News

As the need for talent is increasing, competition from the private sector is growing fiercer.

By Susan Fallon Brown
Byline Originally Posted on Government Executive
October 31, 2018 

Employers across the country are facing critical skills gaps, and the federal government is no exception.

Missions are evolving quickly and agencies need new talent to keep the nation safe and deliver critical services. We talk a lot about the tech talent gap and the need for more cyber pros and data scientists, but government also has needs in areas like public health and federal law enforcement. Unfortunately, as the need for specialized talent is increasing, the competition from the private sector for hiring that talent is growing fiercer.

It’s time for a reality check: Talented people have options. These highly sought-after pros are heavily pursued by the private sector. Agencies are typically competing against higher salaries, corporate recruiters with compelling advertising campaigns, and a faster hiring process.

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the average hiring time for federal personnel is 106 days. This time lag can perpetuate the lack of trust employees have in their HR team’s recruitment capabilities. The most recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, released late last week, revealed that just 42 percent of federal employees felt their team had the ability to recruit people with the right skills. In addition, the time it takes to hire personnel—typically more than three months—causes federal agencies to lose out on viable candidates who cannot wait that long to take new job opportunities.

These are major workforce challenges that the current administration is trying to change. In the president’s management agenda, the Office of Management and Budget called on agencies to re-evaluate their current HR processes and technology in support of establishing the “workforce of the 21st century.”

In its 2019 budget proposal, the White House noted that “the private sector continually finds new ways to evolve human capital management programs to maximize the return from their most valuable asset: their people. The federal government should do no less.”

To evolve workforce strategies and remain competitive with the private sector, federal agencies need to overcome four common challenges in federal recruiting:

MCLEAN, VA (June 27, 2018) - Study findings from a recent survey conducted by premier recruitment and workforce solution provider, Monster Government Solutions, and custom market research firm, Market Connections revealed a significant difference in how public sector versus private sector organizations use online tools to recruit talent. According to the study, private sector contractors are twice as likely as their public sector counterparts to leverage digital platforms and social channels for their recruitment needs.

The Government Recruitment & Retention Study surveyed 200 HR professionals within the public sector and the private sector government contracting community, on workforce challenges and opportunities in today’s competitive talent landscape.

Findings revealed that 52 percent of all respondents believe the shortage of available, qualified, and experienced job candidates remains the leading recruitment challenge. In addition, 39 percent of all respondents indicate they are dissatisfied with their current recruitment practices.

MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Monster Government Solutions (MGS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monster Worldwide, today announced a five year Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) valued up to $51.4 Million to provide talent acquisition technology and services to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The award, made by Treasury's Chief Information Office, Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS), continues Monster Government Solutions' 14-year relationship as a designated provider of software and services in support of Treasury's CareerConnector Shared Service Center.

With the award of the BPA, Monster will continue to support over twenty of Treasury's federal government customers who utilize Monster Hiring Management Enterprise for their talent acquisition. Monster Hiring Management software is a secure, comprehensive applicant tracking system, purpose-built to automate and accelerate the federal hiring process. Fully integrated with USAJOBS, HR Connect services, Government HRIS systems and assessments, the system provides applicants and hiring managers a simpler, easier, and faster way to navigate the federal government's hiring process.

Original Article Posted on CIO Dive

Monster Government Solutions appeared in a feature story in CIO Dive titled, "From camps to badges: How groups are training the future cybersecurity workforce". 

Ultimately, the solution to the cybersecurity skills gap will require an all hands on deck approach. "It’s been our experience that building platforms that connect people to job opportunities and education through the collective efforts of government, education, industry, workforce and economic development can make a real difference," said Bruce Stephen, Director, Research, Monster Government Solutions.

Read more of our take and the full story.

Original Article Posted on StateScoop

The 2017 winners of the StateScoop 50 Awards, which highlight the best and brightest in the state IT community, were announced Sunday at a reception in Crystal City, Virginia, to help kick off the National Association of State Chief Information Officers' midyear conference.

For the fourth year, the StateScoop 50 awards honored state government information technology executives, leaders, industry influencers, up-and-comers and innovative projects. And for the first time, the awards honored cybersecurity leaders across state government.

Members of the state and local IT community nominated thousands of government leaders in March, 2017. StateScoop narrowed the list to the top 150 with the most nominations and StateScoop readers cast more than 100,000 votes nationally in April to select the final 50 2017 winners.

Washington, D.C. – March, 8, 2017: Earlier today, former U.S. House of Representatives Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Jack Kingston, along with Susan Fallon, Vice President of Global Strategy and Business Development for Monster Government Solutions, testified before the Labor-HHS Subcommittee during its annual public witness hearing. Kingston and Fallon reiterated the importance of Job Corps’ career technical education services and the continued need to invest in job skills training in order to close the “skills gap.”

“Job Corps is a critical lynchpin in closing the skills gap nationwide,” Kingston said. “I strongly believe that the way toward sustainable job growth in these communities is to invest in the mechanisms like the Job Corps program to educate and develop necessary skills in an effort to create and maintain these jobs in a way that adapts to a changing economy.”

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are 5.6 million jobs that remain unfilled because employers cannot find workers with the right set of skills. According to some estimates, the skills gap costs our economy $160 billion annually. Job Corps is a comprehensive education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that each year helps 50,000 underserved youth ages 16 through 24.

Original Article Posted on Perry County Tribune
by Bill Rockwell, Tribune Reporter
FEBRUARY, 20, 2017

The use of veterans to fill vacant employment position could be a boon to Ohio’s workforce and economy. Ryan Blackburn with the Ohio Department of Veteran Services detailed the department’s focus on finding work and, or education for the thousands of veterans across the state.

“We have thousands of veterans that call Ohio home and thousands more daily that return to the state from serving their country that are looking for work or to continue their education,” Blackburn said at a meeting of the Perry County Chamber of Commerce during their monthly lunch meeting held recently at Los Mariachi’s in New Lexington.

Blackburn said that Ohio is home to more than 830,000 veterans, the sixth largest such population among states in the country, and that 450,000 veterans are currently in the labor force.