TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION

 

 

The Onboarding Process Has Improved, but Additional Steps Should Be Taken to Ensure Employees Have the Tools, Resources, and Knowledge to Be Successful and Productive

 

 

 

August 6, 2012

 

Reference Number:  2012-10-091

 

 

This report has cleared the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration disclosure review process and information determined to be restricted from public release has been redacted from this document.

 

 

Phone Number  /  202-622-6500

E-mail Address /  TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov

Website           /  http://www.tigta.gov

 

HIGHLIGHTS

The Onboarding Process Has Improved, but Additional Steps Should Be Taken to Ensure Employees Have the Tools, Resources, and Knowledge to Be Successful and Productive

Highlights

Final Report issued on August 6, 2012

Highlights of Reference Number:  2012-10-091 to the Internal Revenue Service Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support and the Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement.

IMPACT ON TAXPAYERS

Onboarding is a year-long process that integrates new employees into the workforce.  The IRS has improved its process for onboarding new employees and some processes are working well.  However, the new employee experience is not always positive, and the process for making improvements needs to be more coordinated.  Improving processes would reduce the substantial cost of replacing employees who leave the IRS and would help the IRS meet its mission by ensuring employees quickly become productive.

WHY TIGTA DID THE AUDIT

This review was requested by the IRS and addresses the major management challenge of Human Capital.  The overall objective was to determine whether the IRS’s onboarding program was appropriately integrating new employees for positions in mission-critical occupations into the IRS workforce to become productive employees as quickly as possible.

WHAT TIGTA FOUND

The IRS would like new employees to have a consistently positive experience during their first year with the IRS.  To help managers make this a reality, the IRS developed guidance (a toolkit and website) that incorporates industry best practices for effectively integrating new employees into the IRS.  Also, recent hires have reported positive experiences such as the handling of administrative issues and being introduced to the IRS’s mission and their new job.

While the IRS has taken steps to make the new employee experience positive, managers that TIGTA interviewed were not following best practices identified in the comprehensive guidance the IRS developed for them.  As a result, some best practices that would help new employees feel welcome and help them become more productive were not fully implemented.  For example, one-quarter of the new employees TIGTA contacted were not assigned a coach or mentor when they arrived, and approximately 29 percent stated that the onboarding experience did not accelerate their ability to reach full productivity.

To improve, the IRS must obtain feedback from new employees.  While the IRS and the Department of the Treasury use questionnaires to obtain input from new employees, these questionnaires do not address a new employee’s entire first year, and existing measures would not help the IRS identify specific areas of concern.  Also, the IRS does not have a documented onboarding strategy that would help it tie together actions being taken to study and improve the new employee experience.

WHAT TIGTA RECOMMENDED

TIGTA recommended that the IRS Human Capital Officer develop an agency-wide onboarding strategy.  The strategy should include components such as a checklist with step-by-step guidance that should be completed during the onboarding process and require managers to complete the checklist, a process to collect feedback from managers on how the onboarding process could be improved, and additional measures and analyses to evaluate the onboarding process. 

IRS management agreed with the recommendation and responded that efforts are underway to convene a team to develop a corporate IRS onboarding strategy. 

 

 

August 6, 2012

 

 

MEMORANDUM FOR DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR OPERATIONS SUPPORT

                                  DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR SERVICES AND ENFORCEMENT

 

FROM:                       Michael E. McKenney /s/ Michael E. McKenney

                                  Acting Deputy Inspector General for Audit

 

SUBJECT:                  Final Audit Report – The Onboarding Process Has Improved, but Additional Steps Should Be Taken to Ensure Employees Have the Tools, Resources, and Knowledge to Be Successful and Productive (Audit # 201110029)

 

This report presents the results of our review to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) onboarding program was appropriately integrating new employees for positions in mission-critical occupations[1] into the IRS workforce to become productive employees as quickly as possible.  This review was requested by the IRS and is included in our Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Audit Plan.  This review addresses the major management challenge of Human Capital.

Management’s complete response to the draft report is included in Appendix V.

