Second, an agency needs to define the critical skills and competencies
that it will require in the future to meet its strategic program goals.
Fiscal, demographic, technological, and other forces are challenging
government agencies to change the activities that they perform and the
goals that they must achieve, how they do their business, and even who
does the government's business. To effectively meet these challenges,
an agency needs to (1) consult with key congressional and other
stakeholders on its strategic goals and (2) identify the workforce
skills and competencies that are critical to achieving these strategic
goals and how the agency will obtain these requirements, including
those that the agency will need to acquire, develop, and retain to meet
its goals. For example, every 5 years, the National Human Genome
Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
develops new strategic goals for the project and identifies the
scientific and research capability needed to achieve these goals.
National and international human genome experts discuss such topics as
how skills critical to achieving previous goals may change during the
coming years; how NHGRI should acquire, develop, and shape these skills
within universities and NHGRI research programs; and whether NHGRI will
need additional managers with similar scientific and medical skills to
oversee research activities. NHGRI's April 2003 strategic plan calls
for the research institute to increase the number of scientists and
managers with computational and clinical medical skills during the next
5 years.