Strategic Human Capital Management Implementation Plan HTML

 

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Planning for Action – Achieving Results

Strategic Human Capital Management Implementation Plan

Introduction

On September 9, 2002, the Department submitted its first Strategic Human Capital Management Plan to the Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management.As Secretary Gale Norton indicated in the Foreword, “This Strategic Human Capital Management Plan is our roadmap to develop and use the skills and abilities of our workforce in more effective and productive ways.It is a roadmap to ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, at the right time.”

To bring the Strategic Human Capital Management Plan to fruition, action plans must be implemented to accomplish the many goals outlined in the plan.This Implementation Plan will discuss the ways in which we will link our actions to our mission, ensuring the Department's strategic goals, as specified in our new Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance plan, can be accomplished as expected by Congress and the American people.We will also discuss the budget implications of these actions and identify the ways in which we will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions we take.

Plan Overview

This Implementation Plan identifies the actions necessary to implement the Department's Strategic Human Capital Management Plan (Human Capital Plan).The following is a brief overview of the major themes presented in the Human Capital Plan.

Providing service and value to our citizens, the employees of this Department have served the Nation well for over 150 years.The Department's Human Capital Plan is a five-year plan that seeks to sustain and strengthen these efforts.It sets forth how we are working to provide the people who carry out our mission with the right skills, in the right places, at the right time.

Understanding Our Mission

The Department of the Interior manages over 500 million acres of federal lands and provides water for much of the West. As manager of the federal domain of the outer continental shelf, the Department provides access to energy and minerals within federal lands and waters. It works with Native American tribes, Alaskan natives, and affiliated island communities to fulfill special trust and service responsibilities. It is the nation's premier natural sciences research, mapping, and monitoring agency.

Currently, approximately 70,000 employees provide these recreation, resource protection, resource management, and trust services.Through the implementation of our Human Capital Plan, we will sustain and strengthen these efforts.These efforts will build upon the Department's Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) performance plan, which identifies end outcomes and intermediate outcomes consistent with achieving our overall mission.

Strategic Goals

Our draft GPRA Performance Plan, developed as a single plan from which bureaus “step down” to develop bureau plans, creates a common framework for expressing goals and presents a unified departmental mission.

The Department's major mission components center around its core responsibilities as the Nation's primary land management agency.The eight bureaus of the Department (National Park Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Bureau of Land Management; Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Reclamation; Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement; Minerals Management Service; and U.S. Geological Survey), many with complex and varied program components, are united for the first time around four core mission areas in the draft GPRA performance plan.These four areas encapsulate the challenge of our stewardship mission.They balance growing demands for use of the nation's resources with the need to protect them.

The Department's draft GPRA performance plan establishes long-term (five-year) program and service goals and defines how we measure progress toward those goals.The plan identifies specific end-outcomes and intermediate outcome goals -- the measurable standards by which we assess the success of the Department and the performance of our employees.

In the chart above, the “management” pillar encompasses all segments of the President's Management Agenda, including the strategic management of human capital.The goals, end-outcomes, and intermediate outcomes include strategic human capital issues that are clearly aligned with the accomplishment of our mission component goals.

Setting the Context

The Human Capital Plan explores the demographic features of our workforce, its geographic dispersion, and the wide diversity of skills needed to fulfill our mission.Our Human Capital Plan also describes three key external and internal “drivers” that are shaping the extent, complexity, and volume of our work. These include: growing urbanization; increased demand by citizens for good public-sector IT and business practices; and an aging infrastructure.In addition, three unique programmatic challenges confront the Department. These programmatic challenges include: Indian Trust Management; Wildland Fire Management; and Law Enforcement and Homeland Security.These forces are increasing our bureaus' workload and responsibilities.The following sections describe each of these forces, along with their impacts and the human resources responses the Department will take to overcome these challenges in fulfilling our mission.

Trends and Challenges Affecting Mission Delivery

Several challenges result from external and internal forces that will shape our workforce over the next five years and influence how we fulfill our mission and achieve our performance goals.These challenges can be consolidated into 4 main categories – Increased Urbanization, Aging Infrastructure, IT and Business Acumen and Programmatic Changes.Each of these challenges produces human resource needs that require specific responses.There are some responses that are common to all areas and will be discussed in more detail below.

 

Increased Urbanization

Urban areas are spreading towards lands protected and managed by the Department – national parks, wildlife refuges, Indian reservations, and wilderness areas. Greater numbers of people living in proximity to federally managed lands result in: land fragmentation; increased recreation on federal lands; increased resource demands; the need for improved access to federal lands and facilities; increased interaction between citizens and land managers; cross jurisdictional problems; and growing facility usage.

Citizens living near Federal lands have a very personal interest in the Department's management actions and decision-making process.Increasing urbanization will impact nearly every program of the Department and require a change in the way our services are delivered, the skills our employees require, and the diversity of our workforce.

