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Past Performance

GRA has become a major provider of human resources and general management consulting services and technical support to government agencies. In addition, GRA offers human resources management, pre-retirement and retirement planning, and supervisory/leadership training and development services to government agencies. The quality of our people, our expanding corporate capabilities, and the breadth of our "hands-on" experience in the Federal sector have provided the platform for GRA to become a leading provider of choice in the complex and demanding government consulting arena.

Here are samples of our work according to the type of services provided. This includes the areas of:

As you will see from the examples, GRA provides services that are both very broad as well as targeted in scope. We provide services to headquarters and field organizations across the Federal government sector and have served over 50 different Federal organizations in many geographic regions. GRA associates are located in over 20 different states and the District of Columbia.

POSITION CLASSIFICATION AND POSITION MANAGEMENT

GRA has extensive experience in providing position classification, position management, and even pay-for-performance and pay banding assistance to agencies subject to and outside the scope of Title V. Here are several examples of the type of assistance we have provided.

1. U.S. General Accountability Office

In May 2002, GRA entered into a multi-year contract with the U.S. General Accounting Office – now U.S. Government Accountability Office - (GAO) to review the agency’s administrative, professional, and support staff (APPS) positions.  This work involves on-site reviews, the development of new PD’s, recommending appropriate classification of current APPS positions; and then the conversion of all APSS positions and the development of new concise position requirement documents consistent with GAO’s new broad-band pay-for-performance system.  In addition, GRA provides advice and assistance on the development and/or modification of GAO classification guidance; the reclassification of individual positions; consolidation of functions; series changes; consistent titling practices, and the establishment of effective position structures and career ladders.  Since GAO is not subject to Title 5, U.S. Code GRA associates are expected to provide guidance in the development and application of unique, non-traditional classification and pay systems, policies, and procedures -- and to help the agency transition from its more traditional classification system to a new broad-band system. GAO has modified our contract to increase the level of services.

GRA’s work has resulted in the completion of hundreds of job audits and re-classification and cross-walking of GAO positions from traditional Title 5 grade levels into the new GAO pay banding structure.  In doing this work, GRA has helped GAO rationalize the basis for moving large blocks of traditionally classified jobs into a newly aligned system of positions that are unique to GAO’s mission and reconstituted human resources system.  The agency now operates within a broad-band pay for performance system, and GAO’s position structure is more concise and managers have more flexibility in staffing and pay determinations.

In addition, GRA experts have successfully aided GAO in establishing new types of generic positions that consolidate and combine aspects of former positions that were outdated or too narrowly defined for the agency’s evolving human capital needs.

 2. Internal Revenue Service

GRA has had two contracts with the Internal Revenue Service to provide position classification and position management (Organizational Effectiveness) services, one of which is in support of the IRS in general, while the second concerns the Memphis Service Center's IT organization. In April, 2001, the U. S. Internal Revenue Service entered into a multi-year contract with GRA to provide operational classification services to the National Office of Strategic Human Resources.  Through this contract GRA has been called upon to classify established position descriptions; conduct desk audits to determine the classification of positions; conduct occupational studies; apply and test new OPM Position Classification Standards; assist in the development of new, more concise position structures and develop and classify new PD’s for those structures; provide classification evaluations and advisories associated with employee grievances and the adjudication of classification appeals; provide advisories on FLSA determinations; and, classify positions associated with MEOs under A-76 procedures. GRA has also provided expert witnesses for litigation and arbitration hearings as appropriate. GRA associates also assisted IRS in the application of several OPM standards, including the new Job Family Standard for Administrative Work in the Information Technology Group, GS-2200; converted numerous “local PD’s” to standard PD’s available for use service-wide; conducted organizational specific occupational studies; and provided broad position management advice and assistance.

Internal Revenue Service (MITS):  As a result of our contract activities for the IRS described above GRA, in May 2002, entered into a second multi-year contract with a major IRS organization – the Modernization, Information, and Technology Service (MITS).  MITS is an extremely complex and diverse organization comprised of some 8000 highly specialized technical and professional employees.  GRA’s work for MITS has involved the application of the GS-2200 job family standard and the development of some 300 new standard PD’s to meet the needs of new organizational structures.  Our associates have also reviewed numerous analytical positions for consideration of the appropriate series; and the provision of position management and position classification advice, assistance, and training. 

As a result of GRA’s work with both the IRS National Office and MITS, the agency gained a more concise organizational structure, with appropriately designed and classified career ladders, and a large data base of standard position descriptions which facilitated manager’s flexibility in staffing and assignment of work.  In addition, managers received more timely and definitive classification determinations, and employees’ appeals were handled in a more timely fashion.  Finally, as a result of GRA’s assistance in the design and classification of MEOs, IRS internal organizational structures.

3. National Transportation Safety Board

In July of 2003 GRA began providing assistance to NTSB in reviewing a wide variety of positions at all levels at Board headquarters and field offices from the standpoint of position classification and position management.  The work ranged from reviews of existing PDs to ensure correctness of occupational, classification, and grade-level designations to developing new job descriptions and classification evaluation statements where none previously exist.  GRA also drafted agency-wide position classification policy guidelines for NTSB to aid in future classification actions and decisions.  In October 2004 GRA was awarded an “omnibus” HR services contract with NTSB to provide a broad range of support to their HR staff in recruitment, staffing, job classification, performance management, HR policy development, pay and compensation and other areas of need. 

4. Overseas Private Investment Corporation

In July 2002 GRA did a position management study of attorney positions at OPIC’s Department of Legal Affairs.  GRA interviewed several OPIC attorneys and reviewed their work products as well as lawyers in the private sector who worked with OPIC on international investment issues.  GRA’s report provided an authoritative source of guidance for OPIC decisions on job classification, position management, career ladders and other issues that helped in giving the agency a recruitment advantage and internal equity.   GRA’s study assessed grade structure, promotion practices, human resource utilization issues, and the supportability of the organization’s position management and career ladder rubrics.  GRA issued a report to OPIC with findings and recommendations on these issues as well as providing comparative grade structure data on attorney positions gathered from other comparable agencies.  In September 2004, GRA was awarded a contract to assist the OPIC HR office in providing staffing, job classification, EEO advisory and employee relations technical support services. 

5. U.S. Capitol Police

The U.S. Capitol Police agency protects members of Congress, their staffs, and the grounds and facilities of the United States Capitol from unlawful activities, terrorist threats, hazardous/toxic materials, criminal offenses and other undesirable and dangerous incidents that pose a threat to the safety, security and health of the Capitol and its residents. The USCP is a legislative branch entity that has grown rapidly in recent years and is now employs over 2,000 staff - most of whom are law enforcement officials. The administrative, financial, information technology and other support components of USCP have grown significantly in recent years as greater infrastructure support is needed for enhancing law enforcement operations.  

In February 2003, GRA entered into a contract with the U.S. Capitol Hill Police (USCP), Washington, DC.  We provided position classification expertise in reviewing and rewriting all existing PD’s for civilian positions (over 400 in finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, physical security, vehicle maintenance, and other administrative functions).  Our associates have also written PD’s for newly established positions using Title 5 and/or private sector “best practices.”  We met USCP's expectations for complete documentation of the classification processes utilized. GRA has also drafted revised position classification policy guidelines for USCP.  The agency contract also called upon GRA to provide a full range of recruitment, staffing and placement expertise to support USCP's Office of Human Resources in filling approximately 200 civilian positions.  Our associates developed vacancy announcements, crediting plans, interview questions, screened applications, develop lists of best qualified, etc. in support of the USCP hiring initiative.  In accordance with the terms of the contract, we have applied “best practices” techniques and have followed through by documenting each methodology. 

6. U.S. Office of Personnel Management

A good insight into our position classification capability is that in January 2001, GRA was asked to produce a comprehensive study (325 pages plus 10 appendices) of the History of the General Schedule Classification System, for the U. S. Office of Personnel Management.  The study covered the setting of Federal pay before the Classification Act of 1949, and provided in-depth coverage of how the system operated in each of the five decades after passage of the Act.  The historical information included the development of the standards, federal pay legislation and its impact, and major studies of job evaluation in the federal civil service.

EMPLOYEE AND LABOR RELATIONS

One of GRA's key strengths is in the area of employee and labor relations. GRA has provided assistance to a variety of agencies in either employee relations, labor relations, or both. We provide both policy implementation and operational assistance in employee and labor relations. Some of our assistance includes the following:

1. Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security

Since February 2003 GRA has provided the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with a wide variety of employee relations services and technical support.  Working closely with the Director of Employee Relations, the Director of the Office of Administrative Appeals, and the Director of HR Policy and their staffs, GRA associates have helped TSA HR and other administrative and legal officials, Federal Security Directors and other managers and supervisors at airports across the United States .  Our associates have provided timely and effective technical services and support on literally thousands of employee discipline cases; including the elimination of a backlog of over 300 disciplinary actions that faced TSA shortly after its inception.  Since that time GRA staff have aided over 400 TSA airports and their managers and HR specialists in determining when and how disciplinary actions are warranted and in preparing the proper documentation needed to support such actions that range from counseling memos to formal removals from service.  In addition, GRA has helped TSA review well over 1,000 employee appeals of disciplinary actions and prepared case summaries and recommendations to TSA’s Disciplinary Review Board regarding the proper outcome of the appeal cases.   In addition GRA has drafted numerous employee relations policies, conducted over 100 employee relations training courses for TSA managers, supervisors, and HR/Administrative staff – including several week long “Employee Relations Boot Camps” aimed at intensively training Federal HR/ER staff in handling difficult disciplinary cases.  Employee relations matters aided by the GRA team have included the broad spectrum of employee conduct, performance, leave abuse and other matters requiring consultative, corrective and/or disciplinary actions. 

