March 17, 2014

DOE LOOKS TO REDUCE WORKFORCE BY 1/3 THROUGH ATTRITION, BUYOUTS

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy is looking to reduce its number of full time employees by up to a third from the current level of around 15,000, DOE Chief Human Capital Officer Mike Kane said at the Energy Facility Contractors Group semi-annual meeting yesterday. He said that the Department will have to tighten its belt as it anticipates major budget cuts. “Are you at a point where you can tell me that federal [Full Time Employees] are going to be preserved? The answer to that is no. There are going to be changes in employment in a number of programs,” Kane said, adding that at this point he does not anticipate involuntary layoffs, and that the reduction is instead taking place through buyouts, attrition and early retirement. Kane expects the Department to go down to about 12,000 employees by the end of the Fiscal Year, and to further reduce its workforce to between 9,000 and 11,000 employees by the start of FY2014.

Managers anticipating staffing cuts are already starting to leave DOE, some taking advantage of buyout programs, Kane said. “People are beginning to move, and they are beginning to move for several reasons. First, we still don’t have ‘12 numbers and they are watching those numbers. They are watching very closely where those numbers go programmatically, but more importantly they are watching where it goes staffing wise,” he said. “They are worried that staffing levels are going to go down and the fed’s abilities to access talent on the support service time of the house is going to be impacted by the budget cuts. That’s real.”

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