One of the most pressing and overriding human capital problems faced by the Department is the ability of its workforce to cope with the sustained increased demand for its services, even while its employment levels trail far behind.These demands require employees with mediation and negotiation skills and the ability to develop and manage partnerships with other agencies, the public (including volunteers), and with the private sector through concessions, outsourcing, and joint projects.

 

 

Despite these demands, the employees of the Department of the Interior continue to be innovative, dedicated, and resourceful.DOI employees are close to their customers, serving them directly. Approximately three out of four of the Department's employees interact directly with customers and citizens.In addition, surveys show the Department delivers quality services to those who visit DOI-managed lands and facilities, achieving high customer-service ratings.

Many issues present complex and multidimensional challenges, reaching across bureau program boundaries, requiring common understanding, approaches, and solutions. An endangered species does not know the difference between public land, refuge land, trust land or parkland.An ecosystem under stress is likely to be stressed on all adjacent public and sometimes private lands. Wildfire knows no jurisdictional boundaries, given high fuel loads and drought conditions.

The Secretary's 4C's agenda–consultation, communication, and cooperation, all in the service of conservation–is the central tenet for transforming our relationships internally within the Department and externally with the public that we serve.The 4C's approach recognizes that no individual bureau by itself, the Department as a whole, nor even the entire Federal government can solve the landscape-wide issues the nation faces.The solution lies in effective partnerships between the Federal, state, and local government, citizens, and organizations.

The public expects easy access to services that are responsive to its needs rather than to internal organizational alignments. Citizens would prefer to plan their recreation around what activities are available to them rather than what agency manages the land or resource.

A 4C's approach also recognizes the value of volunteers.The effort of more than 200,000 DOI volunteers who donate in excess of seven million hours of service every year can be valued at about $98 million annually. But the daily impact these volunteers make goes well beyond any dollar estimate in terms of their contribution to the people we serve.Volunteers are often the first people to greet visitors to parks, refuges, and campgrounds.They are a great source of new ideas and infuse the Department's programs with energy, vitality, and creativity.

In order to meet the current and future challenges we will face as a result of increased urbanization, Department employees will need to acquire and/or hone their 4C's mediation skills, increase partnership capacity, continue to concentrate on DOI service integration, and develop or accelerate contracting skills.

 

The specific responses that will help us meet these HR needs are as follows:

Actions for Building 4C's Skills

The Department will review and revamp its management and employee training to ensure that such training builds the skills to foster improved communication, cooperation, and consultation within the Department and with the citizens we serve.Specific approaches that emphasize the 4C's include:

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Training – The Department's recently established Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution will be developing Alternative Dispute Resolution awareness training to encourage the use of ADR to prevent or resolve conflicts at the earliest opportunity and at the lowest organizational level in all areas of the Department.

Secretary's Four C's Award – To recognize significant contributions to the Service of Conservation through Consultation, Cooperation, and Communication, the Department will institute a new award.The Secretary's Four C's Award will be given annually to individual employees, or group/teams of employees, who have made exceptional contributions in this area.The award will recognize outstanding achievement and publicize how the innovative use of consultation, cooperation, and communication advances mission success.

SES Performance measures tied to 4C's performance.

Strengthening Our Science Practices

The Department has underway a number of efforts to ensure the integrity of scientific information upon which it relies and to maintain public trust and confidence in the role of science in advising Interior policies.Recently, we developed information quality guidelines to ensure the objectivity, utility and integrity of all information made available to the public.As part of this effort, we are also reviewing and strengthening our common standards for peer review of research.Finally, the Department is drafting a “Code of Science Ethics” that will help guide the conduct of employees, contractors and consultants engaged in science-based projects.The “Code of Science Ethics” will ensure we can consult, communicate, and cooperate (4C's) with our partners to achieve the scientific results needed for our missions and expected by the American people.We are also working actively with other organizations for an ongoing, independent review of our science-based activities.

Expansion of Volunteer Capacity

The Department recognizes the need to expand its capacity to use volunteers in support of our missions.The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service recently created new positions to coordinate and oversee volunteer services within their bureaus.The Department also created a common, cross-Department volunteer structure to enhance its ability to recruit and manage volunteers.The Department is also seeking volunteer authority for bureaus that currently do not have such authority.

“Best-Practice” Training

Capitalizing on the success the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has had in partnering with public sources (including private philanthropy, aggressive cost recovery, fee for service approaches, and expansive business and program partnerships), we have scheduled training sessions to share these best practices and help managers understand the power and effectiveness of these approaches.This training will start at the SES level and cascade down through the management chain.