GRA has also served as a subcontractor to Accenture and aided in providing employee relations-related services in support of determining suitability for employment at the Transportation Security Administration.  As part of a TSA suitability process, GRA ER Specialists helped eliminate a backlog of over 1,000 suitability determination cases pending at the time of TSA’s inception by reviewing case files and preparing termination and other employment-related letters and guidelines to TSA employees who had been determined to be not suitable for Federal employment due to pre-employment issues such as criminal histories, drug and/or alcohol abuse, falsification of job applications, major indebtedness, credit problems, etc.  GRA ER Assistants have also assisted in logging in, assigning, data base tracking, controlling and preparing numerous types of reports and status summaries on these cases related to the suitability backlog reduction effort. 

2. U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Program

The Federal Student Aid Program (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Education sought the services of an on-site contractor to provide a wide range of technical support and assistance for ongoing employee relations needs in critical areas such as performance management, dealing with poor performers, employee discipline, employee misconduct, appeals, grievances and other disputes and third party representation support.

GRA was selected in December of 2003 to provide such services to FSA and is continuing to provide them through on-site support personnel trained in employee relations, performance management, discipline, and dispute resolution.

GRA is providing a broad-range of employee relations services to assist FSA human resources professionals and advise/counsel agency managers and supervisors on dealing effectively with problem employees and disputes that arise from workplace problems and actions taken in addressing performance and conduct deficiencies. In addition, GRA has provided advice, training and otherwise assisted FSA managers in developing employee performance plans and in effectively implementing these plans via planning meetings, progress reviews and evaluations of employee performance. Further, GRA has provided labor relations advice and guidance to the HR Officer and agency managers. GRA has also performed an employee misconduct investigation in a FSA regional office. Primary services include:

  • Providing technical support and advisory services in dealing with employee violations and conduct/performance problems in regards to government-wide and agency legal, regulatory and contractual requirements; preparation for informal and formal counseling, taking corrective actions, documenting deficiencies, applying elements of proof, ensuring due process, determining the roles and responsibilities of employees and managers, applying appropriate standards of proof/evidence, considering penalty selection (e.g., removal, reduction in grade, suspension, reassignment, within grade denial) and mitigating factors, and preparation of formal actions, memoranda, etc. related to addressing employee performance and conduct issues. Advising managers on steps to take/not take in dealing with conduct/performance deficiencies and what options exist with respect to informal and formal actions to address conduct and/or performance deficiencies, including counseling memoranda, letters of reprimand, formal disciplinary and adverse actions, denial of within grade increases, performance-based actions, reasonable accommodation requests, etc.
  • Assisting FSA managers and supervisors in developing performance plans that link to agency goals and mission priorities and which feature clear employee performance objectives and standards that enhance employee accountability and effectiveness. Advising managers and supervisors on actions to take when employees fail to meet acceptable levels of performance, including placement of such employees on formal performance improvement plans as well as aiding in preparing actions to terminate, demote or reassign employees whose performance fails to improve to an adequate level.

3. National Transportation Safety Board

In May of 2004 the National Transportation Safety Board contracted with GRA to provide broad ranging employee and labor relations support to the NTSB Human Resources Director, her staff and agency managers and supervisors. GRA has been providing a variety of services aimed at improving NTSB employee and labor relations programs, policies and processes including:

  • Assisting the Human Resources Director with inter-agency and intra-NTSB negotiations, discussions, working groups, and both formal and information advisory forums to present, defend, and negotiate positions. Providing technical support to the HR Director with union contractual issues, disputes and negotiations.
  • Providing the full range of employee and labor relations services. These include providing technical input to the NTSB on complex disciplinary, adverse and performance based actions, grievances, appeals, complaints, performance management, employee/supervisory relationships, and attendance problems.
  • Providing expertise, guidance and technical assistance to the NTSB on all labor and employee relations issues, providing substantive analysis and strategic approaches to the resolution of complex and sensitive problems and issues. Providing recommendations to resolve unfair labor practice charges and complaints, arbitration of grievances, resolution of negotiability issues and conformance of labor agreements with applicable laws.
  • Providing recommendations to develop new procedures and modify existing ones to effectively maintain the NTSB labor and employee relations program. Developing recommendations and technical guidance, and performing the day-to-day activities associated with managing the NTSB ER/LR program.
  • Aiding NTSB in preparing for third party forums in which employee appeals and complaints are reviewed. Assessing potential impact and precedent setting implications of pending disputes before third party authorities.  Providing staff advisory services on individual cases and in the development of informal and formal solutions.

4. United States Capitol Police

Since November of 2003, GRA, Inc. has been providing expert consultative services to the United States Capitol Police Department in the area of labor-management relations. Like all legislative branch agencies, the Department is relatively new to the labor relations arena. Two unions have been certified, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Contracts are in place for both units, but the Department has not yet established a formal labor-management relations program staffed with experienced professionals. It lacks the processes and systems required to properly and efficiently administer a first-class labor relations program. GRA was called upon to provide the expertise need to develop that program.

GRA first conducted a needs assessment by reviewing existing contracts and grievance files, interviewing a variety of managers and supervisors, meeting with officials from both unions and assessing the organizational structures and administrative procedures currently in place.

Based on the advice and direct assistance of the GRA consultants assigned to this project, the Department has moved quickly to accomplish the following objectives:

  • Elevated the labor relations function to report directly to the Director of Human Resources
  • Recruited and interviewed for an experienced, professional Director of Labor Relations
  • Conducted a preliminary analysis of the labor agreements to identify potential problem areas for re-negotiation
  • Flow-charted the administrative procedures in place for grievances and disciplinary actions, identifying bottlenecks and other inefficiencies
  • Analyzed the need for formal case tracking systems and initiated a plan to work with IT staff to develop them
  • Established effective working relationships with the Department's Office of Employment Counsel
  • Reached out to both unions with proposals to work jointly to expand the knowledge and skills of union officials through agency-supported professional development
  • Revised and presented a training module of Basic Labor Relations for Supervisors
  • Drafted a comprehensive labor relations policy directive that provides a complete guide for supervisors and managers on how the Department's labor relations program is to be structured and administered. The draft Directive includes the following provisions, among others:
    • general statement of policy
    • definition of terms
    • assignment of responsibilities and accountability
    • delegations of authority

5. Department of Homeland Security

Since August of 2004, GRA has been providing human resources consultative services to the Department of Homeland Security.  GRA has been supporting the Department’s implementation of its new human resources authority under regulations issued by the Department on February 1, 2005, as authorized by Congress in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.  GRA is performing these services as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, Inc., which is the prime contractor.

Under the contract, GRA initially provided human resources consultative services for implementation of the Department’s new labor relations, adverse actions and appeals programs.  These programs, particularly the labor relations program, are vastly different than the ones they replace and require a very high level of knowledge and skill to understand and implement. 

GRA was responsible not only for developing the overarching management directives that would establish the policies and procedures governing these matters, but also for developing management guidance bulletins for use by DHS human resource practitioners and managers and supervisors as they began to implement the program throughout their organization.  The management directives identified organizational responsibilities and established policies and procedures governing these programs.  The labor relations bulletins addressed specific topics including unfair labor practices; bargaining obligations; Homeland Security Labor Relations Board (HSLRB) roles, responsibilities, and practice; official time, negotiated grievance procedures, and appropriateness of bargaining units.  The employee relations bulletins similarly dealt with specific topics including employee conduct, tables of offenses and penalties, template disciplinary letters; changes in adverse action policies and procedures, unacceptable performance actions; and back pay policies.

GRA also developed and delivered 10 2 and ˝ day technical training sessions on the new labor relations program and adverse action and appeals policies and procedures to 300 labor and employee relations practitioners, including attorneys, throughout DHS.  The training was conducted at 6 sites throughout the United States .  It included instruction on a training module for these practitioners to use to train DHS supervisors and managers.  GRA also developed an e-learning module covering these matters for employees. 

GRA assisted in the development of the operating rules for the Homeland Security Labor Relations Board, an independent entity created by the DHS regulations for reviewing and deciding certain labor relations cases.  GRA also developed a statement of work for contractor support, both professional and administrative, to the Board.  GRA prepared orientation handbooks for Board members and staff to use to gain a complete understanding of the Department’s labor relations program.  GRA was asked to perform these tasks based, in part, on the extensive experience of GRA staff in dealing with independent administrative bodies.  That experience extends both to preparing cases that go before such bodies and in drafting decision for such bodies.

GRA further designed a Workplace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) management directive which established a DHS-wide ADR program and the policies and procedures to implement that program and GRA developed a proposal for the creation and organizational structure of a DHS office which would manage that program.  The directive was formulated after a careful examination of best practices as applied throughout the public and private sectors.

