US Government Accountability Office GAO

AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGIES: DOT Should Take Steps to Ensure Its Workforce Has Skills Needed to Oversee Safety Read full text in English

2020 report GAO-21-197
Background Staff's role in automated transportation's safety

Automated technologies in planes, trains, and passenger vehicles are in use today and likely to become increasingly widespread. While these technologies hold promise, accidents involving them demonstrate potential safety challenges. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) is responsible for overseeing the safety of all models of transportation.

It needs to ensure that the staff possess relevant skills to oversee the safe use of automated technologies as well as to provide effective recruitment and training strategies.

Skills to oversee automated technologies

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Departmental Office of Human Resources Management has identified most skills DOT needs to oversee automated technologies, but it has not fully assessed whether its workforce has these skills. Through its workforce planning efforts, DOT identified many of the skills cited by stakeholders as important for overseeing automated technologies—regulatory expertise, engineering, and data analysis. However, DOT did not survey staff or assess skill gaps in data analysis or cybersecurity positions important to automated technology oversight. As a result, DOT lacks critical information needed to identify skill gaps and ensure key relevant staff are equipped to oversee the safety of these technologies now and in the future.

Cybersecurity overlooked

While the Department of Human Resources identified the skills for overseeing automated technologies, it did not include skills or related occupations needed to ensure the cybersecurity of automated technologies in cars, trucks, trains and other modes. To date, the Department of Human Resources’ workforce planning efforts around cybersecurity have largely focused on identifying the skills and occupations needed to ensure the security of DOT’s internal networks and systems. As such, the Department of Human Resources did not incorporate cybersecurity of automated technologies into its workforce planning efforts, including the Human Capital Operating Plan and the Workforce Transformation Chart—the agency’s primary workforce planning documents. [Lately] Department of Human Resources officials told us that since the development of the Workforce Transformation Chart, they have begun to identify all occupations across the agency that require cybersecurity skills, because they realized the importance of these skills in occupations outside of information technology.

Recommendation 1 The Director of DOT’s Department of Human Resources should complete efforts to identify all cybersecurity occupations across the agency, and incorporate those related to overseeing the cybersecurity of automated technologies into its workforce planning efforts, such as the Workforce Transformation Chart.
Potential gaps in institutional knowledge

We have previously reported that the high percentage of federal employees eligible for retirement could produce gaps in institutional knowledge, and aggravate the problems posed by existing skill gaps. See GAO, Federal Workforce: OPM and Agencies Need to Strengthen Efforts to Identify and Close Mission-Critical Skills Gaps, GAO-15-223 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 30, 2015).

Ineffective recruiting strategies

The Department of Human Resources implemented some recruiting strategies, but did not help modal administrations identify strategies effective for recruiting staff with skills needed to oversee the safety of automated technologies.

The Department established and tracked progress towards hiring goals for some occupations that oversee the safety of automated technologies

Recommendation 4 The Director of DOT’s Department of Human Resources should collect and analyze information on the effectiveness of recruiting strategies, such as special payment authorities, in attracting staff to occupations that oversee the safety of automated technologies, and share effective strategies with modal administrations.
Gaps in anti-gap strategies

DOT developed strategies to address some but not all gaps in skills needed to oversee automated technologies. For example, DOT implemented some recruiting strategies and established hiring goals as a means of closing gaps identified in the 2016 survey and plans to continue these efforts in light of the 2020 survey. However, DOT has not tracked the progress of strategies implemented to close skill gaps since the 2016 survey, nor has it implemented training strategies. Accordingly, some skill gaps related to overseeing the safety of automated technologies will likely persist in DOT’s workforce.

The Department of Human Resources largely relied on modal administrations to implement training strategies to address skill gaps.

The Department established a goal to reduce skill gaps, but did not track progress towards that goal, and does not plan to do so between the 2020 skill gap assessment and the next one in 3 to 4 years.

Recommendation 3 The Director of DOT’s Department of Human Resources should regularly measure the progress of strategies implemented to close skill gaps—such as on an annual basis—and ensure modal administrations offer training to close those gaps.
Objectives

The report examines: (1) skills required to oversee the safety of automated technologies, according to selected stakeholders; (2) the extent to which DOT has identified the skills it needs to oversee the safety of automated technologies and assessed whether its workforce has those skills; and (3) the extent to which DOT has developed strategies to address any gaps in skills needed to oversee the safety of automated technologies.

The items above were selected and named by the e-Government Subgroup of the EUROSAI IT Working Group on the basis of publicly available report of the author Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI). In the same way, the Subgroup prepared the analytical assumptions and headings. All readers are encouraged to consult the original texts by the author SAIs (linked).