critical skill needs
and process the necessary request forms to fill those needs. These
requests are aggregated by the human resource department and used to
inform the plant's college recruiting efforts where applicable. Managers
are also involved in campus recruiting. For example, Y-12 sends line
managers, not human resource personnel, out to campuses to recruit. This
helps Y-12 develop a better relationship with the schools and faculty and
provides students with an opportunity to interact with the managers with
whom they may one day be working, according to the human resource
officials. Managers also play a primary role in interviewing candidates
who visit their facility, and many make the final selections. For example,
as part of Los Alamos' just-in-time recruiting efforts, prospective
candidates visit the laboratory and undergo a day of interviews with
different program managers for multiple positions. At the end of the
visit, the managers decide which of the candidates are best suited to fill
the needs identified and make them offers.
Management involvement with workforce planning also continues after the
candidate is hired, through involvement with training and mentoring
programs that help ensure the facility will be able to retain the
critically
skilled employees needed. For example, Pantex offers in-house educational
and other programs to promote continuous professional development and
improvement of the plant's knowledge base. New personnel at Pantex receive
training to qualify as production technicians from seasoned employees at
the facility, after which these newly trained technicians are assigned to
work under the direction of other experienced personnel who continue with
on-the-job training. In addition, some the facilities place a premium on
the value of mentoring as a means to ensure that needed knowledge transfer
takes place. For example, at Savannah River, once scientists and engineers
reach a certain level of management, they are required to mentor newer
staff in order to be considered for any future advancement. At Lawrence
Livermore, formal and informal mentoring by experienced personnel,
including retirees, is a key part of the learning process. These mentoring
activities include reanalysis of past nuclear events and comparisons of
the effectiveness of different experiments. According to contractor
management, in some cases, these exercises have been able to produce fresh
insights for the entire program. Lawrence Livermore, as well as some other
facilities, relies upon a corps of retired workers to pass along knowledge
to newer staff and to archive their knowledge through documentation and
videotaped interviews to preserve it for future generations of workers.
Facilities Have Determined All NNSA facilities have analyzed their
workforce, including assessing the
Critical Skills Needed to Achieve skills of the current employees,
identifying the current and future critical
Current and Future Goals skills needed, and determining if and where any
gaps exist. For example,
through Workforce Gap Analysis associate directors at Lawrence Livermore,
with the assistance of human resource staff, annually evaluate employee
capabilities, look at what resources are needed to support existing and
anticipated future programs, perform a gap analysis, and develop
projections. In doing this analysis, the associate directors consider the
approximate attrition based on recent trends, the number of employees the
laboratory would like to have as backup to meet anticipated critical skill
needs for the next 3 years, anticipated future needs based on likely
program changes and budget projections, and the training and mentoring
needed for staff to be prepared to fill anticipated critical skill needs.
Program and human resource managers at Pantex conduct detailed workforce
planning annually to ensure that the needed skills are available at the
right time as workload and demographic changes occur. As part of this
planning process, the managers analyze positions to ensure that they are
properly designated as critical or noncritical. The workforce planning
team at Pantex then works with managers across the organization to
determine the number of critically skilled workers needed in each area to
meet the projected workload over several years. In doing so, the planning
team considers new work and skills that may be required in the future. The
workforce planners obtain data on the skills of the current employee
workforce, review production estimates to determine what workforce skills
will be needed to meet production goals, and assess the degree to which
the skills required by the future workload line up with the current
baseline of critically skilled employees. This analysis is rolled up and
reported in Pantex's annual "Critical Skills Program Status Report."
According to human resource managers, this report serves as the basis for
planning for, filling, and maintaining critical skills in the future.
At Y-12, workforce planning can be broken down into two categories based
on the planning horizon-long range or near term. Long-range workforce
planning includes developing a 10-year comprehensive site plan, which is
revised annually and contains a brief discussion of the workforce needs.
Long-range planning also involves developing a 10-year baseline plan,
which breaks down in more detail the information contained in the
comprehensive site plan, including the specific number of workers needed
for each position for the next 10 years. Finally, each suborganization
within Y-12 prepares workforce planning reports that ultimately get rolled
up to form the facilitywide workforce plan. Near term planning involves
creating a workforce plan that includes the production schedule for the
next 3 years, including the staff levels needed to meet production goals.
These workforce plans are reviewed three to four times annually to ensure
that adequate resources are available and that workforce capacity is
appropriate to meet near-term workforce needs. Management conducts a gap
analysis on these short-term estimates and determines what skills are
needed. In addition, the Y-12 plant conducted a reorganization process
over the past year that has compared the skills of the current workforce
with the future needs of the facility and moved people around accordingly.
Once the reorganization is complete, the plant will again reassess the
workforce and skills needed to identify any remaining gaps or shortages in
workforce skills.
Facilities Have Developed and As gaps between the skills of the current
workforce and the skills needed
Implemented Strategies to Fill to fulfill the mission are identified, each
facility has developed strategies to
Gaps address these specific gaps. Because each facility is unique in
mission, geographic location, and required skill sets, there is no
standard approach that the facilities can use to address their gaps.
Rather, each has developed strategies that help them identify, recruit,
and retain the critically skilled employees needed at each facility. For
example, all three laboratories, as
part of the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program, have initiated
a series of projects or institutes that provide training and research
experience to precollege, undergraduate, and graduate students in critical
skill fields relevant to the laboratory. One such institute in use by all
three laboratories-the College Cyber Defenders Institute-is focused on
addressing the national shortage of trained people and lack of formal
university programs that prepare students for a career in cyber security.
