IRS hires private firm to train employees

The IRS has hired a private consulting firm to create and run the agency's new employee training program. The agency will pay the firm $88 million for its work over five years.

Arthur D. Little Inc., a Massachusetts consulting firm, will direct the IRS Consortium for Learning and Workforce Development. The consortium consists of 16 universities across the country; IRS workers will be able to take courses leading to a degree, courses for certification or courses on a non-credit basis.

Instructional methods include online training, interactive video and traditional classroom training. Specific program areas include: customer service; taxpayer advocacy; taxation and compliance; human resources; education and training; finance; employee relations; equal employment opportunity; communications; information technology and real estate.

With the passage of legislation in 1998 restructuring the IRS, the agency is shifting its organizational structure from one that is geographically based to one that is centered around customer service. As a result, the IRS has had to find new ways to deliver its services, creating a need for additional training in order to ensure that employees have the skills they need to perform the mission of the agency.

IRS officials said the new approach saves money, allowing the agency to "devote much more of our limited training budget to design and development of effective programs, not in traveling employees to remote locations to attend classroom sessions."

Distance learning and online training have been slow to catch on in the federal government. In January 1999, President Clinton issued an executive order calling on agencies to use technology to provide more training opportunities to workers. Some agencies already have developed online training programs, including the Justice Department and the Defense Department's Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.