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NASA’s STRATEGIC HUMAN CAPITAL PLAN

DESIGNING, BUILDING, AND IMPLEMENTING AN AGENDA THAT MATTERS!

Driver's for "The Plan"

NASA’S STRATEGIC PLAN

  • EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT
    • President’s Management Agenda
    • Freedom to Manage
    • OMB Standards for Excellence
    • OPM Human Capital Scorecard
    • FAIR
    • GPRA
    • Etc.
  • INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
    • Strategic Resources Review
    • NASA Integrated Assessment Team
    • Etc.

HUMAN CAPITAL ARCHITECTURE

  • GOALS
  • STRATEGIES
  • TACTICS:
    • CONTINUE
    • IMPROVE
    • NEW INITIATIVES
  • PROJECT MANAGEMENT
  • METRICS

PERFORMANCE AND RESULTS

GETTING STARTED…

Understand the "architecture" and "pillars" concepts

  • Look at each of 5 Pillars(dimensions) determined through benchmarking and best-practice study to be the key deliverables of a high-performance organization
  • Examine goals
    • Are they in NASA language?
    • Is anything missing?
  • Try to put the pillars in NASA terms by asking the question "If we achieve pillar X, what does NASA's human capital look like?"

What do we do with that information?

    • Development of strawperson can begin
    • Generating first draft of current and planned initiatives linked to the pillars
    • Begin to consider gaps
    • Develop and formal plan and companion implementation
    • IMPLEMENT FOR RESULTS!

Agency Strategic Human Capital Plan

The NASA Senior Executive Team established guidelines:

  • Must be strategic and include a tactical/action plan
  • Must be agile/flexible to support the Agency's strategic vision
  • Must integrate other PMA initiatives
  • Must be integrated into Agency Strategic Planning and Performance process
  • Must measure and assess the effectiveness of strategies and activities in achieving human capital goals
  • Must develop an "architecture for human capital"
  • Must make it happen
    • Develop Strategic Human Capital Implementation Plan (SHCIP)

The NASA Strategic Human Capital Architecture

STRATEGIC HUMAN CAPITAL ARCHITECTURE

AGENCY STRATEGIES:

What are we trying to accomplish relative to strategic intent, environmental drivers, customers, etc? What is the core of our work?

CAPABILITIES: What are the capabilities we require?

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

How do we link HR strategies to mission objectives?
How do we ensure that NASA is a well-structured organization?
Do employees understand the organization logic of the Agency?

STRATEGIC COMPETENCIES

How do we make sure we acquire the competencies required to accomplish our strategy?
How do we make sure the right people are hired/promoted/developed in our organization?
How do we determine/close gaps on competency needs?

LEARNING

How effectively and efficiently are we managing knowledge?
Is the training and development investment strategic?
Does a learning culture exist?

PERFORMANCE CULTURE

How do we develop, reward and retain high performers?
How do we deal with poor performers?
Are employees focuses on results?
Do we value diversity?
LEADERSHIP: Given our strategy, what does NASA leadership look like? How do we assess it? Is it the appropriate investment?

 

NASA’S STRATEGIC RETREAT:.What are the effects of the various Agency transformation activities and PMA initiatives from a human capital perspective?

SRR

How do we manage these transformations while maintaining mission performance?

How do we assure we don’t lose critical skills during a period of uncertainty?

How can we assure we can acquire, retain, and train people with the core competencies we’ll need in the future (including pipeline)?

How do we ensure essential knowledge management and leadership continuity in the face of potential retirements and other losses?

Are there any guiding principles the team should use in its deliberations?

What should our management philosophy be with respect to how we treat our workforce?
NGO
Competitive Sourcing (including Shuttle)
Improved Financial Performance
Expanded Electronic Government
Budget and Performance Integration
Other?

 

NASA’S STRATEGIC RETREAT: Given these effects, how do we achieve our human capital goals to support mission success?

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT PILLAR What kinds of things are we doing now that contribute to maintaining a strong workforce (Agency and Centers)?

