The Defense Department has launched a new task force to gather ideas on how to better attract and retain acquisition professionals.
The "Future Workforce Task Force 2005," run out of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, has set a July 31 deadline for establishing a program that will look at ways to boost recruiting and slow attrition in the acquisition field. A recent DoD report predicted waves of retirements among acquisition specialists in the next few years.
By the year 2005, about 50 percent of the DoD acquisition workforce will be eligible to retire, according to the task force's Web site.
"Managing the exodus of more than half of the civilian workforce that will be eligible for retirement in the next five years is a critical concern that needs immediate attention," according to the Web site.
In the past decade, DoD has cut the ranks of acquisition specialists by half. Now the Pentagon wants to avoid losing a vast amount of highly specialized knowledge if many of its remaining procurement experts retire. The Pentagon also wants to ensure that its up-and-coming acquisition employees are up to speed with new commercial business practices and technologies.
The task force's goals include:
- Increasing by 10 percent the number of acquisition workforce job offers made and accepted.
- Reducing by 5 percent the time it takes to fill acquisition workforce positions.
- Increasing by 10 percent the number of people in the acquisition workforce with at least an undergraduate degree.
The program the task force develops is scheduled to be reivewed and implemented from August through December of this year.
Procurement professionals from government and industry can offer their feedback on the task force's efforts by filling out an online survey.