The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 A fter reading various statements and letters regarding mid-level hiring for the Foreign Service generalist corps, dating back at least to the July 2007 issue of the Foreign Service Journal , I would like to fire a longer salvo into this discussion. As numerous reports and a May AFSA statement note, since the 2003 invasion of Iraq staffing demands on the Foreign Service have soared: some 300 positions in Iraq, 150 positions in Afghanistan, 40 positions in the State Department’s new office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, more than 100 training positions to increase the number of Arabic-speakers, and 280 new posi- tions in areas of emerging importance such as China and India. Despite these urgent staffing needs, Congress has not provided the necessary fund- ing. As a result, hundreds of Foreign Service positions are vacant. In addition, the State Department calculates that the Foreign Service is short 1,015 positions for overseas and domestic assignments and another 1,079 positions for training and tempo- rary needs — this out of total staff- ing of just 11,500. FSO Mark John- sen’s December 2007 Journal article, “One Hand Clapping: The Sound of Staffing the Foreign Service,” notes that the actual cumulative deficit may be as high as 3,500 personnel. This gap has an enormous impact on U.S. diplo- macy and the ability of the Depart- ment of State to execute the transfor- mational measures advocated by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The gap is especially hard-felt in the mid-level generalist category; many such positions remain unfilled or are occupied by inexperienced offi- cers. The March 25 issue of the Federal Times noted that about one- fifth of the State Department’s mid- level Foreign Service positions are vacant, and the agency is coping with the vacancies by leaving open posi- tions at lower-priority posts. I understand that a recent State Department Office of the Inspector General report predicts the current mid-level staffing gap will be closed by October 2009. Not having access to this report, I cannot verify the accura- cy of its methodology or the sustain- ability of this projection. In any case, if State truly aspires to expand to a size commensurate with its current and future tasks, and build a viable training float as well, its current intake process will, in all likelihood, result in another mid-level gap in the foreseeable future. Yet the obvious remedy, mid- level hiring, is highly contentious. In a speech at Harvard University in 1943, Winston Churchill observed that the “empires of the future will be empires of the mind.” He might have added that the battles of the future will be battles for talent. In a 1997 study that led to publication of a book titled The War for Talent (Harvard University Press, 2001), the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. researched the subject. It compiled critical recom- mendations for the personnel man- agement of any institution seeking excellence and, ultimately, success in its defined missions and tasks. The lessons of that study are highly pertinent to the Foreign Service. As an organization operating in a global- ized labor market, the State Depart- ment has begun to shift gears to meet the challenge of attracting, developing and retaining the best people — those with high potential, or scarce knowl- edge and skills, who can successfully lead transformation and change within an organization, adding direct value to a business’s position. But the depart- ment will not be able to address its massive personnel shortfall and need for skills unless it begins offering opportunities for top performers to bypass the entry level and join the Foreign Service as middle managers. Behind the Curve Indeed, one of the biggest impedi- ments to transforming the Foreign Service for the current global environ- ment is its personnel policies, designed as they are for a different kind of world with its own threats and challenges. The department contin- Mid-Level Hiring and the War for Talent B Y K EVIN D. S TRINGER S PEAKING O UT The Foreign Service must offer opportunities for top performers to bypass the entry level and join as middle managers. u