What else should we be doing?
STRATEGIC COMPETENCIES PILLAR
LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION
PERFORMANCE CULTURE PILLAR
LEARNING PILLAR

 

1.0 Strategic Alignment(SA) Pillar

Defined as…
Align human capital policies to support the accomplishment of the Agency's mission, vision, goals and strategies (which define its direction and its expectations for itself and its people).

GOALS:
SA 1.1 Link HR Strategies to Agency mission objectives
SA 1.2 NASA well-structured to support mission
SA 1.3 Employees understand organization plans

IF WE HAVE STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT, THEN WHAT DOES NASA's HUMAN CAPITAL LOOK LIKE?

2.0 Strategic Competencies(SC) Pillar

Defined as…
Recruit, hire, develop and retain employees with the strategic competencies for mission critical occupations.

GOALS:
SC 2.1 Achieve desired competency levels in mission-critical jobs (matching the right people to the right jobs at the right time)
SC 2.2 Achieve recruitment and retention rate for employees with strategic competencies
SC 2.3 Acquire quality new hires

IF WE HAVE STRATEGIC COMPETENCIES, THEN WHAT DOES NASA'S HUMAN CAPITAL LOOK LIKE?

3.0 Leadership(LDR) Pillar

Defined as…
Ensure leadership in the Agency inspires, motivates and guides others towards goals; coaches, mentors, challenges staff; adapts leadership styles to various situations; models high standards of honesty, integrity, trust, openness, and respect for individuals by applying these values

GOALS:
LDR 3.1 Recruit, develop, retain high-performing leaders
LDR 3.2 Leaders generate high levels of motivation and commitment
LDR 3.3 Maintain high standards of honesty and integrity
LDR 3.4 Foster equal opportunity principles in all NASA does

IF WE HAVE LEADERSHIP, THEN WHAT DOES NASA'S HUMAN CAPITAL LOOK LIKE?

4.0 Performance Culture(PC) Pillar

Defined as…
Create a culture that motivates employees for high performance, based on their contribution to the work of the organization, and common values while ensuring fairness in the workplace.

GOALS:
PC 4.1 Values diversity
PC 4.2 Develop, reward, retain high performers
PC 4.3 Deal with poor performers
PC 4.4 Employees focused on results

IF WE HAVE A PERFORMANCE CULTURE, THEN WHAT DOES NASA'S HUMAN CAPITAL LOOK LIKE?

5.0 Learning(LRN) Pillar

Defined as…
Promote knowledge-sharing culture and a climate of openness; promote continuous learning and improvement

GOALS:
LRN 5.1 Knowledge management strategies in place
LRN 5.2 Training investment is strategic
LRN 5.3 Learning culture exists

IF WE HAVE A LEARNING CULTURE, THEN WHAT DOES NASA'S HUMAN CAPITAL LOOK LIKE?

What's now and what's next…

March 13 Template

Pillar Goal/Attribute/What's it look like? Are we addressing it effectively? (Y/N) Should we be doing more? (Y/N) If the answer is"YES", prioritize top 5 "YES" items For the top 5 "YES" items, suggest strategies for improvement If the answer is "NO", briefly state why.
Strategic Alignment 1. Employees understand how what they and their orgs do contributes to overall Agency goals.          
Definition: Align human capital policies to support the accomplishment of the Agency’s mission, vision, goals and strategies (which define its direction and its expectations for itself and its people). 2. Agency is well structured to support its mission in an effective and efficient way.          
  3. HR activities clearly, effectively and efficiently support and enable the agency's mission.          

 

Develop SHCIP

  • Restate the overall intent
  • Describe each Improvement Initiative
  • Explain the Measurement and Assessment strategy
  • Clearly delineate accountability
  • Assign Improvement Initiative Managers
  • Develop plans, implement, measure and…

DELIVER RESULTS!

