DEALING WITH THE CHALLENGES OF RECORD WORKFORCE ATTRITION

1
DEALING WITH THE CHALLENGES OF RECORD WORKFORCE
ATTRITION

• RODNEY MATSUSHIMA, FELLOW
• BRIAN WALSH, CPCM

2
DISCLAIMER

• Information presented is entirely the personal
  views of the presenters based on over 60 years of
  combined experience and is not necessarily the
  view of the companies they represent

3
PRESENTERS

• Rodney Matsushima
• Exec V.P. C-Systems International Inc
• Former Professor Naval Post Graduate School
• Former Naval Officer holding Key Assignment
  across full spectrum of acquisition
• Former SPS Systems Architect Team
• Brian Walsh
• Vice President, CACI, Acquisition and Contracting
  Programs
• Former Professor Golden Gate University, LaVerne
  University
• Former Director Contract Management, HQ Air Force
  Systems Command

4
AGENDA

• Current Environment - What has Changed?
• Future Environment - Where are we headed?
• Alternatives for Action What should we do?
  What must we do? What can we do?

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CURRENT ENVIRONMENT WHAT HAS CHANGED?

• Workforce Attrition
• Increased Workload
• Workforce Shortfalls
• Federal Buying is More Centralized
• Services Acquisition Growth 40 of Govt
  Workload Growth in Professional, Admin and Mgmt
  Support Services
• Automation
• Complexity and Continuous Rule Changes
• Source 12th Annual Govt. Contractor Survey, PSC
  and authors

6
Acquisition Workforce Attrition

• Contracting Series Data (1102) Source Annual
  Report of FAI
• Year Work Force Losses
• 1992 31,794 1828
• 1999 26,775 1563
• 2005 27,589 2761
• 13 Decrease 1992 2005
• Not include decline in military staffing

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Reasons for Declining Workforceand Attrition

• Graying Workforce
• The Congress of the United States acquisition
  workforce budget cuts
• Cuts in late 80s 90s
• Federal Acquisition Workforce Restructuring Act
  of 1994 took sledgehammer and wiped out 279K
  positions
• Cuts in Military Strength and shift in Staffing
  Priorities

8
Increased Workload

• Acquisition Advisory Panel identifies Procurement
  Spending as up 63 from 234B prior to Sept 11,
  2001 to 382B in FY05
• Largest annual increase in workload occurred
  between 2004 2005 procurement spending up
  48B House of Representatives Rpt.
• Katrina, Iraq,
• Congressional Acquisition Workforce Cuts of the
  90s were made for budget not workload reasons
• Automation has not reduced workforce requirements

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COSTS OF INADEQUATE WORKFORCE

• DHS IG Finds Problems in FEMA Award FCR Mar 6,
  2007
• DCAA Head Addresses Questionable Iraq Contract
  Costs Before House Oversight Panel FCR 2/20/7
• Dept of Interior pulls all warrants at Arizona
  Center
• DoD Needs to Exert Management and Oversight to
  Better Control Acquisition of Services GAO
  report 1/17/07
• The perceived need for the Clean Contracting
  Act, Honest Leadership and Accountability in
  Contracting Act of 2007etc., etc..

10
COSTS OF INADEQUATE WORKFORCE (CONTINUED)

• 785 investigations of criminal activity being
  reviewed in connection with Hurricane Katrina
  response
• Over 70 corruption investigations in Iraq
• Over 50 corruption investigations in Kuwait
• Per US House of Representatives Committee on Govt
  Report Minority Staff Report June 2006 and
  Report of Chief Contracting Official JCC-IA in
  January 2007

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COSTS OF INADEQUATE WORKFORCE (CONTINUED)

• Successful Protests filed by Contractors
• Year Successful Protests
• 2002 193 (16 of 1,204 protests filed)
• 2003 230
• 2004 312
• 2005 312
• 2006 385 (29 of 1327 filed)
• Source GAO

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EXAMPLES THAT WE SEE EVERY DAY

• Defense Agency puts out solicitation requiring
  contracting staff augmentees to be proficient on
  Dept of Commerce rules and automation systems for
  DoD work. Solicitation went through three levels
  of review and not caught.
• Four solicitations of nine received in last two
  months in which contract type was not
  determinable or clauses didnt match the listed
  contract type.
• Corporate contract specialist with less than one
  year of experience accepted non-commercial,
  non-I.T. work on GSA IT schedule at insistence of
  equally untrained government contracting officer

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COSTS OF WORKFORCE ATTRITION

• Costs of Staffing including recruiting,
  relocation
• Costs of Training overcoming knowledge loss
• Corporate Knowledge
• Inefficiencies

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HOW ARE WE KEEPING UP?