Other programs are focused more specifically on the needs of a particular
laboratory. For example, the Computer System Administrator Development
Initiative at Los Alamos is designed to recruit students who are enrolled
in area colleges and universities and who want to develop their skills as
a computer systems administrator, a critical resource need at the
laboratory.
The production plants have also implemented strategies that directly
address some critical skill needs identified by their workforce gap
analyses. For example, to help meet its need for production technicians
and to ensure that candidates under consideration for this position have
the basic technical skills that will be transferable to various weapons
programs once they are hired, Pantex requires that each candidate
successfully complete a Pantex Job Skills Development Program available
through the local community college. A similar strategy is under way at
Y-12. To help address its need for nuclear engineers, Y-12 has been
working closely with South Carolina State University to develop a nuclear
engineering program that will enable the university to supply Y-12 with
needed graduates in this critical area. Y-12 managers currently serve on
the university's advisory board and visit the campus several times each
year to work closely with faculty in developing the program.
The Nevada Test Site finds itself in a unique position regarding its
workforce planning activities. The site's primary mission was to be able
to conduct underground nuclear tests to ensure the reliability of the
nuclear stockpile. However, with the 1992 moratorium on testing and a
Presidential directive that the United States must be able to resume
nuclear testing with as little as 18 months' notice, the Nevada Test Site
is faced with the unique challenge of maintaining testing skills without
being able to conduct actual nuclear tests. To help maintain the critical
skills required for testing, the site has a workforce of engineers to
support the three weapons laboratories in research and development
engineering on advanced diagnostic tests and in their subcritical tests
(tests that do not produce a nuclear reaction) associated with the
Stockpile Stewardship Program and other special projects. This allows the
Nevada Test Site to maintain critical diagnostic skills related to testing
and evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses in testing methods they will need to apply in the event that
the facility begins testing again. In addition to on-the-job training to
maintain diagnostic skills among engineers, the Nevada Test Site is
developing a set of training classes geared toward junior employees. These
classes will be led by the engineers who used to develop diagnostics at
the site for underground testing and will help preserve critical knowledge
about testing from being lost.
Facilities Have Built the Each of the nuclear weapons facilities increased
their capabilities to
Capabilities to Support support the critical skill workforce planning
strategies by augmenting
Workforce Planning Strategies administrative support to implement these
strategies, utilizing technological planning tools, and increasing the use
of educational and financial incentives that help recruit and retain
critically skilled staff. For example, Sandia has established a Nuclear
Weapons Strategic Management Unit to manage the work, products, processes,
and people needed to accomplish the laboratory's mission. Similarly, the
Planning, Scheduling, and Integration division at Pantex oversees all
workforce planning tasks and has created a detailed flowchart defining how
workforce planning takes place at the facility and at what stages
different stakeholders, such as division managers or human resource
officials, become involved to ensure that the critical skill needs are
being met. Alternatively, Los Alamos is piloting a program in one of its
divisions that is designed to enhance the retention of critically skilled
staff. As part of this program, a human resource manager is deployed full
time to a division at the laboratory to help ensure that the students
participating in the internship or co-operative program are given a high
quality experience, increasing the likelihood that they will want to stay
on at the laboratory full time after graduating. This specialized human
resource manager also helps ensure that the student will be a good fit for
the laboratory in the long run and worthy of continued investment and
training in critical skill areas.
Some facilities have also used technology to better link critical skill
planning to hiring activity. For example, Sandia developed a Web-based
application called the HR Graphalyzer that enables the human resource
personnel to analyze human resource data graphically. One component of
this application, the Enhanced Staff Planning Tool, helps the divisions
design a hiring program that more accurately represents facility needs,
factoring in the specific organization's current headcount, current age
and years of service distribution, and history of internal employee
movement. The application is able to project separations (both retirement
and nonretirement) on the basis of historical trends using the
organization's age and years of service distributions. It also equalizes
hiring over 2 years in
order to avoid swings in recruiting and hiring efforts from year to year.
One of the main benefits of this system is that it helps the human
resource department to more accurately identify the number of workers with
specific skills who are needed. In addition, some facilities use human
resource information databases to help them better manage the flow of the
critical skills workforce. For example, Pantex uses a database that
maintains information on individual skills of the current staff and
whether the individual currently fills a critical skill position. This
database is updated annually and critical skill positions are reviewed in
light of the current mission and workload, helping the facility ensure
that it is meeting those workforce and mission needs. Contractors have
also used technology to assist with their recruiting efforts. For example,
Kansas City implemented a Web-based resume-sourcing tool that allows the
facility to post detailed job descriptions of open positions on the
Internet, increasing exposure to prospective candidates.
Some facilities have offered incentives to help recruit and retain
critically skilled staff, including offering educational programs and
providing workplace flexibilities. For example, Kansas City's Technical
Fellowship Program is an internal program designed to train and develop
associates for future critical skill positions. The facility has also
identified a number of workplace flexibilities that have helped it remain
competitive in attracting new staff, including signing bonuses, retention
bonuses, and employee referral fees. Furthermore, the Kansas City plant
has provided housing stipends to student interns who were relocating to
the Kansas City area. The Y-12 facility has adopted similar strategies,
focusing on employee development through companywide training, education,
and job rotation programs that help the new hire get wider exposure and
training to different aspects of the facility. Y-12 also recently modified
its relocation policy and now provides new hires with an up-front sum of
money to help with moving expenses. The intent of this change was to help
the facility stay competitive with other industries in the area.
Similarly, Lawrence Livermore has tried to stay abreast of market trends
and has offered incentives to successfully compete for employees including
hiring bonuses, employee referral bonuses, relocation packages, and
benefits and compensation packages. Furthermore, it has instituted
work-life programs such as flexible schedules, expanded day care
facilities, and other on-site services, including dry cleaning and a
fitness center, to keep Lawrence Livermore an appealing place to work.
