Nextgov/FCW - Authors - Brittany Ballenstedt

NASA’s JPL Is the Only Agency on a New Top IT Employer List

Brittany Ballenstedt — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 10:22:41 -0400

Federal agencies looking to recruit, hire and retain top-notch information technology workers may want to take a lesson from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: it was the only federal organization to make a new list of 100 top IT employers.

ComputerWorld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2014 ranked JPL in 19^th place in the large organization category. The Pasadena, Calif.-based research and development center touts an Innovating Together program, where IT staffers work with scientists and engineers on interesting projects. JPL also supports a mobile workforce, where employees are given the choice to work indoors or outdoors and choose from a range of mobile devices and computers. JPL IT staffers also are given every other Friday off.

Unfortunately, no other federal agencies made the top 100 list, beat out by organizations like Quicken Loans, USAA, LinkedIn and Noah Consulting.

Aside from common benefits like health care and paid time off, leading benefits offered by the top 100 companies were flexible hours, telework, wellness programs, college tuition reimbursement, and reimbursement for technology certifications. Other areas factoring into high employee satisfaction were career development opportunities, challenging work, performance awards and positive relationships with co-workers/supervisors.

Rankings are determined based on reader nominations and employee survey data. From the final 100 companies, 23,764 IT employees responded to the employee survey.

Should your agency have made the list?

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Training Key to Federal IT Reform

Brittany Ballenstedt — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 11:56:30 -0400

As Congress moves forward on legislation to revamp how federal agencies buy and manage IT, the majority of federal IT professionals are pointing to one area that could help them make better, more-informed decisions around new IT: training.

A new version of the Federal IT Acquisition and Reform Act, which moved to the full Senate after winning committee approval Wednesday, would make new investments in training and development for IT acquisition personnel.

That’s good news, as a new survey by SolarWinds of 148 public sector IT professionals shows the majority of respondents (52 percent) believe better training would help them be more confident in helping their agency make informed, strategic decisions regarding emerging technologies.

That training would help fill holes in some areas where confidence is lacking among IT pros, the survey found. Most (66 percent) said they were only somewhat confident they could help their agencies make decisions on new tech, while 4 percent said they were not confident at all. Most (55 percent) are only occasionally called upon by their agencies to make those strategic decisions, the survey found.

But while confidence is lacking in making strategic IT decisions, agencies are still making new IT investments. Among the greatest investments made by agencies in the past five years were computer virtualization (25 percent), mobility (19 percent), BYOx (14.5 percent), cloud computing (12 percent) compliance (9 percent) and data analytics (8 percent).

Those investments have somewhat or greatly affected responsibilities in federal IT departments, according to 94 percent of respondents. Among the most disruptive technologies are BYOx (25 percent), mobility (18 percent), cloud (14 percent), virtualization (13 percent) and compliance (13 percent), the study found.

Half of IT professionals flagged information security as the skill that will be most in demand in the next three to five years, followed by cloud or software-as-a-service (46 percent), virtualization (45 percent), mobile applications/device management (33 percent), network engineering (30 percent) and business analytics (30 percent).

What are your thoughts on the study? Would a training boost make you more confident in making IT business decisions for your agency?

(Image via Lightspring/Shutterstock.com)

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Mobility and Shrinking the Real Estate Footprint

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 12:08:14 -0400

Federal employees will need to telework more frequently to realize a greater return on investment, and that may come in the form of reducing the real estate footprint and investing in hoteling and collaboration software. So why aren’t more agencies making those investments?

A report released last week by Mobile Work Exchange, VMware and Carahsoft found just 21 percent of agencies have invested in collaboration software, while a mere 15 percent have invested in hoteling software to support their mobile workforce.

“I’m hoping investments in hoteling software make a big jump because that’s where agencies will realize billions in savings,” said Cindy Auten, general manager for Mobile Work Exchange.

HR managers surveyed by MWE estimated more than 25 percent of their office space is unoccupied at any given time. By eliminating this unused office space in favor of a robust telework/mobility program, agencies could collectively save an estimated $15.1 billion on real estate per year, according to the report.

Doug Bourgeois, vice president for end user computing for the public sector at VMware and former CIO at the Patent and Trademark Office, said while agencies will need to boost the amount of hours/days employees telework to realize the real estate savings, it’s not always necessary to move to a hoteling concept.

