The FAA’s human capital system incorporates many leading practices, but improving employee satisfaction in the workplace remains a challenge, GAO has said in a report requested by the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla.
The FAA is placed near the bottom in best places to work rankings put out by the Partnership for Public Service and American University, presenting recruitment, motivation and retention challenges for the agency’s 48,000 employees, according to GAO-10-89.
It said that as part of strategic workforce planning, FAA determines the critical skills needed in its workforce and assesses individual worker skill levels, and it follows leading practices in performance management, but FAA officials and union representatives questioned the system’s fairness, echoing concerns that they have raised in the past.
The agency follows fewer leading practices in diversity management, but has an opportunity to strengthen its efforts as it updates diversity outreach plans, GAO said.
It said however that despite these efforts, FAA ranked 214th out of 216 agencies in 2009 as the best place to work in the federal government, similar to its ranking in 2007.
These low rankings could pose obstacles to FAA’s efforts to retain its existing workforce and recruit staff with the requisite skills needed to implement the Next Generation Air Transportation System, the report said.
It said that by fiscal 2013, FAA projects that 38 percent of its employees who perform work that is critical to FAA’s mission will be eligible to retire.
