STRENGTHENING THE OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL INTEGRATION’S WORKFORCE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Nuclear Materials Integration (ONMI) strengthened its workforce planning and development capabilities by commissioning an organizational needs assessment. This assessment improved the ability of the ONMI to meet current and future staffing needs; conducting it was integral to the successful accomplishment of security and programmatic mission efforts. ONMI collaborated with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments National Training Center (NTC), through its Training Reciprocity and Collaborations program, to conduct this assessment. ONMI selected the NTC for this task because of its reputation across DOE as a leader in the use of a systematic approach to the development of training solutions for workplace concerns. After listening to the concerns expressed by ONMI senior management regarding the impending departure of key personnel, the NTC recommended using the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) model to conduct the organizational assessment. The assessment began by analyzing the capability of ONMI’s Nuclear Materials Management and Safeguards System (NMMSS) to meet current and future staffing needs. The NTC proposed several strategies to reduce the impact of the impending departure of key personnel, including performance of a job analysis to systematically identify key tasks performed by incumbent personnel; development of a knowledge management program to capture critical information from departing personnel; and creation of a performance-based job qualification standard to provide management with a means of training and evaluating the progress of personnel new to NMMSS. It was the contention of the NTC that the implementation of these and other strategies would “sharpen-up” workplace planning and development within NMMSS. ONMI senior management directed the NTC to proceed with the organizational assessment of the Nuclear Material Inventory Assessments (NMIA) component of ONMI. Using data from both assessments, the NTC will create a solutions matrix that will be used to select strategies for the professional development of the entire organization. Combining the data gathered from the NMMSS assessment with that collected from NMIA will strengthen the entire organization, and ONMI now has a tool to help bridge the gap created as senior personnel reach the end of their career.