Copies of this report are also being sent to the IRS managers affected by the report recommendations.  Please contact me at (202) 622-6510 if you have any questions or Russell P. Martin, Acting Assistant Inspector General for Audit (Management Services and Exempt Organizations), at (202) 622-8500.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Background

Results of Review

The Human Capital Office Has Developed Comprehensive Onboarding Guidance and Several Key Onboarding Processes Are Working Well

Processes to Enhance the Onboarding Experience Are Either Not Being Consistently Followed or Need Improvement

Recommendation 1:

Appendices

Appendix I – Detailed Objective, Scope, and Methodology

Appendix II – Major Contributors to This Report

Appendix III – Report Distribution List

Appendix IV – Analyses of Recently Hired Employee Responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Questionnaire

Appendix V – Management’s Response to the Draft Report

 

 

Abbreviations

 

 

 

Background

 

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), like many Federal agencies, faces a loss of managers and technical employees that could affect its ability to effectively accomplish its mission.  For example, to fill projected shortages in managers, the IRS has stated that it must recruit one manager a day for the next 10 years.  The IRS’s ability to replace this loss of skills and experience with new talent will depend on its capability to efficiently and effectively recruit, hire, and retain high-performing employees.

Onboarding is the process of integrating and acculturating new employees into the IRS and providing them with the tools, resources, and knowledge to become successful and productive.

A key component of the IRS’s process to recruit, hire, and retain high-performing employees is its onboarding process.  Onboarding is a year-long process that integrates new employees into the workforce.  It includes manager preparation for a new employee’s arrival, a comprehensive orientation, and programs throughout the first year of employment to build engagement.[2]

The Partnership for Public Service[3] recently examined how the Federal Government fared with its process for onboarding new employees and published a report[4] detailing its findings.  Overall, the Partnership noted that no component of human capital management has been more overlooked by the Federal Government than the process of integrating new employees into their work environments.  Once talent has been recruited and hired, onboarding serves as a critical second step to ensure that new employees are connected with an agency in a manner that effectively contributes to an agency’s mission as quickly as possible.

The Partnership report also indicated that effective onboarding programs can improve employee retention by 25 percent.  This can reduce the high cost of turnover that, by some estimates, costs organizations 30 to 50 percent of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150 percent for mid-level employees, and up to 400 percent for specialized, high-level employees.  When a new employee quits, it may take more than a year to recruit and train a replacement, which creates productivity losses and leads other employees to become demoralized and consider leaving as well.  To address the challenges facing Federal agencies, the Partnership developed a model for strategic onboarding to serve as an example for agency reform.

Figure 1:  Strategic Onboarding Model

ONBOARDING MODEL

 

Source:  The Partnership for Public Service, “Getting On Board:  A Model for Integrating and Engaging New Employees,” May 2008.

This review was performed at the IRS Human Capital Office (HCO) National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., during the period October 2011 through April 2012.  We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.  Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objective.  We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objective.  Detailed information on our audit objective, scope, and methodology is presented in Appendix I.  Major contributors to the report are listed in Appendix II.

 

 

Results of Review

 

The Human Capital Office Has Developed Comprehensive Onboarding Guidance and Several Key Onboarding Processes Are Working Well

The IRS would like new employees to have a consistently positive experience during their first year with the IRS.  To help managers make this a reality, the IRS developed guidance (a toolkit and website) that incorporates industry best practices for effectively integrating new employees into the IRS.  Recent hires we surveyed reported positive experiences with certain processes, such as the handling of administrative issues and being introduced to the IRS’s mission and their new job.

The IRS HCO developed a comprehensive onboarding toolkit to help managers successfully integrate new employees into the IRS workforce.

The Office of Personnel Management[5] and the Partnership for Public Service[6] have both published reports documenting best practices for Federal agencies to use when hiring and onboarding employees.  We compared these best practices with guidance available to IRS managers and determined that the IRS HCO took positive steps to include many of the best practices into the IRS’s onboarding program.  For example, the IRS HCO developed an onboarding toolkit for IRS managers to use as a guide for successfully onboarding new employees, and the suggested processes in the toolkit were generally consistent with best practices. 

As part of the guidance, the IRS HCO also developed a website with helpful links for managers that are hiring new employees.  For example, the website contains a section with a workflow process map that assists managers by outlining the processes and timelines necessary to successfully bring a new employee on board.  The website also contains a section explaining how managers can request computers and other information technology equipment so that employees will have the tools needed on their first day of work.

