The potential for mission critical skills gaps in the federal workforce was originally raised by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in the 1990s, in the context of identifying specific skills gaps at individual agencies. The gaps ran the gamut from acquisition professionals to veterinarians, with little commonality across agencies. Some gaps resulted from sheer lack of numbers, others from the fact that areas of specialization were changing rapidly. At the same time, the evolution (or revolution) in the use of electronic systems in the federal government meant constant change in the character of some federal positions and the skills needed to fill them. 

Initially, agencies were pretty much on their own to try to address their identified skills gaps. However, shortages in the IT area, particularly cyber security professionals, grabbed the attention of senior managers government-wide. Beginning in 2011, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, with the urging and cooperation of GAO, started tackling high risk, mission critical skills gaps across government. 

How do you know when you have a skills gap? Can you build a model that will tell you? Is it a numbers issue or a question of skill levels of existing employees? What is the risk to successful accomplishment of mission? How do you obtain the data you need? How do you assess the skills of federal employees? What are the root causes of a skills gap? How do you begin to address those root causes? Every question asked results in more questions. A key challenge for human capital strategic planning is creating a framework for asking good questions in what can be a confusing web of causes and effects. We have made progress in developing this framework, but will need many iterations to feel comfortable that we have a viable, repeatable process. 

Much of the work that OPM and the CHCO Council have done has been in the context of the OPM-defined occupational series. However, the skills gaps do not necessarily align with the occupational series. Nowhere is this more evident than in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) area, where individual agencies may have identified specific mission critical occupations at high risk for skills gaps, but no two agencies identify the same occupations. Yet, when leaders in agencies with specific STEM requirements get together, all are concerned about the future of the federal STEM workforce. 

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has recently published a report, Sustaining a Competitive Edge in Innovation Through a World-Class Federal Science and Technology Workforce,  which provides recommendations for the federal STEM and human capital communities on enhancing the federal STEM workforce. The report explores root causes for concerns about the federal STEM workforce, recognizing that the issues are many and varied depending on the specific occupation, the level of experience required in the workforce, and the agencies involved. 

Recommended approaches include leadership to sustain and create an inclusive and innovative workforce enterprise; workforce engagement and alignment to mission; authorities to enable a flexible and agile workforce; and effective relationships between STEM leadership and human capital professionals. The Office of Science and Technology Policy, OPM, and the CHCO Council are currently developing more specific strategies to carry out these recommended approaches so that the federal STEM workforce of today and the future will have the needed skills to carry out its mission critical functions. 

For a deeper dive into this topic, join me September 7 at the Government Workforce Conference.