A federal agency with fiduciary responsibility for millions of retirement accounts had no consistent way to measure whether its own workforce was qualified for the work.

The Situation

A federal agency that administers retirement savings for millions of federal employees and uniformed service members operates under fiduciary scrutiny that makes workforce readiness a compliance matter, not a soft concern. Competency gaps become exposure.



The agency lacked standardized competency metrics across its five divisions and nine branches. Without them, managers had no consistent basis to evaluate workforce readiness or identify compliance risks tied to strategic objectives, and leadership had no reliable agency-wide view of current skill sets, grade-level proficiency, or future talent requirements. Recruitment, staffing, training, and development decisions were made without a common framework linking them to long-term strategies or federal qualification standards.

Fourteen organizational units. No shared answer to who was ready.

The Solve

BeckThom led the agency's competency requirements project as senior human capital and workforce planning consultant.

• Strategic human capital due diligence. We conducted a workforce analysis across all five divisions and nine branches to establish baseline capabilities and identify functional gaps. We consulted with senior leadership, stakeholders, subject matter experts, and federal qualification authorities to determine the future skill and competency requirements that staffing, training, and development would need to address.
  
  
• Competency metric engineering. We identified and developed strategic competency metrics agency-wide, defining core knowledge, skills, abilities, and other critical behavioral competencies by grade level. We established proficiency levels to ensure data accuracy for downstream work and to keep the framework usable as the agency built on it.
  
  
• Compliance risk framing. We structured the metrics so managers could use competency data to support employees and identify compliance risks tied to the agency's strategic objectives, shifting risk identification earlier in the cycle.
  
  
• Executive advisory and transparency. We participated in weekly project status briefings with executive and senior leadership and the Contracting Officer's Representative, and structured the competency metrics for publication and use by current employees and senior leaders, delivering end-to-end transparency rather than a leadership-only artifact.
  

The Impact

• Agency-wide competency metrics. A standardized framework mapping grade-specific proficiencies and behavioral competencies across five divisions and nine branches.
  
  
• Published, usable transparency. Competency metrics structured for publication and use by employees and senior leaders, giving the agency a shared view of skill inventories.
  
  
• Integrated talent pipeline criteria. Modernized standards for recruitment, staffing, and employee training tied directly to strategic objectives and federal qualification alignment.
  
  
• Proactive compliance risk identification. Competency data enabling managers to identify qualification and readiness gaps before they affect operational compliance.
  
  
• A future-state foundation. Proficiency-level definitions built to support subsequent phases of agency competency work.