Clients

U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection

Office of Information Technology

Washington DC | 823 employees, 1142 contractors

The Need

U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection As the single unified border agency of the United States, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) has a mission of crucial importance for the security of the American people. CBP's Office of Information Technology (OIT) is at the heart of its vital efforts to modernize and keep up with changing threats. It faces a wide array of highly complex, time-sensitive, and demanding tasks, ranging from massive software integration to the development and deployment of new methods for detecting biological and nuclear weapons. Each of its diverse responsibilities is "people-intensive," with success or failure dependent on the skills and expertise of OIT's employees and contractors.

A report from the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) raised concerns about OIT's capacity to achieve its objectives because of deficiencies in its human capital strategy. These concerns are shared by OIT's leaders, who are aware of the centrality of an effective human capital strategy to the office's capacity to effectively support CBP's mission. As part of its response to GAO's concerns, OIT worked with Robbins-Gioia and McBassi to implement the HCC Scorecard (now McBassi People Index®) in Fall 2003 for both its employees and contractors.

Findings

The findings from the HCC Scorecard implementation showed a clear pattern of certain strengths and weaknesses that were similar across each of the 6 major divisions within OIT. This pattern underscored the need for certain changes and interventions to be implemented in a centralized manner, across all divisions. Other findings were more division-specific, resulting in a set of recommendations about how to target development and management initiatives specifically towards those divisions most in need of them. Findings of relative strength in other areas pointed to areas where additional effort (time and money) would be less effective, and hence should not be given high priority. The overall result was a prioritized set of fact-based recommendations for increasing organizational effectiveness through a series of initiatives (some centralized and others more targeted) designed to improve the development and management of OIT's people.

The Results

OIT has used the findings and prioritized recommendations from the HCC Scorecard as a key component of developing a strategic human capital approach for the organization. In addition to addressing the concern originally raised by GAO, OIT has, through this process positioned itself to ensure that it has the human capabilities required to fulfill its vital mission.

Summing up, Paula Pierce of Robbins-Gioia (McBassi's partner on this project) stated, "I'd long been looking for a partner that had done the hard work necessary to create credible measures of an organization's development and management of its people. McBassi & Company has done that work and they have the best leading edge tools in the industry. They are wonderful partners, hard-working, results-oriented, always keep their commitments, and are more than willing to go the extra mile."

Clients

U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection

The Need

Findings

The Results

Clients

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