The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management lacks consistent policy on allowing staff to work remotely, and efforts to use internship-type programs to recruit younger workers have yet to pay off, according to last week’s congressional watchdog report.
Those are a couple of sidenotes inside the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on staffing shortages for key positions at the $8-billion-plus nuclear cleanup office. Much of the report centered on vacancies, attrition rates and the graying workforce at the Environmental Management (EM) office.
But the 111-page report also said EM, so far at least, has little to show for its internships, fellowships and related efforts to develop a pipeline of next-generation workers to remediate the government’s old nuclear sites.
The GAO report issued a number of recommendations, which DOE concurred with, on having EM draft more clearly defined workforce policy and goals, adopting federal best practices in areas like recruitment and working more closely with DOE’s chief human capital officer.
“The department appreciates GAO’s recognition of EM’s progress in addressing its human resource challenges,” an Environmental Management spokesperson said by email Tuesday. “Many actions that fulfill the GAO recommendations are already in progress. EM concurs with the recommendations and will implement, and continue to implement, actions to address the issues identified by GAO.”
Environmental Management takes part in eight different internship and fellowship programs, GAO said in the report ordered by the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. “Since 2019, EM has had 594 interns or fellows. According to EM records, 29 of the 594 were hired by related entities such as DOE national laboratories and DOE contractors, “but none returned to EM as federal staff.”
Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, the cleanup office reported authorizing about $2.3 million for the DOE Scholars program but none were hired as federal staff at Environmental Management, according to the GAO report. “EM could not convert most of these interns and fellows to permanent positions within EM noncompetitively because the intern and fellowship programs did not allow EM to do so,” GAO said, citing its interviews with agency officials.
Then there is the issue of which Environmental Management staffers may work remotely, away from office locations. “EM does not have an updated complex-wide policy that clearly communicates the process and criteria for approving remote work,” GAO said.
Most of Environmental Management’s cleanup sites “generally do not, or are not allowed to offer remote work, according to site officials,” GAO said.
In contrast, EM headquarters in Washington, D.C., allows remote work in many cases, and the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center has a pilot for remote work that is under review, GAO said. The procurement office pilot would allow approved employees to work within 125 miles of the office.