Aging Infrastructure

Maintenance and repairs to our facilities have not kept pace with growing facility needs.Costs to complete deferred maintenance on DOI's large and aging inventory of schools, office buildings, bridges, dams, irrigation systems, roads, and historic buildings and structures are currently estimated to range from $7.2 billion to $11.3 billion.Our ability to effectively fulfill maintenance responsibilities, and provide easy access to employees and the public, has been inhibited by the lack of adequate maintenance management systems, practices, and processes.As facility use grows, and maintenance is deferred, our facilities deteriorate at an increasing pace, often becoming unsafe.This increases maintenance costs at a time when outdated systems are consuming more energy than modern (or modernized) structures.

In order to meet the current and future challenges we will face in this area, we must concentrate on developing/evaluating facilities management skills and competencies, and training our facilities managers in the use of systems that will enhance their ability to perform effectively and efficiently.

The specific responses that will help us meet our HR needs in this area are as follows:

Facilities Management Competency Identification and Skills Management - We must have access to the facilities management skills we need, skills with both old and new technology, equipment, and management practices.Employment data indicate that our facility management workforce is aging and rapidly approaching retirement age, making it critical to determine how best to maintain the skills we need.To meet this human resource challenge, we are working cooperatively within the Department to establish core competencies and professional certification incentives, and enhanced performance measures for our facilities management staff.

Facilities Management Process Improvement – We must improve the tools and training we have to help us deal with aging infrastructure, particularly in areas such as facility condition assessment.We also created a Department-wide Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) process to improve the way in which facility investments are reviewed and approved.

Business and IT Acumen

Our tasks require greater financial management and analytical skills, contracting and procurement skills, asset management skills, and strategic business skills.The public also expects prudent management of financial resources.Greater creativity and business acumen will be needed to deliver services in more efficient and effective ways, often in greater cooperation with our partners.In a context of constrained financial resources, park superintendents, refuge managers, agency superintendents, and public lands managers are recognizing the need for more effective utilization of available funds.

While bureau identification and loyalty provide benefits, these attributes can deter cooperation, resulting in foregone efficiencies and duplication of effort.The historical evolution of the Department as a composite of stove-piped organizations has complicated efforts to address significant mission and management challenges.There is a penchant toward hoarding knowledge instead of sharing and communicating key information. Bureaus tend to “keep problems to themselves,” trying to solve them within each individual bureau, even when sharing remedies and best practices would offer potentially faster, less costly results. Moreover, this proclivity has hindered efforts to make our information technology secure.

 

Information technology practices demonstrate these tendencies. Currently, the Department has four different e-mail systems, several different operating systems, and networks scattered across the country.The Department has no common word processing system or standard system architecture. Our decentralized structure and culture result in longer time lines and higher costs to provide IT services.Inconsistency has also resulted in lack of data, including cost information, upon which to make informed management decisions.

While the Department has obtained clean audit opinions on its overall operations for the last five years, it has done so only through heroic efforts on the part of financial management staffs throughout the Department.Only in the last two years have such audits been completed on time.As reporting periods shorten in future years, demands on financial staff will increase.A skilled and knowledgeable financial management workforce is essential to improved financial performance.

There are good examples of Bureaus making great strides to become more efficient on some of these administrative issues.However, in order to meet the current and future challenges we will face in the IT and Business Acumen area, we have some significant work to accomplish.The HR needs we have include building IT human resources, enhancing our business skills and enhancing our financial management capability.

The specific responses that will help us meet our HR needs in this area are as follows:

Improved Financial Performance -- Working through an inter-bureau council, we have established a financial management intern program to meet bureau staffing needs, held cross training to address needs for more responsive financial audits, and addressed staffing retention problems by building common positions and grade levels.

Budget and Performance Integration -- Under the leadership of the Bureau of Land Management and Office of Surface Mining, we have adapted a powerful tool, Activity-Based Cost Management (ABCM), that provides program managers with the information needed to allocate resources and to monitor and evaluate performance effectively.The Minerals Management Service, the Office of Hearings and Appeals, and parts of the National Business Center implemented ABCM in October 2002, and the remaining bureaus and offices are scheduled to fully implement it in the following fiscal year.We are also conducting training for employees and managers on ABCM and will begin pilot projects on cross-programs (Invasive Species, Deferred Maintenance, Law Enforcement and Security, Litigation, and Recreation) this fiscal year.This will require us to upgrade the financial management and analytical skills of our current workforce to ensure the ABCM data can be used to achieve better program performance.

E-Government -- Working through the Management Initiatives Team, we have identified the investments and strategies required to address the IT security problem and our other IT needs more directly.To accomplish these goals, we are simplifying and unifying business processes to maximize the benefit of technology, resulting in processes that will be faster, cheaper, and more efficient.The following chart shows how our decentralized IT structure and culture makes it difficult to communicate and work collaboratively across all our organizations.

 

We are in the process of reorganizing these IT structures across all Interior bureaus.The following chart shows how the resulting organizations will work more effectively on common IT policies, procedures, and practices, increasing the effectiveness of our investments.

