A Ready and Resilient Workforce for the Department of Homeland Security Protecting America's Front Line (2013) / Chapter Skim
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to review its current workforce resilience efforts, identify gaps, and provide recommendations for a 5-year strategic plan for its workforce resilience program. To address that request, the IOM formed the Committee on Department of Homeland Security Workforce Resilience (see Box S-1 for the complete statement of task from OHA)
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Overview of the Report In the opening chapter, the committee provides background information on the history and makeup of DHS and the workforce challenges that it faces, an overview of the study process and of how the committee addressed its task, and background information on DHS's current initiatives and programs related to workforce resilience, including efforts related to employee engagement, employee assistance, and peer support. Chapter 2 discusses the definitions of readiness and resilience, provides a vision for the DHS workforce readiness and resilience effort, outlines the preconditions for and goals of a successful program, and offers recommendations on the roles, responsibilities, and authorities needed for workforce readiness and improvement.
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Brief History of the Department of Homeland Security Created in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, DHS is the newest cabinet-level department, fashioned to serve as a unified organization to defend the United States against terrorist attacks. The DHS merger incorporated parts of 8 cabinet departments and 22 agencies in law enforcement, border management, and disaster preparedness and relief; it was in the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense (DoD)
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The committee envisions a larger and overarching effort that becomes embedded in the culture of DHS. Importance of a Ready and Resilient Department of Homeland Security Workforce An organization's most important asset is its workforce.
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Early actions of the DHSTogether program included creating an inventory of existing related policies and programs and training already under way in the component agencies, conducting a DHS-wide Safety Stand Down to focus on resilience and wellness, and creating the Employee and Organizational Resilience Program Taskforce. DHSTogether also provided funding for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
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Because there is no definition or validated measure of resilience being used in DHS, the committee cannot be certain that the DHS workforce has a resilience deficit. DHS has used the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS)
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. Although the information obtained from the site visits and online public-comment tool are not representative of DHS as a whole and therefore cannot be generalized throughout DHS, they did provide the committee with context and insight into some of the stressors that the DHS workforce encounters regularly.
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Through conversations with DHS staff during information-gathering sessions and site visits, the committee confirmed the existence of those issues, a general lack of an integrated organizational culture, and issues of communication in DHS. The committee concluded that a top-down, fully standardized set of activities aimed at enhancing workforce readiness and resilience throughout DHS would not work, because of the diversity of missions, organizational culture, and organization among component agencies.
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The current resilience program in DHS lacks a clear vision and unified strategy. Recommendation 1: Develop and promote a unified strategy and common vision of workforce readiness and resilience in the De partment of Homeland Security.
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The committee recommends that the Secretary of the Depart ment of Homeland Security review the current roles and respon sibilities of the workforce readiness and resilience (WRR) effort and make any needed changes to ensure its success.
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Any number of potential avenues to address the lack of authority and accountability for a departmentwide WRR effort exist, from restructuring the existing program unit to administrative placement of WRR under a centralized DHS authority. On the basis of its review, the committee found that the current DHSTogether Employee and Organizational Resilience Program has not achieved its intended purpose, because of a lack of consistent leadership support, the absence of a strategic plan, a lack of needed authority and accountability, and suboptimal administrative placement of the program within the department.
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Implementing these recommendations would send a strong message to the workforce and DHS component leadership that workforce resilience is a high priority of the Secretary. Leadership Development Strong leadership is essential for building and sustaining a ready and resilient workforce.
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The committee believes that leadership is the key to the advancement of resilience of the DHS workforce, and needs to be one of the first areas of focus for DHS leadership to invest time and resources. Communication The committee found that members of the DHS workforce were largely unaware of existing resources and services that were available to them that may enhance readiness and resilience or that of their families.
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Moreover, the lack of cohesive identity and culture in DHS may exacerbate the unwillingness to take advantage of services offered to employees at the department level. Recommendation 5: Improve organizational communication to enhance esprit de corps; cultivate a culture of readiness and re silience; and align public perception of the Department of Home land Security (DHS)
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Thus, DHS and its components lack a comprehensive, consistent, coherent, meaningful top-to-bottom view of the health, readiness, and resilience of the DHS workforce. Recommendation 6: Develop and implement a measurement and evaluation strategy for continuous improvement of workforce readiness and resilience in the Department of Homeland Security.
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Strategic Plan To ensure that DHS can establish a systematic departmentwide approach, it must have a strategy that recognizes and accounts for the various factors that affect workforce readiness and resilience. The goals and strategies identified by the committee throughout this report are the starting points on a roadmap to strengthen the department's workforce readiness and resilience in the next 5 years.
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Recommendation 7: Implement a 5-year strategic plan for work force readiness and resilience in the Department of Homeland Security. The committee recommends the Department of Homeland Secu rity and its component agencies incorporate the elements and ac tivities outlined by the committee in creating its 5-year strategic plan to develop and sustain workforce readiness and resilience and close the gaps outlined in this report (see Chapter 5)
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Improve organizational communication to enhance esprit de corps; cultivate a culture of readiness and resilience; and align public perception of DHS with its accomplishments. Develop and implement a measurement and evaluation strategy for continuous improvement of workforce readiness and resilience in DHS.
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