To determine how well best practices were being followed, we sent a questionnaire to 402 recently hired IRS employees and received responses from 302 employees.[7]  Based on the responses, the IRS has done well in implementing several critical onboarding best practices that are necessary to appropriately integrate new staff into the IRS workforce and help new employees effectively contribute to the mission as quickly as possible.  We categorized these best practices into three general areas, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2:  Categories of Onboarding Best Practices Where the
IRS Consistently Performed Well According to Recently Hired Employees

Source:  Analysis of responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration questionnaire.

Processes to Enhance the Onboarding Experience Are Either Not Being Consistently Followed or Need Improvement

While the IRS has taken steps to make the new employee experience positive, managers were not always following best practices identified in the comprehensive guidance the IRS HCO developed.  As a result, some best practices that would help new employees feel welcome and help them become more productive were not fully implemented.  For example, responses to our questionnaire identified that more than one-quarter of the new employees we contacted stated they were not assigned an experienced employee/mentor to orient them when they arrived and more than 40 percent stated they did not have a computer, telephone, and e-mail account ready when they reported to work.  To assist in meeting its goal of being the best place to work in the Government, the IRS needs to develop an agency-wide approach to improving the new employee experience by addressing feedback from its employees and making needed improvements.  Improving onboarding processes would reduce the substantial cost of replacing employees who leave the IRS and would help the IRS meet its mission by ensuring employees quickly become productive.

Onboarding guidance is not being consistently followed

Based on our analysis of responses to our questionnaire, the IRS did not consistently follow several best practices that are designed to help new employees feel welcome and help them become more productive.  Specifically, the IRS did not always perform well in practices that require specialized attention be provided to new employees, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3:  Examples of Onboarding Best Practices
That Were Not Implemented Consistently

Source:  Analysis of 302 responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration questionnaire that was distributed to a total of 402 recently hired IRS employees.  See Appendix IV, Figure 3, for details.

Likewise, there were similar responses to questions that dealt with providing new employees with contact points to promote networking, such as not having the opportunity to meet with staff from other areas of the IRS and not having a list of contact points or an organization chart readily available.  While nearly all of these actions were included in the manager’s guidance for onboarding employees (onboarding toolkit and website), we found that front-line managers from several IRS business units were not using the guidance.  As such, managers had varying degrees of knowledge about both the onboarding process and the resources available in the toolkit and on the website.  In many cases, managers relied on their institutional knowledge and local contacts when working with recently hired staff instead of using the toolkit and website.

Additionally, we found that while the IRS HCO website provided many suggestions to managers on best practices for onboarding new employees, it did not contain a checklist to give them step‑by‑step guidance on each item that should be completed during the onboarding process.

Research has shown that, during their first six months on the job, a high percentage of employees decide whether or not they will stay at an organization or begin looking for a new job.  Other research shows that the effective onboarding of new employees can improve employee retention by as much as 25 percent.[8]

Improving the process for addressing employee issues could enable the IRS to better retain newly hired employees

In narrative responses to our questionnaire, recently hired employees often expressed frustration that they did not have cubicles, telephones, access to systems, etc., for weeks to months after arriving at the IRS.

While the IRS has taken action to obtain feedback from recently hired employees and address recommendations that impact the onboarding experience, a more coordinated, agency‑wide approach is needed to measure, analyze, and make improvements to the onboarding process.  To improve, the IRS must obtain feedback from new employees and take appropriate action.  Although the IRS and the Department of the Treasury use questionnaires to obtain input from new IRS employees, these questionnaires do not address a new employee’s entire first year.  In addition, existing measures and analyses do not help the IRS identify specific onboarding areas of concern, and feedback from managers is not being considered.  Also, the IRS does not have a documented onboarding strategy that would help it tie together actions being taken to study and improve the new employee experience.  Specifically, we determined that:

• Questionnaires of recently hired employees do not cover the entire first year of employment – The Partnership for Public Service states that improving onboarding programs is accomplished by sustaining a strategic approach to onboarding that includes measuring results and soliciting and using feedback.  The activities associated with this strategic approach should go beyond the first weeks or months.  These activities should be sustained throughout the employee’s first year. 