“At PTO, we found that employees who teleworked 100 percent of the time had trouble connecting with the team,” he said. “But I think generally that eased over time.”

Instead, agencies may turn to collaboration software, videoconferencing or social media to make up for the lack of in-person contact at the office, Bourgeouis said.

“Workforce engagement is a very important issue from a retention standpoint,” he said. “More investments in technology are required in order for it to work.”

What are your thoughts? Is your agency investing in HR-specific software, specifically for collaboration or hoteling, to move a telework/mobility strategy forward, reduce real estate and keep workers engaged?

(Image via TATSIANAMA/Shutterstock.com)

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Twelve Agencies Seek to Hire Virtual Interns This Summer

Brittany Ballenstedt — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 11:36:51 -0400

A dozen federal agencies have signed on to a virtual internship program run through the State Department that fields out special agency projects to American college students.

The Virtual Student Foreign Service eInternship program, which launched in 2009 by State and U.S. Agency for International Development, received 315 requests from federal agencies for e-interns this year, a record number compared to the 276 requests in 2013.

Five new agencies signed on to participate in VSFS this year: the Army Research Lab, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, NASA and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Last year, State and USAID welcomed participation from three other foreign-affairs agencies – the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Agriculture and Commerce departments – as well as the Smithsonian Institution and the Education and Interior departments.

Agencies this year are putting more emphasis on digital, with projects focused on digital storytelling and training, visualizing and analyzing datasets and in-depth research, Bridget Roddy, program manager for the VSFS program, told Wired Workplace.

“VSFS is a key tool to drive innovation, support new initiatives and bring in fresh ideas and perspectives, all with zero cost to the participating agency,” she said.

The 315 projects available this year include work in research, computer programming, graphic design, journalism, data analysis, social media, finance, blogging, STEM, food security, public diplomacy and law.

If selected, e-interns will commit to volunteering 10 hours per week starting in September 2014 through April 2014. About 20 projects launched in fall 2013 are continuing through the upcoming program year, Roddy said.

Students can apply to their top three projects on USAJobs.gov between July 2 and 22. The 320 projects will be posted on the VSFS website at the end of June.

(Image via wrangler/Shutterstock.com)

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Tech Pros Demand Higher Starting Salaries

Brittany Ballenstedt — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 09:29:44 -0400

Technology professionals know how valuable their skills are in the marketplace, so much that more are rejecting job offers and/or requesting higher salaries.

That’s according to the semi-annual hiring study by tech jobs website Dice.com, which found 32 percent of the 737 tech-focused hiring managers surveyed said more tech candidates are snubbing job offers, as compared to the beginning of 2014. Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) said candidates are asking for more money, as compared to six months ago.

That level of competition often means tech positions are going unfilled, as 59 percent of respondents said they left a position vacant based on salary guidelines for the job.

The good news for organizations is that fewer tech professionals are exiting their current positions. While one-third of respondents said more tech professionals were leaving their current jobs this year, that’s down from 42 percent who cited increased turnover in 2013, Dice found.

Still, the potential for rejected job offers and/or payment of higher salaries is not stopping organizations from hiring more IT pros. Dice found 70 percent of hiring managers intend to recruit more tech professionals in the next six months, as compared to the first six months of 2014. That’s down from 73 percent who anticipated hiring in the first half of the year.

The majority of respondents said they are looking for job candidates with six to 10 years’ experience (71 percent), followed by two to five years (59 percent) and 10-plus years (37 percent). Just 20 percent said they are seeking entry-level candidates, though Dice cautioned entry-level tech pros not to be deterred, as that marks the highest percentage since November 2011.

(Image via vichie81/Shutterstock.com)

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Upside to Shrinking Budgets? Innovation.

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 13:13:42 -0400

There is a bright side to shrinking budgets at federal agencies: They may just force employees to come up with new and innovative ways of doing business.

That’s according to Carissa Cutrell, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who told Wired Workplace last week that budget cuts and a crackdown on federal conference spending forced the agency to take a more innovative approach to engaging employees and stakeholders involved in the Student and Exchange Visitor program, which manages nonimmigrant students and their dependents and also certifies schools to accept international students.

While the agency previously reached out to stakeholders by traveling to both national and international conferences, budget cuts and the crackdown on conference spending made those trips less frequent. Instead, the agency began engaging stakeholders online, through online webinars, blogs and social media.

