The Department of Defense (DOD) is struggling with a variety of workforce challenges that contributed to delays in the maintenance of some weapon systems, according to a recent United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) evaluation.
DOD maintenance depots employ around 80,000 civilians for their operations, but hiring and retaining skilled workers remains a challenge, and it is leading to months and even years longer than expected on various projects.
DOD officials identified weapon systems for which maintenance was delayed by shortages in skilled personnel. For example, at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, two submarines were delayed approximately 23 and 20 months past their scheduled maintenance dates in part as a result of shortages in ship fitters and welders, among others.
According to GAO, despite all four military services having created strategic plans to address workforce challenges since 2008, some are either outdated or unused, and harried by a lack of evaluation in their training programs.
The services have collected some data regarding how they maintain critical skills in their workforces, such as offering recruiting and hiring incentives to skilled workers, implementing training and apprenticeship programs and partnering with local vocational schools. However, the depots and the services do not know how effective the actions have been, because they have not assessed the results of the actions in helping the depots to hire, train, and retain skilled personnel — including determining whether the actions are cost effective, GAO said.
Based on analyses of personnel data from 2013 through 2017, coupled with reviews of depot strategic plans and interviews with depot officials, GAO made a series of recommendations to assess the effectiveness of hiring, training and retention programs for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
The Department of Defense concurred with GAO’s recommendations.