Workforce Key Concern for Agency CIOs

Managing and developing a top-notch IT workforce remains a key challenge for federal chief information officers, according to a new survey by TechAmerica and Grant Thornton.

The survey, released Tuesday, found that while CIOs see IT human capital management as critical to the future success of the federal government, they believe there are a number of barriers to achieving an effective IT workforce. For example, they noted that federal recruitment processes move so slowly that an agency's top IT applicants are hired and working for other employers for six or more months before receiving a federal offer. Ensuring timely security clearances for new hires also remains an issue, particularly for contractors, the survey found.

Federal CIOs also expressed concern that the younger generation generally is reluctant to embrace IT careers and often do not view the federal government as a place that offers a challenging or innovative work environment.

The survey also found that insourcing, which has been an important Obama administration priority, is a major challenge for federal CIOs. For example, survey respondents said that outsourcing work to a contractor, while more expensive, often provides them with more flexibility than hiring a federal employee. CIOs also noted that agencies need better guidelines for managing the blended federal employee and contractor workforces.

CIOs said that managing and evaluating IT workers and removing poor performers from the federal workforce remain top concerns, as well as providing training and certification programs and retaining certified personnel.

"One CIO says, 'The personnel system was set up to protect the status quo, not to enable hiring of the best and brightest,'" the report states. "If this is a common perception, it calls for much broader, fundamental reform to fix what ails the federal workforce."

Federal CIOs offered a number of solutions for solving many IT human capital challenges. For example, they said agencies should use federal internships and agency alumni networks to attract and recruit a high percentage of IT hires and can tap social media to reach out to potential candidates and transform the federal image to be more innovative and interesting. CIOs also suggested that agencies offer easy access to online training, use knowledge management to capture institutional knowledge from experienced workers and build a sense of mission among staff to help retain them.