Trying to take skills-based hiring a step further, Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the bipartisan ACCESS Act Tuesday. If enacted, the legislation would remove college degree requirements from jobs in the federal contracting space.

The concept of prioritizing hands-on skills over educational background for job candidates is not new. Beginning in the Trump administration, and now continuing through the Biden administration, skills-based hiring efforts for the federal workforce have remained a priority for agencies as they recruit for federal jobs.

An executive order from the Trump administration initially urged agencies to focus on skills over education. After the Biden administration upheld the order, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance to agencies on how to implement it.

Despite the continued emphasis, a spokesperson for Mace said the pace of skills-based hiring efforts remains unclear.

“This bill is meant to accelerate those efforts,” the spokesperson said in an email to Federal News Network. “The Biden administration maintained [the Trump administration’s] executive order, though it’s unclear how effectively they are implementing it.”

Currently, cybersecurity, human resources and acquisition remain the three major governmentwide, mission-critical skills gaps, OPM has said. Many experts, however, view skills-based hiring as one way to help address these gaps.

Now, the ACCESS Act seeks to stretch that concept to encompass personnel working on federal contracts, in addition to the federal workforce overall. Specifically, the legislation would bar contract solicitations from including minimum experience or educational requirements for the proposed contractor personnel.

Contracting officers, however, could still include degree requirements in some cases, but only if they include a written justification explaining why personnel with college degrees would be necessary for the specific solicitation.

Additionally, under the ACCESS Act, the Office of Management and Budget would be required to give agencies implementation guidance and help them establish the new requirements within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

“We believe in empowering talent over credentials, and the ACCESS Act embodies this principle. By removing unnecessary degree barriers, we’re not just opening doors, but unlocking a wealth of untapped potential,” Mace said in a statement. “It’s about recognizing skills, not just diplomas, and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their educational background, has a fair shot at contributing to our nation’s workforce and innovation landscape.”

Skills-based hiring has become a priority in large part due to long-standing skills gaps in the federal workforce. Skills gaps appear when agencies don’t have the right skills or enough employees in the first place, on board.

In turn, skills gaps can create persistent challenges for agencies and their programs. In fact, more than half of the areas on the Government Accountability Office’s 2023 High-Risk List stem from issues related to mission-critical skills gaps. Strategic human capital management, or the ability for agencies to address mission-critical skills gaps, has remained on GAO’s list since 2001.

OPM has pointed to several promising practices from agencies as they work to increase their use of skills-based hiring.

For instance, the Interior Department reported that 74% of its job announcements use an additional assessment for candidates beyond the typical self-assessment questionnaire. Self-assessments often lead to inaccurate self-ratings, unwieldy applicant pools and large numbers of unqualified applicants, OPM said in its Workforce of the Future playbook.

The concept of skills-based recruitment is also included in the Chance to Compete Act, a bill which the House passed in a vote of 422 to 2 near the start of 2023. The Senate version of the bill was referred to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but so far has not had further action.

For the ACCESS Act, a spokesperson for Mace said for now, there is no leading partner for a Senate version of the legislation.

The post Lawmakers push skills-based hiring for federal contractors first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is reviewing more than 4,000 positions at risk of a downgrade in their respective pay scales.

The six VA positions under review include a mix of white-collar General Schedule (GS) and blue-collar Wage Grade (WG) positions.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) estimates about 56% of VA employees in these 4,000 positions are veterans. Some of the positions under review cover VA employees who make less than $20 an hour.

The positions the VA is reviewing cover all 18 Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs). More than 1,700 positions under review are located in the Veterans Health Administration’s Finance Revenue Operations and Procurement and Logistics Office.

AFGE says affected employees have received notices in the mail about the consistency reviews. But Thomas Dargon, supervisory attorney for AFGE’s National VA Council, said the union hasn’t received notice from the VA yet about any imminent downgrades.

However, if the VA decides to downgrade any of these positions, Dargon said the department will face an even harder time filling these positions.

“The bell’s already been rung here. I’ve seen the letters that have gone out to impacted employees, and VA doesn’t have a lot of answers to the questions they’re asking,” Dargon said.

The VA put a moratorium on downgrading employee positions in 2012, allowing the department to revise a national handbook, computer software and other administrative tasks to ensure it classified employees fairly and consistently.

The VA, however, ended that moratorium earlier this year, and is conducting “consistency reviews” on six of its occupations, at the direction of the Office of Personnel Management.

VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told Federal News Network in a statement that OPM directed the VA to conduct agency-wide consistency reviews of these six occupations, after VA employees appealed the classification of their positions to OPM.

OPM, following a classification oversight review of VA in spring 2023, determined that two positions, industrial hygienist GS-0690-12 and purchasing agent (prosthetics) GS-1105-06, were not properly classified at the correct grade level.

VA, in a memo obtained by Federal News Network, said its Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, “is working to strengthen consistency and oversight of classification determinations across the department by taking action to ensure employees are in appropriately and consistently classified positions, reduce geographical and organizational pay disparities and decrease hiring times.”

The VA is conducting consistency reviews on the following positions:

• File Clerk (GS-0305-05 and above)
• Financial Accounts Assistant (GS-503-all grades)
• Industrial Hygienist (GS-0690-12 and above)
• Purchasing Agent (OA) (GS-1105-07 and above)
• Housekeeping Aid (WG-3 and above)
• Boiler Plant Operator (WG-5402-10 and above)

Reviews of these occupations will occur in two phases. The first phase of reviews began on March 1 and will conclude on April 26. The department will start a second phase on April 29, and complete the reviews by May 1. VA expects to submit all its reviews to OPM by May 1.

“VHA Consolidated Classification Units will be required to initiate a consistency review process, which will require the identification of [position descriptions] in need of review. [Position descriptions] determined not properly classified will be sunset through attrition and positions impacted will be recruited at the appropriate grade levels, as applicable,” the VA memo states.

Once VA conducts its consistency reviews, it will provide reports back to OPM on whether their internal findings demonstrated that those positions are properly classified as compared to OPM standards.

“From there, I suspect some decision will be made,” Dargon said. “AFGE has not been notified of any imminent downgrade at this point, but I do not suspect the consistency reviews to result in employees being upgraded.”

Dargon said AFGE “does not support any downgrade whatsoever, and that “there is already a significant pay disparity between the public sector and the private sector.”

“VA has a notoriously difficult time not only recruiting, but retaining employees, and downgrading these positions is not going to make it any easier to fill them. And it is not going to bolster morale in the workplace,” Dargon said.

Hayes told Federal News Network that the VA issued a letter temporarily suspending changes to lower grade actions on June 29, 2012. Hayes said OPM assessed VA’s classification process in March 2023, and in September 2023, “determined there were no barriers prohibiting VA from conducting the reviews.”

VA, he added, expects to complete its consistency reviews of these positions by May 31.

“Should the reviews conclude that any positions were improperly classified, VA will consider all potential options to correct this misclassification,” Hayes said. “VA will do all we can to mitigate any potential adverse impact to our current employees. VA is committed to partnering with OPM to update classification standards and ensure they reflect the work done at VA and across the federal government.”

According to slides obtained by Federal News Network from a VA briefing presentation, VHA directed its Workforce Management and Consulting Office to cancel any VHA job opportunity announcements (JOAs) for occupations and grades that are subject to the consistency reviews.

As part of the consistency reviews, VHA classifiers will take a closer look at the qualifications required to perform the work for each occupation, and whether the agency has properly applied OPM’s classification or job-grading standards.

Classifiers cannot compare these six positions to other VA jobs or positions, consider any qualifications the employee has that are not required to perform the job, or account for how well an employee performs the work or the amount of work the employee performs.

“The goal of a classification consistency review is to ensure positions are classified in compliance with OPM classification standards and graded consistently VHA-wide,” the presentation slides state.

VHA is outlining “mitigation strategies” for pay-related staffing challenges. They include supplementing the base pay of these six positions with recruitment and retention incentives — such as critical skills incentives and special salary rates available under the toxic-exposure PACT Act.

“I can appreciate that the HR community at VA is trying to create a soft landing for employees who may be impacted by these downgrades through various recruitment and retention incentives, or ‘mitigation strategies,’ as they call them. But that’s not good enough, Dargon said. “There’s no reason to downgrade these employees, to make these positions harder to fill than they already are.”

Under Secretary for Heath Shereef Elnahal included housekeepers as part of a “Big Seven” list of occupations outlined in the VHA’s top hiring priorities in 2023. Those “Big Seven” positions cover VHA jobs that have a direct impact on patient care — and include physicians, nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants and food service workers.

Dargon warned that any potential reduction in pay for housekeepers would “be felt very quickly and sharply by folks in that field.” He said VA housekeepers in Pittsburgh, for example, are currently making about $16 an hour.

“These jobs are difficult to fill, and it’s difficult to retain workers,” Dargon said. “We have people who have military backgrounds themselves, who are veterans coming back to the VA, continue giving back, who believe in the mission, who are making just over $15, $16, $17 an hour — and you’ve got VA considering a downgrade.”

Dargon said the VA, by sending these letters to impacted employees, puts them in a position of “feeling undervalued or not seen.”

“Housekeeping aids are very much the backbone of health care institutions. You do not need to be a nurse or a doctor to be considered a vitally important part of the healthcare system that is VA,” he said. “Telling those employees who are working, in some instances, in really difficult environments, every hour of the day, to keep the VA clean and safe, that their position is actually compensated too highly — I can’t imagine what that feels like.”