As time progressed under the contract, based on the quality and level of products and services provided, GRA became engaged in a wider-range of human resources consultative services in the areas of pay-for-performance. 

  • In the area of performance management, GRA developed the management directive that will govern the Department’s new performance management program.  GRA also developed a Supervisor’s Desk Guide for Performance Management.  GRA conducted performance management policy training for human resource specialists, a course which was also attended by managers and supervisors.  The sessions were run in conjunction with training on the ePerformance Tool which is used by supervisors during each step of the performance management process. Through March 2006, GRA has conducted 10 4-hour sessions for 10-15 attendees.  GRA also was a contributor to the design and development of other performance management training including performance management elearning and eTutorial tools, which have been made available to all DHS employees to use in gaining an understanding of the new DHS performance management program, and the Performance Management Managers Guide used for a 2 and ˝ day training sessions for manager and supervisors with regard to their leadership role in the new DHS performance management program. DHS has moved forward and implemented the program throughout DHS with the last DHS components due to come under the program this spring.
  • GRA also began work in the areas of qualifications development, pay and pay administration, and position classifications.  In the area of qualifications, GRA is providing support to DHS in developing a qualifications approach based on competencies which moves away from the traditional X-118 qualifications statement.  In classification, GRA is providing support in developing a recommended standardized format for use across the 22 agencies that were merged into the Department and providing best practice for the development of a Position Description (PD) Library.  Another part of GRA’s classification work is to develop a Manager’s Guide to Position Classification.  In the pay arena GRA is developing a Manager’s Guide to Pay Administration which, similar to the PD Guide, will be used by Departmental managers to explain the systems to their employees.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Along with employee and labor relations, GRA provides performance management assistance to agencies as they develop and/or improve their performance management systems. As a result, GRA stands ready to assist agencies in improving their performance management systems as they implement pay-for-performance initiatives. Some of those examples include the following:

1. Federal Labor Relations Authority (sub-contractor to Job Performance Systems, Inc)

In November 2006 GRA began work at the FLRA as a sub-contractor to Job Performance Systems, Inc. to develop a performance management system for this agency to move them from a pass-fail system to a multi-performance level system that would be tied and cascaded from the agency’s strategic plan. GRA’s work was two-fold: to develop an SES performance system that would be meet certification requirements of the OPM; and, to develop performance elements and standards for 16 groups of non-SES positions. GRA developed and executed a methodology for this work and is now in the final stages of delivering the product.

2. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Since July 2006, GRA has assisted the National Gallery of Art by developing a performance appraisal system policy document and appropriate performance elements and standards for performance plans for a sampling of seven Senior Level staff, including art historical curatorial personnel, art conservationist, writing, and editorial personnel. All work is designed to meet the criteria listed in 5 CFR 430 and the requirements for OPM certification of the senior level performance management system. The performance plans developed by GRA are closely linked to the agency’s Mission and Strategic Plan as well as any annual NGA performance goals. Performance standards are written at several performance levels.

In Match of 2007, the contract has been amended to include finalizing the documentation necessary to support OPM certification of the Senior Level Performance Appraisal System, and developing performance plans for the remaining 13 Senior Level positions.

3.  U. S. Capitol Police (USCP)

In 2003, GRA entered into a contract with the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), Washington, DC.  During 2004 and 2005 GRA provided assistance in the complete redesign of USCP’s performance management system for the agency’s sworn (i.e., police officer) and civilian staffs.  In carrying out this project, GRA assisted with the development and implementation of its performance management program with underlying core competencies required by the USCP mission and key positions; building in an accountability and results focus to individual performance plans; stressing performance improvement in the appraisal process; and linking individual executive and lower level performance plans with critical USCP program priorities and objectives, the USCP strategic plan, and mission-driven requirements.  GRA’s project team  conducted a wide range of research, has benchmarked performance management systems at other law enforcement agencies, has identified best performance practices in other government organizations, and is taking a number of steps to redesign USCP’s performance management system and to improve the quality of employee performance appraisal within the agency (e.g., provide technical advice and support in developing clearly stated standards and requirements for performance management system policy, guidance, process, and procedural documentation needed for developing competencies, performance plans, and rating documents).  The Chief of Police at USCP announced to all executives that a newly GRA-designed senior management performance appraisal system would focus on strongly linking individual managerial performance standards and elements to the USCP strategic and performance plans as well as the Chief’s key program and mission priorities.  Following the system redesign work, GRA was tasked with providing numerous training sessions for USCP managers/supervisors, police officers, and civilian staff on workings of the system and their responsibilities in implementation.

4.   U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Program

GRA has provided assistance over a period of recent years (2004 to the present) to FSA managers and supervisors in developing performance plans that link to agency goals and mission priorities and which feature clear employee performance objectives and standards that enhance employee accountability and effectiveness. In addition, GRA has conducted numerous training sessions at ED/FSA for managers/supervisors and employees on developing elements/standards and linking them with agency goals and priorities.  GRA also provides advice to managers and supervisors on actions to take when employees fail to meet acceptable levels of performance, including placement of such employees on formal performance improvement plans as well as aiding in preparing actions to terminate, demote or reassign employees whose performance fails to improve to an adequate level.

5.   Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Under this effort, GRA provided assistance to FMCSA in the development of executive (i.e. SES) performance plans that were aligned with the agency's strategic plans and mission priorities. We also linked the performance plans to major leadership competencies and human capital management goals and strategies. Previously, performance plans were not necessarily linked to organizational objectives and mission accomplishment.  In addition GRA provided assistance to FMCSA’s Office of Chief Counsel in updating and rewriting performance plans for its attorney staff and administrative staff. 

6.   Department of Homeland Security (Sub-contractor to Northrup Grumman Information Technology)

GRA has been hired as a subcontractor by Northrop Grumman Corporation to provide a wide range of HR policy and program support to assist DHS in designing and implementing its new MAXHR human resources reform system.  GRA has been given major roles in the development of new labor and employee relations, performance management, and pay and position classification policies, working closely with DHS Federal officials and members of the Northrop Grumman contract team.  In the performance management area, GRA has drafted a supervisor/managers guide to the new DHS performance management system.  GRA has also aided DHS in determining if its new system is in compliance with OPM requirements, including OPM’s new assessment tool for determining the effectiveness of performance management systems.  In addition, GRA has been tasked with developing training materials that provide an overview of the new DHS performance management system for HR professionals in those DHS units where the new system will be initially rolled out.

7.   National Transportation Safety Board

GRA successfully aided the NTSB in revising its performance management system for Senior Executive Service and Senior Level employees and helped the agency obtain OPM/OMB certification for linking higher employee pay levels to performance.  In the process, GRA helped NTSB re-write performance goals and executive performance plans for a wide variety of senior managerial and high level expert positions – ensuring that these plans were tied to critical agency mission priorities and program goals.

RECRUITMENT AND STAFFING

GRA provides a wide range of services in all areas of staffing - recruitment, placement, and filling positions. In addition, several GRA associates have extensive backgrounds in implementing automated staffing programs in their former agencies or as a consultant. We also have associates who have administered delegated examining units (DEU's) in their former agencies. Here are examples of the type of assistance we can provide.

1. Federal Emergency Management Agency

In October 2006 GRA was selected to provide a complete range of staffing support to the agency. GRA placed seven highly qualified associates well versed in staffing operations including automated applicant tracking systems at the agency headquarters.  GRA provides a wide range of staffing services, including developing vacancy announcements and crediting plans, recruiting for external and internal vacancies, rating and ranking applicants, and providing certificates to selecting officials in a timely manner. These individuals are aligned with FEMA staff each of whom serves one or more components of the agency. GRA’s associates work side-by-side with their agency counterpart to provide staffing support to their assigned component(s). In December 2006 the agency requested an additional five associates to augment the staffing operation. GRA’s contract calls for the provision of over 12,000 hours of support to reduce the agency backlog of unfilled positions as well as recruit and staff an additional potential 1,000 vacancies in FY 2007.

2. National Transportation Safety Board

Since September 2004 GRA has provided on-site staffing support to the National Transportation Safety Board. Initially GRA placed two associates with outstanding staffing backgrounds at the agency each of whom worked a full time schedule. GRA has continued to provide full-time support to the NTSB and our associates’ service designated agency divisions in the same manner as their federal counterparts.   GRA staff has worked closely with NTSB managers to define specific staffing needs and to craft vacancy announcements, qualification statements, and crediting plans that help ensure that the best candidates are identified and interviewed for a wide variety of positions including jobs such as Accident Investigators, Engineers, Information Technology Specialists and a wide variety of administrative staff .   The result of GRA’s work has been a major reduction in the backlog of unfilled positions and an increase in the number and quality of well qualified candidates available for selection.

