Summary
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has a unique role in coordinating trade policy, resolving disagreements, and framing issues for presidential decision through an interagency trade policy process. In recent years, USTR's increased workload from numerous new regional and bilateral free trade agreement negotiations and a new round of multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization has raised concerns about its human capital strategy. GAO examined whether USTR is pursuing an effective human capital strategy that supports the ability of its workforce to accomplish its mission. Specifically, GAO (1) reviewed USTR's commitment to strategic human capital leadership and planning and (2) analyzed to what extent USTR has used human capital tools to address its workforce challenges.
USTR could benefit from greater use of strategic human capital management principles in leadership and planning, considering that its small size and interagency trade leadership and coordination role give it a unique responsibility to lead the trade agenda. First, USTR has not sustained the leadership resources for human capital; for example, the top human capital management post has not been filled for over 1 1/2 years. Second, USTR has not undertaken formal strategic human capital planning to mitigate the risks inherent in its dependency--as a "networked organization"--on interagency resources to achieve its mission. Therefore, it does not have a method to account for changes in other agencies' resources that might impact its ability to achieve its mission. Third, USTR has focused its human capital planning efforts primarily on short-term responses to trade negotiating needs identified in its 2-year budget planning process; it has not conducted ongoing parallel efforts to analyze longer-term workforce needs. USTR's efforts to address its specific workforce challenges could benefit from greater use of human capital tools. First, USTR could use more of the existing federal human capital flexibilities to better tailor its human capital approaches to organizational needs. Although the agency has used and benefited from some special hiring and pay authorities, such as the use of higher-than-minimum salary offers, it has yet to take advantage of others, such as retention bonuses. Second, while USTR prides itself on being a results-oriented agency, most USTR staff are not subject to agencywide performance expectations linked to organizational goals. While managers have stressed the importance of certain individual skills needed to advance USTR's mission, most staff are held accountable to a range of expectations that vary among offices.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Loren Yager
Government Accountability Office: Applied Research and Methods
(202) 512-4347
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, filling its senior human capital management positions with human capital professionals who will significantly contribute to strategic planning and decision making.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, developing an interagency resource planning method with appropriate participation from key agency stakeholders.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, undertaking strategic workforce planning in order to optimize its workforce's continued capacity to achieve its mission.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, improving its ability to utilize data for measuring the effectiveness of human capital approaches in support of its mission and goals.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, determining if additional use of available pay and hiring flexibilities would better position USTR to hire and retain experts.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve USTR's human capital management, the U.S. Trade Representative should develop a strategic human capital management system. The system should include, tailored to its small size and unique role, developing agencywide performance criteria for staff to align management expectations with critical organizational goals.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
