Status: Closed
Expected Completion Date: 03/31/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to advocate for improvements in IRS hiring, recruitment, and employee training processes during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 by advocating for the Direct Hire Authority (DHA). TAS believes it is one of the best ways to expedite the current hiring process to hire individuals into the competitive civil service in permanent or nonpermanent positions by bypassing obstacles to allow for quicker hiring. The National Taxpayer Advocate will recommend in her 2022 Annual Report to Congress (ARC) the IRS pursue DHA for more critical positions across the service. Also, the NTA will recommend in the ARC that IRS reallocate budgetary resources to invest in a web-based personnel security inventory management system to upgrade current IRS background investigation system technology to eliminate antiquated processes, reduce manual workload, and improve interconnection with other systems. Further, TAS hired a new analyst to manage our interview and career pathing program. The program manager began by engaging in knowledge transfer activities to learn the program and our organizational goals. The program manager then worked to develop a plan that analyzes potential options to improve and streamline the IRS interview and selection process.

2nd Quarter: TAS continued advocating for improvements in IRS hiring, recruitment, and employee training processes in the second quarter of 2023 through several activities. We recommended the IRS reallocate additional budgetary resources to their Strategic Talent Analytics and Recruitment Solutions (STARS) team so it can implement an updated Strategic Recruitment Plan to increase recruitment partnerships with private sector recruiting firms, universities, community colleges, and any other sources where diverse and qualified applicants may be underemployed. While the IRS made improvements in the hiring process, TAS identified certain barriers still exist, including the security clearance and fingerprinting processes (fingerprinting appointment availability continues to be a challenge) which is impacting the pace of hiring. To further streamline the personnel security and employee screening processes, TAS recommended IRS reallocate budgetary resources to invest in a web-based personnel security inventory management system to upgrade current background investigation system technology to eliminate antiquated processes, reduce manual workload, and improve interconnection with other systems. TAS also encouraged IRS’ Human Capital Office (HCO) to work with the Facilities Management and Security Services, the Treasury Department, and other stakeholders to consider additional ways to shorten the security clearance, background check, and fingerprinting processes, including by considering outsourcing parts of the process to additional contractors.

Further, TAS contributed four members to an IRS University servicewide analyst training team, who have driven the identification of analyst training needs and curriculum that includes a capstone exercise.  The team completed their assignment with recommendations forwarded by IRS University team leaders for HCO next steps determination.

This objective is closed.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) initiated several activities to address this objective during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 by working with internal functions to develop new training courses. Also, we assessed the effectiveness of new training courses and worked with IRS on a servicewide analyst training that should be completed by March 2023. Further, we plan to expand internal courses related to examination and collection for our case advocates. TAS will continue to expand training during the second quarter FY 2023.

​During the first quarter, TAS initiated a coaching program to enhance coaching skills training for our managers. We provided informational sessions to various internal audiences on the value of coaching. Further, we partnered with the IRS Human Capital Office (HCO) to pair managers and non-bargaining unit employees with a certified coach. And, in the second quarter, we will launch our Mentoring Program that’ll be open to all TAS employees.

2nd Quarter: TAS continues to support and expand the TAS leadership development programs to provide employees with tools and opportunities to grow in their careers.

TAS continued to support and expand leadership development programs during the second quarter of 2023. Since the TAS Leadership Succession Review (LSR) Program launched in October 2022, we have conducted several LSR information sessions about the purpose of a LSR, the four LSR stages, and emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment. Further, our Leadership Development office emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment and posted several TAS-wide messages that provided LSR resources. Also, the TAS Mentoring Program Manager successfully launched the re-vitalized TAS Mentoring Program on February 27, 2023. The mentoring portal is now open and on March 20, 2023, the protégé portal opens. We will continue to enhance this activity by pairing mentors to proteges, establishing expectations of both roles with participants, monitoring for progress of the program then make adjustments, and continuing to recruit for continued participation.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued working with IRS’ training strategy during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 through several activities. We participated on the IRS University teams to assist in creating uniform Servicewide Analyst training and curating LinkedIn courses by occupation and leveraged our certified instructors for cross-functional leadership and Service Wide Analyst Training (SWAT).

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to support and expand our leadership development program during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 through several actions including employing a new program manager to manage the TAS Leadership Succession Review (LSR). The program manager began by engaging in knowledge transfer activities, met with other TAS employees, developed a project plan, and analyzed our current succession plan to identify potential risks and identify steps to mitigate those risks.

