Retaining Top Talent

Agencies should ramp up efforts to retain newly hired and experienced workers, particularly in light of federal budget cuts, a two-year pay freeze and a potential hiring freeze, a new report suggests.

The report, released late Tuesday by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton, noted that while overall attrition has remained low in recent times, a two-year pay freeze and the potential for more cuts could prompt workers to seek other job opportunities or retire. This means that keeping the right talent is potentially more critical than ever for federal agencies to perform at a high level and meet the needs of the American public, the report states.

The report is the second installment of a two-part series focused on attrition and retention. The previous report, which was released in November 2010, found that the federal attrition rate was low and therefore not considered a matter of urgency by agency leaders. In fiscal 2009, for example, the attrition rate was 5.85 percent, down from 7.6 percent the year before. This rate is lower than that of the private sector, which was 9.2 percent in 2008.

But those attrition figures do not hold strong for certain segments of the federal workforce, particularly those who are new to agencies, those eligible to retire within the next one to five years and those classified as having mission-critical jobs, the Partnership found. While the report does not specify which jobs are mission-critical, it's safe to assume based on previous Partnership research that information technology and cybersecurity jobs fall into that category.

The report recommends that agencies closely examine and understand who is leaving, identify the contributing factors in the work environment and develop retention strategies that make valued employees want to stay. This includes a work environment framework that emphasizes teamwork, supervision and leadership; agency mission and employee skills match; employee development and support; and performance management, compensation, benefits and work-life balance, according to the report.

Aside from training, mentoring, and beefing up performance management, agencies could emphasize the use of technology, such as internal social networks, to encourage cross-agency networking and communication about mission-related projects, the report states.

What are your career plans given the two-year pay freeze and other potential cuts? What could your agency be doing better to help keep you in your job?