Dargon said that if VA were to downgrade any of these occupations, it would probably lead to the department contracting out more of this work, “because the positions have become so unattractive through pay or other working conditions.”

VA saw record hiring last year, but is now looking to manage the size of its largest-ever health care workforce.

VA in its fiscal 2025 budget request plans to reduce its total workforce headcount by 10,000 positions. Most of the workforce reduction would come from VHA.

VHA Chief Financial Officer Laura Duke told reporters last month that the workforce reduction is necessary, because the agency far exceeded its hiring goals last year, and because it’s seeing higher-than-expected retention rates.

VHA earlier this year rescinded some temporary and final job offers to prospective hires. But the agency later issued a memo, telling leadership and HR officials to only rescind job offers as an “action of last resort.”

AFGE and VA finalized a new labor agreement last August, updating the terms of their labor contract for the first time in more than a decade.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough, at the signing ceremony, said the new contract would help with “easing the process by which we can fill vacancies,” and will allow the department to make new hires more quickly.

Dargon, however, said recent events suggest the VA is no longer making an effective pitch to prospective hires.

“I was on the negotiating team for the master agreement, and sat at the bargaining table with department officials who insisted that the reason they could not quickly hire employees was because of the provisions in the collective bargaining agreement — that it took too long that these were hurdles or impediments to quick hiring. We knew that was never the case, but we agreed to certain revisions in our contract to allow for more streamlined hiring procedures,” Dargon said. “Now they’re telling us they’ve hired too many people, maybe they’re not going to hire as quickly, they’re not going to fill vacancies through attrition. And now we’re looking at existing positions, and the idea of downgrading them.”

The post VA reviewing 4,000 positions at risk of pay downgrade first appeared on Federal News Network.

Congress recently approved a $56.7 billion budget for the State Department for the rest of this year.

That’s a nearly 6% cut compared to spending levels in 2023 — but a less severe cut than the 15% reduction House Republicans had proposed.

Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma said Wednesday that this belt-tightening puts the department’s workforce in a tough position, as it responds to a growing set of diplomatic challenges.

“The department will have to make tradeoffs. The dollars are simply unable to stretch as far as we need to meet the moment. And budget cycles do not always align with global realities and crises,” Verma said Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Verma said lawmakers reaching a 2024 spending deal midway through the fiscal year constrains the department’s ability to respond to emerging challenges in real time.

“None of this is intended to suggest government agencies can’t be innovative and find efficiencies we have, and we will always strive to do so. But I do, however, want to be candid about our reality and the challenges and the constraints we face,” he said.

Verma said the State Department faces an average 13% staff gap, and 15% of ambassador nominees remain unconfirmed.

While the department is looking to rebuild its staffing after a Trump administration hiring freeze and budget cuts, he said the department still doesn’t have the workforce it needs to meet its mission.

“Can you imagine if United Airlines, or Microsoft, or Google, or the University of Virginia had 13% of its positions unfilled? What happens is you end up with incredible workload burdens. You end up shifting certain duties.  You end up with posts that don’t have enough people,” Verma said. “We’re in this race to catch up, but you can’t catch up if your budget, like this past year, has been cut by nearly 6%.”

The department currently has about 77,000 employees stationed across nearly 300 embassies, consulates, and domestic operations. Americans in its workforce come from every U.S. state and nearly 20% of employees are veterans.

Among its challenges, the State Department is leading the U.S. response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. It’s also managing a portfolio of emerging threats — including cyberattacks, climate change, global health challenges, the rise of extremist groups and the spread of artificial intelligence tools.

“We can acknowledge that these challenges have stretched the State Department in unprecedented ways. They’ve met working in more places on more issues and problem sets than ever before,” Verma said.

Verma said a national security supplemental proposed by the White House to respond to Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific is “critically needed” for the State Department to respond to these worldwide conflicts.

Over the past year, the department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs cleared out a pandemic-era passport backlog, and processed more than 24 million passport applications and issued over 10 million visas.

About 48% of Americans now have a passport — up from 20% in 2006.

Meanwhile, the department is still coordinating Special Immigrant Visa processing for Afghan allies at over 60 posts worldwide.

Verma said U.S. consular teams in 2023 also assisted 70,000 Americans across the world in times of crisis, “and frankly, personal emergencies that are never on the front pages of any newspaper.”

That includes helping Americans living overseas leave Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, and helping Americans evacuate Haiti following the ouster of its president.

Verma said the State Department is doing all of this, and “continues to deliver a tremendous value to the American people” at a cost of approximately 1% of annual federal spending.

Verma said the State Department’s base budget grew by about $36 billion since 2000 — but the Defense Department’s budget grew by nearly $600 billion over the same period.

In his first year on the job, Verma has visited more than 30 U.S. overseas missions and about a dozen domestic facilities across the United States.

“At the end of the day, we are a national security agency, with people serving bravely from Ukraine, to Somalia and South Sudan, to Iraq and Port Au Prince, and in so many other conflict zones,” Verma said. “In an age of increased competition, of global interconnectedness of growing authoritarianism, it is vitally important for American diplomats and development professionals to show up everywhere we can to lead, to build, to grow and to deepen cooperation.”

The department, as part of Secretary Antony Blinken’s modernization strategy released last fall, is staffing up its Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy and its Center for Analytics, as well as bringing onboard more subject-matter experts on climate and global health.

The department under this agenda is also reinvesting in its workforce.

“Across all hiring types, we’ve diversified hiring pathways — through paid internships and new authorities —redefined our approach to training and professional development,” Verma said.

The State Department has also launched a retention unit, to pinpoint why Foreign Service members leave the agency midway through their careers, and to make improvements that might encourage them to stay.

The post State Dept workforce in ‘tough position’ with 13% staffing gap, says deputy secretary first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Biden administration's final rule to block Schedule F is in place, but the push still continues in Congress. Many advocates say the new regulations securing job protections for career feds are a step in the right direction. But some are concerned it will not be enough to stop Schedule F's resurrection in a future administration. Democratic lawmakers are urging the passage of the Saving the Civil Service Act. The bill aims to prevent career civil servants from being made at-will and easier to fire. The legislation has not seen much action, but the new final rule spurred lawmakers, like Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), to press harder and call for its passage.
  (Saving the Civil Service Act - Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.))
• New guidance is out to improve the management of more than a trillion dollars in federal grants. The Office of Management and Budget released the 2024 revisions to the Uniform Grants Guidance. This is the first update in four years. OMB's Deputy Director for Management Jason Miller said among the major changes is improving NoFos, the notice of funding opportunities. "The Uniformed Grants Guidance includes a streamlined NoFo template for agencies to use to help with shortening and simplifying their grants announcements," Miller said. This is one of several substantial revisions to the guidance, which seeks to clarify and reduce the burden on grantees. OMB received more than 3,200 comments to the draft.
  (OMB updates governmentwide grant management guidance - White House)
• The Biden administration is working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent. The White House is planning to hire 100 AI professionals into the federal workforce by this summer. Some of those hires will come from a “Tech to Gov” virtual hiring fair on April 18. Participating federal and state agencies are looking to fill AI and AI-enabling positions. Kyleigh Russ, a senior adviser at the Office of Personnel Management, said her agency is also working on an AI and Tech Talent Playbook to show how agencies can effectively onboard these in-demand hires. “We know that this talent is very sought-after and that there will be constant competition, both across government and the private sector," Russ said.
  (Biden administration working on hiring tools to help agencies compete for AI talent - Federal News Network)
• The 2024 Vital Signs report from the National Defense Industrial Association provides a look into the challenges facing the defense industrial base. The Vital Signs 2024 Survey asked the industry to identify areas of improvement for the DoD when working with private companies. Some 65% of respondents want to see a clear and consistent demand signal through contract vehicles. More than 40% of respondents would like the DoD to provide specific points-of-contact in program offices. The report also recommends that the Office of the Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment to engage with industry before finalizing the classified implementation plan for the National Defense Industrial strategy.
  (DoD needs to send stronger demand signal, increase investment in critical supply base - National Defense Industrial Association)
• Agencies and federal unions have marching orders from the Biden administration to re-establish labor-management forums. In some cases, it is possible for these forums to be met with resistance from either party, or even employees themselves. The Office of Personnel Management is offering advice on how to wade through any trouble spots in implementation. For one, OPM encourages management to have discussions with union leaders before making any top-down decisions.
  (OPM outlines how agencies, unions can recreate labor-management forums - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service is missing more than half its service targets for mail products on which it has a monopoly. Its regulator told USPS it did not meet service performance targets for 15 out of 27 market-dominant products in 2023. The regulator is calling on USPS to take corrective action and to come up with a plan to improve its performance. USPS said 98% of households are getting their mail and packages within three days and that 50% of mail and packages arrive a day ahead of their service standard.
  (PRC issues report evaluating USPS service levels and rates - Postal Regulatory Commission )
• The Environmental Protection Agency is aiming to make permitting for environmental projects easier. EPA said its new website not only fulfills its commitment under the Biden administration's Permitting Action Plan, but also makes its information and process more transparent. Through the new site, EPA is posting information about the permitting process, such as permit applications and public meetings. The goal is to improve the timelines, predictability and transparency of federal environmental review and authorization processes for covered infrastructure projects, which include offshore wind energy under the renewable energy production sector.
  (EPA launches new permitting site - EPA)
• The public can now track defueling and decommissioning operations of the Red Hill fuel facility in Hawaii. A new app will provide the latest developments on tank cleaning, the decommissioning plan, environmental clean-up and regulatory approvals. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a full closure of the facility after jet fuel leaked into the Navy’s water distribution system. The app to track the closure efforts is available for download at Apple's App Store and the Google Play store.
  (New app will track Red Hill fuel facility closure - Navy Closure Task Force)

The post Some lawmakers offer more teeth to Biden’s Schedule F takedown first appeared on Federal News Network.