While the IRS HCO obtains feedback from new employees, it does not obtain feedback after a new employee’s first 90 days.  The IRS uses a Department of the Treasury questionnaire^[9] to obtain employee feedback that covers only the first 90 days a new employee is at work.  If the IRS does not obtain specific feedback for the entire first year of work, it may not be aware of improvements that are needed and may not take corrective actions that would lead to better retention of recently hired employees.  For example, in responses to our questionnaire, we determined that some best practices that should be followed subsequent to the employee’s first 90 days were not being consistently followed.[10]

• More detailed measures and analyses are needed to identify onboarding practices that need improvement – The measures used to evaluate onboarding have evolved over the past few years.  Initially, the IRS HCO used statistics related to the percentage of employees who left within their first year of being employed by the IRS.  Starting in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2011, the IRS HCO began using an Onboarding Satisfaction Index which is based on new employees’ replies to 25 questions from a new employee questionnaire.  This measure is an improvement over using the percentage of employees who leave within the first year because it is more closely aligned with specific actions being taken to improve onboarding.  While helpful as overall measures, neither the percentage of employees leaving within their first year nor the Onboarding Satisfaction Index measures had the necessary details to identify specific areas of concern that employees identified in their responses to our questionnaire.

Additional analyses of onboarding data would allow the IRS to leverage best practices from specific segments of the IRS that have developed processes that are leading to a more positive onboarding experience for recent hires.

In addition to developing overall onboarding measures, the IRS has performed three different analyses of new employee attrition.  However, none of these analyses included sufficient data by position and were also insufficient for identifying the cause for areas that resulted in low scores to questions on the new employee questionnaire.  Analyzing information by organization, job position, employee location, etc., would enable the IRS to identify segments of the IRS that may have implemented specific processes that allow them to more consistently create a positive onboarding experience for its employees.  For example, in reviewing responses to our questionnaire, it is clear that some organizations within the IRS have implemented best practices better than others.  For example, 92 percent of recently hired employees in the Large Business and International Division stated that they had a computer, telephone, and e‑mail account ready when they reported to the IRS.  However, only 49 percent of recently hired employees in the Modernization and Information Technology Services organization stated this key equipment was available when they reported.[11]  Also, 92 percent of recently hired revenue agents stated that performance expectations and individual development goals were established upon reporting to the IRS, whereas only 79 percent of customer service representatives believed this to be true in their experience.

• Feedback from managers of recently hired employees is not being considered – While the IRS and the Department of the Treasury requests feedback from recently hired employees, managers of recently hired employees we spoke with indicated that no one requested feedback from them regarding onboarding practices.  We believe this occurred because early efforts to improve the onboarding experience focused on the employee’s experience.  However, the IRS should expand the feedback it is receiving to include managerial feedback.  This would give the IRS additional insight into the onboarding process.  Feedback from managers may identify barriers to implementing onboarding best practices or internal processes that are making it difficult to ensure the most positive experience for new employees.
• The IRS does not have a documented onboarding strategy for improving the new employee experience – IRS officials informed us that they have formed groups to research various issues impacting recently hired employees.  For example, we were informed of a group formed with representatives from throughout the IRS that were assessing attrition, retention, and onboarding.  While we could see actions that were being taken by the group, it was difficult to determine the purpose and goals of the group due to the lack of a charter and a recent changeover in leadership.

In addition to the agency-wide group, individual IRS business units had projects underway dealing with subjects such as attrition patterns and the cause of employees not attending orientation sessions.  IRS officials informed us that the scope of the projects varied based on individual business unit needs.  Even though the teams were led by individual business units, we believe some of the results from these projects could be of value to the entire IRS.  For example, one business unit project recommended that information sharing be increased across all IRS organizations to leverage best practices and promote a collaborative work environment.  HCO officials stated that they had reviewed and discussed the results of individual projects.  However, because the projects were not established with an agency‑wide focus, we could not clearly identify a person or group charged with overall responsibility for tracking the progress of onboarding projects or determining whether individual projects could assist the IRS overall.

Similar to our findings, an employee-led project recommended in 2010 that the IRS develop a corporate strategy for retention, with a “One-IRS Approach” for identifying and retaining high-potential employees beyond the first 12 months.

