Agencies Look for Workforce Answers

Attracting and retaining talented IT staff remained a challenge for government at all levels as the year reached its midpoint. The tech sector’s recovery from the Great Recession was a welcome relief to everyone — except maybe government IT departments. The recession delayed retirements and led to a surge of skilled workers applying for public-sector technology jobs.

But with companies once again scouting for IT and cybersecurity talent, government leaders took innovative actions to hire and keep skilled employees.

New job classification and evaluation procedures sprouted in several jurisdictions. Utah’s master engineer career path was designed for IT employees who want to remain in the trenches, but still be financially rewarded for the highly skilled work they do.

And in the Harris County (Texas) Information Technology Center, employees are evaluated using a performance matrix that gives staff members a clear look at what’s required to move up in the ranks.

Another big change was seen in job titles and responsibilities. As hosted services replace systems that government IT departments once developed in-house, the technology workforce itself is evolving. Titles like “data scientist” are finding homes as IT roles that once focused on system deployment and upkeep gradually diminish. 

Government Technology predicted that future positions could include machine-learning engineers, autonomous vehicle managers and drone fleet engineers. As these technologies continue to gain ground in the public and private sectors, the change will be reflected by a workforce filled with specialized roles.
 

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