NNSA Has Monitored and Evaluated Contractor Progress in Meeting Critical
Skills Workforce Needs
NNSA has continually monitored and evaluated contractor progress through
annual, semi-annual, and monthly reviews. As part of their annual
Performance Evaluation Plans in fiscal year 2004, each NNSA facility was
responsible for meeting one or more performance measures related to
critical skills management. Before the start of each new fiscal year, NNSA
and the contractor negotiate these plans, which establish the expectations
for the coming fiscal year and serve as the basis for evaluating how well
the contractor has met the goals of the contract. At the end of the fiscal
year, NNSA prepares a Performance Evaluation Review, evaluating the
contractor's performance on the objectives set out in the Performance
Evaluation Plan. This final overall assessment of how well the performance
evaluation measures were met, including those dealing with the critical
skill needs at the facility, provides the basis for any financial awards
given to the contractor. (See app. II for a summary of the performance
measures related to critical skills for each facility.)
Semiannually, each facility reports to NNSA headquarters on a set of
predefined metrics related to recruiting and retention. Among the metrics
used to assess performance are the number of job offers and acceptances
for critical skills positions, age statistics for the current critical
skills population, and percentage of critical skill positions vacant.
Retention indicators include attrition rates of critical skill employees
as compared with other Defense Program employees and total number of
departures of critical skills employees. According to NNSA Office of
Defense Program officials, two of these performance metrics-average age of
the critical skills workforce and the percentage of critical skill
vacancies-are good indicators of the overall success of the contractors in
recruiting, developing, and retaining critical skills employees.
On a monthly or quarterly basis, the contractors report to NNSA
representatives metrics related to meeting critical skill needs. NNSA site
managers conduct monthly reviews with the contractor managers to check
progress on meeting the performance objectives that have been laid out for
the contractors and briefly discuss the status of critical skill
positions. During these meetings, the contractors are also free to discuss
any other issues adversely affecting their ability to reach their critical
skills goals, such as concerns about clearance delays or salary
competitiveness. While many of these metrics tracked each month may be
based on the actual performance measures established under the contract,
others may be tracked because of their close connection to maintaining a
critically skilled workforce. For example, at Y-12, reports are issued
monthly on an established set of performance metrics for hiring,
retention, and turnover,
but also for college recruiting plans, career fair activities, and
information regarding involuntary reductions-in-force at other facilities
and how these reductions affect hiring at Y-12.
In addition to monitoring contractors' overall progress in meeting
critical skill performance measures, some facilities also track progress
on specific programs designed to help recruit and retain critically
skilled workers. For example, all the proposals for projects initiated
through the Laboratory Critical Skills Development Program include
milestones, goals, objectives, success measures, and evaluation criteria.
Follow-on funding for these projects is dependent on how well these
criteria are being met. In addition, NNSA monitors how well money spent as
part of the Plant Directed Research and Development program is helping
retain critically skilled staff at production plants.
Most Managers Believe Their Current Workforce Is Sufficient to Fulfill Their
Facility's Mission
Of the 20 stockpile stewardship program managers we interviewed at the
eight NNSA facilities, 15 believe that their critically skilled workforce
is currently sufficient to fulfill their facility's mission. Although this
belief was widely held, the factors these managers cited as helping their
facility achieve a sufficient critical skills workforce varied. Among the
factors most commonly cited were the strength of the recruiting programs,
the quality of work performed at the facility, and their facility's
commitment to training and development. For example, of the managers who
believe their critically skilled workforce is currently sufficient, some
commented that the recruiting programs are effective in attracting highly
qualified new and experienced workers to their facilities. They also
mentioned that their facility performs work that is technically
challenging, interesting, and of national importance, making it an
appealing place to work. These managers also said that their facilities
have made a commitment to training and development, ensuring the transfer
of knowledge from experienced employees to new workers and allowing many
staff to be trained in areas of critical importance to the mission. Some
of the five managers who felt the current critical skills workforce was
insufficient to meet their facilities' missions expressed concern that the
current pool of qualified, technically trained candidates is inadequate to
meet the facility's specific needs. At some sites, the candidates with
specific skills and training are simply not readily available in the
market and managers commented that there are few students entering
professions applicable to certain critical skill needs.
Stockpile stewardship managers we interviewed were less confident overall
in their facility's ability to fulfill its future critical skills needs;
however, the majority still felt the critical skills workforce would be
sufficient over the next 10 years to fulfill the facility's mission.
Twelve of the 20 program managers we spoke with believe their critical
skills workforce would be sufficient in the future, 3 believe it will be
insufficient, while 5 were unsure. The 12 managers who felt their critical
skills workforce would be sufficient over the next 10 years cited a number
of contributing factors, including the exciting mission of the facility,
the strength of the recruiting programs, and a focus on training and
developing employees. In addition, a number of these managers also
mentioned the facility's workforce planning efforts as essential. For
example, one manager said her facility's efforts enabled the managers to
identify, understand, and plan for future critical skill needs.
