Mission

To provide leadership and direction in the strategic management of human capital ensuring the accomplishments of the Department's Human Capital initiatives and the President's Management Agenda initiatives of: Workforce Planning, Learning and Development, and Diversity. 

Functional Responsibility

Under the direction of the Director, Office of Human Resource Management, the Associate Director, Office of Strategic Initiatives:

1. Develops and implements, in cooperation with the Operating Administrations and Departmental Offices, a Departmental Workforce Plan in support of the Departmental Human Capital Plan and the Departmental Strategic Plan.
2. Identifies and assesses competencies for mission critical occupations; leadership levels; and, other occupations.
3. Works through the Human Capital Planning Council to ensure that communications and work activities in the areas of workforce planning occur.
4. Provides individual and organizational learning and development opportunities at all leadership levels corporate-wide.
5. Provides Organization Development Consultation Services corporate wide.
6. Provides program direction for the Departmental online learning program:  “Electronic Learning and Management System” (eLMS), including communications and marketing strategy leadership.
7. Collaborates with the Department’s seven Learning and Development Centers to leverage opportunities to train and develop DOT’s workforce.
8. Convenes the Learning and Development Council to facilitate the sharing of information and best practices to build capacity in the development of a learning organization. 
9. Provides program management and support for Departmental diversity initiatives through the Diversity Advisory Council.
10. Develops policy in support of program initiatives.
11. Coordinates activities to increase the awareness and commitment of senior leaders and hiring officials to recruit, hire, develop, advance, and retain a diverse workforce.
12. Contributes to the creation and maintenance of a work environment that provides opportunities for all employees to maximize their potential and contribute to mission accomplishment.
13. Completes reports and statistical updates on all strategic program initiatives.

Staff Directory

Workforce Planning.  The program provides department-wide policy, guidance, leadership, planning, and consulting services for workforce planning in DOT.

Management Competencies.  The U.S. Department of Transportation Workforce Plan presents a snapshot of the DOT workforce at the end of FY 2005, with specific attention paid to demographics and employee strength in mission critical occupations (MCOs).  It describes how the Office of the Secretary of Transportation (OST) and the Operating Administrations are working to shape an employee force that will continue to have the competencies required to fulfill DOT's mission in a changing environment.

Succession Planning.  Succession planning establishes a process that recruits employees, develops their skills and abilities, and prepares them for advancement, all while retaining them to ensure a return on the organization's training investment.  To ensure qualified leadership at all levels, DOT is taking steps to establish systematic succession planning as a subset of our overall Workforce Planning and Key Human Capital Challenges Initiative. 

Diversity.  The diversity program provides policy, guidance, leadership, planning and consulting services for building, developing and maintaining a diverse work force in DOT. 

Learning and Development.  The program provides department-wide policy, guidance, leadership, planning, and consulting services for learning and development in DOT.  The Learning & Development Framework (Microsoft Word Document) provides guidance on individual and organizational performance, educational and training policies and programs, and strategies on how to apply them to learning and development.  You will also find out about the services and support managers can and should expect from their human resource development (HRD) offices.  Framework M-11 Chairs the DOT Learning and Development Council. 

eLMS.  The Electronic Learning Management System (eLMS) is a web-based DOT training system and is the system of record for all training at the DOT.  It also assists the agency in Human Capital Management.  Over 2000 free on-line courses including computer skills, leadership, management, etc., instructor-led classroom training, personalized learning plans, and the capacity for competency management, employee assessments, succession planning and more are available. 

Training Policy & Evaluation.  Evaluation is an important tool for assessing the benefits achieved from training and provides a basis for comparison with other learning methods.  In addition, it is an action item on the President's Management Agenda.  Learn more on evaluation policy and guidance and how Secretarial offices and operating administrations employ various ways of evaluating training and learning activities.

Councils, workgroups and teams.  M-11 Chairs DOT's Learning and Development Council and Human Capital Council.  We are also active members of or support the Human Resources Council, Diversity Advisory Council, Knowledge Management Workgroup, and eLMS Steering Committee, and eLMS Administrators Team.

Mentoring.  M-11 oversees and provides department-wide Federal policy and guidance on mentoring.  DOT's Leaders for Tomorrow mentoring program is a mid-level program that provides workforce development for emerging leaders. The program objectives include skills and management development training, the creation of a career plan and networking opportunities. This program facilitates knowledge management across the OAs through one-on-one relationship with executives and senior level officials, hands-on experiences, and classroom training over a 10-month period. This program is aimed toward fulfilling workforce development gaps and building a pipeline to fill vacancies in management and other critical positions with a minimum level of cost and time investment. It is an OST sponsored program for employees at the GS-13 to GS-15 levels. 

Executive Coaching.  DOT sponsors a Department-wide individual coaching program that allows selected newly assigned executives the opportunity to work one-on-one with an external executive coach to ensure their success. The executive and the coach determine specific individual objectives for coaching and ways to measure results. The program builds on DOT's leadership competencies to develop future leaders and provide support for executives and managers as they transition into new assignments, adapt to reorganizations and/or are refocused to existing lines of business. Please contact Maria Hernandez in M-11 for additional information on this service.

Executive Pipeline.  M-11 sponsors various learning and development activities for DOT executives, managers and supervisors at the GS-15 level.  The activities are primarily targeted closing competency gaps identified by OST or OA leadership assessments.

SES Forum.  DOT participates in the SES Forum sponsored by the Department of the Interior.  Topic are presented by government and private sector experts and cover a wide range of current topics that are important to federal leaders. 

DOT Modal Training Centers.  Many DOT OAs have their own training centers that offer technical, management, and leadership training to personnel outside of their OA. 

Training Programs.  M-11 sponsors training for current leaders as well as up and coming leaders.