“Everyone encounters obstacles in their business activities; it’s hard to overcome those obstacles, but we developed a new solution,” Cutrell said. “We knew we had certain goals to meet, and this was just another way of meeting them.”

In lieu of going to conferences where the stakeholders are, ICE requests they instead meet online, and to much success: The agency’s 11 webinars and 12 teleconferences held thus far this year have yielded roughly 400 to 600 attendees each, and 91 percent of attendees have agreed the content was useful.

A recent study by Market Connections found online training and webinars have become more commonplace in government as budgets have shrunk. Less than half (42 percent) of the more than 3,700 federal employees surveyed said they attended conferences, trade shows or industry events in 2014, down from 49 percent in 2013 and 62 percent in 2011. Webinar participation is rising, however, as 66 percent of federal employees said they partook in a webinar in 2014, compared to 62 percent in 2013 and 51 percent in 2011.

“I saw those survey results and thought, 'wow, that’s us,'” Cutrell said.

Some agencies may still be reeling from budget cuts, so much that they haven’t thought of implementing more innovative ways of doing business. Overall, budget cuts have led to some positive changes at ICE, Cutrell said.

“Agencies should think about what their end goal is and work back from there,” she said. “Think about what you want to accomplish, the parameters you have to work within, and then come up with a solution that meets your goals.”

ICE also is active in DHS’ initiative to migrate all of its websites to the same content management system. Next week, the agency will unveil an enhanced version of its Study in the States website, which will feature an interactive glossary, an “Ask a Question” feature and an interactive school search section.

The new website “presents several opportunities to increase efficiency and share resources between the component agencies,” Cutrell said.

(Image via I love photo/Shutterstock.com)

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Lack of Telework Opportunities Makes Government Lose Out on Top Hires

Brittany Ballenstedt — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:53:19 -0400

Federal agencies have made progress in implementing telework as a flexible work strategy, but it may not be enough, new research suggests.

A report released Monday by Mobile Work Exchange, VMware and Carahsoft found 88 percent of human resources managers have had an employee leave because of the lack of telework opportunities. Another 54 percent say they at least occasionally miss out on the best job candidate because they cannot meet his or her telework requirements.

Those numbers are surprisingly high, particularly as many agencies often are considered leaders across all sectors on telework implementation.

“There’s a competitive advantage for agencies to have a telework strategy, and this finding is a big red flag for agency managers,” Cindy Auten, general manager for Mobile Work Exchange, told Wired Workplace. “As more agencies in the federal government, state and local government and the private sector offer telework benefits, this number is going to be higher and the number of employees leaving is going to be higher.”

Doug Bourgeois, vice president of end user computing for the public sector at VMware and former CIO at the Patent and Trademark Office, said while recruitment and retention was not part of PTO’s original intention in implementing telework several years ago, those areas have been key in moving forward telework initiatives.

“PTO was very early in getting their telework program implemented; word got out and people wanted to take advantage of that opportunity,” he said. “We had these unexpected positive benefits, one from a recruitment and retention standpoint and another from a pure morale standpoint. That wasn’t the primary driver, but that’s why PTO stuck to it and continued with the program through the years.”

The good news is the majority of agencies that have invested in telework are reaping benefits. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of HR managers surveyed by MWE said they have seen positive or very positive return on telework investments. Of those that have yet to achieve a positive ROI (31 percent), 64 percent expect to do so within the next three years, the study found.

Nearly all (94 percent) of HR managers surveyed also said they have made HR-specific investments to support mobile workers, including training (67 percent), HR-specific software (33 percent), collaboration software (21 percent) and hoteling software (15 percent).

Still, agency cultures (37 percent) and management resistance (31 percent) stand in the way of effective telework implementation, the study found. Perhaps the finding that 88 percent of HR leaders are losing out on top candidates because of the lack of teleworking opportunities could get your boss to start listening.

“To the federal government’s credit, just looking at the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results, you can see that telework has become a great strategy,” Auten said. “But we have to do more and make sure every agency has a sound program. I think we’ve had tremendous success in the past few years, but there’s still a huge gap in who’s eligible and who’s actually teleworking. We really have to close that gap.”