 

We will also have to replace older islands of automation by unifying IT operations across the Department.By organizing and staffing our IT functions across bureaus in a consistent manner, we can enhance our effectiveness.

Common or Cross-cutting Issues

Multiple HR responses meet HR needs in all of the challenge areas.These include:

Strategic Management of Human Capital Accountability

Creating a more effective Department depends on attracting, developing, and retaining quality, diverse employees and motivating them to perform at high levels. This plan will guide sound investments in human capital by bureau implementation of bureau-specific strategies, and oversight, adjustments, and management of those strategies by our Management Initiatives Team, through its Human Capital Team.The MIT will report back to the Department's Management Excellence Council on a regular basis.Overall results and developments will be incorporated in each year's Citizen-Centered Governance Report.

Workforce Planning

Workforce planning plays an essential role in defining our critical skill shortages.Efforts are underway in the Department to complete bureau and office workforce analyses by September 30, 2003.Bureaus and offices will develop implementation plans to meet any specific organizationally unique skill gaps in their workforce needs beyond those more generic, Department-wide gaps identified in this plan.Workforce plans will guide succession planning, prepare employees for more challenging roles, help diversity initiatives, and provide continuity as our workforce matures.

Reorganization Opportunities/Principles -- To insure that future reorganizations add maximum value, the MIT has agreed to formulate reorganization principles upon which any DOI reorganization should be structured.These principles will include: improved customer service, reduced costs of operations, more effective deployment of personnel, analysis of competitive sourcing opportunities, strengthened business processes, and effective use of information technology.These principles will be incorporated in a business case analysis to be prepared and submitted with all reorganization proposals submitted to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget.An example of a DOI organization using these principles is the Harpers Ferry Interpretive Design Center of the National Park Service.The Interpretive Design Center is revamping their structure to better tell the story of the parks to visitors.The restructuring moves them from a product oriented (exhibits, audio-visual, etc.) to a process oriented organization (concepts and production) that is closely aligned with employee skill sets.

Competitive Sourcing -- The aim of the President's initiative on competitive sourcing is to obtain and provide services to the American people in the most cost-effective, customer-oriented manner.Evaluating functions as candidates for competitive sourcing helps determine which operations should be performed as currently structured, which should be redesigned, and which should be contracted.The Department, along with other Federal agencies, is examining how best to structure its provision of services between those best delivered by government employees and those best delivered by contractors.Given the high attrition rates predicted for the next few years, the Department is optimistic it can avoid any Reductions-In-Force as a result of competitive sourcing decisions that lead to contracting out.Also, bureaus can keep any savings produced by competitive sourcing, to reinvest in mission delivery.We will continue to improve our FAIR Act inventory and make certain that commercial activities are consistently identified.Interior is also using a self-created “express review” process in functions with less than 10 FTEs, to ensure all employees receive fair consideration during competitive sourcing.These express reviews decrease the cost of competition, speed the process, and ensure our employees can compete.

Common Human Resources Practices

Several HR practices are being reviewed for efficiency and effectiveness Department-wide including:

Hiring Processes -- The Department will build common human resource practices to reduce bureau redundancy while providing greater integration and transparency in bureau personnel practices, and improve workforce diversity.

This effort, guided by the Management Initiatives Team (MIT), will include items such as:

• Common position descriptions

• Common vacancy announcements

• Streamlining the hiring process

• New employee tracking report

Utilization of Special Hiring Authorities and Benefits -- The MIT will review the use of special hiring authorities and programs including recruitment bonuses, relocation bonuses, retention allowances, the student loan repayment program, and the Student Educational Employment Program (SEEP) to ensure that these currently available authorities are being used effectively and to identify opportunities to expand their use where appropriate.If needed, additional training on the use of these authorities will be provided to managers.

DOI Mission Orientation for New Employees-- To build greater awareness and familiaritywith the breadth of opportunities and challenges the Department collectively faces, a new DOI orientation program will be developed and utilized to provide all new employees with a basic awareness and understanding of the Interior mission and GPRA Performance Plan.

Performance

Individual performance plans for our employees will be directly linked to annual performance targets and evaluated in terms of their achievement.A new SES performance system has been implemented in the Department requiring performance goals linked to: GPRA goals; the Department's Citizen-Centered Governance Plan (including Strategic Management of Human Capital, E-Government, Improved Financial Management, Competitive Sourcing, and Budget-Performance Integration); and the Secretary's 4C's Philosophy.As we gain experience with this system, the process of linking goals to performance will be cascaded to other managers and employees.Because all bureau activities and programs fit within four broad mission components upon which all performance plans will be built, employees will be able for the first time to have a direct line of sight from DOI's goals all the way down to their specific duties and job performance.In addition, the Department's two-level non-SES performance system will be evaluated and, if required, modified to make it the most effective performance management system possible.

