Workforce Planning and Professional Development Task Force - Final Report

This report presented a preliminary analysis of FHWA's future workforce versus today's workforce. It also documented a number of action items to help close the gap between where the agency is today and where it needs to be in the future. The Task Force held over 45 internal listening sessions and a focus group session with one of our key partners to identify critical areas of need. The Task Force outlined actions designed to better align the agency with its strategic goals and the emerging needs of its customers. The key to closing these gaps is the commitment and persistence of the agency in implementing these actions.

The original challenge to the Task Force was to determine what had to be done and to work with the agency in the implementation of these actions. Included in the Executive Summary is a complete list of the Action Items presented throughout this report. This list will provide an initial means of tracking the status of these implementation actions and also serve as a "report card" for the agency to measure its progress. However, to be more effective, each of these actions must have a responsible office, an expected implementation date, and a means through which the actions can be accomplished.

To continue this work, a small group will be formed to coordinate these implementation actions. As a minimum, the group will include the Directors of the Offices of Professional Development, Corporate Management and Human Resources, as well as the newly appointed Workforce Planner. This core group, drawn from the original Task Force, should be augmented as necessary with other staff such as representatives from the Human Resource Management Committee, Field Managers and others. The group will begin its work immediately and provide the agency's leadership team with regular updates on the status of these actions.

Many of the action items presented in this paper are very broad and will require considerable effort to implement, while others could be implemented fairly quickly. As FHWA proceeds with implementation of these actions, there are a number of issues to be addressed:

Budget – Many of the actions have financial implications that will need to be more fully assessed. The Task Force believes that, at this point, it would be impossible to assess the full range of impacts such actions might have, both in costs as well as savings. An example is virtual offices. Although there would be direct costs associated with establishing a remote office (e.g., automation needs, TDY to the "home office"), savings are also possible by reducing the costs of PCS moves and reducing the cost of TDY travel. These costs and savings are hard to predict at this time because the extent of use of this provision is not clear. In summary, the Task Force suggests that FHWA find ways to begin implementing these actions even though there are unknown budget implications. It is only through implementation that the agency will be able to build that knowledge.

Outreach – A key component of any implementation effort will be outreach and education. The actions in this report, for the most part, are not "requirements" but instead tools which would be made available to employees and supervisors. Their use may depend on how well people understand these tools, as well as how comfortable they are in using them. For this reason, all implementation actions will require a strong component of education and outreach.

Contracting – One factor the Task Force became more aware of was the effect of contracting on the agency's workforce needs. For example, the FHWA currently has approximately 400 on-board contractors who work in many of our offices, particularly in Headquarters. How should these workers be accounted for in future workforce planning? Should the contractor role be expanded? In what areas? How would the FHWA accomplish the functions currently performed by these contractors if there were a severe reduction in contract funds? These are some of the questions to be considered as we proceed with implementation.