3. African Development Foundation

GRA aided this small agency in restructuring its workforce consistent with mission requirements and anticipated budget reductions. A three person GRA project team conducted a detailed organizational analysis (including an assessment of enabling legislation, strategic and performance plans, oversight agency audits, official mission and function statements, etc.) and provided options to management regarding reconfiguration of staff, functions and organizational structure consistent with ADF mission priorities and funding limitations. As part of the organizational review, GRA consultants did a complete review of existing positions and determined proper job classifications, titles and grade/pay levels for existing staff. Further, GRA staff provided recommendations to the ADF President and Director of Management on potential hiring, pay and promotion system change options (e.g., excepted service and pay banding) and an associated assessment of what the legal, regulatory and policy implications are available for making these potential changes. GRA helped the agency with developing vacancy announcements, crediting plans, recruitment strategies and staffing and selection processes connected with various critical positions. GRA also provided full HR advisory services to key management officials during a substantial period when ADF was recruiting to fill its HR Director position.

4. U. S. Capitol Police (USCP)

In 2003, GRA entered into a contract with the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP), Washington, DC and continues to provide a wide variety of HR services and training support working with the USCP Office of Human Resources. Among other things, our contract has called upon GRA to provide a full range of recruitment, staffing and placement expertise to support USCP's in filling approximately 200 civilian positions. Our associates developed vacancy announcements, crediting plans, interview questions, screened applications, develop lists of best qualified, etc. in support of a major USCP hiring initiative. As part of the effort, we have applied "best practices" techniques and have followed through by documenting each methodology and step in the staffing and classification processes.

5. Department of Energy, Richland, Washington

Since 2005, GRA has provided up to four individuals on a relatively full-time, on-site basis to provide a wide range of staffing-related services to the Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, Richland, Washington.  Services include preparation of vacancy announcements, rating and ranking of applicants, preparation of certificates of eligibility, coordination and scheduling of interview panels, coordination or pre-employment background checks, preparation of job offer letters, coordination of new hire relocations, and related staffing tasks. GRA also works with the QuickHire Xi system on this project.

MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONS

GRA performs employee misconduct investigations and related services for Federal agencies. Our highly-skilled staff are located throughout the United States and can meet agency needs with maximum convenience and minimal travel cost to the agency.

GRA's investigative services include the full range of conduct-related issues. We deliver investigative reports and related services promptly and have received high praise from our Federal agency clients. We are also occasionally called upon to handle the disciplinary actions that result from these investigations into possible employee misconduct.

GRA has conducted well over 100 misconduct investigations for Federal agencies. While it would not be appropriate for us to name the agencies because of the sensitive nature of these cases, we are including a small sample of our work.

  • GRA provided a key investigator on a team that investigated allegations that negligence resulted in the death of four employees. A second team of GRA staff members prepared the resulting disciplinary actions.
  • GRA provided the sole non-Federal investigator on a two-Department team that investigated allegations that agency scientists had falsified highly-publicized research evidence.
  • GRA investigated highly-publicized allegations of sexual harassment involving work crews that allegedly posted sexually explicit material in government vehicles, and supervisors who condoned the practice.
  • GRA investigated allegations that a self-directed work team had made inappropriate use of government funds.

For more specific information on this program, please contact Tom Thomas of GRA at TomT@gra3.com.

OUTPLACEMENT/CAREER TRANSITION SERVICES

1. Defense Distribution Centers, Nationwide

GRA has a history of providing top-quality career transition and outplacement services to the Department of Defense as it closed down its distribution centers over a five-year period. GRA actually began its work with the Defense Distribution centers in 1999 with a large contract to provide outplacement services to one installation - 250 individuals at the DDSP in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. In addition, since 2000, we have three separate outplacement contracts with DoD Distribution Centers for multiple facilities. These include:

  • Our initial contract dated January 15, 2000 to provide outplacement services to centers at Cherry Point, North Carolina; San Diego, California; and Jacksonville, Florida.
  • Our second contract, dated January 12, 2002, to provide outplacement services to centers at Richmond, Virginia; Albany, Georgia Hill AFB, Utah and Memphis, Tennessee
  • Our third contract, dated February 25, 2004, to provide outplacement services to centers at Puget Sound, Washington; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.

Since early in 2000 at almost a dozen Defense Distribution Centers (Defense Depots) around the country, GRA has conducted career counseling, career transition, and outplacement efforts that are very similar in nature to the deliverables articulated in OPM's current Statement of Work.  As an illustration of GRA’s capabilities and effectiveness in meeting OPM's needs and achieving desired results, below is a case study of outplacement work GRA performed at the Defense Distribution Depot in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 2000. Similar services were provided to the other Centers around the country since that time.

2. Defense National Stockpile Center

GRA Inc., provides outplacement services to the Defense National Stockpile Center (DNSC) to facilitate the successful transition of General Schedule and Wage Grade employees who face potential involuntarily separation as a result of an organization restructuring and downsizing initiative.  Specifics of the workforce include:

  • That these employees are in a variety of GS and Wage Grade positions, primarily in the warehousing and administrative areas.
  • That  employees could begin facing reduction-in-force separations on or after October 1, 2005.
  • That at least 77 employees and perhaps as many as 200 employees could be facing a reduction in force and would need outplacement assistance.
  • That outplacement and career transition assistance contractual support services are provided in the following locations:
    • Binghamton, NY
    • New Haven, IN
    • Fort Belvoir , VA
    • Point Pleasant, WV
    • Baton Rouge, LA
    • Scotia, NY
    • Clearfield, UT
    • Somerville, NJ
    • Hammond, IN
    • Warren, OH

The overarching goal is to provide a “soft-landing” for impacted employees and to help them transition to new jobs and careers within and outside the Federal government, make major life decisions (e.g., starting their own businesses and/or retirement) and to equip them with the skills necessary to seek employment opportunities that will be in their best interests and consistent with their career goals.  GRA provides the following kinds of services:

  • Set-up, maintaining, and dismantling of an Outplacement Center in each location.
  • Training workshops on a variety of subjects such as resume and cover letter writing, job search techniques, interviewing skills, starting a small business, obtaining and maintaining certifications and licenses, and surviving the overall downsizing.
  • Arranging meetings with State Offices to provide a variety of services listed on page two of the Statement of Work.
  • Assisting the Administrator and other staff by briefing them on the services of the Center, writing transition assistance/outplacement articles for newsletters and bulletins, participating in Administrator's meetings, and assisting in controlling rumors related to downsizing.
  • Assisting employees on an individual basis in a wide variety of outplacement efforts, all related to writing resumes, creating templates for employees to document experience, reviewing employee qualifications, documenting qualifications for registration in the PPP, RPL, and ICTAP programs.
  • Assisting employees in writing KSA's in response to vacancy announcements.
  • Assisting employees in conducting actual job searches through the DoD automated system, USA jobs, newspapers and other publications, locating Federal and private industry jobs, and conducting job fairs.
  • Assisting those who qualify for retirement with adjusting to retirement life and applying for Social Security benefits.

Regarding project outcomes, so far at least 55 individuals have sought and received assistance under this project. This includes resume development, career counseling, coaching assistance, how to apply for vacancies inside and outside the government, and related assistance. In addition, 12 individuals have been placed in positions outside the Federal government, while many others have been successfully placed within DoD or in other Federal agencies.

3. Department of Energy, Golden, Colorado

GRA Inc. provided Career Transition and outplacement assistance to the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Golden, Colorado for DOE personnel in offices designated for reassignment. This included staff in Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Golden, Colorado, Seattle, and one employee each in Kansas City, Missouri and Honolulu, Hawaii. This service included:

  • Two-day workshops in the six key regional office cities listed above
  • Consultation for individual employees on an as-needed basis

More specifically:

  • Approximately 109 employees were affected by the announcement to consolidate the six regional offices mentioned above into three project management centers.
  • These employees were generally general schedule, competitive service employees.
  • The services provided were both outplacement workshops in a classroom format as well as one-on-one counseling sessions with employees.
  • Six two-day workshops were conducted between October 1, 2005 and December 15, 2005.
  • One-on-one consultation services were also  made available between October 1, 2005 and September 30, 2006.
  • The numbers of employees needing transition/outplacement assistance were as follows:
    • Atlanta,Georgia - 23
    • Boston, Massachusetts – 16
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 17
    • Chicago, Illinois – 17
    • Golden, Colorado – 19
    • Seattle, Washington – 15
    • Kansas City, Missouri – 1
    • Honolulu, Hawaii - 1

As a result, all employees participated in the outplacement workshops and all employees were provided one-on-one counseling assistance as needed. Virtually all employees seeking placement were given alternative positions inside or outside the Federal government.

RETIREMENT AND BENEFITS

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C.

Between June and August, 2006, GRA provided three retirement counselors to EEOC to assist in an early out program, including retirement counseling, retirement calculations, and retirement processing. Actual duties included the following:

  • Provide retirement counseling to employees. For part‑time employment, for optional, early‑out, disability, discontinued service and VERA retirements. 
  • Review and process optional, discontinued service, and early‑out retirement applications upon receipt to ensure all voluntary and involuntary retirement applications are received by the payroll office no later than five days from date of separation. 
  • Insure all preliminary disability applications are completed and forwarded to the payroll office no later than five days after receipt. 
  • Process paperwork for separating employees within two days after receipt of action. 
  • Respond and resolve questions or issues arising as a result of separation actions.
  • Insure that employees meet eligibility requirements (retirement, benefits, creditable service) and process actions accordingly.
  • Maintain professional, accurate, and timely customer service in all dealings.  Customer service standards include:
    • Seeks to understand customer issues;
    • Takes full responsibility for resolving issues;
    • Follows-up and responds to customer phone calls or written inquiries within 16-24 hours. (This timeframe should be shortened or lengthened depending on the question and the amount of research or coordination needed. In general, questions of a routine nature should be responded to within 16 hours.
    • Promptly notify customers when information cannot be obtained as expected.

