OPM Releases Closing Skills Gaps Initiative Closeout Report
For four years, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) worked with the Chief Human Capital Office’s (CHCO) Council on an effort to close agency-specific and governmentwide skills gaps in high-risk mission critical occupations. The effort identified thirty seven agency specific and five government wide high-risk mission critical occupations for gap filling. After identifying these areas, OPM and the CHCO Council engaged in a range of efforts to address the gaps, resulting in 86 percent of CHCO Act agencies having mitigated one or more high risk area.
The effort to mitigate and close skills gaps came following a January 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report urging OPM and agencies to strengthen efforts to combat skills gaps. As an example of the negative impact of skills gaps, the report found a decline in telecommunication expertise at multiple agencies contributed to delays and cost overruns of 44 percent when those agencies were transitioning to a new network of telecommunications services.
OPM launched the four year effort from 2016 to 2020 with the CHCO Council to make progress on this issue. According to the closeout report, to address skills gaps, OPM created Federal Action Skills Teams (FAST) to address governmentwide high risk areas and required agencies to create internal teams to do the same. OPM also revised regulations to require agencies submit a Human Capital Operating Plan (HCOP) that details how agencies will address skills and competency gaps. Under related regulation changes, agencies are also required to provide quarterly HRStat Reviews to measure progress on goals outlined in the HCOP, including closing skills gaps.
OPM also conducted training for each CHCO agency on how to conduct a root cause analysis, develop action plans, and develop measures to monitor progress. OPM trained approximately 140 agency personnel on the OPM designed methodology needed to close skills gaps.
OPM reports that agency FAST teams did an “outstanding job mitigating and/or closing their identified skills gaps.” Of the 21 CIO Act agencies that participated, 90 percent actively institutionalized the closing skills gaps methodology, including conducting root cause analysis, submitting actions plans, developing targets, and submitting quarterly reports.
Governmentwide FAST teams identified five high-risk mission critical occupations for gap filling: acquisition, auditors, economists, human resource specialists, and cybersecurity. As a result of the efforts, OPM is recommending three (acquisition, cybersecurity, human resource specialist) of these areas remain high-risk mission critical occupations, while two (economists, auditor) are removed.
While the initiative aimed at closing skills gap technically ended on December 31, 2020, OPM is still working on the issue. Agencies worked in Q2 of Fiscal Year 2021 on identifying FAST team members and validating multi-factor model results for high-risk mission critical occupations. Agencies began implementing their action plans in Q4 of FY 2021.