A long-term unified onboarding strategy is needed to improve the onboarding process for its employees.  Without a unified strategy, the important work being conducted throughout the IRS may not be analyzed for applicability throughout the IRS and the opportunity to learn from the work of others could be lost.

Recommendation

Recommendation 1:  To further improve the onboarding process and achieve the IRS’s goal of making the IRS the best place to work in Government, we recommend that the IRS Human Capital Officer develop an agency-wide onboarding strategy.  The strategy should include:

·       Goals for improving the onboarding process.

·       An agency‑wide process for planning, coordinating, and addressing actions being taken across the IRS on onboarding topics.

·       A checklist with step-by-step guidance on each item that should be completed during the onboarding process requiring managers to complete the checklist acknowledging that the items were addressed.

·       A plan to promote the use of the onboarding toolkit and website to managers who are assigned newly hired employees.

·       A process to collect feedback from managers on how the onboarding process could be improved.

·       Additional measures and analyses to evaluate the onboarding process, including a means of identifying specific areas of employee concern for their first year of employment.

Management’s Response:  IRS management agrees with the recommendation to enhance the existing onboarding strategy.  Efforts are underway to convene an IRS team with business division representatives to develop a corporate IRS onboarding strategy that will include:  goals for improving the onboarding process; a documented IRS-wide process for planning, coordinating, and addressing actions being taken across the IRS with respect to onboarding topics; a link with IRS and business divisions’ retention strategies to more effectively promote existing tools for managers; a communication plan directed at managers to improve awareness of the existing checklist, guidance, and other tools; increased support to managers to ensure all critical onboarding items are addressed; a corporate marketing plan to promote the use of the onboarding toolkit and the website on the IRS Intranet that assists managers who are assigned new employees; a process to collect feedback from managers on how the onboarding process could be improved; and additional measures and analyses to evaluate the entire onboarding process, including a means of identifying specific areas of employee concern during the first year of employment.

Office of Audit Comments:  While IRS management agreed with our recommendation, they also stated in their overall comments that they did not agree that conclusions could be drawn based on the sample size of managers we surveyed.  However, management’s response did not appear to consider that we selected a targeted sample.  Only managers who had new employees hired between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, were considered for selection.  After interviewing the first 15 managers and finding that none of them were aware of or were using the information on IRS HCO’s onboarding website (including the onboarding toolkit that was developed to guide managers with newly hired employees), we concluded that some of the actions recommended in the onboarding toolkit may not have been performed because managers of newly hired employees were unaware the toolkit existed and were not required to use it.  Given that there was no variance in the responses, we believe the results of our sample provide a sufficient basis for our conclusion.

 

Appendix I

 

Detailed Objective, Scope, and Methodology

 

The overall objective of this review was to determine whether the IRS’s onboarding program was appropriately integrating new employees for positions in mission-critical occupations[12] into the IRS workforce to become productive employees as quickly as possible.  To accomplish this objective, we conducted the following tests:

I.                 Determined whether the IRS had a system in place to ensure the onboarding process was comprehensive, integrated, and based on the human capital needs of the IRS and whether all components of the process were coordinated to assimilate new employees into the IRS workforce.

A.    Identified existing IRS policies and procedures and compared them with the Partnership for Public Service’s strategic onboarding model[13] and the Office of Personnel Management’s End-to-End Hiring roadmap[14] and determined whether all key components of the model were included.

B.    Determined whether the HCO’s procedures integrated all components of the onboarding model into its work processes to ensure employees have all needed information, workspace, and equipment when they report for duty. 

1.     Interviewed a judgmental[15] sample of 15 business unit managers and reviewed existing procedures.

2.     Interviewed HCO management to determine whether onboarding procedures and guidelines were available to IRS business managers and employees when new staff reported for duty.

II.               Determined, from the new employee’s standpoint, whether onboarding activities appropriately integrated new employees into their positions and provided them with the tools, resources, and knowledge to become successful and productive.

A.    Used the Data Center Warehouse[16] to obtain Treasury Integrated Management Information System information to identify 3,161 employees who were in mission-critical occupation positions and started working for the IRS between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011.  We assessed the reliability of the data by ensuring that all employees selected as part of our sample in Step II.B. had a valid IRS e-mail account.  The data appeared to be reasonably accurate for the purposes of this audit, and we performed no additional data validity tests.

