SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — SBA Makes Progress to Update Human Capital Management Policies

October 22, 2019

By Caity Witucki
Contributing Editor, SBA Hot Topic Tuesday

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — SBA Makes Progress to Update Human Capital Management Policies

On October 11, 2019, the SBA’s OIG released its annual SBA management report card. The SBA management report card is an important tool that assists the agency in prioritizing its efforts to improve SBA programs and enhance operations. The FY 2019 report summarizes the progress of 8 performance challenges including human capital management.

According to the report card, the SBA has made significant progress in addressing the OIG’s recommendation to update its human capital management policies. Since 2009, the SBA has developed and implemented strategic workforce and succession plans to identify competency gaps, strengthen its leadership capacity, and address the challenges of its aging workforce. Additionally, the SBA has revised and updated the Employment SOP to include 11 distinct human capital management policies.

Nevertheless, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have made several recommendations for further update the SBA’s human capital management policies. According to the GAO, the SBA needs to utilize workforce analytics to evaluate the actions that have been taken so far to close competency gaps. The GAO added that skill gaps within the federal workforce pose a high risk to the nation because they could produce gaps in leadership and institutional knowledge. Likewise, the OPM recommends that the SBA should regularly assess the effectiveness of its human capital strategies and use the assessments to address gaps and surpluses.

According to the OIG’s FY 2019 report card, the SBA has already begun implementing the GAO and OPM recommendations. The SBA has made it their goal during FY 2020 to ensure that human capital management SOPs are updated and appropriately structured to support the agency’s long-term goals and objectives as well as governmentwide human capital management initiatives

Source: SBA OIG Report 20-01