More than a quarter of the federal workforce is feeling burnout, according to a recent study, making them more likely to leave their agency or feel less engaged in their work.

A recent Gallup study of more than 5,400 survey respondents finds 26% of federal employees say they “very often” or “always” feel burned out at work.

Rob DeSimone, associate principal of workplace initiatives at Gallup, says that level of burnout can lead to high attrition rates.

“When people are burned out, they’re much, much more likely to leave their agency,” DeSimone said.

The study also finds a high attrition rate can also lead to higher labor costs. Gallup estimates that in an agency of 10,000 employees, with an average salary of $50,000, low engagement contributes to $66 million in annual costs.

Gallup bases those figures on research from the Society for Human Resources Management, which shows it costs six-to-nine months of most employees’ salary to replace them — and that the cost is even higher for more senior-level vacancies.

Mike Ritz, executive director of Gallup’s Federal Government Initiative, said these costs also stem from burned-out employees feeling less productive and less engaged with their work.

“When you become actively disengaged, when you’re a person that literally feels miserable at their job, and you are disconnecting from your job, let’s face it, you might even take down the ship, if you had the opportunity — because you have that much contempt for the employer that they’re not meeting your needs,” Ritz said.

No ‘silver bullet’ solutions

The study takes a closer look at some of the federal employee stressors that agencies have anecdotally observed, but not fully quantified.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, for example, is addressing burnout among its health care workforce through its REBOOT task force. The VA, more recently, is looking at artificial intelligence tools to reduce administrative burdens on clinicians — a driver of burnout.

The Partnership for Public Service is also tracking a steady decline in work-life balance scores from federal employees, as measured by its Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings.

Ritz said there are no “silver bullet” solutions to address burnout across the entire federal workforce. But Gallup identified five root causes of these challenges — unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workloads, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.

“It seems like the more we learn, the more we realize that it’s very individual for each person, and what works for one might not work for another. So, this idea of, ‘Let’s just give everybody time off, that’ll work’ — well, that might work for some, but not for others,” he said.

The study also finds that employees sometimes cope with burnout in ways that only exacerbate the problem.

“[If] you’re a person that really is a high achiever — you like to [be] task-driven, and really achieve your tasks and get things done — a natural coping mechanism, when you’re feeling burned out is, ‘Let me just do more. Let me get to it faster’ … If those executing folks would stop and take their time to think through their situation, stop and pause, think through the situation there, they will reduce their burnout by 48%,” Ritz said.

Role of managers contributing to burnout

Management behavior plays a major role in a federal employee’s workplace experience. Gallup finds managers account for about 70% of their team’s engagement scores. The study also finds managers experience burnout at a higher rate (35%) than the federal employees they oversee (23%).

“If managers are burned out, that’s flowing down to all the employees within the agency,” Ritz said. “It’s the manager that can be the one that can help prevent and reverse burnout among the team, while also increasing productivity —  and that requires a very individualized approach to understand how can we manage workloads. How can we manage prioritization, alongside what the wellbeing of the team is, alongside what some of the pressures are coming from whatever the performance initiatives are? It’s really the manager that has that ability to juggle those three things.”

Jay Hoffman, chief financial officer for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, agreed that managers play a major role in combatting burnout within agencies.

“When managers are engaged, their employees are more likely to be engaged as well,” Hoffman said.

Effective managers also help employees manage workloads and communicate clear expectations. Gallup found that about 42% of federal employees said they know what’s expected of them at work.

“What that’s really saying is that managers themselves, oftentimes, might lack clarity — not so much about what it is they have to do — they’re usually very clear about that,” DeSimone said. “They might not know, ‘What are the relationships that I need in this organization? Who do I need to be collaborating with in order to achieve our bigger goal?’ And for some organizations, they may not even know what their bigger goal is, or where exactly they fit in.”

Gallup’s research into employee burnout also finds that the way people experience their workloads has a stronger influence on burnout than the number of hours worked.

“In the federal government, there are a lot of empty seats right now. A lot of folks have gone elsewhere, for a variety of different reasons. And of course, talent is at a premium across all sectors and industries,” Ritz said. “So, if you’re already feeling like your workload is tough, and then the guy next to you is no longer there, and the guy to your right is gone … did my workload just get even tougher? Who’s helping me manage that? Who’s the person that is having that strong influence of how I experienced that workload?”

A ‘game-changer’ for burnout? Meaningful conversations

Ritz said managers who have one “meaningful conversation” with an employee who reports to them at least once a week are a “game-changer” for burnout. That conversation can take as little as 15-30 minutes.

“It needs to be a conversation that talks about their goals, their personal development, things that have meaning to that person that is reporting up to that manager. And that can make a massive impact,” Ritz said.

James Egbert, branch chief for human capital strategy at the Department of Health and Human Services, meaningful one-on-one conversations with employees can make a huge difference in employee engagement.

“I’ve learned that if you want to improve employee engagement, you must engage with your people. Listen, ask and listen some more,” Egbert said.

Ritz said employees who strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall wellbeing are three times more engaged, and 71% less likely to report feeling burnout.

DeSimone the most important thing managers can do to address burnout is to provide “meaningful feedback.” That feedback, he added, is valuable for managers to give their supervisors, as well as the employees they oversee.

“Employees don’t want to wait three months or wait 12 months to figure out in their performance review what their mistakes are. They want to know, that minute, if not that day. They want to know, what did I do right? And also, what are my areas for improvement? They want to hear both,” DeSimone said.

The study finds that engaged federal employees are not just more productive — they’re also more likely to stay at their agencies.

“If you have somebody that is fully engaged, then you need 20% more in terms of higher pay, in order for that person to want to leave their current job. But if you have somebody who’s not engaged, then they’ll leave for a 0% increase,” DeSimone said. “They’re just looking for a better environment, and you can send it their way. They’re looking to be alleviated from that burnout situation they find themselves in.”

The post A quarter of federal employees feel burnout, causing high turnover and low morale, study finds first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The State Department has named a new chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO), filling a position that has been vacant for 10 months. The job is going to Zakiya Carr Johnson, a former White House official and former director of the department’s Race, Ethnicity and Social Inclusion Unit. Secretary of State Antony Blinken created the CDIO position at the start of his tenure. He said the job is critical to attracting and retaining State Department employees.
  (Appointment of Zakiya Carr Johnson as the Department’s chief diversity and inclusion officer - State Department)
• A Homeland Security board has some major security concerns about one of the government’s biggest technology suppliers. The Cyber Safety Review Board said Microsoft’s security culture needs an overhaul. The board’s latest report found the tech giant had inadequate security practices when suspected Chinese hackers broke into the email accounts of multiple high-level government officials. The report recommends the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency regularly review the security practices of all cloud service providers. And it recommends the government periodically re-evaluate the security of cloud services widely used across agencies.
  (CSRB castigates Microsoft, urges federal cloud security updates in pending - Federal News Network)
• More than a quarter of federal employees are feeling burnout, according to a recent study. A recent Gallup survey of federal employees finds 26% of them feel burned out “very often” or “always” at work. Rob DeSimone, the associate principal of workplace initiatives at Gallup, said that level of burnout can lead to high attrition rates. “When people are burned out, they're much, much more likely to leave their agency," DeSimone said. Gallup identifies five root causes of burnout. Those include unfair treatment at work, unmanageable workloads, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support and unreasonable time pressure.
  (One-quarter of federal workforce feeling burnout, with no ‘silver bullet’ fix, study finds - Federal News Network)
• Health care employees at the Defense Health Agency are getting closer to seeing union representation. After winning a union election in 2022, the American Federation of Government Employees said it is still working through some key steps to set up the new council for DHA. That council will represent up to 45,000 agency workers. The employees are mostly transfers from the Army, Navy and Air Force who were reshuffled into the new agency. Once everything is finalized, DHA will have a national-level collective bargaining agreement along with some smaller chapters to address local issues.
  (Forming DHA council to represent DoD health care workers - American Federation of Government Employees)
• The office of the Defense Department’s chief information officer will automate the review of zero trust implementation plans. Last year, the DoD CIO’s office received 39 zero trust implementation plans from the military services, defense agencies and combatant commands. It took four months and 35 full-time employees to review the plans. Randy Resnick, the director of the Zero Trust Architecture Program Management Office, said the process needs to be automated this year. The DoD CIO’s office mandated all defense components to submit updated zero trust implementation plans every October.
  (DoD to streamline review of zero trust implementation plans - Federal News Network)
• The Pentagon’s first-of-its-kind Commercial Space Integration Strategy synchronizes the department’s efforts to integrate commercial space technologies into its operations. The long-awaited strategy, released by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb, signals the Defense Department's willingness to take military action to protect commercial satellites. The document also calls for integration of commercial space technologies before conflict arises. The new strategy is aligned with the Space Force commercial space strategy, which is set to be released this week.
  (New space strategy calls for better protection of commercial space technology - DoD)
• A new bill in the Senate would extend the Department of Homeland Security’s use of a special procurement tool. The BEST Technology for the Homeland Act would extend DHS’ other transaction authority through fiscal 2031. It is currently set to expire at the end of this September. Other transaction agreements are considered more flexible than traditional contracts. The lawmakers behind the legislation want to see DHS use OTAs to acquire more innovative technologies.
  (Peters and Daines introduce bipartisan bill to ensure DHS can procure advanced technologies to strengthen national security - HSGAC )
• What is the best way candidates can prepare for a federal interview? The Office of Personnel Management is offering some guidance. OPM will share tips and an in-depth, inside look during a webinar on April 10. The free session is targeting federal job applicants and anyone else who might be interested in joining the federal workforce. During the webinar, experts at OPM will cover different types of federal interviews, common questions and other advice for preparing.
  (Federal interview process webinar - Office of Personnel Management)

The post New chief diversity and inclusion officer headed to State Dept first appeared on Federal News Network.

