Study of Factors Affecting the Attraction and Retention of High Caliber Personnel to Department of Defense Contracting

摘要

The Packard Commission stated DoD must be able to attract and retain the caliber of people necessary for a quality acquisition program, and compared to its industry counterparts, this work force is undertrained, underpaid, and inexperienced. This study examines the factors which impede the DoD's ability to attract a retain high caliber civilian personnel in the GS-1102 series. A comparison of DoD contract specialists and their private sector counterparts was developed through telephone interviews and examination of recently completed surveys. This research indicates the DOD contract specialist are not compensated as well as their private industry counterparts. While DOD attracts high caliber college graduates through such programs as Copper Cap, it often fails to retain these people beyond five years of service. Recommendations include decentralization of personnel management, increasing compensation of contract specialists, and removal of artificial barriers in the civil service hiring process.