The Defense Business Board performed a 24-week study of the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce and found that talent management within DOD lags behind the commercial sector and that DOD fills short-term vacancies with little attention to future technology requirements and strategy to upskill or reskill them, Federal Times reported Tuesday.
The board has recommended that the Pentagon increase training opportunities for civilian employees and improve collaboration with military talent managers to keep pace with the private sector when it comes to aligning talent with work function.
“The Department doesn’t know its employees’ capabilities and requirements for the future, the systems to manage them, the policies to enable the new generation of skilled employees, or the programs to upskill them,” the DBB report reads.
According to the study, DOD lacks the data approach, organization and cultural foundation to “take its place as a bastion of STEM development.”
The report offers three recommendations for the Pentagon to better manage civilian talent and these are transforming civilian culture to prioritize talent management; prioritizing and elevating talent management within the organization; and modernizing DOD’s workforce planning and data.