Agencies are beginning to think a little more creatively about how to hire employees with disabilities, but at the same time, federal hiring managers are getting caught up in some red tape.

Although a majority of agencies say the Schedule A hiring authority leads relatively quickly to high-quality hires, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found in a March 20 report that some agencies face difficulties with understanding or using the authority.

In some cases, HR staff find it difficult to figure out what documentation is needed, EEOC found after surveying 55 agencies about their use of the authority. Some agencies don’t have enough HR employees who are familiar with the Schedule A process in the first place.

“It’s a little confusing at times, and I don’t blame agencies — it can be a confusing situation,” Wendy Doernberg, a senior attorney advisor in EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations, said in an interview.

But if implemented properly, Schedule A can “save a lot of time and energy for agencies, instead of going through the competitive hiring authority,” Doernberg added.

The Schedule A hiring authority lets agencies avoid the lengthy competitive hiring process and instead non-competitively appoint candidates with disabilities to federal jobs. Hiring managers typically aren’t required to publicly post Schedule A positions on USAJobs.gov or another website. But agencies are still expected to use Schedule A as a supplement to their typical federal hiring procedures.

Many agencies have found success with using Schedule A, EEOC said. And more recently, agencies have become more creative with how they use it — for instance, by collaborating with colleges and universities on recruitment, or reaching out to disability-related employee resource groups to reach more candidates.

“[Some agencies also] had an internship program for students with disabilities, and then after the internship program, they’ve been able to hire students using the Schedule A hiring authority,” Doernberg said.

Other agencies said they benefited from coordination among their offices for HR, EEO and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). Some have also opted to post USAJobs announcements to collect lists of candidates eligible for Schedule A hiring — and then keep that list of qualified applicants to be considered for future openings.

“They’ve said to federal hiring officials, ‘instead of just going through the competitive hiring authority, why don’t you look at some of these Schedule A applicants that we’ve collected for you who we think might be a good fit for the positions that you have,’” Doernberg said.

Using the federal hiring option also aligns with efforts from the Biden administration to advance DEIA in the federal workforce. One part of the 2021 executive order called on agencies to assess their use of Schedule A and look for opportunities to reach more applicants with disabilities.

There are other methods aside from Schedule A that agencies can use to recruit employees with disabilities, such as an excepted veteran hiring authority, or the Pathways Program, EEOC said in the report. In fact, EEOC found in its survey that some agencies are more inclined toward other hiring authorities, since Schedule A’s trial period for employees is two years, much longer than what’s standard.

“Some agencies preferred [the excepted veteran hiring authority] because it does not include the two-year trial period required under Schedule A and allows for conversion to the competitive service within 60 days,” EEOC said.

Telework makes accommodations easier

Once employees with disabilities are in the door at agencies, there are further expectations and obligations for agencies to, in part, help ensure staff retention — in some cases by offering Personal Assistance Services (PAS).

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, EEOC said it initially anticipated agencies would struggle to continue providing PAS, or reasonable accommodations, in the workplace amid what it expected would be massively heightened telework and higher numbers of accommodations request.

But on the whole, agencies stepped up to the plate — and then some. In fact, more than 90% of agencies that EEOC surveyed said telework did not affect their ability to provide accommodations, EEOC said in a March 20 report.

“We expected there to be some clutter,” Rodney Yelder, a senior program analyst in EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations, said in an interview. “But we found that no, that’s not the case … The pandemic, as bad as it was, augmented the program. We found that we can accommodate [employees] a little bit better under telework than we can in the building.”

In certain cases for employees with disabilities, agencies are required to provide PAS. Those are reasonable accommodations to support a person with a disability who’s qualified for a job, but who also needs assistance with certain actions such as eating or caring for oneself during work hours.

But Yelder said increased telework made providing PAS easier for many agencies. Family members who may be supporting employees with PAS can reach them more easily at home, without needing to travel to the office, or having to commute back and forth.

These policies at agencies can also help with DEIA goals and expectations from the Biden administration, especially with the use of telework.

“We’re encouraging folks to adopt PAS procedures, embrace it, and use this more because we can hire more people,” Yelder said.

EEOC has a host of resources available on its website aiming to help agencies, federal hiring managers and other staff members support federal applicants and federal employees with disabilities.

The post Agencies navigating federal hiring challenges for employees with disabilities first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Office of Personnel Management should take the lead on implementing stricter guidelines around any potential agency relocations, according to a recent petition for proposed rulemaking from non-profit, non-partisan organization Democracy Forward.

The rulemaking petition specifically calls on OPM to establish a clear, standard process among agencies any time they may look to relocate or move a federal office. The proposed process would require agencies to consult employees, analyze costs and consider how the move would impact staffing and attrition, all before the agency announces a relocation.

The petition also calls for agencies to document evidence and data to back up the purpose of the relocation. And in cases where retention is a concern, agencies would have to consider offering flexibilities such as remote work where possible. Agencies would also have to have a clear human capital management plan related to the possible relocation, according to the petition.

Without more specific guidelines in place, Democracy Forward said in its petition that stability, expertise and institutional knowledge could suffer as a result of agency relocations, ultimately contributing to a decline in the public’s trust in government.

“The petition for rulemaking that we submitted to OPM would be another step in helping fortify that important element of our functioning government,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in an interview. “We believe this petition is a straightforward and basic step, but it’s a critical one to help prevent any future government from using poorly planned and executed office relocations as a way of stripping the work Americans rely on.”

The National Treasury Employees Union is now joining Democracy Forward’s calls in the petition, further urging action from OPM on potential future agency relocations. NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said the petition would establish important guardrails, notably with the proposed requirement for agencies to engage with their own employees before initiating a relocation.

“These protective measures would help ensure that any relocations are not taken for improper reasons, such as undermining our civil service,” Greenwald wrote in March 20 letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. “Federal employees and the public deserve a stable, professional workforce.”

OPM did not immediately respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment on any plans to address the petition or possibly undertake a rulemaking change as a result.

Prior agency relocations led to attrition

The petition comes largely in response to 2019 relocations of the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters office, as well as two components of the Department of Agriculture: The Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

USDA’s decision during the Trump administration to relocate two research agencies to Kansas City, Missouri, resulted in major staff attrition, with 40% of ERS staff and 60% of NIFA staff leaving their jobs.

USDA largely recovered its staff numbers by September 2021, but the two agencies are still facing long-term consequences. Both workforces are now less diverse and less experienced, the Government Accountability Office found. The percentage of Black employees at NIFA, for instance, dropped from 47% to 19% after the relocation.

In 2022, GAO also reported that although USDA had outlined a plan for narrowing down its selection to Kansas City, the department ultimately strayed from its plan and didn’t follow its own criteria — notably by not accounting for staff attrition.

Additionally, USDA’s relocation of NIFA and ERS later revealed a violation the Antideficiency Act (ADA), as USDA failed to meet congressional notification requirements in its plans to relocate.

Aligning with efforts to ‘fortify’ civil service

The goals of the rulemaking petition more broadly align with other Biden administration efforts to prevent what Perryman said are “highly concerning” possible changes to the civil service in a future administration.

Most notably, OPM already has plans underway aiming to protect career federal employees against the effects of a possible Schedule F revival.

“We are encouraged by the steps that OPM has taken in order to help protect the civil service to try to prevent something like what the prior administration did — with respect to Schedule F — from going into effect again,” Perryman said. “We do see this petition as another positive step that could help fortify the independence of our civil service and the ability of our government to operate effectively.”

Concerns about agency relocations have gained more recent attention on Capitol Hill as well. A bicameral bill, called the Conducting Oversight to Secure Transparency (COST) of Relocations Act, would require agencies to conduct studies and create a detailed reports of the costs and benefits of relocating — prior to making the move.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) first introduced the bill in February 2023. So far, there has been no further action on the legislation, but a staff member for Wexton said the issue continues to be a priority.

“The COST of Relocations Act would shine a light on agency relocations,” Wexton said in a statement. “Requiring a comprehensive and public cost-benefit analysis of agency relocations prevents partisan efforts to undermine the mission of our federal agencies and ensures taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately.”

The post More guardrails needed for any potential agency relocations, federal advocates say first appeared on Federal News Network.

After a months-long hiring freeze, the Social Security Administration is once again facing even further declining staffing numbers.