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(Image via Yeko Photo Studio/Shutterstock.com)

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Streamlined Hiring Key for Attracting IT Pros

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:51:31 -0400

Free food, nap pods and on-site video games are not the only things that attract top IT workers to leading tech companies such as Google and Facebook. Network World reports a streamlined hiring and onboarding process also is valuable to these in-demand workers, so much that leading tech companies are stepping up their game in this area.

That could be a problem for the federal government.

The federal government has long been criticized for its lengthy and cumbersome application and hiring process, and IT has been no exception. Top IT workers often face multiple job offers, so a federal hiring process that typically takes months to complete could mean agencies are missing out on the best of the best. Even specific personnel flexibilities such as direct-hire authority may not get the best candidates on the job quickly enough.

“Managers that are hiring IT talent, they’re pickier than ever and they’re hurting themselves,” Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis, told Network World.

The unemployment rate for tech professionals was 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the overall U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, according to IT jobs website Dice.com.

This is one of many reasons Wired Workplace last week posed the question of whether federal personnel reform should begin with IT. Agencies are years behind in terms of IT talent, so much that many CIOs are saying IT workforce issues – including training, recruitment and retention – remain their biggest challenge.

Readers who commented on last week’s post pointed to troubles with federal human resources, the pay structure for IT professionals as well as the lengthy federal hiring process.

“Until you can consistently hire someone in far less than 6 months, only a desperate candidate who can’t find other work (IT or otherwise) will still be waiting around for that callback,” one reader commented.

Still, there’s also a responsibility of agency IT shops to work with HR to nail down the skills needed for the job and identify the best candidates for a position. That’s a topic that will be covered at the Federal CIO Council’s annual Boot Camp, which kicks off Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Social Security Administration CIO Bill Zielinski, who will speak about this issue at the CIO Boot Camp, told Wired Workplace last week he regularly works with Chief Human Capital Officer Reginald Wells to stay ahead on IT skillset needs.

“The CHCO is critical in helping the CIO leverage all the HR flexibilities available to maintain a modern IT shop that is able to meet the agency’s mission,” Zielinski said. “We are actively engaged in joint executive-level meetings, and this collaboration is an effective tool in our strategic planning efforts.”

Is your agency missing out on key IT talent because of the lengthy and cumbersome hiring process?

(Image via Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock.com)

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Agencies Graded B- on Mobility

Brittany Ballenstedt — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:39:16 -0400

The federal government has invested more than $1.6 billion in mobile technology initiatives for its employees, yet most have not realized the full potential of those programs, according to a new report.

The report, released Monday by Mobile Work Exchange, VMware and Carahsoft, found that 77 percent of the 154 federal IT mobility and human capital/telework executives surveyed give their agency a B or a C on progress toward the Digital Government Strategy. The strategy launched in 2012 to enable federal workers to access government information anywhere, anytime and on any device.

The B grade was because of a number of challenges, as just more than half (56 percent) of IT managers believe their agency is taking full advantage of mobility. The most common challenges were security concerns (47 percent), available funding (38 percent), culture (25 percent) and procurement (25 percent).

“The technology has moved at such a rapid pace that I think honestly it’s hard for IT managers to keep up with it,” Cindy Auten, general manager of Mobile Work Exchange, told Wired Workplace. “The technology is there, but they may not be able to mesh it well with the legacy systems.”

Despite those challenges, however, most IT managers tout the benefits mobility has provided their agency thus far, including improved continuity of operations (40 percent), increased productivity (36 percent) and greater overall efficiency (31 percent). Sixty-nine percent of IT managers believe employees are more productive today because of mobility, the survey found.

Still, mobility could yield even greater savings and returns in the future, particularly in areas such as COOP and real estate. If the federal government were able to maintain 100 percent of its operations during an emergency through telework/mobility, it would gain an additional $60 million in productivity per day. For the 2013-2014 winter season, that would have equated to savings of more than $300 million, the report noted.

In addition, considering that more than 25 percent of office space is unoccupied at any given time, agencies could save more than $15 billion per year by pairing telework and mobility with a real-estate reduction plan, the report noted.

“If agencies are looking at the ability to shrink real estate, they have to come up with a model where employees can still bump into each other,” Auten said. “Adding a hoteling capability will be very useful. That’s where we’ll be able to realize billions in savings collectively for the federal government.”