2. U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C.

Since April of 2006, GRA, Inc has provided the Department of Education with four full-time associates to handle the following duties and responsibilities:

  • One-on-one retirement and benefits counseling for employees, new hires, potential retirees, and retirees, and surviving spouses where applicable
  • Preparing retirement annuity estimates for as well as providing retirement application packages to employees with all appropriate forms
  • Preparing necessary documentation to process all types of retirement applications for CSRS, CRSR Offset, and FERS retirees and forwarding appropriate documentation to Payroll and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. These packages will be technically correct and consistent with government regulations
  • Consulting with and providing information to current employees in such areas as flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and TSP accounts
  • Consulting with separating, new and rehired employees about benefits such as health and life insurance, retirement, social security, and TSP.
  • Preparing necessary documentation to process all types of employee benefits and forwarding appropriate documentation to Payroll and the service providers
  • Reviewing employee status under the Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Corrections Act (FERCCA) and making corrections where necessary.

This project includes many of the same type of tasks being requested under this solicitation.

3. Congressional Budget Office OPF Review/Benefits Review

Between May and July of 2005, GRA provided a complete review of 250 employee official personnel folders (OPF's) for the Congressional Budget Office. Part of the reason for the review was to assure the accuracy of all retirement-related records. GRA staff reviewed several specific fields - including retirement, health benefits, TSP coverage, and life insurance - for accuracy and currency. CBO was concerned about the accuracy and currency of its OPF's as it related to payroll and other processes, and called in GRA to assure complete OPF accuracy and currency in the areas listed above, as well as additional areas. The team made/recommended corrections where necessary. Two GRA associates worked on this OPF/benefits review and reviewed all agency folders.

4. Farm Credit Administration, McLean, VA

We have just begun a benefits project – Retirement services – with the Farm Credit Administration on December 4, 2006. Under this project, we provide a benefits specialist for 16 hours per week to handle all aspects of retirement calculations, retirement counseling, and retirement processing for all Farm Credit Administration employees.

In addition, we have conducted recent OPF review projects for several agencies, including:

  • Overseas Private Investment Corporation
  • NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, MD
  • Corporation for National Service
  • Federal Highway Administration
  • Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary

PRE-RETIREMENT AND RETIREMENT PLANNING TRAINING

Since the beginning of 2006, GRA has conducted several pre-retirement seminars for the Department of the Interior, the Department of the Army, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Department of Energy.

1.      Department of the Interior, National Business Center, Ft. Huachuca, Arizona

On March 16-17, 2006, GRA conducted a two-day pre-retirement program for DOI staff covering all aspects of Federal retirement, including CSRS and FERS. Ann Ozuna was the instructor for this seminar.

2.      Department of the Army, Tank Automotive Command, Warren, Michigan

GRA provided an intensive two-day ore-retirement class for over 130 CSRS employees.  This theater-style class was well received by the attendees and resulted in an invitation to return this September to provide pre-retirement training for FERS employees.   Ann Ozuna was the instructor for these seminars.

3.      Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, D.C.

In the fall of 2006, GRA conducted very successful pre-retirement and mid-career retirement planning seminars for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, D.C. These seminars were for both CSRS and FERS employees.

4.      Department of Energy, Richland, Washington

In the fall of 2006, GRA conducted Pre-Retirement Training classes for the Department of Energy, Richland, Washington. This three-day series covered CSRS and FERS training on separate days and a combined CSRS/FERS session on the final day. Ann Ozuna was the instructor for these sessions.

HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT/WORKFORCE PLANNING

1. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) of DOT secured GRA services to assist the agency in reviewing its current efforts in human capital management and developing a comprehensive corporate human capital plan that is aligned with the agency’s published strategic and performance goals and plans.  The GRA team worked closely with FMCSA’s Human Capital Working Group (comprised of a cross-section of senior managers and key HR officials) to conduct a thorough analysis of the current workforce.  This analysis focused on determining what type of outreach, recruitment, hiring and retention programs are needed to ensure that the agency will have a future workforce that possesses the skills and capabilities needed to deliver mission-critical services.  In November 2003, we completed a Human Capital Plan for the Administration.  That year-long project gave us in-depth knowledge of FMCSA’s unique (although brief) history; its significant, Congressionally-mandated growth since its inception and the attendant reauthorization requirement; the working relationships between Program Offices, Service Centers and Division Offices; the special challenges of acquiring and maintaining a bi-lingual workforce on our southern border, the legacies of FMCSA’s former status as a component of the Federal Highways Administration, and a broad understanding of the agency’s human resources programs, systems and practices.

In September 2005 GRA was again awarded a contract to assist FMCSA in developing an updated and detailed more human capital plan that assessed critical skills and competency issues and featured several types and levels of workforce analyses and recommended strategies and actions (e.g., succession planning, workforce re-training, and diversity outreach) aimed at aiding the agency in preparing for its workforce of the future.  This effort also included an assessment of the Human Resources organization and functions.  GRA offered several recommendations to FMCSA for improving its HR and human capital programs as well as suggested specific actions for addressing employee workforce survey data reflective of the need for change in HR-related programs and practices in the agency.

2. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Research Services (NIH/ORS)

The Office of Research Services at the National Institutes of Health is an organization undergoing significant change, including A-76 analyses, evolving ways of doing work, resource reductions and increasing demands for service from their customers. This workforce planning project will not only help them identify the competences, and implement other workforce planning activity strategies and tools, needed to perform the work successfully, but it will also provide managers with an understanding of the power of workforce planning as a management tool that provides significant assistance in times of great change.

GRA is providing the Office of Research Services assistance to:

  • Develop a strategy and process to identify competencies and/or skills sets required to meet mission requirements in one, or more mission area.
  • Educate operational managers in workforce planning strategies, tools and techniques.
  • Develop strategies, approaches and/or tools to implement workforce planning activities.
  • Involve operational managers and staff of the Workforce Planning and Management Branch in all relevant activities.

3. National Science Foundation

For this project, GRA is a subcontractor to Federal Management Partners. Together the two firms are conducting a comprehensive evaluation and documentation of NSF's current workforce planning systems and processes. The outcome will be the design and pilot of a workforce planning process and system based on NSF and Federal government best practices. Among the deliverables produced for this project is a labor force analysis that provides a current agency scientific, business operations, and program support workforce profile, recruitment profile, and anticipated competitive challenges and issues in the future. The project team also produced a Best Practice Study that identified and described the OPM, GAO and National Academy of Public Administration models for workforce planning, and developed case studies of the workforce planning systems and procedures of a number of federal agencies. Finally, the team documented and produced a report outlining current NSF data systems and current reporting capabilities.

4. Department of Treasury

The Department of Treasury, Under Secretary (Enforcement), Study of Future Retirements and Staffing Needs of Criminal Investigators

The Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) analyzed Central Personnel Datafile information on Treasury's Criminal Investigators from the last five years to determine the nature of the retirement and accession situation at Treasury for these positions. HumRRO developed a dynamic simulation model to use data from the previous five years to project the number of retirements Treasury can expect in the next five years among its Criminal Investigators. HumRRO analyzed accession needs, the current recruiting market, and the distribution of Criminal Investigators by grade, age, experience, and eligibility for retirement. HumRRO prepared a report for the House Appropriations Committee to satisfy the mandate to Treasury to report back to the committee on the retirement and work force planning situation. Dr. Medsker has presented briefings on the findings to Treasury's law enforcement bureaus, the Under Secretary for Enforcement and the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department (Office of Management).

5. Treasury Department Law Enforcement Agencies

GRA participated as a subcontractor on this major study of law enforcement occupations in the Department of Treasury. The lead contractor for this study was the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO). The final report of this study was a comprehensive review of law enforcement occupations at the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Customs Service.

GRA was the author of three components of the study that was delivered to the Office of Enforcement, Department of Treasury, in June, 200l with subsequent refinements as recently as June 2002.   GRA completed studies on:

  • The management of senior executive service law enforcement positions and the related SES workforce across all of Treasury's agencies;
  • The optimization of the staffing of law enforcement positions in Treasury's field offices; and
  • The quality of work life for individuals in law enforcement occupations in all of Treasury's agencies.