But with agency spending now determined for the rest of fiscal 2024, and hiring now unfrozen, SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley is readying the agency’s plans to rebuild its workforce as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Currently, SSA is at its lowest staffing levels in 27 years, while serving more customers than ever before, O’Malley told lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing last week. As a result, customer service has worsened — there are longer wait times on phone lines, and longer delays in receiving decisions on disability applications and appeals.

The perfect storm of challenges, largely due to years of continuing resolutions and hiring freezes, is leading to overworked employees who often leave their jobs within just a year or two, O’Malley said during the joint hearing of the Social Security and Work and Welfare subcommittees.

“We need to do better by them,” O’Malley said. “They’re overwhelmed, stressed out — but still, every day, they’re trying to make it work.”

In the 2024 spending agreement Congress reached last week, SSA received $14.2 billion for its administrative expenses. It’s a slight increase over SSA’s enacted budget of $14.1 billion for 2023.

“It’s a lot better than a cut — and I know cuts were on the table,” O’Malley said.

Spending proposal for 2025

A couple years back, SSA was successful in boosting its staffing numbers — at least for a short time. But the agency quickly faced attrition, particularly in teleservice centers and state disability determination services (DDS), as a result of overworked, overwhelmed employees who didn’t receive enough training to do their jobs effectively.

Although SSA’s latest hiring freeze has ended, there have already been net staffing losses as a result of a months-long string of continuing resolutions — landing the agency once again at the lower staffing levels it had a year ago.

“Unfortunately, we expect that backlogs and wait times will grow in 2024 due to the hiring freeze and minimal overtime,” SSA said in its 2025 budget request justification document. “While we expect to process more cases this year, we will have significantly less staff at the end of the year than at the beginning.”

O’Malley called the declining staffing numbers a “severe setback.”

Right now, SSA employees “are understaffed, and they are overwhelmed,” O’Malley said. “Not surprisingly, when somebody’s been on hold for an hour, they come off that call hot. We right now have an attrition rate of about 24% in our teleservice centers.”

Much more is necessary for the agency to improve staffing, and by extension customer service, for years to come, O’Malley said. The Biden administration is requesting $15.4 billion for the Social Security Administration’s 2025 budget.

The goal is to bring the agency back above the end-of-year staffing levels from 2023 — aiming to reach nearly 60,000 employees, and at the same time, begin to process more cases.

The request would invest in more SSA staffing across the board — with a proposed $269 million for field offices, $85 million for processing centers, $89 million for hearing centers, $79 million for teleservice centers and $2.8 billion for DDS.

More plans to rebuild staffing

To try to make the proposed investments worthwhile, O’Malley is outlining a specific, targeted hiring plan for the agency, aiming to improve not only hiring, but also retention of employees.

“We need to change our strategy as an agency,” O’Malley told lawmakers. “I think we target too much on college graduates and not enough on high school and community college graduates. And with proper training, that could really be an investment that holds for a long time.”

After the Senate confirmed O’Malley as commissioner in December, he spent his first few months on the job visiting Social Security Administration offices across the country to learn about the challenges staff face on the job and to look for possible solutions.

As the agency looks to rebuild, taking into consideration conversations with staff, O’Malley detailed plans for how the agency will hire for the long-term, aiming to avoid attrition and mitigate high turnover rates SSA has historically experienced.

Over the next year, SSA is planning to focus in part on veterans hiring, training and retention, while also partnering with universities and institutions that work with underserved communities. SSA is also requesting funding to hire 1,500 interns in 2025.

“We are increasing the use of social media platforms to recruit students, recent graduates and direct hire applicants and attract top talent from anywhere in the country,” SSA said.

Concerns remain in Congress

Still, some lawmakers, including subcommittee Chairman Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), called on O’Malley to target improvements for the Social Security Administration in the immediate short-term.

“My free advice is to get the existing workload under control — get it back on track before we go dumping more cases into it,” Ferguson said during last week’s hearing.

A few other lawmakers also pointed to the importance of IT modernization as a way to ultimately improve workforce performance and morale.

“We improve people’s work experience by investing in these technologies to make their job satisfaction go up,” Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) said. “You get better productivity out of them, and we’ll see better hiring come from this type of stuff.”

Even so, O’Malley said, currently 90% of SSA’s IT budget goes toward simply maintaining outdated, legacy systems — and not toward actually modernizing SSA.

“Think, if you will, about the city of Jerusalem being built up over years, except this is cobalt and green screens,” O’Malley said during the hearing. “Only 10% of [the budget] goes to modernization.”

The budget request for 2025 includes $1.7 billion to invest in IT modernization. The funding will in part go toward efforts to expand online services and provide SSA employees with more user-friendly systems and tools to perform their work.

The Social Security Administration has the next 90 days to provide a report to congressional appropriations committee members with details on full-time employees, new hires in each agency component and retention rates of staff.

The post O’Malley outlines plans to rebuild Social Security Administration workforce first appeared on Federal News Network.

Women make up about 40% of the intelligence community’s workforce, a percentage that ranks behind both federal workforce and civilian labor benchmarks.

That’s according to the latest demographics report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. And women are even more underrepresented in the leadership ranks throughout the IC.

But agencies aren’t ignoring the issue. The National Security Agency’s “Future Ready Workforce” initiative has already led to several changes that will likely make the NSA a more attractive employer for all employees, including women. And the NSA is also investing in education and other programs that encourage girls to get involved in STEM.

Inside the IC spoke with three women leaders at the NSA about the past, present and future for women at the agency. They are Morgan Adamski, chief of the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center; Kristina Walter, director of the NSA’s Future Ready Workforce Initiative; and Tahira Mammen, acting chief of the AI Security Center, which is housed within the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center.

This interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity: 

Justin Doubleday I’d love just to kick off by asking any of you to reflect on the role that women have played at NSA, historically, maybe some of the challenges and how we got to where we are today?

Kristina Walter I think the NSA is a unique space in that we do have a history of women being involved in the cryptologic mission. So we think of Elizabeth Friedman, and a lot of cryptographers that have contributed to the National Security Agency’s mission from World War Two, when we’re talking about codebreaking.

And so a lot of us can see that in the day to day. We have a lot of strong women leaders here. But I think we face the same challenges that any organization does, especially a predominantly military organization, where we’re still working through the balance of women being visible and at the table. And I think what we found is, we need to be inclusive of that environment. Women have a lot to offer in that space.

And so what systems can we put in place to just be inclusive of everybody’s thoughts and ideas and really bring that diverse perspective in? And so that’s really what we’re trying to achieve, as we move into this new era of rapidly evolving technology changes, rapid competition for talent that we haven’t had to face before. So how can we be really an attractive employer for all people, including women?

Justin Doubleday Morgan, there’s this overlap between the challenges that women face in the intelligence community but then also in the cybersecurity field. I think maybe the numbers are even worse writ large across the cybersecurity field.

Morgan Adamski There’s definitely a really strong focus right now on getting more women involved in cybersecurity, more women involved in STEM roles. And I think that’s really important. Just because when you have diverse opinions, diverse backgrounds, whether you’re male or female, they, however you want to describe yourself, it’s really important that we have those conversations. In cybersecurity, you need innovation and unique solutions to complex problems. And that means you have to approach that in many different ways. And so you have to have a lot of different people at the table to have that discussion.

Kristina talked about some of the things we’re doing at the agency in focusing on people. The cybersecurity community, and NSA historically, has been involved in strong technical backgrounds. That’s what we do here. And so the same challenges you see on getting more women in STEM is how we try to encourage and recruit more women in NSA. It has to go hand in hand.

Justin Doubleday Tahira, AI is one of the newer fields, depending on how you define it. Are you seeing any specific challenges in that field kind of pour over from maybe the legacy STEM challenges that we’ve seen? How are you confronting this as a woman in the AI field, a leader in the AI field?

Tahira Mammen I’ll start by saying that we have many brilliant women at NSA who are experts in AI. I think one of the challenges in the AI or cybersecurity space, in these deeply technical fields, right, is making sure that when we think about women — how to help women advance, how to help women with mentorship — sometimes there’s a lot of focus on “women helping women,” which is very important.

But there’s a critical role for allies who are different than you. So as Morgan was saying, I believe that a diverse group makes the best decisions. And that’s also true in helping people rise up through the ranks. And so while and all the women at this table are definitely committed to helping women, I just want to emphasize how important it is that men also see their role in helping bring the diverse voices to the table.

Justin Doubleday If you look at some of the data from the ODNI demographics report, it shows this consistent trend where women and men start out at the same at the GS-10 level. It’s 50/50, almost. And then, as you go up, that gap widens where we get up to GS-15, and it’s 65% men 35% women. And it’s just this widening gap as you go up. You all have become leaders in this space. Do you want to share maybe how you’ve gotten to where you are? Maybe any specific challenges that you’d be willing to share today?

Morgan Adamski When you talk about the intelligence community, you talk about NSA, you talk about cybersecurity, They’re all fast-paced, unique environments. And part of that requirement is being in an office for a certain amount of hours a day. And for those of us who do have families or children, you’re trying to balance that in your head of how do I continue to succeed at mission and deliver outcomes, while also not having “mom guilt,” because you can’t pick your kids up at a certain point in the day. And that’s difficult for people to balance.

That flexibility, whether you’re male or female, especially for some of the newer generations, is really critical to having happiness at work. And so I think that for me in particular, I don’t necessarily think about work-life balance, as others might. I think about it as prioritization. What is the most important thing that I need to do today for my family, for my work? And then I execute that prioritization, and then that prioritization may change the next day. It’s constantly a trade off, and you have to determine what’s going to be the most valuable on any given circumstance.

