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Researchers created a software tool to help determine staffing needs in the U.S. Secret Service's highest-priority administrative, professional, and technical functions. This user guide describes the tool, which consists of Visio process mapping and Excel spreadsheet calculations; documents its features; and provides detailed instructions for completing procedures using the tool.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) seeks to advance the ability of its software acquisition workforce to rapidly and reliably deliver complex software-dependent capabilities through an enhanced understanding of technical competencies, improvements to education and training, and guidance for workforce management and assessment. Focusing on three primary acquisition career fields - information technology, engineering, and program management - the authors review existing competency models used by DoD and commercial industry, along with industry trends and modern software practices, and gather feedback from stakeholders and subject-matter experts to develop a model consisting of 48 competencies organized by topic: problem identification, solution identification, development planning, transition and sustainment planning, system architecture design, software construction management, software program management, mission assurance, and professional competencies. They also review existing courses offered by the Defense Acquisition University, other DoD institutions, and private and public universities to determine whether and to what extent the courses offer software training and education that corresponds with these competencies, and to identify ways to address potential gaps. Although there is no currently accepted government job title or occupational series for software professionals, and although the competency model thus affords limited utility for assessing current workforce capability, the authors present options for tracking and managing the software acquisition workforce, as well as further steps toward validating the competency model.

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy that were used for a series of AEP Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2018 and 2019.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) depends on its fleet of more than 1,600 boats to conduct its most critical operations, which span all 11 of the USCG's statutory missions. This report contains a review of the USCG boats acquisition program and the programs of similar organizations inside and outside the USCG, possible funding and structural strategies, and recommendations for USCG leadership.

Policies for educating and managing joint officers are periodically modified to reflect operational considerations and to provide enhancements and greater flexibilities. This report assesses the production of joint qualified officers by examining trends in achieving educational requirements and accomplishing joint assignments. The trends serve as a baseline allowing policymakers to evaluate impact of both current and future policy changes.

State and local prosecutors face an ever-increasing array of challenges and responsibilities, including handling, storing, and using growing bodies of evidence generated through modern technology. In March 2018, the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initiative convened an expert panel to identify priority needs and solutions for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the prosecutorial component of the criminal justice system.

Changes in employment stability, family structure, and economic pressures have created challenges for the U.S. military reserve component (RC). It is necessary to modify assumptions about Reserve duty to improve RC member recruitment, performance, development, and retention. The authors provide recommendations and analysis that will be applicable in developing and administering programs to facilitate access to civilian human capital.

Explores concerns at the Air Force Recruiting Service regarding an imbalance in workloads among their enlisted accessions recruiters, which could negatively influence both recruiter morale and aggregate production of high-quality recruits.

This exploratory project examines various continuous evaluation approaches to detecting insider threats that are available to the U.S. government and assesses the relevance of these approaches to the challenges posed by such insider threats. There are potential benefits in effectiveness and cost over the current method of granting security clearances to personnel based on periodic reinvestigation and readjudication.

This research brief sets out the results from a 2017 survey of researchers in the UK and a review of the literature around patterns, drivers and barriers, and benefits and consequences of international mobility for researchers.

Businesses operating overseas have inadequate tools for assessing business bribery risk and their potential risk of violating various anti-corruption laws. This report introduces a new index, the TRACE Matrix, for business bribery risk assessment. The index provides a quick and useful guide for businesses operating overseas based on a conceptual model of bribery risk and supported by data specific to firms.

To move military cargo, the U.S. military uses the strategic sealift fleet, which must be maintained to a certain level of readiness. The authors addressed six questions that examine the readiness of the fleet and its management. They determined that many factors — including organizational management, requirements determination, and material and personnel readiness — can be improved to increase readiness and make recommendations toward that end.

This report presents plausible futures based on nine trends in the categories of Geopolitical, Military & Warfare, and Human & Workforce to assist Air Force strategic planning in developing the Air Force Strategic Environment Assessment, which is 30-year look into the future that serves as the basis to execute Air Force strategy, planning, and programming. The authors' focus was development of the different futures from a collaborative workshop.

According to the American Working Conditions Survey, more older workers report having meaningful work compared with their prime-age counterparts, and nearly half of retirees would return to work under the right conditions.

To help inform the U.S. government in its efforts to improve the vetting processes for public trust and national security positions and protect its assets and information, the authors assembled a selected bibliography of relevant literature. The bibliography is organized into 13 categories, each containing a short summary and analysis of the respective literature, and it also examines the practices of the Five Eyes community partners.

The Air Force has employed two governance structures to oversee human resource development and human resource management. Considerable interest has been expressed in discarding the current format in favor of returning to a version of the previous structure. This Perspective reviews the two structures and provides analysis of strengths and weaknesses informed by viewpoints of a small group of experts.

This American Educator Panels Data Note highlights discrepancies between principals' and teachers' perceptions of teacher influence in schools. Data from a nationally representative survey of principals and teachers show that, compared with principals' beliefs about teachers, teachers themselves are less likely to perceive that they are involved in decisionmaking and can freely voice concerns.