Status: Closed
Expected Completion Date: 03/31/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (​TAS) continued to implement our recruitment strategy during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 through several areas including having our Financial Operations division work with TAS’ executive leadership, other senior leaders, and partnering with IRS’ Human Capital Office (HCO) Strategic Talent Acquisition and Recruiting Services (STARS) team to use a combination of environmental scans, social media, USAJobs Talent Pool Data, and other resources to identify potential applicants so we remain at the forefront of their employment opportunities. Further, we will continue to consider all options to include diverse recruiting, including: Special Hiring Authority, Schedule A Hiring, Veteran Hiring Programs, the Veteran’s Repository, Internships, and High School and College Student Hiring to identify and recruit new employees. Also, we are tracking events through internal databases on National-Level activities, including Virtual job fairs, USA Jobs info sessions, IRS info sessions, TAS and IRS websites, videos and social media. Through HCO STARS, and with additional support from the IRS’s Social Media Team, we have access to numerous platforms, including: IRS news, CIRCA, Event bright, Handshake, Indeed, LinkedIn/LinkedIn Recruiter, Yello, Purple Briefcase, YouTube, ListServe messages to hundreds of external agencies, and more. Lastly, TAS is in the process of hiring a permanent Recruiting Analyst for the stand-up of the TAS Recruiting Program to ensure we remain competitive in a job market which is increasingly tight.

2nd Quarter: TAS partnered with IRS on recruitment events focusing on hiring internally and externally which led to the socializing of positions on several social media platforms, the direct messaging of potential applicants for hard to fill positions, the use of Local Taxpayer Advocates to do recruitment in their outreach events, and the offering of employee referral bonuses to current employees. During the remainder of the fiscal year, TAS will further refine our recruitment plans and focus on ways to increase applicants from a variety of backgrounds with the desired skills and experience, including individuals from underserved and diverse communities. Further, TAS hired a permanent TAS Recruiting Analyst to stand-up the TAS Recruiting Program, which will ensure TAS remains competitive in a job market which is increasingly tight.

This objective is complete.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to implement our revamped training program during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. TAS has extended the hiring team in our Centralized Case Intake (CCI) unit for an additional year to continue supporting expedited hiring and training. Further, TAS supported the IRS University model and activities related to its ongoing operations. Also, we created a new orientation training program for all new employees.  The orientation will be lead by TAS Executives and Senior Leaders to welcome newly hired employees to the organization. The training will provide insight into TAS, describe how the organization operates, help employees to recognize and understand our core values, and provide resources for employees seeking additional information. Lastly, TAS worked to finalize the manager curriculum course listing, worked to identify which TAS managers had completed what training, and identified courses that require further development.

2nd Quarter: During the second quarter of 2023, TAS continued to implement our revamped training program to develop our new employees while ensuring our existing employees’ technical and soft skills are consistently strengthened with a focus on allowing our employees to grow professionally while providing taxpayers expert service. Specific actions we took included, collaborating among our internal functions to determine how to best support TAS leadership in hiring, onboarding, and training employees moving forward, assessing our On-the-job Working & Learning (OWL) pilot to identify gaps and improvements of the training and support of New Hire Case Advocates (NHC), assessing the NHC experience, needs, and knowledge gaps, committing a team to serve as subject matter experts in the development of IRS University School of TAS and support other IRS University development plans for curriculum. Further, TAS completed the full development and implementation of the Welcome to TAS training and continued the development of the manager curriculum that incorporates a mix of IRS cross-functional courses, technical skill courses, and soft skill courses.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: ​The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) developed an aggressive hiring plan for the next four years.  Also, TAS received an increase of $15 million in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 IRS Enacted Budget to further support advocating on the behalf of taxpayers.  This additional funding allows TAS to continue advocate staffing in all 76 offices so we are ready for any downstream impact from IRS operations and enforcement activities.

2nd Quarter: ​TAS has implemented an aggressive hiring plan over the next four years. In the fiscal year 2023 Budget, we received an increase of $15 million in support of advocating on the behalf of taxpayers.  This funding allows TAS to maintain or increase advocate staffing in all 76 offices so we are ready for the downstream impacts on TAS operations from IRS’s increase in Level of Service and increased enforcement activities. Further, through March 11, 2023 TAS has hired 180 employees giving us 1,710 employees, a net increase of 86 employees compared to the same time last year.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: TBD

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) created a second specialized technical training session for Business Master File (BMF) account issues, scheduled to be presented in January 2023.

2nd Quarter: TAS continued to review the feasibility of centralizing Business Master File (BMF) cases to provide better service to Taxpayers, or as an alternative, to enhance BMF skill building in our employees through additional training. TAS decided to move forward on improving BMF training and we have started recording some training sessions to prevent backlogs on delivering this training. The first class is set to be recorded on April 26, 2023.