NNSA: RESULTS

The Science of Marketing

While almost every organization sees itself as unique, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is truly one of a kind. Where else can you harness nuclear energy for security and scientific advancement, and save the world from nuclear proliferation and terrorism? Established in March 2000, NNSA merged the efforts of several federal programs responsible for nuclear security: defense nuclear weapons, nuclear non-proliferation, the naval nuclear propulsion program and other supporting efforts.

Just as NNSA's mission is highly specialized, so are the skills and talents that it needs in its federal workforce. Given the critical shortages in scientific and technical talent in America and a rapidly changing security environment, recruiting needed talent presents a major challenge for NNSA. How can this new organization attract the very best scientific, engineering and business talent in the country? How do NNSA leaders win the "War for Talent" when the new employees they hope to attract are also in such high demand in the private sector? How will they replace the 33% of their workforce eligible for retirement in 2006?

For national security reasons, NNSA did not maintain a highly visible public posture. Potential candidates for employment were not aware of NNSA's exciting and challenging programs. Compounding the difficulty of hiring the right talent is the challenge of finding people to work in remote locations. NNSA directs and oversees operations at three national laboratories and various production facilities in locations that are understandably remote. Given the nature of the work, hazardous research, development, testing and production operations cannot be carried out in metropolitan centers. NNSA site office locations therefore include rural areas in Texas, South Carolina and New Mexico, in addition to its Washington, DC headquarters and Albuquerque Service Center. To overcome these challenges, NNSA needs world-class recruiting capabilities. Agency leaders recognized that old methods would not allow them to compete effectively for their highly sought-after talent.

Download the full case study on the results of the NNSA makeover.

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