Training and Development

There are numerous areas where training is being evaluated and/or utilized to assist in meeting goals and challenges.These are as follows:

Training Investment Review – Training provided to DOI employees must be linked to the competencies needed to address current and future mission needs. To insure that DOI funded training is on track, the Human Capital Team is undertaking a thorough review of training.This review will help the Department capitalize on opportunities for greater coordination of training programs, including cross-training between bureaus.

Workforce Planning Training and 4C's Training for both Employees and Managers

New and Current Supervisory Training – The Department will review the training requirements for new and current supervisors to ensure that managers within the Department foster 4C's behavior; provide the coaching and mentoring needed to maximize the human capital resources of the Department; achieve workforce diversity; and highlight techniques and approaches to build collaboration with our partners, including state and local governments, tribes, citizen interest groups, and individual citizens.

DOI Mid-Career Exchange Program – We need a program to improve the utilization of mid-career level employees, by providing them with a one- to two-year assignment outside of their current organization that would diversify the experience of the employee and help foster greater cooperation, consultation and communication within the Department. The objective is to strengthen career development within the Department, assist employees in developing a greater Department-wide mission awareness, and retain employees whose experience can be more broadly shared within the Department.

Attracting New Leaders – The MIT has approved in concept the creation of a DOI Management Intern program.Its Human Capital Team will develop the scope and costs of the program, which is aimed at attracting and developing a cadre of management interns to assist in meeting the leadership needs within the Department in a multi-disciplinary, multi-functional manner.As our “Service First” and other co-location initiatives expand, we must develop managers with strong 4C's and business management skills.This entry-level management training and development program will also emphasize cross-bureau and integrated management training, as well as the need to achieve workforce diversity.The Department will continue to utilize the government-wide Presidential Management Intern Program, but will assess implementation of the program to see if there can be greater opportunities for field assignments and more active DOI-wide orientation and mentoring for participating interns.

Senior Executive Development and Mobility – The Department's highly successful SES Career Development Program has regularly trained high potential GS-14 and GS-15 employees for pre-certification to the Senior Executive Service since its inception more than twenty years ago. The program offers intra-Departmental skill building emphasizing common mission challenges and capabilities for unified action across the Department's bureaus and offices. The MIT will review the program as part of its overall review of training.The wealth of experience represented by the Department's SES corps can be invaluable in building a greater integration of the Department's mission by career leaders who are intimately involved in the management of the Department's many programs.However, bureaus have normally preferred to retain their executive talent rather than risk losing it. The MIT has requested the Human Capital Team to examine possible incentives to encourage the use of SES mobility assignments.

Interior-wide Managers Conference -- The MIT will consider the feasibility and logistics of organizing a Departmental conference for all DOI managers to highlight the wide range of practical applications of the 4C's approach being put into practice in DOI bureaus. Such a Departmental conference, the first in modern Departmental history, would also reinforce efforts underway to achieve citizen-centered governance and achieve the Department's mission in a more integrated fashion.

Unique Programmatic Challenges

The Department also faces a number of broad mission challenges with human capital implications.However, three trans-Departmental challenges are receiving special attention due to their extreme urgency and importance:

• Indian Trust Fund Management

• Wildland Fire Management

• Law Enforcement and Security

Meeting each of these challenges involves several bureaus working collaboratively with senior Departmental leadership to examine and reorganize structures and practices and build a workforce that possesses the skills needed to meet emerging demands.These efforts serve as a model for the kind of thorough re-examination of work processes and partnerships that will assist the Department in addressing its human capital challenges.

Indian Trust Management

The most serious management challenge currently facing the Department is effectively meeting its fiduciary responsibilities in Indian Trust Management. Our performance goals includeimproving Indian trust ownership information and management of the trust land and its natural resource assets, managing trust fund assets for timely and productive use, and meeting industry standards for beneficiary services.

The Department continues its work to build relationships and understanding with the trust beneficiaries.Interior officials and tribal leaders are working through the complex issues and challenges of trust reform on a government-to-government basis to seek solutions to some long-standing problems facing both tribes and the Department.

Various organizational proposals have been advanced to improve the effectiveness of trust asset management.These proposals are now being assessed to develop a management structure that provides effective stewardship of trust assets and is consistent with the goals of the Administration and the Secretary.It is virtually certain that any outcome will require restructuring of management functions and hence may have human capital implications.In addition, business process reengineering may result in new skill sets and workforce needs.

Trust managers and human resources staff will work together to ensure the trust organization is provided with an appropriate staff that possesses the training and skill levels needed to meet our business practice standards.

In addition to workforce planning, other related human capital efforts currently underway or under consideration include:

Trust Staff Training and Development – Reviewing whether employees engaged in trust management activities need an individual development plan (IDP).