Kristina Walter I think what we’ve seen is because women sometimes feel like they can’t achieve that balance, they self select out. So when you look at trends of women kind of growing, they think, “I could never handle that, or I’ve never seen another woman who is working at the senior executive level, because you can’t maintain that balance.”

And I 100% agree with Morgan’s perspective of, balance is hard. I’m good at compartmentalization. So when I’m home, I’m 100% home. When I am at work, I’m 100% at work. Building the support system around you to do that is important. I think showing women that it’s achievable, and then putting policies in place to help it are really helpful. So things like paid parental leave, where we’ve rolled that out at NSA. Phased parental return, so you don’t have to come back immediately, and you can phase that in.

How do we look at the policies that can help women think, “This isn’t too overwhelming, it isn’t too hard”— or anybody who’s balancing challenges — and “I can continue to grow in my career here and not self select out,” is really what we’re looking to reinforce.

Tahira Mammen I think that encouraging women to take up space, to use their voice, to voice the solution to a problem they’ve identified. I think everyone in work or in life, you can say, “Okay, this is really a problem. And it bothers me.” And for my personal path, most of my success has come from being able to identify a problem, really advocate for being allowed to fix it, and then doing that work.

And then when you do it, people say, “Wow, okay, look at what you were able to do. Let’s give you a harder problem.” And that is what rising has looked like throughout my career. And I think a space where, if you’re taking a step back, as Morgan and Christina, were saying, you miss the opportunity to do work that you’re passionate about that also helps your career.

Justin Doubleday Is there specific data you can share about the NSA? Are there any specific trends that you’re seeing in terms of the share of women at the NSA, the share of women in the leadership ranks?

Kristina Walter We set goals every year for our hiring to reach about 40% women where we’ve been able to meet or exceed that over the last several years. And we want to be reflective of society. So recognizing across the board that we are bringing in people that reflect the American people, since that’s who we serve.

And so those are the trends and we see that we’re consistent, but we want to make sure, digging into the data, that that’s across all skill sets. We’re looking at the technical skill sets, the STEM roles. Maybe there’s a smaller pool, and we’re really targeting those. So we’re doing a lot of recruitment and engagement, targeting female schools and underrepresented populations, and making sure that those folks see themselves at NSA.

And I think what we found is when we start in college level, we’re too late. And so engaging at that K-12 level. We run GenCyber camps, we’re really trying to expose younger students to STEM, cybersecurity and federal service. And so we’ve seen great success in that space. I talked to a recent student of Stanford, who said, “I was first exposed to cybersecurity at an NSA GenCyber camp. And that’s what made me pursue this path of participating in other events.” And making sure that we’re out in the community so that girls at the young age can see where they’re going, and then we can make sure that those girls follow through and then commit to the agency with our relevant programs.

There are benefits and negatives to working in a classified environment. One of the benefits is that balance. You come in and you work in a secure environment. And you can work on really hard problems that you can’t do anywhere else here. But then you can also leave that job when you leave and you can’t bring work home in certain spaces, and have that balance. And so we do try to make sure people are aware of the opportunities that are here, so that we can hit our hiring goals related to female and minority hiring and all the different objectives that we set every year.

Morgan Adamski One thing I’d like to highlight is just the focus that the NSA’s Cybersecurity Directorate has taken on really promoting, advocating and recruiting women into the cybersecurity mission. I’m proud of the fact that the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center is over 55% female. That’s great in the cybersecurity arena. It is just kind of the way we formed.

But we also spend a lot of time trying to invest in things like women-in-cybersecurity conferences, recruiting from the right schools. We recently hosted a women’s cybersecurity event here where we brought in students from different colleges. We talked about the entirety of the NSA mission. We talked about recruitment and how they could join. And trying to do those very concentrated efforts on, how do we encourage more women to get into the cybersecurity field.

Tahira Mammen Women are not a monolith. Women come in so many different, diverse experiences. And so at the agency, we have employee resource groups that are employee-led organizations that do some of that work I was talking about before. Identifying issues or challenges within their demographic, and then seeking to improve the culture for everybody.
And so on the inside, especially in my experience, through the employee resource groups, we’re working on building the culture when people come in the door, then they find their place, they find their mentors, they find opportunity to drive change and mission.

Justin Doubleday This is a somewhat nebulous question, but what do you view the future for this issue. With some of the changes you’re making now, 10or 20 years down the line, do you have a sense of where this is going in terms of securing a better place for woman at the NSA and the IC?

Kristina Walter Fundamentally, what we’re trying to do is think about all of our employees and what they need. And there’s talent out there, a lot of which is women. And so we want to take advantage of all the talent. We want women to feel like there’s a place for them here and a space for them at the table.

I think when you look at the leadership teams at the National Security Agency, it’s an exciting time, because you can really see yourself there right now, both in the established leadership, but also the up-and-coming leaders. And so I think the more we can share that with the public and make sure that they see that there’s a space for them here, and then just make it easier for them to come in and stay. One of the best parts about the National Security Agency, talking about my experience, is you can reinvent yourself. You can join different career fields. You can explore lots of options, and so enabling our whole workforce to do that is important and that will inherently benefit the women that are coming into the agency as well.

The post NSA women leaders find opportunities to ‘drive change and mission’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

The fiscal 2024 homeland security appropriations measure includes $1.1 billion to continue the pay increases at TSA that began last July. Those raises brought TSA salaries in line with the rest of the federal government. The agency is already reporting drastically reduced attrition rates as a result of the pay bump.

Some Republican lawmakers had advanced legislation to reverse the higher pay rates for some non-Transportation Security Officer employees. The issue was reportedly among the areas of contention this week as appropriators raced to reach an agreement on the homeland security spending bill.

But the final bill ultimately continues the new pay rates, at least through the end of this fiscal year. In a statement, American Federation for Government Employees President Everett Kelley applauded the provision for TSA pay.

“We are very happy that Congress is providing the Transportation Security Administration with the funding it needs to competitively pay its workers and address recruiting and retention challenges that affect everyone who travels by air,” Kelley said.

However, the funding of TSA pay, separate from other federal employees, through the appropriations process means the issue will continue to be subject to the often-protracted annual battle in Congress over spending.

Meanwhile, TSA recently reached a landmark, seven-year collective bargaining agreement with AFGE. The union ratified the contract last week. TSA leadership is reviewing the final details before signing off.

Border Patrol hiring

With border issues taking center stage in the debate over the spending bill, the agreement ultimately provided $496 million to swell the Border Patrol’s ranks to 22,000 agents. It also includes $125 million for Border Patrol overtime pay.

Customs and Border Protection is currently recruiting Border Patrol agents at the GS-11 level. The agency is offering a $20,000 recruitment incentive for agents who successfully complete the academy and another $10,000 to those who complete three years at a “hard-to-fill” location.

The spending bill also includes $20 million to hire an additional 150 CBP officers to support counter fentanyl efforts.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is forecasting additional hiring increases for CBP and TSA in fiscal 2025 budget plans.

The homeland security package also includes $11.5 million for CBP’s suicide prevention and wellness efforts, as well as “employee onsite clinicians and child back-up care,” according to a summary of the legislation.

CISA funding cut

For the first time in years, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will see a slight cut to its annual budget. The bill allocates $2.873 billion for CISA in fiscal 2024, about $34 million below the fiscal 2023 levels and $183.3 million below the Biden administration’s budget request.

Compared to last year, CISA will receive about $47 million less for the Joint Collaborative Environment program and $66 million less for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program. At the same time, CISA will see a new funding line of $145 million for its Cyber Analytics and Data System effort.

CISA’s Chemical Security program also received a $15 million year-over-year cut in the bill. Lawmakers have yet to reauthorize the agency’s key chemical security inspections program.

The post TSA employees will keep their pay raises under 2024 spending deal first appeared on Federal News Network.

Congress is looking for details on federal telework as part of the latest government spending agreement — echoing months of return-to-office scrutiny from the House Oversight and Accountability committee.

Among its many provisions, the agreement congressional appropriators reached Thursday for the back half of fiscal 2024 government spending bills lays out six new requirements on federal telework and return-to-office for federal employees.

Within 90 days of the legislation’s enactment, the Office of Management and Budget will have to turn over all agencies’ return-to-office “action plans” outlined earlier this year, lawmakers said in an explanatory statement for the 2024 Financial Services and General Government bill.

The action plans, initially required as part of an OMB memo last April, detail agencies’ federal telework and in-office requirements, as well as measurements for workforce factors like productivity and employee engagement.

Now almost a year after OMB’s initial call for agencies to begin returning staff to the office at least 50% of the time, the White House has continued to press agencies who appear to be falling behind on the requirements.

As part of the appropriations package, agencies will also have to provide information on the average number and percentage of employees working in the office during a typical two-week pay period; their most recent policy on federal telework — including any agreements with unions; and how they measure productivity for teleworking employees.

In reaction to the new reporting requirements, the American Federation of Government Employees called on Congress to embrace federal telework and remote work as an important flexibility, which the union said improves morale, productivity, recruitment and retention.

“Language attempting to tie the hands of the administration when it comes to determining the correct balance of in-person and remote work at each of our federal workplaces is particularly frustrating,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

The National Treasury Employees Union, however, approached the provision and upcoming requirements for further information with a more hopeful mindset.

