Department of Homeland Security case study

Addressing the people issues when 22 agencies come together

In June of 2002, the President proposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be "...a single department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland." By March of 2003, nearly two-dozen agencies from such disparate Federal departments as Energy, Justice, Treasury, and Defense had joined DHS to help fulfill the mission to secure American citizens, land, and property.

Today, the Department’s 180,000 employees focus on preventing, preparing for, and responding to disaster. As with any large organization, infrastructure support personnel work behind those on the front lines to keep the operation running smoothly. Finance, for example, becomes a significant function in a department of this scale, and the office of the CFO has a large staff responsible for a multitude of projects that involve oversight of billions of taxpayer dollars.

All government agencies rely on career employees for continuity and consistency of operations, and those in finance are no exception. With the government’s natural cycle of transitions coupled with the looming baby boomer retirements, people resources have taken on increased significance.The current economic environment has also emphasized the importance of people. Recognizing that in an age of limited resources, it would be essential to get the most value from the resources available, DHS has placed an increasing focus on people. The department’s leaders understand that when people issues arise, resolution would need to be prompt in order to make the department successful.

In 2007, the Department’s CFO sought assistance from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in conducting a workplace assessment to determine whether the finance department was structured to support its mission. Questions to be answered included whether the organization had clearly defined roles, whether the right people were in the right places, and if any gaps or opportunities existed with regard to skills, performance, and performance management.

PwC marshaled a team of professionals from within its Public Sector Practice — those with human capital management experience in both government and commercial organizations, as well as organizational design and assessment, workforce planning, knowledge retention, and financial disciplines, among others. PwC director Christine Ayers described the selection criteria for the team, "I’m passionate about making sure that our engagement team is diverse in terms of skill sets, because if we’re going to be trusted advisors to our clients, we have to be sure our human capital recommendations can be effectively applied to their financial management organization.

"The PwC team recognized that data would play a key role in providing the office of the CFO a basis on which to identify areas for improvement. A census of the organization conducted by PwC’s professionals began to shed light on organizational dynamics in place and opportunities for both short- and long-term improvement. For example, mid-level management staff within the organization had been challenged at times by the need to better understand work volumes involved in financial reporting. This finding led to a recommendation for skills training in project management.

PwC was also asked to help with an array of people initiatives that arose from the findings. Training, development, mentoring, and succession planning efforts soon began and continue today across the breadth of the enormous agency.For the DHS, the projects represent a determined investment in people, along with systems and processes. "Everything can’t be automated," observed Christine, "You can have a perfect process that is being executed by somebody who just doesn’t have the right skill set, and it will never work.

"Improvements have already been felt and more are on the way. PwC is confident the department will be able to accomplish its mission more effectively and efficiently than ever before. "All of the people at DHS," Christine said with admiration, "are there to help secure the homeland. So if you’ve got people who are executing effectively, doing their jobs well each day, making sure their programs are a success — that’s ultimately going to help our entire country."

The issues facing the client discussed herein, the advice given to it and the results achieved are unique to that client. The advice, solutions and results described in this document may not be applicable or appropriate for other entities or situations. This document should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional accounting, tax, legal or other competent advisers.