Federal Manager's Daily Report

Shortages of HR staff are contributing to the VA’s difficulties in filling care-related positions in its Veterans Health Administration and the general federal hiring freeze may be making the situation worse, according to the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

“The VA has said it has some 45,000 current vacancies, mainly in occupations related to providing health care and related services. Most of those can still be filled under the prior exemptions to the hiring freeze,” he said at a recent hearing.

“As we know, the hiring freeze does not exempt HR staff, and without HR personnel, I am concerned that the VA will not be able to bring on the health care providers they need to serve veterans,” he said. He noted that a 2014 law increased funding to hire health care staff, but the department still struggles to recruit and hire in clinical occupations.

A GAO witness cited a late-2016 report finding that inadequate HR capacity is a factor.

A VA witness acknowledged the issue and added that while other agencies are experiencing the same problem, “the VHA is impacted more acutely due to our unique health care mission, which has resulted in our using three different personnel systems: the government-wide Title 5 statute; the two systems outlined in Title 38, for physicians, dentists, and nurses; and the Hybrid Title 38 system for allied health professions.”

He said the department is working to make sure HR staffers are well trained in each system and further will make more use of both monetary and non-monetary awards to reward employee performance, as well flexibilities to make compensation more competitive with rates in the labor market.