The Department of Defense (DoD) will look for ways to improve how it tracks workforce data for technicians so that it can more accurately assess how much funding it needs to hire technicians for future missions.
in a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said it interviewed Pentagon officials about technician hiring, and learned that DoD’s ability to hire nonpermanent technicians helps the agency to quickly fill critical jobs and carry out missions.
“The Army and Air Force Reserve Components – which consist of the Army and Air National Guard and Reserve – use nonpermanent military technicians to fill vacancies created when permanent military technicians deploy or are fulfilling military training requirements or completing education and schooling,” wrote GAO. “Officials reported that their ability to hire nonpermanent military technicians enhances readiness.”
While DoD collects and tracks military technician workforce data to determine funding, it does not have guidance or a common definition of military technicians when it extracts and reports that data.
GAO reported that DoD inconsistently reported technician workforce data for internal and external uses, and said that “without guidance and a common definition for extracting and reporting military technician data, DoD will continue to report inconsistent data” which could affect funding for hiring permanent and nonpermanent military technicians.
DoD agreed with both of GAO’s recommendations to develop guidance and a common definition for extracting military technician data for consistency in reporting workforce data.