B.    Developed and distributed a questionnaire to a judgmental sample of 402 (12.7 percent) of the employees identified in Step II.A. and obtained feedback on the following phases of their onboarding experience, as well as any areas where it could be improved:

1.     Prior to reporting for their first day of work.

2.     When reporting for duty on their first day.

3.     During their first week of employment with the IRS.

4.     During their first 90 days of employment.

5.     During their first year of employment.

6.     For the overall onboarding process, any specific components of the process that employees felt were exceptionally positive or could be improved.

III.             Determined whether there was a structured approach to measure the benefits and outcomes of the IRS’s onboarding program.

A.    Identified existing measures the HCO had in place to monitor and gauge the program’s performance.

B.    Interviewed HCO management to determine whether there was a process in place for using employees’ responses to onboarding questionnaires to initiate improvements in the onboarding program.

C.    Determined whether HCO management was obtaining and addressing feedback from managers about the onboarding process.

Internal controls methodology

Internal controls relate to management’s plans, methods, and procedures used to meet their mission, goals, and objectives.  Internal controls include the processes and procedures for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling program operations.  They include the systems for measuring, reporting, and monitoring program performance.  We determined the following internal controls were relevant to our audit objective:  the IRS HCO’s policies, procedures, and practices for integrating and assimilating new employees into the IRS workforce.  We evaluated these controls by interviewing management, distributing a comprehensive questionnaire to recently hired employees to obtain their feedback on their onboarding experience, and evaluating feedback mechanisms the IRS HCO used to gauge the overall success of the onboarding program.

Appendix II

 

Major Contributors to This Report

 

Nancy A. Nakamura, Assistant Inspector General for Audit (Management Services and Exempt Organizations)

Russell P. Martin, Acting Assistant Inspector General for Audit (Management Services and Exempt Organizations)

Troy D. Paterson, Director

James V. Westcott, Audit Manager

Steve T. Myers, Lead Auditor

Margaret A. Anketell, Auditor

Brett C. Thornock, Audit Evaluator

 

Appendix III

 

Report Distribution List

 

Commissioner  C

Office of the Commissioner – Attn:  Chief of Staff  C

Chief Technology Officer  OS:CTO

IRS Human Capital Officer  OS:HC

Deputy IRS Human Capital Officer  OS:HC

Commissioner, Large Business and International Division  SE:LB

Commissioner, Small Business/Self-Employed Division  SE:S

Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division  SE:T

Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division  SE:W

Chief Counsel  CC

National Taxpayer Advocate  TA

Director, Office of Legislative Affairs  CL:LA

Director, Office of Program Evaluation and Risk Analysis  RAS:O

Office of Internal Control  OS:CFO:CPIC:IC

Audit Liaison:  IRS Human Capital Officer  OS:HC

 

Appendix IV

 

Analyses of Recently Hired Employee Responses
to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Questionnaire

 

We administered a questionnaire to 402 IRS employees hired between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, and received 302 responses (a 75 percent response rate).  All questions related to an onboarding best practice and all questions were worded so that a positive response from a recently hired employee would indicate that the employee believes an onboarding best practice identified in each question was followed by the IRS.

Figure 1 shows the legend for viewing employee responses to the questionnaire.  Figure 2 shows the responses by onboarding phase (prior to reporting for their first day of work, when reporting for duty on their first day, first week of employment with the IRS, first 90 days of employment, and first year of employment).  Figure 3 shows the responses by business unit/functional office (Small Business/Self-Employed Division, Large Business and International Division, Modernization and Information Technology Services organization, and Wage and Investment Division).  Figure 4 shows the responses by position (revenue agent, tax examiner, customer service representative, and information technology specialist).

Figure 1:  Legend for Viewing Responses to the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration Questionnaire of Recently Hired Employees

Source:  Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Figure 2:  Summary of Responses to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Questionnaire of Recently Hired Employees by Onboarding Phase

Source:  Responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration questionnaire of recently hired IRS employees.

Figure 3:  Summary of Responses to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Questionnaire of Recently Hired Employees:  Results by Business Unit/Functional Office, From Most Positive to Most Negative

Source:  Responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration questionnaire of recently hired IRS employees.

