IG: The SSA needs a more clear HR strategy to eliminate backlogged workloads and continue meeting the needs of its many customers. Image: Michael Vi/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffStaffing at SSA increased by about 3,000 to about 59,600 in 2023 through a combination of hiring efforts and lower attrition, but it still faces long-running challenges with both hiring and retention, an inspector general report has said.
The agency “still has a number of human capital-related risks including having sufficient funding for future hiring; successfully developing and retaining new employees; and a large, expected retirement wave,” a report said. Further, the agency “does not have a clear human capital plan in place that addresses these human capital risks and ensures it has the workforce its needs to eliminate backlogged workloads and continue meeting the needs of its many customers.”
Total staffing is now only about 400 below the level of 2019 after dropping in each year through 2022, with hiring boosted by receiving direct hire authority for frontline positions in 2023 that allowed the agency to double the hiring rate to about 600 per month.
“Employees who separate from SSA reported they were leaving to take higher-paying jobs or because they felt overworked at SSA . . . Per SSA, hiring more employees and better distributing employee workloads helped address overwork as a cause of attrition,” it said.
However, the agency effectively paused hiring in June due to concerns about 2024 funding levels, in light of the debt ceiling law that restricted discretionary funding government-wide. And retention still is a challenge due to a high percentage of employees who are retirement-eligible, or will be soon, and because it can’t offer frontline employees flexibilities such as full-time offsite work, it said.
“SSA recognizes the loss of technical and institutional knowledge through employee attrition is one of its greatest challenges and may impair succession management and knowledge transfer,” the report said.
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