CIOs Prioritize Workforce in 2012

Training and investing in the IT workforce is among the top priorities for federal chief information officers in the coming year, particularly as the potential for a federal hiring freeze could prevent IT leaders from bringing on critical IT skills.

A new survey of 24 federal CIOs and deputy CIOs by Federal News Radio found that 40 percent of CIOs place IT workforce and training issues as one of their top five priorities for 2012. Cybersecurity, cloud computing and mobile computing ranked as the top priorities among CIOs for the coming year.

When asked what was their greatest concern about the impact of potential budget cuts on their agency, twenty-five percent said they were concerned that a hiring freeze would prevent them from bringing on critical IT people.

Still, most CIOs indicated they were not sure whether they would use the new tech fellows program to bring on staff. Thirty-three percent said they plan to use the tech fellows program, which appoints technology students expected to complete a master's or doctoral-level degree to two-year fellowships at federal agencies, while 50 percent said they did not know of their plans to use the program.

Telework implementation also was ranked as a priority for the coming year, though not nearly as highly as most other IT issues. Only 19.1 percent of CIOs ranked telework as one of their top five priorities for 2012.

Meanwhile, most CIOs believe they have a seat at the table for influencing mission-critical decisions at their agencies. More than two-thirds of respondents said their agency's senior decision makers value their input, while 80 percent said agency leaders understand the value of IT in meeting the mission.