The good news is that agencies are not planning to scale back on mobility. Over the next two years, the federal government will invest in encryption (35 percent), smartphones (33 percent), tablets (28 percent), mobile device management (25 percent) and laptops (22 percent). Many will look for more employee and security training as well as better application management to help reap even greater benefits from those technology investments, the study found.

“For us to really move forward on mobility, we have to step up our efforts on training – ensuring we are bringing the right people in who can do the job, training managers to manage employees effectively and ensuring employees know exactly what to do,” Auten said. “Losing sight of that will hurt the progress of mobility altogether.”

(Image via Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com)

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Should Federal Personnel Reform Start With IT?

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 11:42:11 -0400

The controversy at the Veterans Administration is reigniting a conversation about federal personnel reform that in recent years has been overshadowed by budget cuts, hiring freezes and sequestration.

Most experts contend that personnel reform should extend beyond the VA, however, to help a range of agency missions and skill sets that require key talent. A report released last week by TechAmerica and Grant Thornton found that the majority of federal chief information officers and other key tech officials believe IT workforce issues – including training, recruitment and retention – remain their biggest challenge, with one respondent noting they were “five years behind in terms of talent.”

With fierce competition with the private sector for skilled technology talent, is IT a good place to start for federal personnel reform?

That’s a question Wired Workplace posed to Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. There is a huge need in government for skilled IT talent, making it a natural fit for launching reforms of the decades-old federal personnel system, he said.

“We’re often asked the question, ‘Do you start with a single occupation or go governmentwide [with personnel reform]?’” McManus said. “The need is not just within IT, so if you’re doing it in the context of IT, you have to have an eye for broader reform. Some of the challenge right now is that there are different authorities that apply to different agencies, which create the haves and have-nots.”

Those flexible authorities include direct-hire authorities and signing bonuses that often cause agencies to compete against one another for talent. Implementing personnel reform at one agency or in one career group could intensify this poaching, or make other mission-critical elements of an agency less effective, McManus said.

“To narrow personnel reform to just IT may actually create a system where IT is more competitive and gets the right talent, but you still have all those around delivering on mission that the system and structure is still not conducive to bringing people in and holding on to them,” McManus said.

A report released in April by the Partnership and Booz Allen Hamilton called for a complete overhaul of the entire civil service system, including pay, performance management, hiring and job classification. The report also outlined a strategy for taking on this massive challenge, including building a market-sensitive pay system, creating greater flexibility in hiring and improving the performance management system.

Still, the government has some lessons learned from past project failures like the Pentagon’s National Security Personnel System, which was repealed in 2009 under the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. NSPS, which was to cover more than 700,000 Defense civilians, was plagued with controversy and legal challenges surrounding collective bargaining rights and perceived inequality in the way pay and performance decisions for employees were made.

What are your thoughts? Is IT a good place to start for personnel reform? Or do past project failures like NSPS still have you reeling against federal personnel reform?

(Image via Jirsak/Shutterstock.com)

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What the University of the Future Will Look Like

Brittany Ballenstedt — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 16:13:47 -0400

Four years ago, Microsoft Founder Bill Gates predicted that technology and the Internet would make “place-based colleges” less relevant and bring down the cost of a college education to just $2,000.

Now, students around the world tend to agree, with many citing a belief that the university of the future will be accessible, flexible, innovative and job-focused, with a particular emphasis on lifelong learning.

That’s according to a new survey commissioned by Laureate International and performed by Zogby Analytics, which found that students predict a future where classes will be offered at various times throughout the day and year. Courses will be more affordable and virtual, and lifelong learning through certificate programs, refresher courses and online mentoring will replace traditional college degrees.

“Familiar institutions which have provided stability, security and opportunity for a millennium are withering amidst rapid technological change,” the report states. “It is an era the world has not seen since the end of the Middle Ages and the rise of the Renaissance, the New World and the Enlightenment. New institutions, driven by the needs of the actual prosumers, are changing the landscape of politics, nongovernmental organizations, economies and finance, and education.”

The survey of more than 20,800 students worldwide found that 43 percent believe future course content will be provided for free online, while 59 percent believe it will be more common for students to use social media to learn and teach other students. Course materials, books and other resources will also be available in free online libraries, according to 68 percent of respondents.