Of the three managers who felt that the critical skills workforce will be
insufficient to fulfill the mission over the next 10 years, two mentioned
concerns about the budget and the likelihood that a substantial number of
critically skilled workers would retire in the next 10 years. These
managers said that budget shortfalls would make workforce planning
difficult. Budget limitations can affect the number of staff who can be
employed at any one time, limiting the amount of knowledge transfer that
can occur between experienced staff and those new to the facility, both of
whom might be holding the same position while this training and
development takes place. In addition, because it can take as long as 5
years for new staff members to receive clearances and be fully trained on
the critical elements of their jobs, the impending retirements could
influence the transfer of critical knowledge if these experienced workers
retire before new staff are brought in and trained in these skills. The
five remaining managers expressed uncertainty about whether their facility
would be able to maintain the critical skills workforce needed in the
future. Most expressed guarded optimism that their facility would be able
to find the needed skilled workers; however, they mentioned a number of
factors that could still hamper their ability to do so. In addition to the
budget uncertainty and impending retirements mentioned by other managers
with concerns about future workforce preparedness, some of these managers
cited uncertainty about their facility's future mission and a shrinking
pool of qualified candidates to fill future openings. One manager
commented that shifts in the mission, such as a reduction of
laboratory-directed research and development being done, could limit the
amount of exciting work being performed at the facilities, making
employment there less appealing to potential candidates and, consequently,
planning for future skill needs more difficult. The five managers also
expressed concern about the availability of technically trained workers to
fill future critical skills
positions. According to one manager, competition remains high for certain
graduates with particular training and educational background and whether
this competition will continue in the future is uncertain.
NNSA Contractors and Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face Ongoing
Challenges but Have Developed Strategies to Mitigate Most of Them
NNSA contractors face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining a
critically skilled workforce and are using a number of strategies to
mitigate them. Additionally, organizations with comparable workforces are
facing similar challenges and are using similar strategies to mitigate
those challenges. Beyond their challenges, NNSA contractors face future
uncertainties that could affect their ability to recruit and retain a
critically skilled workforce in the years ahead.
NNSA Contractors Have NNSA contractors most commonly cited four challenges
to recruiting and Developed, and Actively retaining a critically skilled
workforce: the amount of time it takes to Share, Strategies to Mitigate
obtain security clearances, a declining pool of potential employees, the
undesirability of certain facilities because of the area's high cost of
living,
Ongoing Challenges and the undesirability of certain facilities because
they are in locations that many potential new hires consider unattractive.
Table 3 shows the facilities that cited each of the four challenges and
provides sample strategies that some NNSA contractors are using to
mitigate them.
Table 3: Challenges Facing NNSA Contractors and Sample Strategies to Mitigate
Them Laboratories Production facilities Test site
Lawrence Los Kansas Savannah Sample Challenge Livermore Alamos Sandia City
Pantex River Y-12 Nevada strategies
Time to ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ o Provide
employees
obtain with
meaningful
work in
security other
areas
clearances of the
facility
o Hire
skilled
employees
from
downsized
DOE
facilities
Declining pool of potential employees
✔✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ o
Develop programs to encourage U.S. students to pursue technical careers
o Develop university relations
o Utilize skilled staff from other NNSA programs
o Develop training programs to meet specific facility needs
High cost of ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ o Offer incentives
living such as signing and
relocation bonuses
o Offer relocation
support
Unattractive ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ o Offer
incentives
location such as signing
and
relocation
bonuses
o Focus on
recruiting
individuals
local to
the area
Source: NNSA.
Regarding the time it takes to obtain security clearances, most of NNSA's
contractors said Q-level security clearances-the level needed for most
critical skills positions-have been taking from 1 to 2 years to process,
delaying new employees' ability to obtain on-the-job training for the
classified work for which they were hired. To obtain new employee
clearances, contractors submit background paperwork to the Albuquerque
Service Center for processing.14 The Service Center uses the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) to conduct background investigations. The
Service Center reviews the investigation files provided by OPM, conducts
follow-up interviews when necessary, and makes the final decisions on
clearances. The manager of NNSA's Personnel Security Division at the
Albuquerque Service Center, who has responsibility for security clearance
issues, said that Q-level clearances have been taking, on average, just
under 1 year; however, he also acknowledged that in some cases these
clearances are taking as long as 2 years to complete. Because an employee
without a clearance cannot take part in classified work, the extended
clearance reviews have delayed the beginning of the employees' on-the-job
classified critical skills training needed to be designated as fully
critically skilled. Without this training, employees cannot begin doing
the work for which they were hired. According to contractor human resource
officials and stockpile stewardship managers, employees can become
frustrated and discouraged in the face of these delays.
While NNSA contractors are not able to directly address the time it takes
to process security clearances because responsibility for the
investigation and final determination lies elsewhere, they have developed
strategies to mitigate the effects of these delays. Several contractors
stated that they try to reduce the negative effects of waiting for
clearances by providing new employees with meaningful, unclassified work.
For example, Y-12 offers a program in which new employees waiting for a
clearance can rotate through areas of the plant that do not require a
clearance, learning about different departments that relate to the job
they were hired to perform. The Savannah River plant plans to place new
employees waiting for a security clearance in its soon-to-be-completed
hydrogen technology laboratory being developed at a nearby site. Although
the laboratory was not built specifically to address clearance delays,
working there will benefit staff waiting for clearances by (1) providing
an avenue for them to gain experience in areas relevant to the work they
will perform once the clearance is obtained and (2) allowing them to work
on cutting-edge projects in an unclassified setting. This opportunity
should help reduce some of the frustration newly hired employees and the
facility management associate with clearance delays. Some facilities have
also taken advantage of downsizing at such DOE facilities as Rocky Flats.
By hiring critically skilled employees who have Q-level clearances, the
facilities can both
14The Albuquerque Service Center does not process security clearances for
the Savannah River plant.
avoid the delays associated with the security clearance process and retain
critical skills already within the nuclear weapons complex. While hiring
these experienced NNSA contractor employees has been useful, their numbers
will decrease when Rocky Flats is closed and the downsizing of other NNSA
facilities is completed.
