INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY PERSONNEL STUDY STAFFING: DIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00530R000200270009-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 17, 2013
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 5, 1988
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/22 : CIA-RDP90-00530R000200270009-7
INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY PERSONNEL STUDY
STAFFING: DIA
1. Current and Project Skill Requirements and Quality of Staff
a. Critical Occupations
DIA has identified its most critical skills as intelligence
officers, secretary/clerical, engineering/scientific and
technical, and computer specialists. DIA does not employ
mathematicians and linguists in any significant numbers.
Intelligence Officers represent
24
percent
of the DIA civilian
workforce, secretaries/clerical
12
percent,
engineering/S&T 2
percent and computer specialists
3
percent.
b. Hiring and Retention
Data on on-board strength, hires and losses for the
identified critical skills during the period 1983-1987 is as
follows:
Int/Off
Sec/Cler
Eng/S&T
CompSpec
Avg on-board strength
1240
593
115
150
Avg # hires/year
46
153
18
25
Avg rate of attrition:
.056
.136
.085
.099
Percent of losses w/5 yrs
or less svc
.40
.78
.53
.67
DIA's annual attrition rate between 1983 and 1987 has
averaged 8.7 percent, which is below the government and the
private sector averages. Attrition of secretaries/clericals
and guards runs somewhat higher, but this rate is not above
what is expected in the Washington, D.C. area. DIA believes
that the primary reason for such high early turnover is higher
pay and better benefits in the private sector, and the
secondary one is transfer of military spouses, particularly for
clerical/administrative personnel.
c. Recruitment
/ DIA conducts a central recruitment effort and has direct
IJ hiring and salary setting authority granted under the
Authorization Act of 1984. These authorities are comparable to
those of CIA and NSA.
DIA reports little difficulty in recruiting for
intelligence officers. Extensive recruitment efforts at
colleges and universities, contacts with professional
organizations and military associations, and an active
advertising program produce many job applications. There are
difficulties in recruiting for subspecialties such as
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collection management, due primarily to the decreasing pool of
individuals with prior military experience.
Recruitment and retention of secretarial/clerical personnel
are a continuing problem for DIA. Despite extensive
recruitment efforts, competition in the Washington metropolitan
area is great and the DIA salary structure is not on a par with
the private sector (even though DIA has adopted a special
salary rate for these skills.) Turnover is high, especially
among the better quality secretarial/clerical personnel, most
of whom leave for higher slaries or to accompany a military
spouse.
DIA does not recruit in engineering/scientific and
technical or computer science personnel at the entry or
pre-professional level. Because of the narrow and highly
specialized nature of such positions within DIA, recruitment
efforts are concentrated on full-performance senior level
candidates. Competition for such skills is intense, making
these DIA's hardest slots to fill. Often the relatively few
positions in these areas remain unfilled for periods of one to
two years.
Extensive pre-employment processing time also adversely
affects DIA recruitment. Many good candidates simply will not
wait the extended period for a firm job offer, while others
decline when finally cleared because they have found another
job in the interim. For this reason, more candidates than
would otherwise be necessary must be developed and processed
for possible employment.
DIA states that a gross estimate of the cost per hire is
about $5,000, exclusive of any training costs.
d. Quality Indicators
DIA employs rather extensive qualification screening
processes for its hires. Aptitude and abilities tests and a
thorough interview process, including interviews with
operational managers, attempt to insure that the high quality
of hires is maintained. During the period 1983-1987, DIA
received in excess of 2,000 applications for employment each
year and, after screening, testing and interviewing, hired
approximately 480 annually.
e. Competition with the Private Sector
DIA's major competition with the private sector is for
experienced engineers/scientific and technical and computer
science personnel and for secretary/clerical personnel. Higher
salaries and better benefit packages are the major obstacles
faced, although DIA staff said some well qualified candidates
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are unwilling to wait a lengthy period of time for the
clearance process to be completed.
f. Future Staffing Projections
DIA forecasts that the next decade will bring many new
challenges that will require new or changed skills.
Intelligence analysts will have to be computer literate to
conduct computer modeling or other advanced applications. In
addition, DIA must be able to recruit individuals who can
understand the technology that drives U.S. national collection
systems and apply that knowledge to essential intelligence
production. Intense competition for needed skills among DIA,
other federal agencies and the private sector is anticipated.
2. Impact of Change in Authorization Levels on Ability to
Recruit and Staff
DIA experienced large growth from its inception in 1961 through
1968 as a gradual transfer of functions to the new agency took place
and the war in Southeast Asia intensified. 1969 saw the beginning
of a 10 year decline in authorized postions, resulting in a 35
percent decrease from the 1968 authorized level. A restructuring of
the Defense Attache System and the wind down of the war in Southeast
Asia were the major reasons. During this period, attrition could
not keep pace with mandated reductions, and a reduction-in-force was
necessary in 1972. The DIA workforce declined to a state of
one-deep in many vital areas and staff who were there at the time
say there was considerable stress due to workload pressures. Entry
level hiring of professionals virtually ceased. These drawdowns
were accompanied by great technological advances, a demand for
multidisciplined analysts, and greatly expanded target
responsibilities. DIA retained much of its Soviet/Pact and Middle
East capability at the expense of the rest of the world. By 1979,
virtually no capability existed to analyze Third World military and
political developments.
This problem became very evident by 1980 and a rebuilding of
DIA's capability began. A gradual but significant build-up in the
early 1980s started with the addition of Third World analysts.
Support billets were added later along with such newly assigned
functions as HUMINT management, Technology Transfer Analysis, DoD
Intelligence Planning and DoD career intelligence training. By
1987, DIA had experienced a 31 percent growth from its 1981 strength
authorization.
DIA believes its employees of today are much different from
their counterparts of the 1960s, being better educated, more
experienced and more capable of dealing with the present dynamic
world environment. Although skill mix requirements have changed
little since DIA's 1961 inception, the complexities of the
analytical/collection problem and the tools used have changed
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greatly. The analyst of today must have a broad understanding of
the world, its interdependence and relationships to the goals and
objectives of the U.S., and must be capable of providing finished
intelligence in near or real-time.
3. NAPA Staff Views
DIA operates an effective staffing program and is able to
satisfy the personnel requirements of the Agency. Efficient
recruiting mechanisms are in place and adequate special authorities
for appointment and salary setting have been provided to ensure that
DIA has the necessary tools to meet its staffing needs without the
restrictions of the competitive service. DIA has demonstrated an
ability to hire sufficient numbers of quality people to meet
operational needs, although intense competition for some
hard-to-hire critical skills remains a problem. High turnover among
clerical and others support employees is also a problem, but this is
a problem common to all employers in the Washington, DC area.
The authority Congress granted to DIA in 1984 has provided the
management flexibility DIA needed to become more competitive and DIA
has used that authority effectively.
Specific Courses of Action
193-05 July 88
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/22 : CIA-RDP90-00530R000200270009-7