Examination of Special Personnel Flexibilities – Similar to the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration, which have obtained special personnel authorities to accomplish their challenging missions, the Department will explore whether such authorities are needed to attract and retain employees with the requisite skill mix to improve our management of trust assets.

Royalty Internship Program – Clarify the terms under which tribes can become partners in managing mineral resource functions currently performed on their behalf.

Wildland Fire Management

Catastrophic fires threaten the American people, their property, and our environment, particularly the forests and rangelands of the West.Each year these severe wildfires destroy hundreds of millions of trees and invaluable habitat.These unnaturally extreme fires occur in a context of deteriorating forest and rangeland health, the result of a century of well intentioned but misguided fire management practices.About 190 million acres of Federal forests and rangelands in the lower 48 states face high risk of catastrophic fire due to deteriorating ecosystem health and drought.We need renewed efforts to restore our public lands to healthy conditions.

Using a cooperative approach, Secretary Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman signed an historic agreement earlier this year with 17 western governors, county commissioners, state foresters, and tribal officials.They agreed on a plan to make communities and the environment safer from wildfires by coordinating Federal, state, and local action.Under the 10-year Comprehensive Fire Implementation Plan, Federal wildfire agencies, affected states, counties, local governments and tribes agreed to the same goals, implementation outcomes, performance measures and tasks that need to be accomplished by specific deadlines.The comprehensive agreement covers all phases of the fire program, including fire preparedness, suppression and prevention, hazardous fuels management, restoration of burned areas, community assistance, and monitoring of progress.

The size and significance of the fire management challenge require a number of human resources related activities, many of which are already underway.

Recruitment – Certain personnel shortages persist for mission critical work.Often, managers have found there are not enough applicants for positions with the correct skills and experience for mid-level supervisory or senior Incident Command firefighting positions.Common fire vacancy postings and recruitment approaches are being employed and outreach efforts in this area will be intensified.Safety and health training is of particular importance for the protection of new employees fighting fire.

Staffing Models – New staffing models must be developed to address the changing mission of the fire program, current mid-level supervisory gaps, and the impending exodus of senior firefighters.

Use of Qualified Personnel from Other Programs – The Fire Program uses fire-qualified personnel from other program areas to fill wildland fire suppression positions during peak times.Because of the intense and extended duration of fire seasons, this practice is becoming less desirable.A number of possible solutions are being examined, including financial incentives for collateral firefighters, requiring mandatory fire training and assignment for fire-qualified employees commensurate with their physical condition and job, and continuing education in fire suppression and fuels management for all part time fire personnel.

Partnerships – Forest health and wildland fire prevention efforts can only be successful through collaboration with states, local governments, tribes, and other partners.

Accountability and Performance – The Department has appointed a full-time fuels treatment director to insure accountability for fuels treatment projects.The Department and the Forest Service are developing common, outcome-oriented performance measures consistent with the Government Performance and Results Act.Bureaus involved in wildland fire management are including implementation of the National Fire Plan in annual performance evaluations of their staff.

Law Enforcement, Public Safety, and Security

The Secretary has directed the Department to develop and maintain its law enforcement capability in the most professional, modern, and effective manner possible.To achieve this objective, in March 2001 the Secretary requested that the Inspector General conduct a comprehensive assessment of law enforcement within the Department and identify organizational and management strategies that would enhance law enforcement performance and professionalism across the Department, including supervision and management structures.

 

With the third largest public safety organization in government, the Department has focused on this significant undertaking. The review resulted in strategic realignment of functions, including the establishment of a new senior level position to provide overall Department leadership.

The Department, working closely with its law enforcement officials, is developing a clearly defined and documented set of policies, procedures, techniques, and mechanisms to guide this critical activity across all law enforcement bureau lines.

In meeting the Department's law enforcement and security challenges, the Department has identified, or has underway, a number of human resources related activities.

Leadership– To oversee and guide the Department's overall law enforcement and security effort, the Department created a new Deputy Assistant Secretary position for Law Enforcement and Security, appointing a law enforcement professional with broad Federal law enforcement and security experience.

Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities – The roles and responsibilities for both uniformed officers and special agents to carry out “homeland security” must be clearly defined by the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and Security.This definition will help maintain a balance between natural resource issues and criminal environmental impacts versus protecting public lands from external threats.

Skill Definition – In defining these roles and responsibilities, attention must also be paid to clearly defining the skill set needed for those performing “homeland security” functions.Core inter-bureau training must be identified and developed to mold these new skills.Cross-Department training must be defined, organized and implemented.

Common Staffing Models and Methodologies – The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and the DOI bureaus are developing a comprehensive analysis of the number and types of law enforcement positions needed throughout the Department. Common staffing models and methodologies will be developed to ensure consistent approaches between programs and detail the appropriate staffing and deployment patterns (numbers, seniority, geographic location, required competencies etc.) to be used in general or in specific situations.