6.  Department of Energy

GRA has provided several services to the Department of Energy under the broad umbrella or workforce planning. These initiatives include the following:

Department Of Energy - Office of Security and Safeguards Security Officer Professional Development and Assignment Program (Pdap)

  • Background: At the height of the probes into compromise of nuclear weapons secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Department of Energy, Office of Security Affairs, hired GRA to study the processes affecting the Security Officer occupation ranging from initial hire, through professional development and placement, to succession planning. This project involved workforce planning, identifying and categorizing the competencies for various specialties within the Security Officer line of work, and development of model performance standards and position descriptions. A major component of this project was a benchmark study of the Central Intelligence Agency's methods of centrally managing its equivalent security workforce. GRA staff compared it to the decentralized approach used by Department of Energy. GRA's work produced system-wide improvement recommendations
  • Methodology: As a first step, GRA assembled a project team with experience in dealing with security occupations. All had held high-level security clearances during their Federal careers that could be re-activated as necessary. Analyses of current processes and practices were carried out to identify those that had become obsolete or counterproductive to the current security mission. The practice of de-centralized career development was examined in detail. In addition to reviewing the formal policy and the informal practice, we devised structured interviews for Directors of Security, security specialists, and human resource support staff at field sites. At DOE Headquarters, we similarly interviewed a number of high-ranking security officials, including the Director, Office of Security Affairs. The purpose of these interviews was to identify sponsorship of policies and practices GRA had earlier identified as obsolete or counterproductive, and to offer alternatives drawn from the CIA benchmark.
  • Results: This project contributed substantially to a report prepared by the Director, Nonproliferation and National Security Institute to the Director of the Department's Office of Security and Safeguards, a direct report to the Secretary. Some of GRA's recommendations have already been realized in the establishment of the Nuclear National Security Agency, a new DOE component.
  • Challenges: The greatest challenge was to gain the trust and cooperation of the line security officials GRA staff interviewed. GRA knew these people had insights and possible solutions to the problems that were identified, but we were talking to them at a time when everything was under scrutiny by higher DOE echelons, the Congress, and the national media. The background and experience of GRA's team members established our bona fides with the DOE security community.

7. Department of Energy, Radioactive Waste Management

Beginning in September of 2003, GRA provided in-depth assistance to this major scientific/technical component of the Department of Energy in designing a workforce planning approach and in developing a detailed workforce plan covering its headquarters and field employees.  This organization was undergoing major changes in mission focus at the time of GRA's assistance and GRA was able to help design specific actions to address competency, skill gap, diversity, training, succession planning and other issues faced this group now and for the future.  This organization group turned out to one of the first in DOE to achieve a "green" on DOE's internal "scorecard" in Human Capital and GRA was recognized by the group for its invaluable assistance in developing a comprehensive and professional workforce plan.

GENERAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT SUPPORT

GRA provides a number of services to government agencies under the broad umbrella of general human resources management operations and support. These examples include the following:

1. Department of Homeland Security, Human Resources Management System:

Since August of 2004, GRA has been providing human resources consultative services to the Department of Homeland Security. GRA has been supporting the Department’s implementation of its new human resources authority under regulations issued by the Department on February 1, 2005, as authorized by Congress in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. GRA is performing these services as a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, Inc., which is the prime contractor.

Under the contract, GRA initially provided human resources consultative services for implementation of the Department’s new labor relations, adverse actions and appeals programs. These programs, particularly the labor relations program, are vastly different than the ones they replace and require a very high level of knowledge and skill to understand and implement.

GRA was responsible not only for developing the overarching management directives that would establish the policies and procedures governing these matters, but also for developing management guidance bulletins for use by DHS human resource practitioners and managers and supervisors as they began to implement the program throughout their organization. The management directives identified organizational responsibilities and established policies and procedures governing these programs. The labor relations bulletins addressed specific topics including unfair labor practices; bargaining obligations; Homeland Security Labor Relations Board (HSLRB) roles, responsibilities, and practice; official time, negotiated grievance procedures, and appropriateness of bargaining units. The employee relations bulletins similarly dealt with specific topics including employee conduct, tables of offenses and penalties, template disciplinary letters; changes in adverse action policies and procedures, unacceptable performance actions; and back pay policies.

GRA also developed and delivered technical training on the new labor relations program and adverse action and appeals policies and procedures to 300 labor and employee relations practitioners, including attorneys, throughout DHS. This included instruction on a training module for these practitioners to use to train DHS supervisors and managers. GRA also developed an e-learning module covering these matters for employees.

Further, GRA assisted in the development of the operating rules for the Homeland Security Labor Relations Board, an independent entity created by the DHS regulations for deciding certain labor relations cases and developed a statement of work for contractor support to the Board. GRA prepared orientation handbooks for Board members and staff to use to gain a complete understanding of the Department’s labor relations program. Additionally, GRA designed a Workplace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) management directive which established a DHS-wide ADR program and the policies and procedures to implement that program and GRA developed a proposal for the creation and organizational structure of a DHS office which would manage that program. The directive was formulated after a careful examination of best practices as applied throughout the public and private sectors.

As time progressed under the contract, based on the quality and level of products and services provided, GRA became engaged in a wider-range of human resources consultative services in the areas of pay-for-performance. GRA developed the management directive that will govern the Department’s new performance management program. GRA also began work in the areas of qualifications development, pay and pay administration, and position classifications. In the area of qualifications, GRA is providing support to DHS in developing a qualifications approach based on competencies which moves away from the traditional X-118 qualifications statement. In classification, GRA is providing support in developing a recommended standardized format for use across the 22 agencies that were merged into the Department and providing best practice for the development of a Position Description (PD) Library. Another part of GRA’s classification work is to develop a Manager’s Guide to Position Classification. In the pay arena GRA is developing a Manager’s Guide to Pay Administration which, similar to the PD Guide, will be used by Departmental managers to explain the systems to their employees.

GRA’s contract is scheduled to run through July 2007. GRA expects to be a full participant during this entire timeframe and to see its involvement with the implementation of the above programs increase.

2 African Development Foundation (ADF):

GRA was recently selected by ADF to provide a wide variety of human resources support services to aid the agency in restructuring its workforce and to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness in the face of impending budget reductions. In addition to providing ADF management with restructuring options, position management recommendations, and assistance in job classification, reduction in force preparation, and developing internal grievance, EEO and labor relations policies, GRA is helping the agency re-design its performance management system to ensure that employee performance plans reflect mission related goals and are aligned with key program objectives and management priorities. ADF is looking to GRA to make performance appraisal a more meaningful and measurable process so that meaningful distinctions can be made among performers and those who contribute most to mission accomplishment will be recognized and rewarded for their efforts.

3. Department of Energy, Richland, Washington

In 2004-2005, GRA provided a number of services to the Department of Energy, Richland, Washington in the area of general human resources management services. Energy was in the process of reorganizing and preparing for a potential reduction in force and needed a variety of basic supplemental human resources management services provided. These services included the following:

  • Compiling data for on-going litigation for its Ohio Field Office
  • Gathering, auditing and updating position descriptions for employees being realigned to the Consolidated Business Center (CBC)
  • Position management assistance
  • Benefits counseling and benefits calculations for employees
  • Records management to perform quality checks of official personnel folders, employee performance folders, medical folders, and program files, including the audit of data integrity.
  • Coding of personnel documents to insure data is accurate so retention registers may be run to prepare for RIF at the Ohio Closure Project
  • Compute data for employees on buyout incentive and severance allowances
  • Rewriting position descriptions to reflect work being performed and insuring that positions are accurately classified

4. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

GRA provided a full range of HR advice and consultation to VA Medical Center, Washington, D.C. top management including assistance in identifying candidates for the vacant HR chief position. GRA staff interviewed management customers of HR services and prepared a report for top management regarding the customers' view of HR operations and what was needed to provide maximum HR support to the Medical Center's mission. From November 2004 to February 2005, we provided oversight and consultation to the day to day operations of the HR program while the agency recruited for a new HR director.  The new director began in late February of 2005.  Since that time GRA has assisted in his transition to the position by facilitating meetings with staff and HR customers, including unions, and has provided advice to ensure a successful transition.

5. Congressional Budget Office OPF Review/Benefits Review:

Between May and July of 2005, GRA provided a complete review of 250 employee official personnel folders (OPF's) for the Congressional Budget Office. GRA staff reviewed several specific fields - including retirement, health benefits, TSP coverage, and life insurance - for accuracy and currency. CBO was concerned about the accuracy and currency of its OPF's as it related to payroll and other processes, and called in GRA to assure complete OPF accuracy and currency in the areas listed above, as well as additional areas. The team made/recommended corrections where necessary. Two GRA associates worked on this OPF/benefits review and reviewed all agency folders.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REVIEWS AND EVALUATIONS

GRA has occasionally been called on to provide an impartial, outside review of human resources management operations, as demonstrated in the following example:

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation

Under sub-contract, GRA, Inc. began an assessment of the human resources program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on March 29, 2005. GRA performed most of its work on-site at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. and finished its on-site work on September 7, 2005.

As part of the FBI Human Resources Program Review, an examination was made of all performance and conduct actions undertaken by the Performance, Recognition and Awards Unit (PRAU) during FY 2005.  A total of 11 actions were identified as having been initiated during this time period and all were evaluated.  These actions were found to have met the substantive requirements of appropriate law, rules and regulations.  The actions can be typified as including well developed and specified charges; fact-finding that was comprehensive, clear and connected to the charges; meeting all mandated procedural and time requirements; and identifying all appropriate appeal rights.  Some opportunities to improve the administrative processes do exist and are discussed below.

The types of performance and conduct related actions undertaken by the unit include those involving denial of within grade increases due to unsatisfactory performance; reassignment, downgrading or removal due to unsuccessful performance; removal during the probationary period for both new employees and for supervisors; removal for leave abuse not involving charges of AWOL; and issuance of notices of indefinite suspension due to security clearance concerns.  All other types of adverse and disciplinary actions are administered by the Office of Professional Responsibility. 

