Strategic Workforce Planning at the Centers for Disease Control

Like many federal agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is facing a very real challenge to the sustainability of its workforce over the next several years. Approximately 34% of CDC medical officers will become eligible for retirement within the next 5 year. Some employees are choosing to pursue career opportunities outside the CDC, while those who remain will face an ever evolving set of strategic priorities, new technologies, and the need to quickly respond and deploy to pressing public health needs. CDC leadership must be proactive in building the capability to manage the workforce to meet these challenges. Part of that preparation includes development of a comprehensive workforce plan that will equip leadership to make key human resources decisions – such as the appropriate staffing model, size, placement, deployment, development, recruitment, and retention – to ensure that the CDC will be able to achieve its mission.

Workforce planning enables any organization to assess how well its workforce is structured to meet current and future work requirements. The Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases' (CCID) workforce planning effort has contributed to achievement of their mission objectives at the CDC level as well as provided workforce management direction at a more micro level for the Branches, Divisions, National Centers, and other organizational components that comprise CCID.