IMPROVING THE ROLE OF TRAINING IN PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R005000070006-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: October 11, 1972
• Content Type: MF

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OFFICIAL ROUTING SLIP
TO
NAME AND ADDRESS
DA
E
INITIAIS
Deputy Director for Support
T
~k
~!gne
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Director of Training
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ACTION
DIRECT REPLY
PREPARE REPLY
APPROVAL
DISPATCH
RECOMMENDATION
COMMENT
FILE
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CONCURRENCE
INFORMATION
SIGNATURE
Remarks:
Mr. Colby asks that you consider and/
or comment on the attached MAG paper in
the course of replying to his memorandum
dated 6 October, subject: Personnel
Management and Development.
FOLD HERE TO RETUR O SENDER
FROM: NAME. ADDRESS AND, HONE NO.
DATE
O/Executive Director
7D59
18 Oct 7
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DD/S 72-3964: Memo dtd 11 Oct 72 for Ex.Dir.-Compt. fr Management
Advisory Group, subj: Improving the Role of Training in Personnel
Management
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Executive Director/Comptroller
SUBJECT Improving the Role of Training
in Personnel Management
I. MAG believes that training is a key tool in preparing
Agency personnel both for their immediate responsibilities and
for their long-term career goals. At the present time, we
think that management is not effectively utilizing that tool.
Without a basic and continuing commitment to training on the
part of management, the Agency's training programs will inevit-
ably fall short of their objectives. We question whether there
is such a commitment amongst management within the Agency today.
Our concern stems from a belief that the Agency is specifically
remiss in the following:
A. fully utilizing programs available through
Agency and other U.S. Government facilities
B. encouraging a continuing dialogue between
components and the Office of Training to facilitate
the development of new courses or the refinement of
current programs
C. developing plans and allocating resources for
training as an integral part of personnel management
and career development
D.- exploring new training requirements in opera-
tional, analytical and managerial areas evolving from
changing Agency missions and the impact of "the
computer and systems revolution." The latter has
created urgent needs for broader understanding of the
applications of systems analysis and evaluation,
program review, opportunities for multidiscipline
team applications, and so forth.
MAG therefore recommends fundamental changes in the
concept of "training officer," management's role at all levels,
and the role of the Office of Training (OTR).
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II. The Role of the Training Officer
The training officer (TO), who must be aware both of
operational needs and training programs available, is the con-
tinuing link between the various components and OTR. Frequently,
however, a component personnel or support officer has "training"
added to his other responsibilities and thus has little time to
devote to the immediate and developmental needs of component
personnel. A survey of component training officers in 1968 pro-
duced the following profile (based on a questionnaire sent to 47
TOs, with 44 responding):
The average TO is a male GS-13 with over ten years
Agency service, and is in his forties. He spends 25% or less
of his time in training duties. Grades ranged from GS-08 to
GS-15 (currently there is one GS-07 TO). Time on board extended
from only eight months to over twenty years. The duration of
their TO "training" is an annual one-day briefing given by OTR.
A. The directorate (senior) training officer should
be an OTR careerist -- a practice followed in the past.
He should be slotted in an administrative staff position
and directly involved in personnel management and career
development planning. He should meet regularly with all
training officers in his directorate. He should take the
TO training course outlined in D.
B. Component TOs should also be slotted at the ad-
ministrative staff level, including those who have the
TO designation as a collateral responsibility. From
that vantage point, the TOs could survey the immediate
and developmental needs of the component generally and
could effectively contribute to plans for relating
training to personnel management and developmental
planning procedures. In recognition of the fact that
most non-routine training requests arise at the employee
and first-line supervisory levels, the TOs should be in
a position to know both the advantages to be gained and
the exigencies of policy and funding governing subse-
quent action.
C. TOs should be encouraged actively to fulfill
their training role, even when this is a collateral one.
Similarly, management should ensure that they have suf-
ficient time to so act. In some cases, an OTR careerist
should be assigned to component TO slots. All TOs --
senior and component -- should be required to take the
training program outlined below.