Standardized Position Descriptions – The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement, working with the Department's law enforcement professionals, is developing standardized position descriptions to ensure consistent grade structures and career paths across the Department.Training and development profiles associated with the standardized position descriptions will be crafted for core inter-bureau training, refresher/ mandatory training, and other development to ensure that the law enforcement workforce maintains the competencies to carry out mission-oriented law enforcement.

Training – Core inter-bureau training must be developed to build new skills and ensure law enforcement personnel possess the necessary competencies.While most officers receive similar basic training, the Department would benefit from having officers cross-trained in bureau-specific enforcement issues.Because law enforcement is an inherently hazardous occupation, safety and health training is imperative all law enforcement officers.

Developmental Assignments – Opportunities should be developed for law enforcement managers to participate in extended assignments with other bureaus.

Pay Equity – In order to retain its trained law enforcement staff, pay equity issues need to be regularly assessed. The Department monitors the pay for DOI law enforcement officers to ensure it is on par with other Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Linking Mission, Challenges, Impacts, Needs and Responses

Attachment 1 summarizes the direct linkage between our mission, challenges, impacts, human capital needs and human capital responses.Attachment 2 shows the same linkages in our unique programmatic areas.Attachment 3 summarizes how the impacts lead to common crosscutting human capital responses.

Human Capital Action Plans

Now that we have clearly established what actions need to be taken, we must translate them into action plans.The action plans must be unambiguous, and provide specific guidance on:

1. What is the action(s) to be taken?

2. What is the result, or outcome, expected from the action?

3. What are the milestones and timelines for sub-actions?

4. How will we measure the progress and results of the action?

5. Who will be responsible (accountable) for accomplishing the actions and milestones?

Appendix 4 contains the specific actions that will be taken to implement the Department's Strategic Human Capital Management Plan.A summary of the action milestones and timelines can be found at appendix 5.

Budget Implications

While some of the human capital actions required to implement our Strategic Human Capital Management Plan will require a significant financial commitment, we realize that budget realities preclude us from asking for special funding in all but the most extreme circumstances.Accordingly, we have developed our Implementation Plan based upon the assumption that most actions will come from a reallocation of program money already requested in our FY 2003 and 2004 budget submissions, or that will be requested in future submissions.

We recognize that most actions will result in improved quality, some will result in avoided future new costs, and some will achieve savings through improved efficiency.An example is our action to standardize position descriptions and streamline the classification process.

Standardized position descriptions and a streamlined classification process improve quality by:

• Ensuring competency requirements are consistently established and maintained;

• Ensuring consistency between bureaus;

• Evenly and appropriately applying classification principles;

• Minimizing competition between bureaus.

At the same time, the development of standardized position descriptions results in savings as fewer and fewer new unique position descriptions are developed and classified.The cost of developing the descriptions is thereby offset by a decrease in the expenditures on the overall process.

As we developed our action plans, we identified those actions that would be accomplished by the reallocation of program funds, those that would be accomplished through increased efficiency, and those that would require special funding.Appendix 5 (Milestone and Timeline Chart) contains a summary of the budget implications of each action. At this time, the only actions we believe require special funding are those tied to legislative changes that may lead to increases in employee compensation for some special programmatic areas.Those actions have timelines several years in the future, however, and we have not been able to identify the exact impacts and needs.As the actions take place, we will develop the budgetary estimates and include them in future budgetary submissions.

We have also implemented a decision-making process similar to the Department's new Capital Investment Process to ensure human capital expenditures meet departmental objectives and are based on sound business-case criteria.The Human Capital Team will review all projects with a cost of over $50,000 undertaken as part of this Implementation Plan or under individual bureau initiatives.This will ensure that human capital expenditures:

o Support Strategic Human Capital Management Plan goals

o Are applied to priority projects and programs clearly identified in the Strategic Human Capital Management Plan and Implementation Plan

o Are scrutinized to see if there is cross-bureau applicability

o Do not duplicate other programs or projects already under consideration or in use within the Department

Specific procedures for this review are under development and will be accomplished as a milestone under the Accountability Action Plan.This review is intended to capture information on human capital system and service initiatives that may have Department-wide applicability.It is not intended to inhibit a bureau's ability to hire, assign work, restructure, or reengineer business processes.The following are examples of initiatives to be brought before the Human Capital Team:

o New human capital systems or modifications to existing systems

o Competitive sourcing of human resource services

o Membership in human capital associations

Monitoring the Implementation Plan and Evaluating Actions

To be considered successful, actions must be both timely and effective.To ensure actions occur on the timeline(s) established by this Implementation Plan, the Human Capital Team will monitor the milestones as frequently as necessary – but at least on a quarterly basis.To assist with this effort, all actions will be loaded into the Department's new Presidential Management Agenda on-line tracking system so that management officials across the Department can see the progress being made.Accountable officials (see individual action plans in Appendix 4) will be required to make presentations to the Human Capital Team when actions miss milestone dates or changes to the milestone timelines are requested.

