Recruiting 11,000 IT Workers

The Partnership for Public Service is launching a new program designed to recruit, hire and retain entry-level information technology workers in the federal government. The program, called FedRecruit: IT Pilot Program, is designed to help agencies meet the need to fill what the Partnership estimates will be about 11,000 technology job openings during the next three years.

"FedRecruit was designed to work with a handful of pilot agencies to help them better recruit for mission critical occupations, or hard to fill jobs," said Tim McManus, vice president of education and outreach at the Partnership, on Wednesday.

The IT recruitment program is one of three focuses in the FedRecruit program. Earlier this year, the Partnership launched a pilot focused on the recruitment and retention of entry-level acquisition professionals. The second phase will focus on IT professionals, and the third phase will focus on nursing and public health professionals. McManus said the IT portion of the program will launch in early 2010.

Agencies participating in the IT portion of the program will have the opportunity to explore leading practices and refine college and university recruitment, improve application, hiring and onboarding applications and develop metrics for recruitment and hiring efforts.

The Partnership also will put together how-to guides for each of the three career fields, McManus said. "The guides will be less focused on what HR has to do, but on how an acquisition [or IT] professional works with and collaborates with HR to get the best talent in the agency," he said.

Agencies wishing to participate in the program must face major IT recruitment challenges and anticipate significant hiring needs and be committed to the use of personnel flexibilities and the reengineering of HR processes. Agencies also must be willing to work with the Partnership to monitor and measure the results of their efforts.