Federal Manager's Daily Report

DoD laboratories have made extensive use of their authority to use shortcut “direct hire” processes to fill high-demand positions but they still experience other challenges in filling those positions that are common among agencies, GAO has said.

It said that over 2015-2017, the labs have used that authority “more than any other category of agency-specific or government-wide hiring authority” for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics personnel, using it in nearly half of the 11,562 total hires in that period. “Lab officials, however, identified challenges to hiring highly qualified candidates, such as delays in processing security clearances, despite the use of hiring authorities such as direct hire,” a report said.

All but one of 16 officials GAO interviewed said delays in clearances were a hindrance at least to some extent in filling those positions, more than cited delays in the HR office or total length of the process, for example.

In addition, GAO found that while the labs can track the impact of direct hire authority on the length of the hiring process, “effectiveness is not currently evaluated. According to lab officials, timeliness data do not sufficiently inform about the effectiveness of the authorities and may not reflect a candidate’s perception of the length of the hiring process”–a major consideration for job candidates who might otherwise be hired much more quickly elsewhere.

DoD concurred with recommendations that it routinely obtain and monitor defense lab hiring data to improve oversight, develop performance measures for evaluating the effectiveness of hiring, and establish time frames to guide hiring authority approval and implementation.