In addition, each action will be evaluated on a regular basis to ensure it is meeting the goals and achieving the results envisioned by this plan.In cases where the action(s) is not achieving the envisioned results, the Accountable Official or Action Team Lead will be required to make one of the following recommendations to the Human Capital Team:

• The action should be modified to better align it with the goals of the Strategic Human Capital Management Plan.Such a recommendation will include the recommended modifications, including adjusted timelines, costs, and sub-actions.

• The action should be discontinued.Such a recommendation must specify the reasons why the action should be discontinued and why no modified or replacement action is necessary.

• The action should be replaced.Such a recommendation must specify why the action should be replaced, what action (and sub-actions) should replace it, and what results are expected from the replacement action. The replacement action must include new milestone timelines, costs, measures, and accountable officials.

Monitoring the Strategic Human Capital Management Plan

Ultimately the actions in this Implementation Plan and the Strategic Human Capital Management Plan will only be successful if the Department has the right people, in the right jobs, at the right time to accomplish the goals in our Performance (Government Performance and Results Act) Plan (Appendix 6).This requires the strategic alignment of our human capital with the Department's Performance Plan.In addition to monitoring the actions of this Implementation Plan, the Human Capital Team will also monitor the strategic alignment of its human capital using the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) and Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Human Capital Standards for Success (the successor to OPM's Human Capital Scorecard).To ensure we have the proper actions in place to improve in all areas covered by the Standards for Success, we analyzed the actions as they apply to the Standards. We found that a direct correlation exists between the Standards for Success and our five main Action Plan areas.The correlation is as follows:

Standard for Success Area Action Plan Area

Workforce Planning and Deployment Workforce Planning

Leadership and Knowledge Management Training and Development

Performance Culture Performance

Talent Common Human Resource Processes

Accountability Management Accountability

 

All of our Action Plans, including the unique programmatic actions, combine to indicate that the Department's human capital strategies are aligned with mission, goals, and organizational objectives and integrated into our strategic plans, performance plans, and budgets (Strategic Alignment Standard for Success).We view this strategic alignment as the overall framework within which all human resource planning should occur, rather than as simply one of a list of other human resource characteristics.

We also identified areas where actions (or milestones) have cross-applicability to more than one Standard for Success.Appendix 7 is a crosswalk of the actions and milestones against the Standards for Success.This crosswalk confirms that we have a balance of actions in each Standard for Success area.

The Standards for Success have also been converted to Human Capital metrics that allow us to regularly assess the status of our workforce and human capital programs.Quarterly, the Human Capital Team will review the metrics and determine the need for new programs and initiatives.Semi-annually the Human Capital Team will assess the status of individual bureau programs to ensure each bureau is making adequate progress against the Standards for Success.

Conclusion

This Implementation Plan is a results-oriented document nested within our broad strategic framework for fulfilling the Department's mission.Fulfillment of the mission is our central goal and guidepost against which to prioritize human resource decisions.Our Implementation Plan lays out the actions the U.S. Department of the Interior will take to accomplish the goals established in its Strategic Human Capital Management Plan – FY 2003-FY 2007.It shows the linkage between the specific actions (responses) proposed in this plan and:

• The mission of the Department

• The goals in the Department's Performance (GPRA) Plan

• The challenges and trends the Department faces over the next 5 years

• The impacts these challenges and trends will have on the Department's workforce and workforce needs

• The human capital needs that arise from the mission, goals, challenges, and workforce needs

• The specific actions (responses) the Department will take to meet those needs

In addition, this Implementation Plan attempts to identify the budget implications and potential barriers to success that will arise from the actions.Finally, the Implementation Plan establishes a clear process for monitoring progress on the actions and ensuring they achieve the results envisioned by the management of the Department.

As President George W. Bush indicated to Senior Executive Service employees across the federal government, “We are not here to mark time, but to make progress, to achieve results, and to leave a record of excellence.”This Implementation Plan will ensure we fulfill the ideals of the President and produce the results expected by the American people.

 

Appendices

[Note: To view each attachment, click on the link below. When you have completed your review of an attachment you will have to click on the BACK Arrow function in your web browser to return to this page.]

1. Linkage between Mission, Trends, Programmatic Challenges, Impacts, HR Needs and HR Responses

2. Linkage between Mission, Unique Programmatic Challenges, Impacts, HR Needs and HR Responses

3. Linkage between Mission, Trends, Programmatic Challenges, Impacts, HR Needs and Common HR Responses

4. Human Capital Action Plans

5. Action Milestone and Timeline Chart

6. Crosswalk of Human Capital Actions to Over-aching Strategic Goal

7. Crosswalk of Human Capital Actions to Human Capital Standards for Success