2. National Transportation Safety Board

In 2002 the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) engaged GRA to formally review the agency's human resources management function. The objective of the review was to provide NTSB with information regarding the HR program's strengths and deficiencies and to provide recommendations to NTSB on improving personnel programs and processes, including ensuring their compliance with applicable law and regulations. This formal review consisted of how well NTSB HR policies, procedures and practices supported effective recruitment, staffing, classification, pay, leave administration, awards programs, labor and employee relations. GRA also provided an overall assessment of how well HR programs and practices enabled NTSB to attract and retain a high-quality workforce. The review also focused on the need for changes in internal quality control and assessment processes, including the need for training for both HR staff and the managers they serve.   Several of the key findings and recommendations related to improving workforce planning, recruitment, appointment, merit promotion, and employee development and performance.

In July of 2003 GRA began providing assistance to NTSB the area of position classification in reviewing a wide variety of positions at all levels at Board headquarters and field offices from the standpoint of position classification/management. The work ranged from reviews of existing PDs to ensure correctness of occupational, classification, and grade-level designations to developing new job descriptions and classification evaluation statements where none previously exist. GRA also drafted agency-wide position classification policy guidelines for NTSB to aid in future classification actions and decisions.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, GROUP FACILITATION, AND TEAMBUILDING

Under the GSA MOBIS (Management, Organization, and Business Improvement Services) schedule, GRA provides services in such areas as organizational development, group facilitation, and teambuilding. While most of that assistance has come in the form of training rather than technical assistance, we also provide consulting services in this area. (See Leadership, Management, and Supervisory Training section.)

1. Department of Interior, Royalty Management Program, Minerals Revenue Service, Denver, Colorado.

RMP is a multi-billion dollar financial management organization that collects royalties from oil and other natural resource companies.   It has a staff of 600 employees that is geographically dispersed throughout the country. From 1996-1999 GRA traveled to major RMP locations and met with managers and small and large groups to gather information and data about their work. As a result of GRA efforts, RMP moved from multiple functions to core business processes via business process re-engineering. A more effective senior leadership structure was put in place and de-layering and supervisory issues were addressed.   GRA assisted RMP in doing benchmarking to establish best practice standards.

We also did a Change Management/Teambuilding Study with a team of RMP internal change specialists to identify where the staff was in the transition to new work expectations, new organizational structures, new technology approaches, and new culture.

2. Department of Veterans Affairs, Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System:

GRA was asked to conduct an assessment of management and performance issues related to the hospital's operational efficiency and effectiveness. GRA developed a menu of possible interventions for getting positive improvements using benchmarking of successful VA establishments, including changes to systems for goal setting and measuring organizational and executive performance. GRA provided recommendations on how the roles and responsibilities of the CEO, Chief of Staff, Clinical Directors, and other key staff needed to change in order to increase accountability and results-based performance improvements in hospital operations and program delivery. GRA work in this organization contributed to it moving from last to first place in reducing waits and delays in its service delivery category.

In 2000 we provided training on benchmarking, process improvement, and Business Process Re-engineering to teams from the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care Service (CAVHCS) hospitals, Montgomery, and Tuskegee, Alabama. The staff GRA trained used benchmarking as the primary means of improving the hospital system's performance. This two hospital system, following the training of the benchmarking teams and their coaching by our staff, vaulted from last place to first place in just six months against DVA's national operational effectiveness criteria called: "Waits and Delays," in the VISN headquartered in Atlanta. This intervention led to a visit by the VISN Director to congratulate the staff for their tremendous performance improvement.

3. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), Laurel, Maryland.

The WSSC is a $600 million annual expenditure non-Federal public sector organization that had been in the spotlight in the Washington metropolitan area for several years.   GRA provided services from 1997-1999 to WSSC, a total value of approximately $300,000. In 1998 and 1999, GRA worked with WSSC management to identify ways to reduce administrative costs within the organization. WSSC had as a goal shrinking their 540+/- administrative staff by 70-80 employees while still providing effective service. GRA did organizational assessment work to identify areas where money and staff resources could be saved or reallocated elsewhere. As with the Erie VA hospital, we trained and supported high performance teams and did a variety of organizational analyses.

4. Architect of the Capitol.

In 2006, GRA provided assistance to the Architect of the Capitol on organizational development, strategic and business planning initiatives and management.

GRA worked with the leadership of the AOC to assist in the development of change management strategies. We also provide the expertise of our seasoned and well respected senior associates in addressing human capital, communication, conflict resolution and dispute resolution issues of the highest complexity. More specifically, we:

  • Worked with AOC management to develop planning agendas for management council and other senior management meetings. We facilitated those meetings as well as procuring off-site retreat facilities.
  • Assisted on all aspects of change management.
  • Within our company, the GRA Training Institute conducted management team sessions based on issues requiring follow-on action from management council or other senior management meetings.
  • Our staff deployed as needed to AOC for conflict management, dispute resolution and communication issues.
  • Provided consulting services which will include developing strategic initiatives through a variety of techniques including change management methodologies, team and leadership building and our expertise in business process re-engineering.
  • Helped the management team to develop strategies which will address issues arising from the Government Accountability Office’s review.

BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

Also under the MOBIS schedule, GRA has provided a number of services to agencies under the broad umbrella of strategic planning/business process re-engineering initiatives. Some of our more prominent efforts include the following:

1. Department of the Navy, Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, Point Mugu, CA.

In 2001, the U. S. Navy called on GRA to help it develop a business model to deal with a dysfunctional workforce at the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, Point Mugu, CA.

The aircraft QF-4 FSAT program was experiencing declining QF-4 usage/revenue over four years, and QF-4 costs had already been strenuously cut. The current QF-4 pricing model appeared to be in a "death spiral." The perceived factors in business decline were a general decline in development programs; lower-priced options available from competitors; aircraft availability not meeting all customer needs; and rate pressures from indirect charges (e.g. General & AVDLR) that were being applied to a shrinking revenue base. In addition, amounts of core FSAT work are relatively small, and storage requirements/costs were up significantly. The review covered a data gathering process that resulted in recommendations to top management.

Our data gather assistance included:

  • Individual interviews and meetings with key personnel during 2-day on-site visit
  • Review of prior presentations, analyses, and directives
  • Analysis using multiple frameworks:
  • National Quality Award Program (Baldrige) Criteria
  • Workout strategies for distressed companies
  • Small Business Administration Business (SBA) Planning Model
  • Important data for deciding FSAT future are not yet available, e.g., MEO outcome, unbundling of rates, discussions with customers
  • FSAT is among many open issues relating to Joint FSAT implementation
  • Obtain concurrence that FSAT is a core military function, crucial to weapons-testing both now and under the Joint FSAT program under the Air Force
  • As such, it merits institutional funding to the extent of any deficit
  • Complete customer focus and workforce initiatives to provide data for FSAT decision prior to FY2003 budget

Recommendations included the following:

  • Plan for continuing operations in FY2002.
  • Provide external perspective on issues and options re: business model for QF-4 Full Scale Aerial Targets (FSAT)
  • Review and comment on internally-identified options
  • Contribute lessons learned from private sector and elsewhere in government
  • Suggest alternatives (including out-of-the-box) to construct an effective go-forward strategy
  • Identify short-term, actionable solutions
  • Focus on mission-critical, difficult, and high-tech work. Leave lesser work to competitors and contractors, or acquire their services for FSAT requirements
  • Charge for all activities at full cost where market allows; otherwise, set rates just below customer break-even for using competitors
  • 2000 decision by NWTS not to raise QF-4 rates was correct
  • Recognize storage as a separate business. Budget and charge accordingly
  • Push the envelope of rate-setting opportunities
  • Assure upper level review of FSAT budget variance reports showing attribution of over-and under-estimates and variances (e.g. RDT&E flights, Cherry Point deliveries.)

2. Royalty Management Program, Minerals Revenue Service, Department of Interior Business Process Re-Engineering (RMP-BPR).

Background:RMP's mission is to collect, account for, and disburse royalties paid by private companies to the government for the extraction of such minerals as oil, natural gas, and coal from federal and Indian mineral leases. The monies go to 38 states, 41 Indian Tribes, 20,000 individual Indian owners, and U.S. Treasury accounts. Royalties amount to more than $4.5 billion annually. In July 1996 RMP contracted with GRA to provide BPR training and consulting services. The scope of the work GRA performed broadened from 1996-1999.

Methodology: GRA helped RMP to develop the Design Team's charter and trained that team to focus on compliance, audit-related processes, involving work performed by half of RMP's workforce. Within six weeks a new law substantially altered RMP's historical operating assumptions and oil and gas mineral revenue financial activities. In April 1997 RMP broadened the scope of the reengineering initiative to cover its financial management and information technology (IT) processes, the balance of the agency.

The Design Team used classic BPR methodology to document the "As Is" condition of work processes. Three "stretch goals" kept the Design and later the Implementation Team focused on achieving key improvement goals. The goals were to disburse the money within 24 hours of the due date, ensure compliance with applicable laws and lease terms within 3 years, and improve reporters' compliance with lease terms, regulations, and laws. At the time RMP's performance was far short of these goals. The team produced more than 1,000 pages of flow charts, gave periodic briefings on their progress and issues, and got feedback from senior leaders, industry groups, Indian Tribes, state governments, and federal agencies.