This report documents a survey of 2,465 researchers from 109 countries on the patterns, enablers, obstacles and outcomes of international movement. Over three quarters of respondents had moved to live in another country during their career. Nearly all respondents said research benefits from international movement — helping form collaborations and develop ideas, skills and expertise, but also presenting challenges on a personal level.

To aid the Department of Defense in managing its acquisition workforce, this volume provides data and analysis of workforce characteristics, gains, and losses and describes data-based tools to support further analysis.

This report provides an overview of the literature on telework, examines telework practices from across seven government agencies, and explains how government agencies benefit when employees engage in telework. There are similarities across successful agency telework programs regarding compliance with federal and organizational policies, technological accommodations, return on investment, performance management tools, and training.

To inform efforts aimed at improving employment rates and earnings potential for ex-offenders, RAND researchers examined employer preferences of policy options designed to incentivize employment of individuals with felony criminal records

This case study seeks to examine the role of volunteers in the successful delivery of major sporting events, with a particular focus on their contribution towards maintaining public safety and facilitating positive fan behaviours. We also explore some of the key motivators for volunteers, which organisers should take note of and respond to in order to ensure that volunteers stay engaged over the course of an event.

Correctional staff must protect the public from those convicted of crimes and prepare convicted people for successful, law-abiding lives in the community through the reentry process. It is thus critically important for the corrections sector to develop a high-quality workforce. This report presents the results of an expert panel discussion focused on identifying and prioritizing ways to address workforce concerns in the corrections sector.

The rate of criminal punishment in the United States has had far-reaching economic consequences, in large part because people with criminal records are marginalized within the labor market. To inform policies and programs aimed at improving employment rates for ex-offenders, we examined employer preferences regarding policy options targeted to incentivize hiring individuals with one nonviolent felony conviction.

Veterans have a great deal to offer to potential civilian employers, including valuable nontechnical or soft skills, such as leadership, decisionmaking, persistence, and attention to detail. However, for civilian employers, understanding what nontechnical skills veterans have received formal training in and can likely demonstrate on the job can be challenging, because military and civilian workplace cultures and languages can seem radically different from one another. In this study, Phase I of a two-part effort, we developed a pilot toolkit that civilian employers can use to understand the full value veterans can bring to their organizations. In the current version of the toolkit, we focus on the skills addressed through selected formal military education courses for enlisted personnel in the Army and Marine Corps. Future research conducted in FY 2015 will expand the toolkit to address skills attained through additional on-the-job experience. This toolkit is intended to be sent to employers as a packet of materials that can help employers better understand veterans formal skill training and its transferability to the civilian workplace. The toolkit consists of four parts: a letter that can be sent to employers, explaining the purpose of the other materials enclosed in the packet an introductory section that provides more information on the materials and how to use them, as well as some background on military terms course overviews descriptions of the specific training programs that the Army and Marine Corps use to teach and develop nontechnical skills summary tables that concisely break down which specific skills and competencies each course focuses on, as well as which ranks of military personnel take each course.

This reference booklet provides information on the nontechnical skills that military service members and veterans may have developed through on-the-job experience. It is intended to help civilian employers better understand the full value that veterans can bring to their organizations.

RAND Europe has been commissioned by the Royal Society to conduct a literature review and survey looking at the international mobility of researchers, with a particular focus on the UK. The aim of the work is to better understand the patterns of mobility, drivers of and barriers to mobility, and the benefits and consequences of mobility of researchers, in academia and industry. This report details the findings of the survey.

This dissertation examines the effects of exogenous shocks and labor market policies on employment, wages, and human capital development of youth and women.

The U.S. defense acquisition workforce (DAW) experienced significant personnel reductions in the 1990s, leading to concerns regarding the size of and age distribution within the workforce in the early 2000s. Defense officials responded to these concerns, instituting a DAW growth initiative. The growth initiative was successful in increasing the size of the DAW, but little is known about how the hiring surge changed who the DAW hired into its ranks, and how this might influence workforce outcomes, such as retention. This dissertation examines this issue by focusing on the civilian portion of the DAW (civilian DAW) and on entrants prior work experience.This dissertation utilizes DoD personnel data to (1) describe civilian DAW cohorts in terms of past work experience and illustrate how the hiring surge has changed cohort past-work experience characteristics; (2) evaluate how prior work experience relates to retention in the civilian DAW; and (3) estimate how the growth initiative has influenced overall cohort-level retention rates.The analyses reveal that the growth initiative was fueled mainly by outside hires with no prior DoD experience, and some evidence suggests that these DoD newcomers in general tend to have the highest retention in the civilian DAW. Additionally, the analyses reveal that in internal hires are more attached to the DoD civilian workforce than are external hires. In line with these conclusions, the synthetic-cohort analysis finds that the hiring surge likely produced cohorts with greater civilian DAW retention.

