February 6, 2020

Consolidation of the Department of Energy’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer

In 2013, the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (Human Capital) examined the Department of Energy’s state of Human Resources service delivery.  The resulting report, HR Service Delivery Study (September 2013), made a recommendation to strengthen the accountability of Human Capital.  Subsequently, Human Capital created four consolidated shared service centers to replace the 17 separate HR offices across the complex.  In November 2013, the Secretary of Energy approved the study’s recommendations.  We initiated this audit to determine whether the Consolidation of the Department’s Human Capital met the intended goals.

The audit was performed from January 2018 to October 2019 at the Department of Energy Headquarters in Washington, DC, and Germantown, Maryland.  We conducted site visits to the Management and Performance Shared Service Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Power Marketing Administration Shared Service Center located in Lakewood, Colorado.

While Human Capital management achieved some efficiencies during the Consolidation, our audit made observations indicating that the Consolidation of Human Capital had not achieved its intended goals.

We recognize the significant challenge that Human Capital management undertook when it restructured the Human Capital organization to better serve the Department.  A great deal of change and progress has already been achieved.  However, work remains to be done to achieve Human Capital’s goals.  Further, in February 2018, Human Capital proposed the next phase of Consolidation.  As part of this second Consolidation, the Management and Performance SSC, and the Science and Energy SSC, were merged to further reduce HR costs and improve efficiency.  This report does not make recommendations, since management is continuing to move its reforms forward and planning to set new target goals.

Topic: Management & Administration