Since the Department’s formation, each Secretary has recognized the importance of strengthening the integrated relationships between and among Headquarters Offices and Operational Components to optimize the Department’s efficiency and effectiveness.
Despite the considerable progress during the last 15 years to establish and strengthen DHS management functions, the Department has much to improve. Over the next four years, DHS will continue to mature as an institution by increasing integration, clarifying roles and responsibilities, championing its workforce, advancing risk-based decision-making, and promoting transparency and accountability before the American people. In an important step forward, DHS is beginning to consolidate Support Components and the Office of the Secretary on the St. Elizabeths Campus, which will further promote integration.
The Department of Homeland Security's organizational responsibilities focus on three goals:
Increasing responsibilities with limited budgets require clear leadership, effective strategic prioritization, and management by Department’s leadership. DHS will continue to mature its Headquarters as an institution, including policymaking, management business processes, and other advisory responsibilities. DHS is further defining and prioritizing its operational needs with a Department-wide view based on input from Component operators and its external stakeholders. Through this approach, DHS is applying thorough and sound analytic studies to identify and implement the best solutions for the Nation’s investment in homeland security.
Related DHS Components
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Transportation Security Administration
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Secret Service
- Headquarters Support Components
Maintaining a highly-skilled, diverse, and engaged workforce is critical to accomplishing the homeland security mission, which relies on dedicated personnel who go above and beyond to keep Americans safe from harm. From its beginning, DHS has overcome the challenges of standing up an enormous agency comprised of many moving parts, by staying focused on the core mission at hand. Despite the many advances, DHS continues to identify opportunities to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of management systems that support the workforce while developing and sustaining a leadership cadre at every level that inspires an engaged and proficient workforce. Every day, the operators and employees of DHS perform difficult and often dangerous work that goes unseen by most of the American public. Investing in the ability of our workforce to perform to capacity is one of our highest priorities.
DHS leadership continues to emphasize workforce engagement and improve agency-wide satisfaction. DHS is making significant improvement as evidenced by increases in both Employee the Engagement Index and the Inclusion Index. In addition, DHS is implementing agency-wide human capital solutions that identify and develop a continuous pipeline of leaders who are capable of attracting and retaining the best talent, encourage creativity and innovation to maximize employee performance, and invest in building career paths and initiatives that inspire work-life balance in order to incentivize and retain exceptional performers. Through dedicated workplace inclusion and employee engagement, DHS will enhance the current workforce and build the future workforce to accomplish the homeland security mission.
Related DHS Components
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Transportation Security Administration
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Secret Service
- Headquarters Support Components
DHS Headquarters Offices and their Component-based mission support counterparts are critical elements of the DHS mission, providing operators and personnel with the equipment, training, technology, legal counsel, partnerships, and research to more effectively execute their responsibilities. DHS is increasingly integrating these functions across the Department and leveraging cross-Component capabilities and resources to create efficiencies and streamline processes. DHS mission support requires efficient and effective optimization of operations. Specifically, we should look to collaboration, consolidation, and shared services to improving mission support to operations. DHS is experimenting with solutions that leverage existing technologies to combat immediate and emerging threats; coordinating joint operations; closely monitoring operational needs to identify new statutory needs; identifying joint requirements and acquisition needs; and ensuring that DHS activities comply with civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy requirements. Together, these initiatives advance the Department and its workforce to keep pace with the ever-evolving threat landscape.
Related DHS Components
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Transportation Security Administration
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Secret Service
- Headquarters Support Components