NRC Predicts Federal Facilities Brain Drain, Suggests Solutions

The future of federal facilities asset management will be adversely affected by job cuts and hiring freezes – as well as loss of experienced workers through retirement – according to findings from the National Research Council (NRC).

The solution lies in revising job classification requirements to better align workforce skill sets with new technologies and business practices.

The NRC presented pre-publication findings of a report on federal facilities management requirements at a December 13, 2007 forum titled “Core Competencies for Federal Facilities Asset Management Through 2020,” held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.

The report was developed at the request of The Federal Facilities Council (FFC) a cooperative association of more than 20 federal agencies managing large facilities portfolios. NRC is the principal operating agency of the National Academies and the National Academy of Engineering.

The NRC report identified three “essential areas of expertise” for federal facilities asset management divisions through 2020:

• Integrating people, processes, places and technologies through a life-cycle approach to facilities asset management,
• Aligning the facilities portfolio with the organization’s missions and available resources, and
• Innovating across traditional functional lies and processes to address changing requirements.

These capabilities reflect a “paradigm shift” required in the hiring of federal facilities professionals, based on factors including rapid advances in technology, budget pressures, heightened focus on sustainable development and government-wide reforms, NRC reported. Facilities asset management divisions are the only stakeholders involved in all aspects of funding, programming, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining federal facilities.

Finding experienced professionals with the ability to adapt to this changing paradigm is difficult, the NRC report noted, because of the government’s “poor image” as an employer, and outmoded hiring practices. In particular, the GS-1600 series, the government’s basis for hiring and compensating facilities managers, “is based on an old paradigm and does not reflect new realities or required core competencies,” according to the report.

“To overcome barriers to recruiting and hiring individuals with required skills and capabilities,” NRC wrote, “the directors of federal facilities asset management divisions and Senior Real Property Officers should collaborate with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council and the Office of Personnel Management to revise the GS-1600 job classification series.”

NRC stressed that effective federal facilities management for 2020 and beyond requires innovation among facilities asset management divisions, “to address changing functional requirements and to take advantage of opportunities for improvement as they arise.

“Leadership skills – the ability to influence beyond one’s authority – are essential,” NRC wrote.