• Federal Government
• Workforce Augmentation Over 200 companies
  provide staff augmentation in US and overseas
• Recent set aside solicitation by Corps of
  Engineers for staff support drew over 35 RFI
  responses only two of which had any relevant
  past experience
• GWACS and Interagency Contracting To the benefit
  of tax payer????
• Poor Performance
• Contractors
• Similar problems
• Higher Operating Costs Recruiting, Relo,
  Bonuses
• Bottom-line We are not!!!

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Contracting Service Providers
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FUTURE ENVIRONMENT - WHERE ARE WE HEADED?

• More legislation (second guessing)
• Competition for scarce resources
• More complex (e.g. time-consuming) work
• Poor/expensive sourcing decisions
• Poor data integrity within the digital
  contracting environment
• Frustration continued attrition
• Suboptimal Contracting Environment in government
  and industry

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FUTURE ENVIRONMENT WHERE ARE WE HEADED?

• Acquisition Advisory Panel notes that not only
  has the magnitude of work grown but so has
  complexity of work particularly services.
• New Legislation this year will add to that
  complexity.
• Elaine Duke at DHS has identified that she needs
  to hire 1800 more contracting specialists
  presumably most in Washington Metropolitan Area.
  (Federal Times)
• FAI statistics in 2005 for Washington Area 1102s
  showed only 5592. Impact of 32 hike would be
  chaotic on govt and industry

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ALTERNATIVES FOR ACTION

• What should we do?
• What must we do?
• What can we do?
• Bottom-line We need to take action.

19
Trade Study
Preliminary
Mammoth vs.
Game
Population
Final Game
Site Survey
Tiger vs. Rabbit
Selection
Survey
Selection
Meat
Meat
Requirements
Site Preparation
Requirements
Review
(MRR)
Site Selection
Game
Sightings
Final Hunting
Hunt Leader
Plan
Preliminary
Chosen
Hunting Plan
Preliminary
Hunter
Preliminary
Selection
Hunting
Weapon
Trade Study
Review
Selection
Club vs. Spear
Weapon
(PHR)
Development
Weapons
Obtain Blessing
Meat
Practice and Skill
of Great God
Distribution
Final Hunter
Qualification
Thag
Plan
Selection
Critical
Hunting
Site
Forecast
Review
Inspection
Schedule
Weather
(CHR)
Hunt
Weapons
Inspection
Examine
Hunt
Entrails
Readiness
Review
Distribute
Hunter
(HRR)
Transport to
Meat
Inspection
Cave
Catch Game
KILL Game
Yes, but Og
assures me that
Get Caught
Chase Game
this will improve
By Game
Choose New
Hunt Leader
our efficiency and
keep us ahead of
I don't know. It seemed
those
Lose Game
Cro-Magnons in
easier when we just
the valley.
went hunting.
Why the Neanderthals Became Extinct
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PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

• Its the people.
• Workforce Stability
• Workforce Knowledge for 2007 and beyond
• Its the environment.
• Electronic Acquisition Tools
• There are too many of them
• Complicates the training and understanding of
  data requirements

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WHAT WONT WORK

• Continuing to raid other government agencies and
  Industry without adding to the total workforce.
• Failure to recognize that todays workforce does
  not have the optimum skills for success in 2007
  and beyond
• Existing Knowledge/Certification Standards
• Failing to recognize that contracting specialists
  in 2007 must know both contracting and the
  electronic acquisition tools they must use. For
  example, it makes little sense (except for
  financial reasons) for the SPS Program Office to
  have cut out classroom training on SPS.
• Not Keeping up with Changing Rules and Operating
  Procedures

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WHAT WILL WORK

• Rebuilding Staffing
• We must understand and define the Role of the
  Contracting Officer/Specialist in this new
  environment
• Changing Training and Certification
• to Recognize Acquisition Skills Survey
• to Recognize Knowledge of Automated Systems
• Knowledge Management Systems
• Knowledge Sharing
• Virtual Universities

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ROLE OF THE CONTRACTING OFFICER/SPECIALIST

• Contract. First and foremost Must be able to
  put together the Contract Document that
  represents the agreement between the two parties.
• Electronic Acquisition Tools. Must be able to
  properly use and understand the affects of the
  electronic acquisition tools that are in use
  today and in the future.