In addition to the amount of time it takes to obtain security clearances,
most of NNSA's contractors also face the ongoing challenge of recruiting
from a declining pool of technically skilled potential employees. First,
contractors said this pool has shrunk because fewer students with U.S.
citizenship are seeking advanced degrees or technical training in areas
such as science and engineering. Because most critical skill positions
require a Q-level clearance and U.S. citizenship is a primary
consideration for such a clearance, NNSA contractors must locate U.S.
citizens with the needed critical skills. Second, some contractors said
they face a lack of qualified technicians in specific skill areas. For
example, Pantex mentioned having difficulty finding enough qualified
production technicians, and Los Alamos cited difficulties in finding
skilled technicians who have nuclear weapons manufacturing experience or
who are trained in using radiological gloveboxes-sealed containers that
feature built-in gloves for handling radiological material.
To address the declining pool of technically skilled workers, most of the
facilities have developed programs to attract U.S. citizen students
earlier in their high school and undergraduate years and encourage them to
pursue careers in technical fields. For example, under the Laboratory
Critical Skills Development Program, the three weapons laboratories have
established programs involving local high schools and universities that
encourage students to pursue college and advanced degrees in technical
fields and provide a pipeline of workers for future job opportunities at
the laboratory. Additionally, some contractors have focused on improving
their relationships with universities as a way to address the challenge of
a declining pool. Sandia, for example, established its Campus Executive
Program to develop a more coordinated and comprehensive recruiting effort
at targeted universities. The program's recruiting teams, composed of
researchers, recruiters, program alumni, and affiliated faculty, use
existing relationships at colleges and universities to attract technically
trained U.S. citizens. Contractors have also found a source of critically
skilled employees in other NNSA programs operating at the same site. For
example, the Defense Program division of Savannah River has been able to
pick up critically skilled employees from the facility's Environmental
Management segment as it is being shut down. The advantage of hiring
these staff is that they are already trained in critical skill areas
relevant to Defense Program work and have their security clearances, which
allows them to hit the ground running. Finally, some contractors have
developed their own training programs to meet their facilities' specific
skills needs as a way of mitigating the shortage of qualified technicians
in needed skill areas. For example, Pantex established its Job Skills
Development Program in partnership with Amarillo Community College and the
Texas Workforce Center to help meet the facility's need for production
technicians. The program trains and qualifies a local workforce of
production technicians from which Pantex can recruit potential employees.
Like Pantex, Los Alamos has developed a program to address one of its
specific needs. The Glovebox Technician Pipeline Program develops
college-educated technicians with basic skills in radiological glovebox
technology. Los Alamos began the program in 2003 and expects it to produce
a small pool of technically skilled graduates available for full-time
employment.
The third ongoing challenge cited by some NNSA contractors is that their
location is geographically undesirable because of the high cost of living.
Some contractors stated that the high cost of living in the area where
their facility is located makes recruitment and retention of critically
skilled employees more difficult. This was the case with Lawrence
Livermore, which is located in the San Francisco Bay area. To address cost
of living issues, contractors have used such employee incentives as
offering signing and relocation bonuses to assist with relocation
expenses. Some contractors have also offered potential employees support
by helping them find housing or learn about the community.
The fourth ongoing challenge cited by NNSA contractors is that their
location hinders recruiting efforts because it is perceived as being an
unattractive area to live in or as being remote. For example, contractor
officials at the Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, report that they have
trouble recruiting and retaining critically skilled workers. Pantex
officials indicated that some workers are attracted to larger urban
environments. To address concerns about locations that may be perceived as
being unattractive, some facilities have also offered signing and
relocation bonuses. Other facilities focus on recruiting individuals who
are from the local area. For example, Y-12 targets universities in the
surrounding geographic area because candidates are more likely to accept
positions near where they live or attend school. Similarly, Pantex focuses
on universities in west Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico to recruit
engineering candidates.
As NNSA contractors have developed strategies to mitigate recruiting and
retention challenges, they have used a variety of methods to share those
strategies among themselves. One method for sharing information is to use
the human resource specialists at the Albuquerque Service Center as a
conduit. NNSA recently consolidated most of its contractor human resource
staff, who were previously located at each of the NNSA facilities, in a
central location at the Albuquerque Service Center. Six of the eight
nuclear weapons complex facilities currently have human resource
specialists located at the service center.15 Because the specialists are
now centrally located, they are able to obtain a broader perspective by
taking advantage of each others' knowledge about the activities of
different contractors. For example, Los Alamos adopted a tool from
Lawrence Livermore-a "deliverables matrix"- that is used to help track the
reports it submits periodically to NNSA on a number of subjects, including
critical skill management. The Los Alamos contractor learned of this tool
from its human resource specialist, who learned of it from his Lawrence
Livermore counterpart at the service center.
In addition to using the service center as a conduit for sharing
strategies, NNSA contractors are using a variety of other avenues. For
example, contractors exchange ideas at periodic meetings such as the
annual compensation managers meeting and DOE's annual human resource
conference, which features sessions dedicated to discussing critical skill
recruitment and retention and sharing best practices. Moreover, NNSA's
plants participate in quarterly meetings, which allow them to discuss
lessons learned in recruiting and retaining critically skilled employees.
Partnerships among the facilities also promote strategy sharing. For
example, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore coordinate their recruiting
efforts under the Recruitment Coordination Cost Efficiency Initiative. In
addition, the four production plants have developed a Senior Scientist
Network for sharing information on nuclear weapons complex recruitment and
retention problems and strategies. Additionally, Savannah River and Los
Alamos engage in an employee exchange program that allows them to
temporarily exchange staff with specific knowledge about tritium, a
radioactive isotope of hydrogen that both facilities work with.