“We support a data-driven, fair analysis of the telework programs now in place for eligible federal employees across government,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement. “NTEU is confident that Congress will ultimately agree that telework is a benefit to federal employees, their agencies and the taxpayers they serve, and reject arbitrary caps and other measures that inhibit this proven workplace practice.”

Reporting requirements on federal office space

In the spending agreement, lawmakers are also setting requirements for agencies to provide more information to Congress about federal office space. The federal footprint has been steadily declining, but agencies still holding onto excess and underutilized office space is a main reason the Government Accountability Office has kept federal real property management on its High-Risk List for over 20 years.

Agencies that have an office space utilization rate of less than 60% will have to submit to Congress a description of their current efforts to reduce their physical footprint. Agencies will also have to detail the total office space costs, the average utilization rate and the estimated cost of underutilized space, the lawmakers said.

The federal telework and office space reporting requirements come after nearly a year of the Oversight committee calling for more information and better data on telework, remote work and in-office requirements, as well as impacts on productivity and services to the public.

Staff for Oversight committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) did not immediately respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment.

At the same time, the Office of Personnel Management has said telework supports federal recruitment and retention, and offers agencies opportunities for cost savings, according to OPM’s latest telework report to Congress.

The new requirements also aren’t limited to civilian agencies. The Defense Department 2024 spending bill directs GAO to submit a report on telework to the congressional defense committees within 180 days of the bill’s passage, lawmakers said. That report should detail DoD’s adherence to telework and remote work policies, as well as details on the number of DoD employees who telework.

Lawmakers said the report will also have to weigh the cost and efficacy of telework and how it compares with in-person work, especially considering impacts on training and development of employees, and organizational cohesion.

DoD recently updated its telework policy for the first time since 2012, creating a more flexible policy that now addresses both telework and remote work.

As the 2024 spending agreement nears the finish line, the Biden administration is also already looking ahead to funding levels for 2025. Part of the administration’s plans for the coming fiscal year outline further studies on federal telework and the government’s hybrid work posture.

“OPM is conducting and disseminating three research studies on the future of work, assessing the effect of telework, remote work and hybrid work on hiring, engagement and retention, as well as a project to improve accessibility of organizational health and organizational performance data for agency leaders through toolkits and dashboards,” OMB said in a 2025 budget request document.

Bureau of Prisons, other federal pay reforms

At the top line, the Financial Services and General Government bill provides $13.7 billion in appropriations, which is $1.1 billion, or 4%, below enacted 2023 funding levels — and $5.7 billion below the White House’s 2025 budget request.

The package gives OPM about $412 million for salaries and expenses, and another $36 million for OPM’s inspector general office. That’s 12% below the Biden administration’s request of $465.8 million in discretionary spending for OPM in 2025.

The spending agreement also aims to address major staffing challenges at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Congress is calling on OPM to work with BOP and consider possibilities for reforming or modifying the General Schedule to address pay rates for federal correctional officers, who currently have a 40% staffing shortage nationwide.

Lawmakers are also telling OPM to create a direct hire authority for all BOP facilities, and report back to the appropriations committees on the efforts within 90 days of the legislation’s enactment.

Earlier in March, Congress agreed to the overall budget for BOP in its first spending minibus. While staffing levels and salaries for BOP remained the same, the agency’s facilities maintenance budget decreased by 38%, putting the agency $110 million below the 2023 enacted level.

“While we wish more funds were included to address staffing and safety issues across the Bureau of Prisons, we are pleased that Congress directed the administration to research ways to improve pay for correctional officers and staff,” AFGE’s Kelley said.

A couple long-standing provisions for federal pay will also remain intact under the new funding agreement. For one, prevailing rate employees paid through the Federal Wage System will continue to see limits on their pay raises, ensuring they don’t exceed the raises for feds on the General Schedule.

A pay freeze will also remain in effect for the vice president, ambassadors at large, non-career members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and other senior political appointees positioned at or above level IV of the Executive Schedule.

Despite significant cuts for some agencies and federal programs, the White House is urging a quick passage of the appropriations package, according to a statement of Administration Policy from OMB.

The post Congress calls for more details on federal telework in 2024 spending package first appeared on Federal News Network.

Mary Ellen Callahan, the director of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) office, said the unit continues to face attrition concerns as Congress has yet to reauthorize the office long-term. The office’s authorization expired last December.

“The threat of termination for the office has created a great deal of uncertainty,” Callahan said during a House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on emergency management and technology held today. “It also created a distraction in the office in the fall.”

Between October and February, CWMD lost 24 out of its approximately 240 employees, Callahan testified. The attrition comes as the office attempts to rebound from morale issues that have left it virtually at the bottom of federal employee engagement scores.

“This represents a loss over 300 person years of CWMD/[Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear] experience,” Callahan said of the departures in her written testimony. “Backfilling these critical vacancies should help morale, but a long-term or permanent reauthorization is paramount to attracting and retaining high-quality candidates.”

In December, the House passed a two-year extension for the CWMD office. The Senate has yet to advance a companion measure.

But Callahan said the short-term extension sets up the office for another reauthorization showdown in the near term, complicating efforts to recruit new staff.

“We are working quickly to replace them,” Callahan said. “But it would be difficult to recruit the talented and in demand workforce, to ask them to come and join when we have again, the potential of a threat a threat of termination two years hence.”

Through its “Securing the Cities” program and other initiatives, CWMD office works with state and local governments by providing training to first responders and other resources. Callahan said state and local partners have also expressed “anxiety” about the office being terminated.

“Several of them are working towards the 2026 World Cup, and when I was in Boston and in New York, recently, both of them asked about termination,” she said.

Subcommittee Chairman Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) said lawmakers initially sought a seven-year extension for the CWMD office, but a score from the Congressional Budget Office forced them to shift to two-year reauthorization.

“We also have to be realistic about what we could actually as a committee and a subcommittee can get onto the floor and pass,” D’Esposito said. “So that’s why we’re at the two year number.”

The uncertainty around the office’s future also comes as Congress has yet to reauthorize a DHS chemical security program. The authority for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program lapsed last July. The program allowed DHS and CISA to regulate the security of more than 3,200 “high-risk” chemical facilities across the country.

“The end of CFATS authorization has, in my opinion, affected our chemical readiness with regard to identifying threats that would be in chemical facilities,” Callahan said. “CFATS and CWMD are siblings. And they work together closely and we are missing them in this whole of government thread.”

Meanwhile, the CWMD office is also playing a role in analyzing how artificial intelligence could pose threats to homeland security. Under President Joe Biden’s AI executive order, DHS is working with White House science advisors and the Department of Energy on an evaluation of “CBRN-specific risks of AI and how AI could be applied to mitigating CBRN threats,” Callahan testified.

“CWMD’s centralized role and subject matter expertise enable us to explore ways to leverage AI for our collective benefit while identifying novel CBRN risks to the homeland because of lower barriers to entry for malign actors,” she continued.

The post Homeland Security’s CWMD unit loses 10% of staff, faces continued attrition concerns first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Union officials are urging Congress to provide more funding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BOP has spent years struggling with staff attrition, and safety and security issues. The American Federation of Government Employees said the fiscal 2024 budget for BOP, as part of the recent government funding deal, would only worsen the agency's current 40% staffing shortage. And AFGE warned that a 38% cut to funding for facility maintenance would make federal prisons more dangerous environments for both employees and inmates.
  (BOP needs more funding, not Less, to address security issues - American Federation of Government Employees)
• U.S. spy agencies are doubling down on efforts to harness open source intelligence. Intelligence agencies will explore new partnerships and reimagine relationships with industry to take better advantage of open source data. That is according to the intelligence community’s first-ever OSINT strategy released earlier this month. The effort is led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. The strategy said intelligence agencies will coordinate their open source data collection and expand their data sharing.
  (The IC OSINT strategy 2024-2026 - CIA)
• The Postal Service’s rate hikes on mail are driving away more customers than expected, according to a new report. USPS raised mail prices five times since 2020. That is when its regulator granted new pricing flexibility. USPS last raised mail prices in January, bringing the price of a first class stamp up to 68 cents. It may soon ask that regulator for a sixth price increase. But an industry study found that USPS saw a drop in mail revenue last year that was about $2 billion greater than expected. USPS recently told Congress that mail volume fell by more than 40% between 2007 and 2020 and that this trend will continue.
  (USPS mail price hikes driving away more customers than predicted, study finds - Federal News Network)
• How can agencies chip away at the monumental task of reforming human capital? A group of workforce experts has a few ideas. Agencies should target areas like recruitment of early-career talent and veterans. They can also look into strategies for reskilling employees in cyber and rehiring retired feds. Those are a few recommendations from a recent report on civil service reform from non-partisan organization Convergence. The report offers a blueprint using ideas and lessons learned from some agencies that have already been successful. In some cases, agencies can consider restarting pilot programs that were first launched several years ago.
  (Workforce cohort outlines specific ‘blueprint’ for civil service reform - Federal News Network)
• The Army is bringing back its AI competition. The latest contest is an opportunity for small businesses to share their disruptive AI technologies with the Defense Department. The contest is centered on Project Linchpin, the Army’s effort to create a pipeline of artificial intelligence. Participants will also have an opportunity to submit proposals for a Phase I or Direct to Phase II Army Small Business Innovation Research contract. White papers are due by May 17. Finalists will conduct an in-person demonstration of their solution at the 2024 AUSA annual meeting in October.
  (xTechScalable AI 2 offers cash prizes - xTech)
• In an effort to recruit and retain more service women, the Navy is standing up a women’s initiative team that will identify and tackle potential barriers women face across the service. The Office of Women’s Policy will oversee the team, which will report to the Office of Navy Culture and Force Resilience and to the deputy chief of Naval Operations for personnel, manpower and training. Communities and commands will designate officer and enlisted leads. Both men and women can hold leadership roles and participate in the women’s initiative team efforts.
  (Navy stands up women’s initiative team - U.S. Navy)
• A free online tax preparation tool run by the IRS is gaining momentum. The Treasury Department said more than 50,000 taxpayers have started or filed a tax return using the IRS’ Direct File platform. Taxpayers living in 12 states are eligible to use the platform to file their federal tax returns this year. The IRS is testing out Direct File this year in order to decide whether it should offer the platform in more states. The pilot program was launched using funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
  (Join the IRS Direct File pilot - IRS Direct File )
• There is a new governmentwide website for sharing software security forms. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s repository for software attestation and artifacts went live this week. Federal software vendors can use the website to upload their software attestation forms and other documents. CISA finalized the attestation form earlier this month. Agencies will need to collect the form for all third-party software they use within the next six months.
  (CISA publishes repository for software attestation and artifacts - Federal News Network)

