5.3.1: Workforce
Diverse and constantly evolving capabilities in NOAA's workforce Other Information:
At the heart of NOAA operations is the creative work of scientists, engineers, technicians, managers, NOAA Corps Officers,
and administrative staff. Only by investing in this stock of intellectual capital can NOAA achieve its strategic goals to
provide the public with scientific knowledge, information services, incident response and environmental stewardship capabilities.
As the nation faces new challenges, NOAA will increasingly require a workforce of top-tier scientists, operational specialists,
organizational leaders, science communicators, science managers, and program and project managers. NOAA will maintain a highly
qualified, competent, mobile and adaptable workforce, able to respond to incidents and integrate quickly with other Government
Agencies and uniformed services. Focusing on social and environmental outcomes will require not only the best skills in the
scientific and engineering disciplines, but the best skills in interdisciplinary work. Understanding the natural, social,
and economic systems that make up a dynamic ecosystem will require increased expertise in social and economic science as well
as the physical sciences. Efficient operations within a complex scientific and technical organization will require expert-level
mastery of the disciplines of program and project management. Finally, with a substantial portion of its workforce approaching
retirement eligibility, NOAA will also need to attract, hire, train, and retain a new generation of professionals to accomplish
its strategic goals. To achieve this objective, NOAA will recruit and develop outstanding professionals with disciplinary,
interdisciplinary, and managerial expertise. NOAA will regularly conduct analyses of its current workforce capabilities and
future workforce needs, and cultivate both existing and new sources of talent to evolve its workforce capabilities over time.
NOAA will place increased emphasis on hiring, developing, and retaining people with expertise in the social and economic sciences,
and in developing performance plans and managing programs that reflect its priorities and strategic goals. NOAA will use knowledge
capture tools and management practices to retain critical organizational and scientific knowledge to guide the future workforce.
NOAA leadership will ensure all performance plans reflect the Agency's priorities and strategic goals and that employees are
effectively managed and supported to meet those goals. NOAA will strengthen its NOAA Corps and leverage the operational expertise
and interdisciplinary experience of officers to lead the application of new observation technologies and integration between
the Agency's Line Offices. NOAA will increase collaboration with academia and create opportunities to support undergraduate
and graduate students' participation in NOAA activities that foster their interest in NOAA-related scientific study and a
future career within the Agency. Over the next five years, evidence of progress toward this objective will include: * Increased
leadership, managerial training, and certification in the career development of NOAA professionals and NOAA Corps Officers;
* Increased numbers of qualified program and project managers; * Increased numbers of interdisciplinary professionals and
science translators to enable functions of engagement and integration; * Increased use of social scientists for research,
service development, and operations; * Increased capacity of the NOAA Corps to lead integration of advanced technologies into
NOAA's missions; and * Increased numbers of underrepresented groups in the NOAA workforce.
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