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REBUILDING STAFFING

• For Knowledge Management to Be Most Effective
  Must Have Stable Workforce
• Need multiple Formal Intern Programs perhaps
  patterned after Air Force Copper Cap Program (or
  similar) with commitments to education, training
  and multiple assignments
• Utilizing Recent Retirees For Interim
• Utilizing Professional Services Companies to
  Augment
• Not just at GS 12 Level

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PROCUREMENT SKILL SURVEY

• Survey (Government and Contractor contracting
  professionals)
• Impact on Learning Requirements
• Impact on Learning Delivery Achievement

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FOR EXAMPLE PROCUREMENT OF PROFESSIONAL CMCL
SERVICES

• DAU has added ACQ365 Mission Focused Services
  because of growth of services procurement
• Real Need May Be ACQ105 Acquisition Of
  Professional Commercial Services

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FOR EXAMPLE PROCURMENT AUTOMATION

• Contract Writing Tools Integral to Procurement
• Market Research Tools
• Requirements Systems
• Financial Systems
• Payment Systems
• Reporting Systems

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LEARNING DELIVERY - KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
CONTRACTING

• Traditional Training Sources
• Virtual Universities
• On-Demand Information/Knowledge

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VIRTUAL UNIVERSITIES

• Integrate Corporate, Government and Association
  Knowledge Bases into Virtual University that
  benefits all
• Companies can not afford the 6-8 courses that we,
  as professionals, decide make up the
  qualifications for fully qualified professionals
• This is overwhelmingly true of small companies.
  These courses should be made available for FREE.
• DAU to Federal Acquisition University
• Draw from Prototypes For example, CACI Virtual
  University

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CACI VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY AS EXAMPLE

• CACI Virtual University Features
• Distance Learning Course on IT systems/software
  including basic knowledge required by acquisition
  people and more sophisticated software such as
  report generation systems
• Learning arrangement with Defense Acquisition
  University
• Learning arrangements with prominent contracting
  course providers
• Specialized applications lean six sigma
• Project Manager Certification Programs
• Advanced Degree opportunities in relevant areas

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CHANGING ROLES FOR ORGANIZATIONS LIKE DAU AND
NAVY POST-GRADUATE SCHOOL AS EXAMPLES

• Integrating DoD and Civilian Contracting Training
• Federal Acquisition University
• Revised Curriculums
• Level III Certification Should be More than
  Just Age and a Few More Courses
• Tradeoff Analysis
• Some Courses are Best Taught in Traditional
  Classroom
• Costs Drive More on-line courses Distance
  Learning
• On-Demand Knowledge

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An Approach for Contracting Acquisition
Automation Training in 2007-2010

• Contract Writing Systems
• Market Research Systems
• Requirements Systems
• Financial Systems
• Payment Systems
• Reporting Systems

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THE BOTTOMLINE

• As the shortage of Contracting Officers/Specialist
  s is solved by bringing in new people, the
  learning systems must meet the requirements of
  the changed acquisition environment.
• The electronic acquisition tools must be a part
  of the core training.
• The Contracting workforce of the future must have
  more uniform capabilities to work across both
  government (Defense and Civilian Agencies) and
  industry.
• Education, Training and Certification programs
  must address the new role of the Contracting
  Officer/Specialist and the environment they must
  perform in.

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SUMMARY

• Intern Programs Funding now
• Integrated Approach to Federal Civilian Agency
  and Defense Workforce Training
• Revising Certification Standards
• Reflect Differing Skill needs
• Significant Differences Levels I, II, III
• Services Training 101
• New approach to electronic acquisition tools
  training and certification
• Need fully integrated virtual university network
  On-Demand Information