15Two facilities, Savannah River and Y-12, have human resource specialists
located on site.
Organizations with Comparable Workforces Face Similar Challenges and Have
Implemented Similar Strategies
Human resource officials from organizations with comparable workforces
identified challenges similar to those faced by NNSA contractors in
recruiting and retaining a critically skilled workforce. For example, most
human resource officials from these organizations cited the amount of time
it takes newly hired staff to obtain security clearances as being a
challenge. These officials said that security clearances for new employees
have been taking from 11 to 18 months, but they believe they have been
able to lessen the impact of these delays by, for example, providing new
employees with meaningful, nonclassified work to do while awaiting
clearances. Additionally, one of these organizations-the Applied Physics
Laboratory-addresses the problems associated with clearance delays by
seeking staff who already have clearances. Much as NNSA seeks already
cleared and trained individuals from nuclear weapons complex facilities
that are closing or downsizing, the Applied Physics Laboratory targets Web
sites and job fairs that specialize in attracting individuals who already
have security clearances.
Most human resource officials from organizations with comparable
workforces also cited the declining pool of technically skilled workers as
a challenge. Like NNSA, these organizations said they have a smaller group
of candidates from which to recruit because there are fewer technically
trained U.S. citizens available in the marketplace and fewer U.S. citizens
working toward graduate degrees in engineering and science. To mitigate
this challenge, most of these organizations have developed programs, such
as internships, to encourage students to pursue careers in science and
engineering. Some of these programs are designed to expose high school
students to the opportunities that exist in these technical fields, while
others are intended to encourage college students to pursue graduate
degrees in these areas. In one such program, offered by the Naval Research
Laboratory, students spend 8 weeks working full-time with scientists and
engineers actively engaging in research and planning, participating in
special program seminars, and writing and presenting a final research
paper. Similarly, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory offers a program
that allows high school students to shadow its employees.
Finally, human resource managers at two organizations with comparable
workforces cited the challenge of recruiting staff to work in an area that
has a high cost of living, similar to the difficulty expressed by NNSA
contractors with staffing facilities in the San Francisco Bay area. Some
organizations with comparable workforces have implemented strategies
similar to those used by NNSA contractors to mitigate this challenge as
well. For example, Exelon offers signing bonuses to help offset the cost
of
relocation, and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory offers its new
employees support in finding a neighborhood in which to live and helps
employees' spouses find work.
Future Uncertainties Could Affect NNSA's Ability to Maintain a Critically
Skilled Workforce
In addition to facing ongoing challenges, NNSA contractors face a number
of uncertainties the outcomes of which could affect their ability to
maintain a critically skilled workforce into the future. These outcomes
hinge on events and decisions over which NNSA contractors generally have
little control. The contractors are therefore less able to develop
strategies for addressing these uncertainties. For example, some NNSA
contractors believe that they will face increased competition for science
and engineering candidates, as well as other critically skilled employees,
if the job market improves, since these workers will have more employment
choices. Such increased competition would hinder the contractors' ability
to recruit and retain the critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill
the facility's mission, according to some contractors. Some of the
programs designed to provide early exposure of college students to NNSA
facilities through, for example, the Laboratory Critical Skills
Development Program, will help to increase the chance that future
candidates will be aware of and consider employment opportunities within
the nuclear weapons complex.
Some NNSA contractors also stated that their ability to maintain their
critically skilled workforce into the future could be affected by budget
and funding limitations, which could hinder workforce planning. These
contractors said that the budget process, specifically the timing of the
budget cycle and the uncertainty of budget reauthorizations, makes it
difficult to bring in new job candidates when they are needed. The Nevada
Test Site, for example, said budget shortfalls in its Experimentation
Support division resulted in the termination of seven or eight employees
in 2003, making it difficult for the division to maintain the workforce
needed. The contractors stated that budget uncertainty also hinders their
ability to bring on new staff in time to be trained by, and gather
essential knowledge from, experienced staff who are near retirement. Some
facilities have implemented knowledge retention initiatives designed to
archive weapons data by, among other means, interviewing experienced
weapons subject matter experts, to mitigate the effects of retirement
timing.
In addition, some NNSA contractors expressed concern about the number of
their employees who are, or will be soon eligible, for retirement. If a
large number of these employees chose to retire at one time, the
facilities may not be able to ensure that critical knowledge is passed
along to the
newest generation of nuclear weapons workers. In general, the contractors
felt that they were in a position to overcome the challenge imposed by
anticipated future retirements, but some indicated that the uncertain
outcome of future events could alter the impact of these retirements.
According to contractor human resource officials, one issue that could
influence the pace of future retirements is the contract rebidding process
currently underway at Los Alamos. DOE announced that it will place the Los
Alamos contract up for bid in 2005 and the Lawrence Livermore contracts up
for bid some time after September 30, 2007, for the first time since their
establishment. The current contractor for both of these facilities is the
University of California. One concern about rebidding the contract is that
it could be awarded to a new contractor that may provide a less attractive
pension benefit package or may not bring some of the education advantages
workers receive as employees of the University of California. These
concerns could potentially result in multiple early retirements and affect
a facility's ability to perform its mission if the contract changes hands.
NNSA may have mitigated some of these concerns when it issued an
acquisition plan in September 2004 that required potential bidders on the
contract to offer current workers at Los Alamos the same level of pension
benefits as the current contractor. Furthermore, a different contractor
may want to reassess the recruiting and retention strategies that will be
used, such as the university recruiting program or fellowships offered, to
ensure that they reflect any affiliations the new contractor may have.