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D. The training program, to be developed by OTR,
should include orientation to:
1. OTR organization and courses
2. courses available in other U.S. Government
facilities
3. OTR resources for providing factual and
evaluative data on non-Agency courses
4. OTR resources for lecture and course
development and review, instructor training, OTR
support for component training, and so forth
5. principles of course development and
evaluation
6. development of component training policies
E. Regular meetings -- at least quarterly -- should
be held by supervisors and component TOs in each directorate
with appropriate OTR personnel.
III. Management Role
Management has been inconsistent and ambivalent in its
attitude towards training as an integral part of developing ef-
fective officers. A case in point is the Intelligence and World
Affairs course, required for all new professionals within their
first eighteen months in the Agency. Despite this statutory
requirement, only about 50% of Agency professionals are ever
enrolled, and many take the course after several years on board.
Budgetary restrictions have prevented professionals from re-
ceiving needed and valuable external training -- restrictions
that more effective planning may have averted. Imaginative
training policies have been developed by CRS and OL and should
be explored in terms of broader applicability.
RECOMMENDATIONS :
A. Mandatory component training policies should be
established. These policies should include: realistic
assessments of the kinds of training recommended and
courses available for all personnel as they progress
upward; consideration of rotational assignments and
academic sabbaticals; TDY familiarization trips where
applicable; budgetary considerations. The policies
should be coordinated with the senior TO and OTR. They
must be flexible, and should be reviewed annually by the
component supervisors and TOs. The results of this re-
view, particularly recommendations for further action,
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should be forwarded to the appropriate Deputy Director
and the DTR.
B. Implementation of the recommendations on selection,
utilization, and training of TOs.
C. Supervisors, in conjunction with component TOs,
should be specifically charged with disseminating informa-
tion on training opportunities on a regular basis.
The ability of OTR to respond to Agency needs depends
upon effective communications between that office and users.
This brings us full-circle -- back to the training officer.
The newly-instituted Board of Visitors hopefully will serve as
a bridge, critically assessing component needs and OTR's capa-
bilities. But the Board cannot replace the working-level con-
tacts between components and the appropriate elements of OTR
for developing critical inputs into improving the role of
training in personnel management and, indeed, overall Agency
effectiveness.
A. develop the TO training course outline
B. expand the present capacity for course and
curriculum development and evaluation. OTR can play
a greater role in improving component training, in-
cluding support for the development of courses in col-
laboration with outside contractors.
C. expand the dialogue with component chiefs and
TOs to keep abreast of changing Agency training needs.
Component training policies should surface new needs,
and OTR must be flexible and innovative in responding.
One recent positive example was OTR's role in designingsTAT
the one-day seminar on "New Directions in CIA's Support
of U.S. International Economic Policy."
D. use of r and--responsibility con-
tained in which give OTR
the right to sign of on Agency training expenditures.
Resort to these powers should encourage components to under-
take careful study of training as it relates to immediate
and long-range needs for personnel management and career
development. The DTR's position as Chairman of the Training
Selection Board, responsible directly to the Executive
Director/Comptroller, enables him to encourage utilization
of senior-level external training opportunities as part of
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an overall development plan rather than as a temporary
and convenient means of disposing of unwanted senior
officers.
E. maximum exploitation of OTR's control of the
Information Sciences Center to educate appropriate ele-
ments of the Agency in the diverse applications of infor-
mation science and computer technology.
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NOTE FOR: Mr. Coffey via Mr. 'Wattles
This is an interesting document in thal _J
obviously exerted major influence in its preparation.
Although I detect some frustration incom -
ments over OTR's inability to push aheadpsome ideas
previously expressed, I find nothing really objectionable
in what MAG proposes. MAG~obviously is not
up to date on some of our current attempts to improve
training. However, MAG's proposals are in general
agreement with what I think are WEC's, OTR's, and
your intentions toward Agency training efforts. STAT
The use of OTR careerists as Directorate Training
Officers is an excellent idea, particularly with the
Board of Visitors just being organized. The Direc-
torate Training Officer could or would become the
Board of Visitors member's' staff officer and principal
assistant, in addition to his other duties. This could
make the Board of Visitors a much more effective
group.
Recomme forward this to D/TR for comment
as suggested id J note. STAT