ABSTRACT
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an agency of the Department of Defense (DoD), has faced a series of workforce management challenges, as have other federal entities. Among the major issues were the following: fewer than anticipated losses of capabilities due to retirement, unexpected losses of workers for reasons other than retirement, difficulty attracting people with desired skill sets, further difficulty retaining people with needed knowledge and experience, and challenges in determining capabilities and experience that will be needed in the future. This description of recent observations, decisions, and recommendations to improve strategic workforce management at DTRA, and the process used to do so, is intended to help other organizations improve their workforce management approaches. One component of DTRA’s overall solution involved bringing in an outside facilitator, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), not to fix a broken system, but rather to improve, augment, and enhance the agency’s workforce management procedures and policies.
