Most chief acquisition officers need a permanent "help wanted" sign to hang outside their offices.
The workforce in charge of buying goods and services is shrinking, while spending continues to climb.
According to the Federal Acquisition Institute at Fort Belvoir, Va., a training center for federal employees, 12 percent of contracting specialists were eligible to retire in 2004.
That number will jump to 30 percent in 2009. Outside consultants and industry groups often attribute problems with subcontracting and set-aside programs to a lack of oversight caused by personnel shortages.
But acquisition leaders aren't rolling over and waiting for people to turn in their departure forms-they're recruiting. "We're evaluating and ensuring we have proper retention strategies, and we're developing proper profiles in terms of incoming employees to best predict their potential for success," says Michael Harrison, assistant secretary for administration at the Agriculture Department.
Among the strategies: The Treasury Department is setting up a team to examine its acquisition workforce, Agriculture is surveying employees to help shape its recruitment and retention plan, and the Veterans Affairs Department is considering starting an acquisition-focused intern program, while the Interior Department offers loan repayment in some bureaus as an incentive.
Chief acquisition officers also are trying to make the jobs more exciting. Emily W. Murphy, chief acquisition officer at the General Services Administration, says one way to do that is to make it easier for employees to move among agencies. "We want to make sure the workforce has horizontal and vertical movement, so skilled people can progress in their careers," she says. She is working to make the certification process at the Defense Department and civilian agencies more similar so employees can move easily between the Pentagon and other agencies.
In March, the Office of Management and Budget announced that the Federal Acquisition Institute would move to Fort Belvoir to share space with the Defense Acquisition University, which primarily trains Defense acquisition employees. Officials says the two schools already have started benefiting from sharing classes.