Stabilization and Reconstruction Staffing - RAND Corporation

74 Stabilization and Reconstruction Staffing: Developing U.S. Civilian Personnelin any given agency, some of these incentives could be applied on thebasis of participating in this career track, because the individual wouldbe doing more than simply filling a particular billet.Again, flight pay is a good example. Military pilots receive flightpay even when not in a position that requires them to fly, so long asthey meet certain qualifying criteria.Nonmonetary incentives could also be used to recruit and retainpersonnel in deployable billets or a career track that provided for asneededdeployment. For example, providing regular intelligence briefingsand access to information about hot spots in the world could beone element of an incentives package that would appeal to some.Contracts with individuals and companies in the private sectorare other means of securing needed personnel. As mentioned earlier,standing contracts are one method being pursued by S/CRS and theUK PCRU for acquiring needed personnel. The UN and many NGOs,for example, do not maintain large staffs for their operations; rather,they acquire them on an as-needed basis from lists of people with therequisite skills and willingness to deploy that they or other organizationsmaintain. Standing contracting authority, existing resources,and ready-to-use contract mechanisms would greatly facilitate thisapproach, as would consideration of a “ready reserve” composed ofrecently retired federal employees who would agree to being recalledfor SSTR operations, again similar to the military National Guard andReserve concept.S/CRS has sponsored work, via Joint Forces Command, with theInstitute for Defense Analyses, to investigate the viability of creatinga civilian response corps for SSTR efforts. This comprehensive studyexamined several approaches for creating such a corps, organized into areserve that could deploy given sufficient lead time. 20 These approachesincluded managed rosters and centralized individual recruiting, prearrangedcontractual agreements, capabilities-based planning systems,and assets on standby. For each of these approaches, IDA reviewedseveral applicable models and chose as a template or framework fortheir recommendations the National Wildfire Coordination Group.20 IDA Briefing given to Terrence Kelly, October 24, 2005.