Outplacement Services in Support of BRAC and Competitive Sourcing Task Group

摘要

The Department of Defense is seeking to implement another round of Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC) in 2005. In support of these anticipated BRAC actions, the Department has a keen interest in reducing the negative impact on civilian employees whose jobs may be eliminated. The Department's response during previous BRAC rounds has reflected a high level of concern for its employees. Through the Civilian Assistance and Reemployment Program, an umbrella program for all transition assistance policies, DoD has worked with local installation commanders and local communities to reduce the DoD workforce by over 419,000 positions with only 37,000 involuntary separations. However, the Department realizes best practices and lessons learned from the private sector can inform current programs and lead to better services for impacted employees. In previous BRAC actions there has been no centralized coordination of outplacement services to help employees find new jobs and/or transition to alternate careers. Rather, this outplacement assistance has been left up to base commanders and supported by funding diverted from other activities. As a result, there has been a mixed record of outplacement success related to BRAC actions across the Department. In an effort to improve the transition assistance related to BRAC and competitive sourcing actions, the Department is examining the use of private outplacement firms, rather than relying entirely on internal resources. The use of third parties is consistent with ongoing consideration of the functional outsourcing of activities that are considered non-core to the Department's ultimate war-fighting mission.