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Now, a non-partisan working group is recommending what they hope are some tangible ideas to start addressing the decades-old problem of human capital management.

A recent report from Convergence, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, offers a “blueprint for action” with narrower ways agencies can try to start addressing workforce challenges.

Leading up to the civil service reform report, Convergence conducted interviews with federal leaders, union representatives and other stakeholders to assess the current challenges in the federal workforce and how to best address them.

“There are a lot of very concrete examples of things happening in one agency that could be tested or piloted at another agency. And then there are some pieces of the blueprint that are about bigger, longer-term reforms,” Convergence CEO and President Mariah Levison said in an interview. “Either way, the participants wanted to make sure there’s concrete stuff that can really get done sooner than later.”

The report’s recommendations cover four areas: Gen Z recruitment and retention; retiree hiring; cyber training and reskilling; and veterans’ recruitment and retention.

Lee Becker, a former chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veteran Experience Office, now vice president and executive advisor for public sector and health care at Medallia, was one contributor to the working group discussions that eventually led to the report.

“Rather than having some very loud, bold statements, we looked at what’s really going to move the needle,” Becker said in an interview. “There’s some goodness that’s happening in government right now. How do we lift that up?”

The report, covering context, solutions and current best practices, aim to be straightforward and, ideally, not too difficult or expensive to implement.

“There’s some really solid input there from the different voices,” Caroline Chang, the report’s project director and a former Convergence official, said in an interview. “That, to me, solidifies that this should be doable. This is possible.”

Recruiting early-career employees

One of the report’s solutions for agencies, perhaps not surprisingly, is further elevating early-career recruitment and retention.

Currently, about 8.6% of the federal workforce is under age 30, according to the latest data from the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget. Gen Z employees — those under 25 years old — comprise just 2% of the federal workforce.

At the same time, more than 28% of the federal workforce is over age 55 — with the average age of a federal employee being 47 years old.

The Convergence report said OPM has made recent progress for civil service reform in this area, for instance by proposing regulations to update the Pathways Program, and creating a USAJobs portal targeting early-career talent.

“However, the gap demands greater and more intentional attention by all leadership,” the report said.

The report recommended agencies put their job postings on platforms beyond USAJobs, and use current early-career federal employees as “ambassadors” to encourage others to join. Additionally, the report said, improving early-career recruitment and retention will involve a larger cultural shift from agency leaders.

Many of the civil service reform report’s recommendations stem from already-existing strategies that have proven successful at a handful of agencies. The FBI recruitment portal, for instance, “highlights ‘impact’ and ‘intern voices,’” the report said.

Across agencies, OPM should consider creating early-career “cohorts” to offer opportunities for career development and peer support opportunities.

“Such cohorts would naturally drive information sharing and innovation across agencies and could eventually be allies for executing new innovations to strengthen the workforce,” the report said.

Rehiring retirees for key skills

Another often underused strategy that can help civil service reform is rehiring federal retirees, the Convergence report said.

“Talent gaps across agencies arise at all levels of experience, and sometimes occur with positions that require a level of technical expertise that may be difficult to measure through typical self-assessment questionnaires and may be difficult to fill with entry-level hires or mid-career transfers from other sectors,” the report said.

But there are certain deterrents for retirees who may be interested in rejoining federal service. One challenge deals with reductions in compensation. But in certain cases, dual compensation waivers can override those reductions. The working group recommended agencies collaborate with OPM to create pilots for adding more opportunities for using the waivers.

Similar examples from state governments can also serve as a model for how federal agencies can replicate, or adjust the concept, the report said.

For instance, the Tennessee state government offers return-to-work programs, letting retirees receive their retirement benefits while also earning wages. Tennessee’s programs let retirees work up to four months per year at up to 60% of their pre-retirement salary. As of 2022, roughly 2.5% of state government retirees were participating, the report said.

On the surface, these rehiring efforts may also appear to conflict with early-career recruitment and retention goals, the report said. But eventually, the recruitment strategy can be beneficial to both age groups.

“That’s one reason why we’re advocating for bringing back some retirees in a selective format — to be able to have them as mentors and coaches,” Becker said. “Part of it is also that we’re worried we may not have enough Gen Z employees yet to fill in the ranks. So we’re saying, let’s bring some retirees back to help — and then eventually, Gen Z will be able to catch up.”

Developing the cyber workforce

Another key area for civil service reform in the Convergence report focused on training and reskilling in cyber. Without enough attention on these skills, agencies are more likely to face cyber recruitment and retention challenges.

The federal IT workforce also has an even larger age gap than the federal workforce overall. Just 4.6% of federal IT staff are under age 30, while 17.7% are over 60 years old, according to OMB.

Focusing on cyber skills and talent has been a focus for many agencies in the past several years. But agencies should also build on recent success of federal systems meant to specifically attract cyber talent, the report said. For one, the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber talent management system can serve as a blueprint, as well as a place to incorporate lessons learned.

Reaching the goal of improving cyber skills in government can also come from internal resources, the civil service reform report said. By training and reskilling current federal employees, agencies may become better equipped as the needs for a cyber workforce grow and evolve.

Specifically, the report proposed revisiting a pilot called the “federal cybersecurity reskilling academy,” organized by the CIO Council. The initial pilot offered courses to federal employees to retrain non-IT workers with cybersecurity skills.

Of course, if taken up again, agencies should also incorporate modifications based on lessons learned from the pilot, the report said.

“For a revamp of such a certified reskilling pilot to be successful, the CIO Council would need to approach this effort as a talent placement program from the beginning, with a clear pathway from training to credentialing to job placement,” the report said. “Federal employee unions could also collaborate in identifying opportunities to coordinate training for members in fields that are downsizing.”

Recruitment and retention of veterans

Under the challenge of hiring and retaining veterans, the report shared several recommendations for both specific agencies and OPM overall.

Even though veterans make up a significant portion of the federal workforce, a 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office showed that veterans resign from federal service at 1.6 times the rate of their non-veteran colleagues.

“We knew veterans were an important, large constituency, and from a skills perspective, a good pool just from a sheer numbers standpoint,” Chang said. “What we realized early on, from some initial research, was that for people who come into the civil service as veterans, their retention was lower. So we said, ‘OK, well, if we were to take a retention lens for this particular group, what does that tell us?’”

The report said improving agency resources to help veterans through the process for transitioning out of the military, as well as looking at how to take skills gained from military positions and better translating them to civilian federal positions, may contribute to lower attrition rates.

In one specific example aiming for civil service reform, the report said agencies can use the Defense Department’s SkillBridge program as a blueprint for giving more help to veterans upon their transition out of military. The program aims to help military members gain civilian work experience through trainings, apprenticeships or internships.

As an example, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) already has a SkillBridge-adjacent program called CyberVets, aiming to help military members transition into a federal career. Hitting two birds with one stone, CMS’ program particularly focuses on developing cyber skills for these employees.

“Federal agencies should lean into this opportunity, especially because some agencies have seen it be so very successful,” Becker said. “[For veterans] that may not be their ultimate destination, but it can absolutely be a great bridge to start — and maybe that becomes the way for them to continue to stay on board.”

Key practices cut across themes

While each of the four areas of recommendations is distinct, the report points out multiple overlapping approaches, such as skills-based hiring, apprenticeships, internships and adding mobility in career pathways.

Efforts like pooled recruitment and skills-based hiring have proven effective, “yet these good practices receive neither the public attention nor the resources to sufficiently scale given larger systemic problems that agencies face in attracting, hiring, onboarding, developing and retaining the staff they need to fulfill a growing set of missions,” the report said.

With the report, Convergence is aiming to gain attention from leaders at OPM and OMB, as well as chief human capital officers. But Chang said she is also hoping the relationships and discussions about civil service reform among agency leaders and stakeholders that came from the report will continue to develop moving forward.

“This can be a model that can be built on and that, hopefully, some of the participants who were part of it can use in their work going forward,” Chang said. “Now they can call on the people that they’ve talked to — that would be something we would be very, very happy to see.”

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