Figure 4:  Summary of Responses to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Questionnaire of Recently Hired Employees by Job Position

Source:  Responses to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration questionnaire of recently hired IRS employees.

 

Appendix V

 

Management’s Response to the Draft Report

 

 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVIC

WASHINGTON. D.C. 20224

 

HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICE

 

 

July 16, 2012

 

 

MEMORANDUM FOR TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR

    TAX ADMINISTRATION

 

FROM:                             David Krieg /s/ David Krieg

     IRS Human Capital Officer

 

SUBJECT:                       The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

Draft Report- The Onboarding Process Has Improved, but Additional Steps Should Be Taken to Ensure Employees Have the Tools, Resources, and Knowledge to Be Successful and Productive (Audit# 201110029)

 

The Human Capital Office (HCO) has received the Inspector General Office's draft report.  We appreciate the opportunity to further clarify our processes and comment on this report.

 

The HCO is in agreement with the recommendation to enhance the agency-s existing onboarding strategy.  Efforts are underway to convene a cross-functional team to ensure the Implemented corporate strategy meets the individually unique needs of the businesses.

 

The IRS does not agree that conclusions can be drawn from a very small sample size of 15 managers.  In the report, TIGTA acknowledges the sample size is too small to make significant conclusions yet claims that managers are not following best practices identified in the comprehensive guidance; and that they have varying degrees of knowledge about the onboarding process and the resources available to them.  Also, the methodology in the draft report states that the judgment sample is non-statistical and therefore not representative of the population of managers.  Despite this, the feedback gathered from managers is directly compared to survey statistics including negative employee response to the onboarding experience and employees lacking coaching.

 

While the HCO agrees that the onboarding program could be bolstered by additional support to managers and an increase in management feedback, we believe the report should not suggest or link assumptions to the interviews of such a small sample of more than 9,000 managers.  Also, we would suggest that the report be updated to reflect the new hire focus groups that were conducted by Small Business/Self-Employed and Tax Exempt & Government Entities divisions last year.  These groups provided qualitative analysis of the data and the results were implemented to support new hires and their managers.

 

If you have any questions, please contact Becky Barber, Director, Employment, Talent and Security, HCO at (202) 622-7011.

 

Attachment

 

Attachment

 

Recommendation:  To further improve the onboarding process and achieve the IRS's goal of making the IRS the best place to work in Government, we recommend that the IRS Human Capital Officer develop an agency-wide onboarding strategy.  The strategy should include:

 

•                  Goals for improving the onboarding process.

 

•                  An agency-wide process for planning, coordinating, and addressing actions being taken across the IRS on onboarding topics.

 

•                  A checklist with step-by-step guidance on each item that should be completed during the onboarding process requiring managers to complete the checklist acknowledging that the items were addressed.

 

•                  A plan to promote the use of the onboarding toolkit and website to managers who are assigned newly hired employees.

 

•                  A process to collect feedback from managers on how the onboarding process could be improved.

 

•                  Additional measures and analyses to evaluate the onboarding process, including a means of identifying specific areas of employee concern for their first year of employment.

 

Corrective Action:  The HCO is in agreement with the recommendation to enhance the existing onboarding strategy.  Efforts are underway to convene an IRS team with business divisions' representatives to develop a corporate IRS onboarding strategy that will include:  goals for improving the onboarding process; a documented Service-wide process for planning, coordinating, and addressing actions being taken across the IRS with respect to onboarding topics; a link with IRS and business divisions' retention strategies to more effectively promote existing tools for managers; a communication plan directed at managers to improve awareness of the existing checklist, guidance, and other tools; increased  support to mangers to ensure all critical onboarding items are addressed; a corporate marketing plan to promote the use of the onboarding toolkit and the website on the IRS Intranet that assists managers who are assigned new employees; a process to collect feedback from managers on how the onboarding process could be improved; and additional measures and analyses to evaluate the entire onboarding process, including a means of identifying specific areas of employee concern during the first year of employment.

 

Implementation Date:  1/31/13

 

Responsible Official:  IRS Human Capital Officer

 

Corrective Action(s) Monitoring Plan:  This corrective action will be monitored on e­trak.