NIH Simplified Acquisition MiniSymposium

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NIH Simplified Acquisition Mini-Symposium

• Ms. Colleen Barros
• Deputy Director for Management, NIH
• April 27, 2006

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Appreciation for contributions to NIH mission

• On the Front Line
• Meeting the needs of the community

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Workforce Planning

• Importance
• Allows for the right number of people with the
  right skills, experiences and competencies in the
  right jobs at the right time.
• Provides managers with a framework for making
  staffing decisions based on an organizations
  mission, strategic plan, budgetary resources, and
  a set of desired workforce competencies.
• Allows organizations to address systematically
  issues that are driving workforce change such as
  age and growing retirement eligibility.
• At NIH, our goal is to include people from all
  ICs in the process to ensure the plan correctly
  reflects your priorities and needs.

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Factors driving the need for Workforce Planning
at NIH
Age Demographics

• NIH has a mature workforce
• 38 of the workforce is over 50 years old
• 70 of the workforce is over 40 years old
• 63 of SES are currently eligible for retirement
  81 will be eligible within 3 years
• 23 of people in the 5 most populous occupations
  at each IC will be eligible to retire in the
  upcoming 3 years
• Of the 940 people who were eligible to retire,
  46.5 (437) retired in FY05

Source Data Warehouse
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Results of NIH Workforce Planning

• Results
• Helps to maintain NIHs position as the worlds
  leading research organization
• Strategically aligns NIHs mission with human and
  budget resources
• Identifies patterns in hiring needs including
  staffing required for trans-agency initiatives
• Improves efficiency and cost effectiveness of
  recruiting efforts
• - Hire better/right candidates rather than be
  pressured to hire a candidate
• - Accounts for cycle time to fill positions
• - Being proactive is typically less expensive
  than being reactive

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Process Overview
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
June
Jan/Feb

• Reviewed workforce statistics from FY2005
• Collected FY06 staffing information from all ICs
• Submitted staffing request to HHS in January
• Interviewed IC OD leaders and conducted
  Intramural, Extramural Administrative Focus
  Group Sessions to
• Identify priority occupations
• Determine how internal and external forces are
  impacting workforce needs
• Identify key workforce challenges and potential
  solutions

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Focus Group Participation

• With a total of 72 attendees, there was
  widespread participation in the focus group
  sessions
• Discussions were lively, open and candid
• Participants told us they felt there was high
  value in the process for NIH overall and reported
  that they personally gained a better
  understanding and perspective on workforce
  planning issues through a new NIH-wide lens.
• People are eager to see change occur as a result
  of this process

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Next Steps
Phase I
Phase II
Phase III
June
Jan/Feb

• Next Steps
• Synthesize / analyze data from focus groups
• Collect and analyze workforce data
• Historical information from NIH database for
  analysis of trends in MCOs
• Mission Critical Workforce projections from ICs
  the OD so we can quantify gaps in MCOs
• Set up SD meetings
• Identify potential solutions to workforce
  challenges

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