Recruiting Next-Gen IT Pros

In June, the Federal Chief Information Officers Council released a report that was a clarion call for agencies to drastically change long-established bureaucratic work environments and traditions in order to recruit, hire and retain the next generation of young IT workers. Now, state governments are buzzing in on the urgency: the National Association of State Chief Information Officers last week released a report that found that states face key challenges in recruiting and retaining IT workers, particularly in light of employee retirements, hiring freezes and staff reductions.

The NASCIO report, which is based on a survey of CIOs in 40 states, the District of Columbia and American Samoa, found that nearly one-quarter of respondents predict that between 21 percent and 30 percent of state IT employees will be eligible for retirement within the next five years. While the recession has caused many state IT workers to postpone retirement and has reduced the burden of filling some entry-level IT positions, nearly 55 percent of state CIOs continue to have difficulty recruiting new employees to fill vacant IT jobs, according to the survey.

In addition, hiring freezes and the elimination of vacant positions continue to be the greatest challenge for state CIOs when developing, supporting and maintaining IT services for their government, the survey found.

When it comes to attracting and retaining skilled IT talent, 78.6 percent of state CIOs said that state salary rates and pay grade structures present a challenge. Nearly 48 percent said their state's civil service system affected their ability to acquire skilled IT personnel, in part because of a rigid and lengthy hiring process. At the same time, the top factors attracting new IT employees to state government jobs are the benefits package, job stability and a pension/retirement plan, CIOs said.

The top five skills that are the most difficult to recruit, hire and retain are security, project management, architecture, application and mobile application development and support, and analysis and design, CIOs said.

Sound familiar? The federal government is facing similar challenges in recruiting, hiring and retaining a top-notch IT workforce. And like states, the federal government is facing challenges like pay freezes and the potential for hiring freezes, furloughs and budget cuts.

So what to do when faced with these challenges? The NASCIO report recommends CIOs identify gaps in skills, develop an IT workforce assessment, launch student outreach and internship programs, and use social media to announce vacancies to promote the interesting and challenging government IT work environment. For recommendations from the Federal CIO report, click here.