This could impact the contractor's access to particular skill sets. Until
this process is completed, it will be difficult to determine how Los
Alamos's critical skills capabilities are affected or whether this same
issue will arise with future contract rebids.
Finally, some NNSA contractors expressed concern that unexpected mission
changes could affect their ability to recruit and retain individuals with
needed critical skills. These facilities stated that unexpected changes in
their long-term missions could make it difficult to plan for future skill
needs and prevent them from obtaining the right mix of critical skills
during recruiting. For example, one manager said it was critical for his
facility to be responsive to programmatic changes, but to maintain that
responsiveness they must have a mix of critically skilled workers who meet
the needs of the current mission, as well as the needs required by a shift
in the mission. A manager at another facility said he finds it difficult
to plan for future skill needs because the NNSA mission for his facility
is not stable in the short term. Furthermore, in 2001, President Bush
announced his intent to significantly reduce the nation's total
operationally deployed nuclear weapons force by 2012. This could have
ramifications in terms of
the types and numbers of critically skilled workers required to meet this
reduction and to ensure the safety and reliability of the remaining
weapons in the stockpile. NNSA is guarding against the effects of this
mission shift by continuing an advanced concepts program to enable
scientists and engineers at the nuclear weapons laboratories to retain
critical skills and to provide the United States with means to respond to
new, unexpected, or emerging threats in a timely manner.
Conclusion While NNSA contractors have been generally effective in
recruiting and retaining the critically skilled workforce needed
currently, are well poised to maintain the critically skilled workforce
that will be needed in the near future, and have successfully mitigated
many of the challenges they have already faced, the future will almost
certainly bring additional challenges and uncertainties the contractors
will need to continue to stay aware of and address. Although some of these
challenges may be outside the contractors' immediate control-such as
changes in economic conditions or shifts in NNSA's mission-the test that
lies ahead for these contractors will be in identifying these new
challenges early and developing strategies to mitigate them wherever
possible. In order for the nuclear weapons facilities to be able to locate
and employ the critically skilled workforce needed to ensure the safety
and reliability of the stockpile, NNSA and its contractors will need to
remain vigilant and focused in their recruiting and retention efforts, as
well as anticipate, and appropriately plan for, future critical skill
needs and shortages.
Agency Comments We provided NNSA with a draft of this report for its
review and comment. In oral comments, NNSA agreed with the report.
We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Energy; the
Director, Office of Management and Budget; and other interested parties.
We will also make copies available to others upon request. In addition,
the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at
http://www.gao.gov.
If you or your staffs have any questions, please call me at (202)
512-3841. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III.
Robin M. Nazzaro Director, Natural Resources and Environment
List of Congressional Committees
The Honorable John Warner Chairman The Honorable Carl Levin Ranking
Minority Member Committee on Armed Services United States Senate
The Honorable Duncan L. Hunter Chairman The Honorable Ike Skelton Ranking
Minority Member Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives
The Honorable Ted Stevens The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye Committee on
Appropriations United States Senate
Honorable C.W. Bill Young Honorable John P. Murtha Committee on
Appropriations House of Representatives
Appendix I
Scope and Methodology
As part of our overall approach to examine the National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) contractors' ability to recruit and retain the
critically skilled workforce needed to maintain the safety and reliability
of the nuclear weapons stockpile, we visited six of the eight nuclear
weapons complex facilities-Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los
Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Kansas City
Plant, the Pantex Plant, and the Y-12 Plant. The remaining two sites-the
Savannah River Site and the Nevada Test Site-have the smallest number of
critically skilled workers and we conducted extensive telephone interviews
with human resource and workforce, planning managers at these facilities.
We also sent each facility a standard set of interview questions and
received responses from each facility.
As part of our review of the contractors' efforts, we interviewed a
nonprobability sample of 20 managers from all eight facilities.1 We
requested names of at least two managers in the Stockpile Stewardship
Program from the human resource managers at each facility. We then
conducted structured interviews with these managers, either in person or
by telephone. In particular, we discussed the managers' involvement in
recruiting, retaining, and planning for workforce needs at the facility.
We also gained their perspective on the ongoing recruiting and retentions
challenges their facilities face and whether they felt their facility
would be able to maintain the critically skilled workforce needed to
fulfill their mission.
To describe the approaches NNSA contractors are using to recruit and
retain a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with human resource
managers at each of the eight NNSA nuclear weapons complex facilities.
Specifically, we discussed the approaches the facilities use to recruit
and retain a critically skilled workforce and the ways in which NNSA has
supported the contractors' efforts. We also reviewed documentation of the
recruitment and retention approaches used at each facility, including
human resource managers' responses to our written request for specific
information. In addition, we interviewed NNSA officials at headquarters,
the site offices for most of the facilities, and the NNSA Service Center
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We discussed with these officials the ways in
which they have supported contractors' efforts to recruit and retain their
1Results from nonprobability samples cannot be used to make inferences
about a population, because in a nonprobability sample some elements of
the population being studied have no chance or an unknown chance of being
selected as part of the sample.
Appendix I Scope and Methodology
critically skilled workforce. To assess the similarities of approaches
used by organizations with comparable workforces, we spoke with human
resource representatives from six research and advanced technology
organizations with comparable workforces to determine the extent to which
these industries use recruiting and retention approaches similar to those
used by NNSA. These organizations are as follows:
o Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland: a division of the Johns
Hopkins University, operates specialized research and test facilities;
o Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts: an
independent laboratory that contracts with a number of government
agencies;
o Exelon Corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois: an energy
service provider;
o Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California: operated by the
California Institute of Technology for the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration;
o Lockheed Martin Corporation headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland: a
major federal government contractor; and
o Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.: operated by the Navy.
