Skip to main content

Defense Infrastructure: Personnel Reductions Have Not Hampered Most Commissaries' Store Operations and Customer Service

GAO-03-417 Published: Mar 06, 2003. Publicly Released: Mar 06, 2003.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

In response to concerns about the impact of proposed cuts in the Defense Commissary Agency's workforce, the House Armed Services Committee placed in its report on the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 a requirement that we evaluate the effect of the personnel reductions. Specifically, we assessed (1) the status of personnel reductions and how they have affected store operations and customer service, and (2) whether the agency uses a reliable methodology to measure customer satisfaction with its commissaries.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness The Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), in consultation with the Chairman, Commissary Operating Board, should require the Director, Defense Commissary Agency, to update the strategic plan to include goals that identify the percent of the store workforce that is expected to be full- and part-time to achieve further efficiencies from reshaping the workforce.
Closed – Implemented
OUSD (P&R) stated that they should not prescribe the full-time and part-time mix for stores. However, OUSD (P&R) said it would instead counsel those managers to make more aggressive use of part-time personnel, leaving the detailed plan to them.
Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness The Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), in consultation with the Chairman, Commissary Operating Board, should require the Director, Defense Commissary Agency, to reassess the management reductions at small stores to ensure managers can balance their workload and maintain store operations.
Closed – Implemented
DeCA's regional directors reviewed the management structure at their stores and increased management positions in Band One, Two, and Three level stores by 69 positions to balance their workload and maintain efficient store operations.
Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness The Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), in consultation with the Chairman, Commissary Operating Board, should require the Director, Defense Commissary Agency, to adjust the customer survey results on the basis of sales volume and customer expenditure data.
Closed – Implemented
DeCA revised their methodology to incorporate a weighting system based on sales volume, beginning in the fall 2003, to better represent the commissary population by accounting for differences in small versus large commissary patronage.
Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness The Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), in consultation with the Chairman, Commissary Operating Board, should require the Director, Defense Commissary Agency, to document the number of survey non-respondents and their reasons for not completing the questionnaire.
Closed – Implemented
DeCA customer satisfaction survey administrators documented the number of survey non-respondents and the reasons for their non-response. The collection has allowed DeCA to determine the level of non-response, why patrons refuse to participate, and the impact non-respondents have on the survey results.
Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness The Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), in consultation with the Chairman, Commissary Operating Board, should require the Director, Defense Commissary Agency, to examine potential methods and analyses to periodically determine how many and why eligible personnel do not shop at commissaries, to identify ways to improve service and increase the number of potential customers using the commissary benefit.
Closed – Implemented
Beginning in the summer of 2003, DeCA began using two Defense Manpower Data Center surveys to obtain information about DeCA's non-shopper population. The information gathered through the surveys about eligible non-shoppers allows DeCA to measure the impact of future programs that are designed to reach DeCA's non-shopper population.

Full Report

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Customer serviceFederal employeesPersonnel managementReductions in forceLabor forceStrategic planningSurveysCustomer satisfactionStrategic planHuman resources management