Report - Government Executive

assessment strategies and provides a mechanism for participant feedback or course evaluation.
Registration and record-keeping should be seamless with training available on a just-in-time
basis, especially for skills training. 127 Given the size, geographic dispersion, and complexity of
the DCIPS population, training also should be offered through various media, including
websites, electronic job aids, and reference guides.
As noted previously, many courses offered to the DoD intelligence workforce have focused on
knowledge and skills associated with using DCIPS. Given that DCIPS policy and guidance were
not stable at the outset, the training content often changed to accommodate changes in policy and
updates to automated tools. This added both expense and workforce frustration.
The DCIPS training evaluation focuses on measuring participant satisfaction with individual
training sessions and counting the number of participants trained monthly. These are common
measures, but they do not assess the more important aspects of content validity (was the content
correct and thorough), or application to the job (were they able to use what they learned).
Recent DCIPS survey questions asked whether training equipped employees with the skills
needed for implementation. 128 Preliminary results suggest that more work is needed to train
employees adequately in writing SMART objectives and communicating how DCIPS will affect
them. Aside from NGA, fewer than half of the respondents from the intelligence components
agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied with their training. At NGA, 52 percent agreed
or strongly agreed. 129
The ratings of satisfaction or “helpfulness” regarding specific aspects of the training (delivery
method or specific topics covered) appear to be consistently lower; less than half of the
respondents from all or most components gave favorable ratings to specific training questions.
These findings suggest aspects that OUSD(I) may consider for improvement. 130
Many employees, especially those in remote locations, noted technical challenges. Access to
high speed Internet access is not universal among DCIPS employees, so web-based training is
not effectively delivered to them. Further, representatives of the military services noted that they
must retrain their uniformed managers more frequently as they experience turnover
approximately every two years. This impacts the long-term management of DCIPS, as well as
the ability to refresh leaders and maintain a consistent level of knowledge and proficiency among
the uniformed supervisor cadre.
Academy-sponsored discussions generated mixed employee reactions to training. The biggest
sources of frustration stemmed from the system’s immaturity and tools. As policy changed, the
training received became obsolete. Sometimes, trainers were unable to provide correct answers
because the content was unstable. Still other employees complained that they had been unable to
attend training because not enough courses were offered. Meanwhile, some managers found the
127 Skills training should be conducted just prior to its subsequent application on the job—no more than two weeks
before the application of the new skills—to maximize retention.
128 2010 DCIPS Survey Preliminary Results, Question 36.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
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