We also spoke with two industry associations representing manufacturing
and nuclear materials industries-the National Association of Manufacturing
and Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. We selected these eight
organizations based on the following criteria: their selection by the
Chiles Commission as benchmarking organizations; their geographic
dispersal; and their representation of different high technology,
laboratory, or manufacturing industry segments. We reviewed the Chiles
Commission report and determined it was methodologically sound enough for
the purposes of this report.
To assess the effectiveness of the approaches used to recruit and retain
critically skilled workers, we collected a variety of workforce data from
each facility, including total numbers of Defense Program and critically
skilled workers and average ages of these workers broken out by job
classification, hiring and attrition trends, average retirement ages, and
forecasted needs for critically skilled workers. To assess the reliability
of
Appendix I Scope and Methodology
these data, we reviewed relevant documentation, interviewed cognizant
contractor officials, and obtained reponses from key database officials to
a series of data reliability questions covering issues such as data entry,
access, quality control procedures, and the accuracy and completeness of
the data. Follow-up questions were added whenever necessary. We determined
that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report.
In addition, we obtained documentation of each facility's workforce
planning process and evaluated that process using our five principles of
strategic workforce planning.2 These five principles are (1) involving
management and employees in developing and implementing the strategic
workforce plan, (2) determining critical skills needs through workforce
gap analysis, (3) developing workforce strategies to fill gaps, (4)
building needed capabilities to support workforce strategies, and (5)
monitoring and evaluating progress in achieving goals. We also interviewed
human resource managers at each facility to determine the kinds of
recruiting and retention strategies they have implemented to support their
workforce planning processes. To determine the extent to which NNSA
monitors and evaluates contractor progress we interviewed NNSA site
officials responsible for performance management, as well as each
facility's human resource managers. Finally, we analyzed the responses of
stockpile stewardship managers to our structured interview to determine
whether the managers believe their facility had and could maintain the
critically skilled workforce needed to fulfill their mission, the reasons
for these beliefs, and the extent to which the managers are involved in
the workforce planning process.
Regarding the ongoing challenges that NNSA contractors face in recruiting
and retaining a critically skilled workforce, we spoke with human
resource, workforce planning, and stockpile stewardship program managers.
Specifically, we discussed ongoing recruitment and retention challenges,
strategies used to mitigate those challenges, and future uncertainties
that may affect the facilities' abilities to recruit and retain the
critically skilled workers needed. To further identify any remaining
challenges and uncertainties, we reviewed the contractors' responses to
our written questions. To assess the extent to which the remaining
challenges, and the strategies used to mitigate these challenges, are
similar to those of organizations with comparable workforces, we spoke
with human resource representatives from the six research and advanced
technology
2See GAO-04-39.
Appendix I Scope and Methodology
organizations with comparable workforces and the two industry
associations.
We conducted our work from February 2004 through January 2005 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Appendix II
Critical Skills Performance Measures in NNSA Facilities' Performance Evaluation
Plans for Fiscal Year 2004
NNSA facility Performance measure
Lawrence Livermore National Utilize University of California strengths to
recruit, retain, and develop the workforce basis Laboratory o Recruit
and retain a skilled and diverse workforce that meets the laboratories'
long-range core Los Alamos National Laboratory and critical skills
requirements by implementing a human resource strategy that leverages
student programs and University of California relationships.
Sandia National Laboratories Sandia management focuses on renewal and
retainment of its workforce and the transfer of knowledge to ensure the
future of the Nuclear Weapons Complex such that it can continue to perform
its mission for the nation in the future years.
o Sandia implements a comprehensive program for workforce planning and
diversity that includes recruitment, training, and knowledge transfer
necessary to meet the long-range core and critical skills requirements.
Kansas City Plant Demonstrate effective workforce planning to assure the
current and future workforce critical skills, including technical,
program/project managers and administrative personnel, are adequate to
meet future workforce skills needs and are consistent with contract
performance.
Pantex Plant Develop and exercise critical skills, capabilities, and
personnel.
o Fill planned critical skill vacancies calculated from the latest
biannual report "Maintenance of Nuclear Weapons Expertise Data for NNSA
Performance Metrics."
o Maintain planned staffing in critical skill personnel calculated from
the latest biannual report
"Maintenance of Nuclear Weapons Expertise Data for NNSA Performance
Metrics." Complete required training and qualification of critical skill
personnel with appropriate clearance and/or PAP.
Savannah River Plant Focus Area - Technical Capability
o Knowledge preservation
o Engineering qualifications
o Filled critical skill positions
Y-12 Plant BWXT Y-12 will take measures to ensure that the critical skills
needed to support the Y-12 workload are available and fully trained or in
a training program to ensure ability to perform duties as required in the
future.
o The critical skills database is complete and updated on a quarterly
basis to consistently provide accurate numbers of vacant critical skills
positions.
o Programs are in place to continually replenish the pipeline of new
critical skills employees and ensure the appropriate development programs
are available to allow the new employees to perform critical duties.
Nevada Test Site Demonstrate improvement in the following emphasis areas
selected from the Project Management Body of Knowledge:
o Improve Critical Skills Management: Identify critical skills of project
managers and ensure they possess the requisite skills to successfully
perform defined tasks.
Source: NNSA.
Appendix III
GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments
GAO Contacts Ms. Robin Nazzaro (202) 512-6246 Richard Cheston (202)
512-6951
Acknowledgments In addition to those named above, Elizabeth Erdmann,
Robert Sanchez, and Corrie Burtch made key contributions to this report.
Also contributing to this report were Nancy Crothers, Judy Pagano, and
Katherine Raheb.
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