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technicians. These strategies are updated by FirstEnergy annually to include updateson attrition levels, staffing forecasts, etc.In November 2005, the FE-PA Companies developed and implemented an entrylevel two-year rotational system called the Engineering Development Program (EDP) fortraining future engineers. This program was the foundation of the engineering staffingstrategy. Moreover, an engineering subcommittee was formed in 2005 to help managestaffing and training issues during the inception of the EDP. The engineeringsubcommittee consisted of a mix of operating company members and corporateengineering leaders. The Engineering Staffing Strategy included the EngineeringStaffing Plan, shown in Exhibit VII-1, which projected the hiring need and staffing datafive years into the future.Exhibit VII-1FE-PA CompaniesEngineering Staffing Plan2008-20122008 2009 2010 2011 2012NeedStaffing Budget Increase 19 2 2 2 0Forecasted Attrition 27 24 21 21 19Hiring Need 46 26 23 23 19SourceRotational Engineering “Grads” 10 21 22 22 16Experienced Level Hires 36 5 1 1 3Total Hires 46 26 23 23 19Source: Data Request EO-8In addition to the attrition forecast and the staffing plan, the Engineering StaffingStrategy also includes a detailed recruitment strategy and training and developmentstrategy. The FE-PA Companies have a two-year rotational program for hiring entrylevel engineers. Once they have completed the two-year program, the graduatingengineers are placed in an entry level position within each FE-PA Company which isreflected in Exhibit VII-1 as Rotational Engineering “Grads”. When these entry levelengineers are hired by the FE-PA Companies, they are deemed as fully capable ofbeing an asset to the department and are accounted for in the staffing plan.Budgeted staffing levels for prior years were not available for review becauseFirstEnergy does not maintain historical budgeted staffing data. FirstEnergymanagement indicated that actual staffing levels are not compared against budgetedlevels because planning and forecasting of staffing is based on known and anticipatedworkload and not on budget/actual staffing levels; see Follow-up Finding andConclusion No. X-3, in the Human Resources chapter for further discussion and relatedrecommendation. Hence, gaps between budgeted and actual staffing levels for prioryears could not be verified for prior years. FirstEnergy has taken a significant stepforward by forecasting staffing needs based on current and future workload butcomparing actual staffing levels against budgeted levels and trending these levels overa period of time could give the FE-PA Companies a historical indication of any gaps that- 49 -