The Design Team benchmarked state governments' methods of collecting, disbursing, and accounting for royalty revenue. The team benchmarked the Province of Alberta , Canada and Norway . The team benchmarked federal and private financial transaction processing entities. Systematic, continuing benchmarking informed the Design Team about competitive practices and assured that its work would not be insular. Benchmarking lead RMP to understand the importance of designing financial and reporting work processes for the Internet.

Early on GRA facilitated the senior leadership group's strategic planning session. Several senior leaders opposed the re-engineering initiative for professional or personal reasons. There would be a flattening of the organization and a shift away from functional organization to end-to-end, core business processes. "Rice bowl" and power issues surfaced. GRA provided classroom training on Leadership Skills; Motivation, Mentoring, and Risk-Taking; and on Managing Change to RMP managers in all locations across the U.S. This training allowed RMP to gauge the extent of the resistance to change of its management cadre. Frequent Town Hall meetings, Intranet news releases, etc., kept staff abreast of BPR findings and recommendations.

GRA worked with RMP to estimate the number of FTE that would be needed in the new organization. We worked through the Office of the Actuary, OPM, to get estimates of losses over time from the RMP professional work force. That workforce planning paid off by identifying the loss of knowledge due to voluntary retirements as a far greater problem than surplus staff. RMP invested through another contractor in Knowledge Management.

In 1999 GRA did a study to assist RMP in developing a "Reengineering Transition Strategy." This monograph, published in August, involved eight months of effort by our staff working with an internal RMP team. We used large and small group sessions and individual interviews to systematically collect information about the specific concerns and issues RMP needed to address for its workforce to become comfortable with the changes it planned to make.

Results: In October 2000 RMP reorganized as a streamlined structure around end-to-end processes. It established a Center for Excellence to do strategic planning, knowledge management, and planned performance improvement. The three stretch goals have been realized. RMP now is capable of disbursing to payees within 24 hours. As of October 2001 RMP had its new financial and its new compliance systems in place. By 2002 offshore leases were managed in the new systems. By 2003 on-shore leases were in the new systems.

3. Department of Veterans Affairs VA Medical Center, Erie, Pennsylvania (BPR) .

Background: In July 1995, the Erie VA Medical Center ( Erie ) hired GRA to facilitate its senior leadership retreat. GRA staff also did a briefing on BPR. In September Erie hired GRA to facilitate a strategic planning session. Senior leaders believed that funding constraints at the Department level could lead to reductions in resources to the class of hospitals to which Erie belonged: community-based, non-teaching, non-research, and that the facility was at risk for downsizing, even closure. Senior leaders decided to use BPR as the tool to radically bring about improvements in its performance so compelling as to lessen the risk of downsizing and closure

Methodology: In November 1995 GRA helped senior leaders to prepare a charter for and trained and launched the Clinical Design Team. This team used classic BPR methodology to document the "As Is" condition of work processes. Later it generated a conceptual image of a "To Be" alternative set of core business processes and identified the end-to-end components in the clinical areas. GRA supported that team for more than nine months and later supported the Clinical Implementation Team concurrently with training, launching, and supporting a Design Team and, later, an Implementation Team, on administrative work processes. GRA conducted BPR familiarization briefings and short courses on Managing Change for all staff over a period of about two years.

GRA worked with senior leaders to develop a plan to use its human capital to best advantage. The result was a plan to organize with the four senior leaders having approximately six Program Leaders as direct reports who, in turn, had one to several team leaders as direct reports. When Erie restructured, GRA provided training to the Program and Team Leaders on their roles in the new organization. That structure resulted in 75 of the 100 former supervisors and managers being reassigned to non-supervisory work. The ratio of indirect labor, supervisor through executive to employees, went from 1:4 to 1:16 . More "hands" were available to address veteran needs within a slightly smaller workforce. The organization went from 37 vertical elements to six. It went from up to five layers to a maximum of three, including the four senior leaders, the "Quadrad," akin to the concept of the "Office of the President" in the private sector. In 1998 GRA returned to Erie from time-to-time to assist senior leaders in dealing with issues that the Implementation Teams confronted.

In the fall of 1998 GRA staff helped the CEO to develop a plan for improvements in the delivery of Primary Care in the eight hospitals in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that comprise the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN), under the leadership of the VISN Director in Pittsburgh . GRA facilitated meetings of the Medical Directors of Primary Care from these hospitals and wrote the initial drafts of goals for improvements in access by veterans, quality of care, and customer service. Late in 1998 GRA tested all clinical teams in Erie 's Primary Care unit, the largest part of the hospital in terms of number of staff, to determine the extent to which they were operating at a high performance level. GRA uses copyright-protected, proprietary instruments. In 1999 GRA facilitated action planning for each team in Primary Care to help them identify what they could do to improve the performance of the hospital against the Department's criteria.

Results: In 1998 Erie won the Robert W. Carey award, based on the Baldrige criteria, the highest award granted to a hospital annually by the Secretary in competition with171 other hospitals in the VA system. The Department's press release said, in part: "Business process re-engineering outcomes as of FY97 include the reduction of Bed Days of Care/1000 unique veterans by 63%, 24% increase in outpatient visits, 23% increase in unique veterans, 75% decrease in patient hand-offs, 50% decrease in paperwork, and 50% decrease in cycle time." GRA staff was invited to the ceremony and recognized by the Erie CEO in his remarks as instrumental in helping the leadership team and staff to improve their performance substantially. In 1999 Erie was ineligible to compete again for the Carey by VA policy. In the year 2000 Erie won the Department-wide Robert W. Carey award as the best-managed organization in the Department. It is the Department's nominee for the President's Quality Award.

4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Regions

Background: The U.S. Forest Service is a $2.3+billion enterprise employing close to 30,000 staff. In the mid-1990's leaders recognized that continuously reduced budgets lead to decreased staffing with no reduction in expectations for accomplishment of mission. The Forest Service proposed closing two Forest Service regions and consolidating their work in the remaining regions in 1994. Congress did not concur. By 1996 agency leaders decided to use BPR to update selected business processes. Their thinking was that reducing cycle time, eliminating non-value added work, and finding simpler ways to do work was a promising way to accommodate to lower and lower staffing levels. From late 1995 through 1997 headquarters and three regions sponsored three major BPR projects. First was "Training." Second was "Special Use Permitting." Both were nationwide in scope. Third was "Human Resources East of the Rockies ." In this study four Research Stations co-sponsored the work with the Eastern and the Southern Regions. As the name implies, this project covered Forest Service organizations east of the Rockies , about 10,000 employees plus volunteers.

Methodology: GRA helped the Forest Service to complete the Design phase for Training before starting the Design phase of Special Use Permitting with a different team. In turn, GRA helped that team to complete its design work before beginning the Human Resources study with a different team. GRA followed the same methodology in each of the three projects. We first spent a week with each Chartering senior leadership group to educate them about BPR and to help them to write the charters that BPR Design Teams would follow. The charters listed the expectations Forest Service senior leaders had of the teams, including "stretch goals." Teams were committed full-time to the design work for a period of six months. Each team was responsible for delivering periodic oral and written progress reports to its Chartering leadership group. If one of the first two Chartering leadership groups believed that its team's recommendations were worthy, they could schedule the team or its team leader to brief the National Executive Leadership Team, chaired by the Chief of Staff. We next trained and launched the respective Design Teams.

In the first three months of the Design Phase the teams documented the "As Is" way of doing the work. In the next three months the teams developed their proposals for replacing existing work processes with better ones. Their proposals often were vetted with colleagues informally who were not involved directly in doing the studies. The teams benchmarked wherever feasible to get best practice ideas. The teams varied in the level of detail through which they expressed their work. The first two teams produced simplified, high level flow charts of the existing core business process and conceptual flow charts depicting how a future, better work process would operate. The third team produced hundreds of pages of detailed flow charts depicting the "As Is" and "To Be" design for each type of HR transaction.

Implementation Teams were launched to install the "To Be" designs. Regional Directors, Research Station Directors, and the headquarters HR office approved the report produced by the Human Resources Design Team and put in place an Implementation Process that continues to this day.

In the Spring of 2000 GRA had the pleasure of training staff from the Arapahoe and Roosevelt Forests in Colorado that had been assigned to implement the national implementation plan on those two forests for Special Use Permitting. This provided a sense of closure and an indicator of how long it really takes in large, national organizations to get implementation at the operating level for design work completed three years before.

Results: Training: The BPR effort led to a complete redesign of the corporate training program. There is now a more centralized approach to evaluating, designing, and offering training that is truly agency-wide in nature. This will reduce/eliminate redundancies in delivery and standardize the content. The effect has been to minimize "reinventing the wheel" at multiple locations or producing lots of "different size wheels" where a single size was the desired outcome. The corporate training staff has restructured to deliver services in the new way. It took three+ years of implementation work before this BPR effort had its impact on training design and delivery.

Special Use Permitting: Most of the recommendations have been systematically implemented. The success of this effort hinged on keeping a full-tim