Laura Michaels awarded for workforce development contributions

On Aug. 28, 2024, Laura Michaels, Corporate Audit Manager in the Central Region, was awarded the Contributions to Workforce Development award. She earned recognition for her work identifying gaps in the agency and for her innovative approach to better the agency.

Ms. Michaels noticed significant gaps in DCAA's remote workplace after the global pandemic; she observed a lack of informal knowledge and professional development opportunities. These gaps mostly impacted new hires, junior auditors, and fresh supervisors.

Bridging these gaps started by creating a series of informal trainings to share knowledge and focus on professional development. Ms. Michaels crafted recurring virtual meetings that addressed numerous topics including:

• DCAA's culture and structure
• Developing synergistic individual training plans
• How to achieve the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) and Financial Management Level Two certifications
• DCAA career progression

In addition to these virtual meetings, Ms. Michaels' championed a program that reviewed resumes and helped conduct mock interviews. Over 102 resumes were reviewed and over 118 mock interviews were conducted in the early stages of the program. Since the program began, over 75 agency employees received competitive promotions. To ensure the program's continuous success and future operations, Ms. Michaels implemented a robust communication strategy, trained key personnel, and helped deploy the program across the agency.

Ms. Michaels' work created numerous formalized resources and networks to help people new to DCAA, auditing, and supervising. Her help for new supervisors focuses on skill improvement for coaching, briefing, and executing projects. Another key skill is learning to have uncomfortable, real-world conversations in a training environment before they happen.

Overall, Ms. Michaels created multiple programs to help people at DCAA professionally improve and acclimate to new positions. Her thorough work helps people find the right position for their career goals and created a self-sufficient program with long-term success.