SHCIP Next Steps

  • Assignment/identification of Improvement Initiative Manager
  • Improvement Manager to develop project plans, where appropriate, to include milestones, resource requirements, metrics, and offices of primary responsibility where they are different from initiative managers
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate

Measurement and Assessment

METRICS HEIRARCHY

TARGET FOCUS EXAMPLES
NASA ADMINISTRATOR TO OUTSIDE ENTITIES

RESPONSE TO EXTERNAL REQS

  1. GPRA
  2. Agency “Health
 NASA's progress in closing gaps in critical competencies.
Alignment of NASA's human capital strategy with its mission, goals, and organizational objectives.
AA FOR HR & ED OUTCOMES FROM SPECIFIC INITIATIVES
  1. Our workforce planning and analysis system enables a complete understanding of the composition and distribution, past, present and future of our workforce.
  2. NASA managers are making full use of HR flexibilities
  3. We are recruiting, hiring and retaining the right people.
  4. Etc.
PROJECT LEVEL PROJECT SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES /PRODUCTS/ MILESTONES
  1. Requirements Published
  2. System established
  3. Definitions determined
  4. Processes developed

OMB AGREEMENT MILESTONES

 

Overview

  • Reference NASA/OPM Accountability agreement
  • Regular OPM reviews will continue
  • Metrics associated with various human capital projects will be incorporated
  • Metrics at the initiative level will be established via the Strategic Human Capital Implementation Plan
  • Agency-level human capital metrics described in Strategic Human Capital Implementation Plan Measurement and Assessment Section

EXAMPLE: Action Plan 3/Improvement Initiative 3: NASA CMS

  • Description: Develop an Agency competency management system (CMS) that defines competencies the Agency must retain and those for which it will rely on industry, academia and others.
Activities Schedule Metrics
*Complete Competency pilot at KSC June 30, 2002 Pilot complete and lessons learned captured and disseminated.
*Develop an Agencywide competency dictionary. July 30, 2002 Dictionary Completed
*Identify critical competencies across the Agency; those at risk, and potential skill mix adjustments between Centers. November 30, 2002 NASA knows what its strategic competencies and gaps are, by Sep 03.
*Complete rollout of KSC competency model Agencywide and resolve gaps and surplus competencies in mission critical occupations (utilizing HC tools, flexibilities, the Agency Competitive Sourcing Plan, etc.) September 30, 2003 NASA CMS Utilized by management to make decisions on hiring, reassignment, training and development, competitive sourcing (Check off, Management survey, OMB, OPM scorecards)
Identify imbalances in current and projected workforce of today, relative to what is needed for the future (oversupply/undersupply of key skills)    
Integrate CMS into Agency-level Workforce planning and analysis tool. September 30, 2003 100% of NASA Critical Competencies are defined
NASA CMS content integrated in IFMP/Core HR SAP September 30, 2005 Less than 10% of current year gaps remain after first year of system use (Improvement measure, CMS provided)
  • Other Organizations to be involved:
    • All Centers, JPL, and HQ
  • What Other Organizations will be expected to provide:
    • POC's at each Center, Data input to system on competencies and related FTE
  • Outcome metric:
    • 100% of Agency level workforce planning processes utilize CMS in tracking, planning, and analysis following implementation of CMS in September 2003

     

Communicate

  • Develop specific plan for communication
  • Obtain endorsement and buy-in from key stakeholders (internal and external)
  • "Roll-out" from the top
  • Distribute to the population
  • Execute as proof

Communication Plan

Communication Activity Purpose Audience Presenter
Overview to Executive Council members Obtain buy-in on concepts and content of SHCP Individual Council Members Member's of SHCP Team
COMPLETE
Executive Council Roll-out Roll-out and obtain Senior Management approval for implementation Executive Management Council V. Novak
COMPLETE
Road-Show Adequately capture message and intent of SHCP and share with all appropriate parties Internal and external stakeholders, partners, interested parties. Member's of SHCP Team
COMPLETE TO OMB AND OPM AS DRAFT
Center Director Roll-out Roll-out and confirm commitment to implementation of SHCP Center Director's CD's on SHCP Team/NOVAK
HR Director Council/Steering Committee Roll-out Roll-out and obtain buy-in and commitment from HR Directors HR Director's Member's of SHCP Team/NOVAK/PETERSON
Tasking implementers Thoroughly communicate intent of tactics and strategies to implementing orgs/individuals Assigned implementers Member's of SHCP Team/NOVAK
Center Workforce Road Show Brief each Center's senior management council and appropriate workforce representatives. Center senior management councils and employees (where appropriate) CD'S/HR DIRECTORS

 
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