Texas's 60x30TX strategic plan and RAND researchers' analysis of labor market projections point to a continuation of strong growth in graduate education in the state. RAND researchers analyzed policies and practices that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), higher education systems, and individual higher education institutions in Texas can use to manage the expansion of their master's, doctoral, and professional programs.

The report considers the effects of the UK national minimum wage on different labour market sub-groups since 1999 when it was first launched. The findings suggest that increases in the national minimum wage had no negative employment effects on the overall UK labour market. Many of the effects following these increases were largely positive in terms of reducing pay inequality and improving the standards of living for low-paid workers.

This report models the effect of filling institutional requirement (IR) positions on a career field's health. The report also examines how changing the number of IRs affects the operational development, career experience diversity, and career paths of space officers. The fill rates of most space jobs would not be affected by reductions in the total number of IRs allocated to the space career field. IR effects on space officers' careers could be lessened by careful job selection and position prioritization.

This infographic sets out the existing evidence from the literature around experiences of international mobility among postdoctoral researchers, women and elite scientists.

Half of American workers say that they work in their free time to meet workplace demands, 63 percent feel that they are doing useful work, and 46 percent of retirees age 50 and older say that they would return to work if conditions were right.

This report presents detailed findings about the prevalence and distribution of working conditions across the American workforce by age, gender, and education from the 2015 American Working Conditions Survey (AWCS). The AWCS was fielded on the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative (when weighted) sample of U.S. individuals.

Improving individual sleeping habits has huge implications. Small increases in sleep can make big differences to national economies. RAND Europe's novel study quantifies the economic and social costs of insufficient sleep among the global workforce.

The Appalachia Partnership Initiative (API) addresses STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) K-12 education and workforce development needs in the Greater Pittsburgh area's advanced manufacturing and energy sectors. The tool highlights the geographic reach of API programs and allows users to drill down and see specific information about each funded program.

In this tool, RAND researchers provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)'s Human Development Directorate with a roadmap for how employees can succeed in the open — that is, work anywhere in the world while having access to the information, resources, and functions they need to do their jobs. This roadmap provides an actionable plan for overcoming the hurdles to achieving NGA's missions outside of secure and classified environments.

This infographic sets out the results from a survey of researchers in the UK around barriers for international mobility.

This infographic sets out the results from a survey of researchers in the UK around expectations for international mobility.

This infographic sets out the existing evidence from the literature around the importance of the international mobility of researchers to the UK and UK-based researchers.

This dissertation translates to policy analysis solutions developed to address the lack of credibility in the reproducibility crisis in science.

These technical appendixes provide more details on the methodology, data, and findings in the report, The Appalachia Partnership Initiative's Investments in Education, Workforce Development, and the Community: Analysis of the First Stage, 2014–2016.

Contractors provide supplies and perform other functions in theaters of conflict. This comprehensive review of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operational contract support (OCS) planning and integration workforce shows that some doctrinally mandated tasks are not being performed by DoD personnel and that the force receives limited training in OCS, recommending several options to address these shortfalls.

Veterans have a great deal to offer to potential civilian employers, including valuable nontechnical or soft skills, such as leadership, decisionmaking, persistence, and attention to detail. However, for veterans, communicating to civilian employers about the nontechnical skills they have received formal training in and can bring to the job can be challenging, because military and civilian workplace cultures and languages can seem radically different from one another. In this study, Phase I of a two-part effort, we developed a pilot toolkit that formerly enlisted veterans, especially those in combat arms occupations, can use to shed light on the full value in terms of nontechnical skills they can bring to potential civilian employers. In the current version of the toolkit, we focus on the skills addressed through selected formal military education courses for enlisted personnel in the Army and Marine Corps. Future research conducted in FY 2015 will expand the materials to address skills attained through additional on-the-job experience. This toolkit is intended to be sent to veterans as a packet of materials that can help them as they review job postings, enhance their r sum s, and communicate with potential employers about their military training and experience. The toolkit consists of four parts: a letter that can be sent to veterans, explaining the purpose of the other materials enclosed in the packet an introductory section that provides more information on the materials and how to use them course overviews descriptions of the specific training programs that the Army and Marine Corps use to teach and develop nontechnical skills summary tables that concisely break down which specific skills and competencies each course focuses on, as well as which ranks of military personnel take each course.

This codebook describes the content and structure of the American Working Conditions Survey data (AWCS) which was fielded on the RAND American Life Panel (ALP) in 2015.

This infographic sets out the existing evidence from the literature around the benefits of international mobility of researchers to both source and destination countries.

This report aims to contribute new knowledge to understanding the role that postsecondary education plays in meeting the increasing demands of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. The study indicates that the receipt of a bachelor's degree in a STEM field and the attainment of a certification or license (in any field) are important educational milestones that support success in the STEM labor market.

The report summarises the existing evidence on the effectiveness of workplace related preventive health programmes, outlining the challenges involved in calculating their return on investment (ROI). The report outlines the drivers of successful workplace health promotion programmes and develops a framework to analyse the ROI of such projects.