Strategic Theme 5
Management Excellence
Enabling the mission through sound management
The Department’s strategic themes and goals will be accomplished not only through the
efforts of the major program offices in the Department but with additional effort from
staff offices that support the management of the programs in carrying out the mission.
DOE is committed to integrated management and is taking steps to ensure that this is one
of the critical initiatives that will assist the Department’s leadership in achieving the
strategic goals. DOE will endeavor to make sure it has the necessary skills available to
carry out the mission and to continue bringing in talented and qualified resources for the
future. As DOE strives to meet the needs of the Nation in the area of scientific discovery
and innovation, and the needs of its employees, cost-effective upgrades, renovations, and
replacements will be made to aging and outdated facilities. One of most important keys to
managing the Department is financial stewardship and one of the top priorities for DOE is
continually improving its financial performance and accountability over the resources entrusted
to it by American taxpayers.
Management Excellence Challenges
DOE is an organization of diverse programs. While this structure has its advantages, it often
hampers integrated management of core functions across the Department. In addition, there are
economies of scale and improvements in service that could be attained by implementing a common
Department-wide approach to core services utilized by all internal stakeholders. This can be
difficult to attain in a program-centered approach to the work. However, DOE also faces near-term
challenges that are more fundamental. A significant portion of the Department’s budget is awarded
to contractors each year and achieving excellence in the Department’s management of contracts
remains a significant challenge. The average age of the workforce is increasing, and the number
of skilled employees eligible for retirement suggests an impending knowledge and capability gap in
the next three-to- seven years. The Department is implementing a new resource management system that
ties together data from various functional disciplines into a single enterprise-wide network. The
implementation of this system combined with recent audit challenges requires the Department to adopt
new financial and business practices. The Department currently facses accrued under-funded
contractor pension plan and post-retirement benefits liability in the billions of dollars. Finally,
DOE’s infrastructure is aging, which creates both safety and security concerns. The following
strategic goals address these management excellence challenges.
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Management Excellence Strategic Goals
Goal 5.1 – Integrated Management
Institute an integrated business management approach throughout DOE with clear roles and
responsibilities and accountability to include effective line management oversight by both
Federal and contractor organizations.
Description: The Department has an urgent need to embrace the best management practices to
improve processes, performance, and eliminate waste. The Secretary
of Energy identified several functional areas within the Department that would benefit from a
strengthened management approach including: financial, human capital, information technology,
legal, procurement, and public affairs. In order to better coordinate and streamline these
functional areas, the Secretary has established an initiative whereby the functional heads will
create working groups to implement changes to specific oversight and accountability processes
resulting in improvements in the overall functional accountability. DOE has a $23.5 billion
budget, about 15,000 Federal employees and 100,000 contractor employees, as well as a large
number of research laboratories, facilities, and operations offices. The Department oversees
large-scale special operations such as the processing and storage of nuclear materials and
production of power for large regions of the country. DOE is one of the largest owners of public
facilities in the world. Yet, the Department's contracts represent about 85 percent of its work by dollar
amount. Management of this operation needs a coherent, well-structured, integrated business
management architecture with clear roles, responsibilities, and customer service standards. The Department
should have a robust system of clear, consistent performance objectives and measurements so that
it may focus resources more effectively on key objectives and continually improve to meet those
objectives.
Strategies to reach this goal
- Design and implement a functional accountability model that supports an integrated
management approach.
- Develop and implement clear, consistent enterprise-wide performance goals and measures
to better inform decision-makers and ensure accountability for integrated management.
- Develop and implement customer service standards across programs and Departmental elements
focused on meeting the cost, quality, and timeliness standards of the Department’s customers.
- Develop and implement a strategy to improve the Department’s management of contracts and
major capital acquisition projects.
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Goal 5.2 – Human Capital
Ensure that DOE’s workforce is capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st Century by attracting,
motivating, and retaining a highly skilled and diverse workforce to do the best job.
Description: People are DOE’s most important resource. The Department’s human capital management
efforts are focused on an integrated approach that ensures human capital programs and policies are
linked to the missions, strategies, and goals, while providing for continuous improvement in
efficiency and effectiveness. Within the Department, senior managers of the individual program and staff
offices are responsible for successfully accomplishing their organization’s mission as well as creating a
challenging and productive workplace environment. Senior management must also ensure that they
plan for a secure workforce, capable of meeting current and future challenges. The Department must
provide senior managers with the flexibilities and tools necessary to ensure that their workforce can
successfully meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
Strategies to reach this goal
- Implement programs and processes that will enable the Department to quickly recruit, develop,
and retain a qualified, diverse workforce through an integrated workforce planning system.
- Create a Department-wide performance culture focused on individual and organizational
accountability toward the achievement of DOE’s programmatic goals and priorities.
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Goal 5.3 – Infrastructure
Build, modernize, and maintain facilities and infrastructure to achieve mission goals and ensure
a safe and secure workplace.
Description: The Department’s real property assets are vital to
the accomplishment of its mission. Real property assets of the Department are located at over 50
sites across the Nation with approximately 20,000 buildings and other structures covering 127 million
square feet on 3.1 million acres of land, an area roughly the size of the state of Connecticut.
The replacement plant value of these assets (not including land value) is $77.1 billion. Unlike
many other Federal agencies, the vast majority of DOE sites are government-owned and
contractor-operated and maintained. The Department’s real property portfolio is composed primarily
of large complexes of diverse facilities of critical importance to DOE's mission, such as reactors,
accelerators, and Cold War-era buildings that should be retired. The Department owes it to the public and DOE
employees to be good stewards and to provide safe and quality work places that are aligned with and
supportive of our mission requirements.
Strategies to reach this goal
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Goal 5.4 – Resources
Institutionalize a fully integrated resource management strategy that supports mission needs and
postures the Department for continuous business process improvement.
Description: To improve our accountability to the American taxpayers, the Department will improve
financial performance and integrate budgeting with strategic and performance planning. To
accomplish this, the Department's business systems related to financial information need to be
consolidated and streamlined, thus resulting in the ability to produce accurate and consistent
financial reports, management information, and annual financial statements for senior decision-makers.
An accountability model that supports an integrated, enterprise-wide approach to management is
required and standard business practices across Departmental elements are needed. Additionally, the
Department is implementing a solid financial and performance-based management information system
that will include: cost accounting, travel, payroll, budget formulation and execution, procurement,
contracts management, facilities management, human resources, and research and development.
Strategies to reach this goal
- Conduct meaningful analysis that supports timely decision-making based on financial,
operational, and programmatic information.
- Develop and implement standard, enterprise-wide financial and business practices.
External Factors
The following external factor could affect the Department’s ability to achieve the Management
Excellence theme:
Workforce competition with private industry for highly skilled labor and escalating entry-level salaries may
affect the Department’s ability to attract and retain a qualified workforce.
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