As the workplace is changing to becoming more flexible and innovative, so will education, according to the survey. More than half of students (52 percent) believe courses will be offered at all times day or night. Forty-one percent said they believe traditional two- or four-year degrees will be replaced by specialized certificates that enable students to take courses at their own pace.

And as the workplace looks to foster greater innovation, students believe higher education will evolve in the same way. More than half (54 percent) say future courses will focus on collaboration between students, and 43 percent say personalized online instruction or tutoring will render traditional classrooms less important.

Finally, course content and requirements will be more market driven in the future, preparing students to excel in in-demand fields. Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of students believe future course offerings will be designed by industry experts, and more than seven in 10 think career-oriented skills will be more of a focus than subject matter in future university programs.

With the rapid pace of technological change, IT is one area already moving in this direction, particularly with the field’s emphasis on certifications and continuous learning so most workers simply can keep up.

Computer science degrees also are moving to more affordable, online formats. Last year, the Georgia Institute for Technology announced the launch of its first professional online Master of Science degree in computer science that can be earned completely through a massive open online course, or MOOC, format. The degree, provided in collaboration with Udacity Inc. and AT&T, takes three years to complete at a total cost of just $7,000.

(Image via hxdbzxy/Shutterstock.com)

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Survey: Up to 70 Percent of Government IT Staff Will Depart Within 5 Years

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:35:16 -0400

Attracting, retaining and developing key IT talent remains the top challenge among federal chief information officers and chief information security officers, according to a new survey.

The survey of 59 federal CIOs, CISOs, information resource management officials and congressional oversight committee staff by TechAmerica and Grant Thornton, found that 52 percent of respondents indicated that IT workforce issues – training, recruitment and retention – remains their biggest challenge. In fact, one respondent said they were “five years behind in terms of talent.”

“In many agencies, technology skills are housed in the contractor workforce,” the report states. “As contractor budgets are reduced, the federal workforce is expected to take on more of the work formerly completed by contractors even though they often lack the skills to assume these responsibilities. A reduction in budget for training, conferences and other programs such as internships and rotations exacerbate this gap.”

The top workforce challenge identified by CIOs was workforce planning, with many respondents noting they are struggling to understand their workload and the needed skills to manage it. Respondents expect the departure of anywhere between 20 percent and 70 percent of their IT workforce in the next five years, yet most noted that federal IT departments are unprepared for handling the turnover.

“The long waits for hires, the cumbersome processes and the lack of modern technology only make the other challenges of filling vacancies and planning for turnover more difficult,” the report stated.

Other top challenges included managing the effects of budget cuts on hiring and workload imbalances on performance; changes in the skills and competencies of the workforce; and attracting and retaining skilled IT workers.

Respondents identified a number of innovative ideas for addressing the challenges, including direct-hire authority and signing bonuses to attract top talent; improved recruiting tools connected to social media; hiring reform; flexible work schedules and telework arrangements; and an IT ROTC/Reservist model, where government pays for education in return for service rotations with industry.

Still, while workforce issues were identified as the top challenge, CIOs did not flag it in their list of top three priorities, instead identifying cybersecurity, modernization/innovation and cloud/mobility as their key agenda items.

In addition, the majority of CIOs noted they are moving to shared service providers and/or cloud solutions, with many stating the replacement of legacy systems is a top priority in their offices. While CIOs noted that the majority of their IT budgets are spent on operations and maintenance of existing systems and infrastructure, the amount of funds directed to O&M over the past year has dropped 12 percent (from 85 percent to 73 percent), indicating a shift in focus to development and modernization, according to the report.

“Within this fiscally constrained environment, federal CIO shops are gradually turning the focus to developing with [fewer] resources, highlighting the need to implement innovative and cost-effective technology and processes,” the report stated.

(Image via Jirsak/Shutterstock.com)

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Webinars Are on the Rise as Federal Conference Spending Shrinks

Brittany Ballenstedt — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:59:48 -0400

Shrinking budgets and a crackdown on conference spending have federal employees attending fewer in-person events than in past years, yet more are making up for it through online training and webinars.

That’s according to a new study by Market Connections that found less than half (42 percent) of the more than 3,700 federal employees surveyed have attended conferences, trade shows or industry events in 2014, down from 49 percent in 2013 and 62 percent in 2011.

But while conference attendance has decreased, webinar participation rose this year, with 66 percent of federal employees saying they have participated in a webinar in 2014, compared to 62 percent in 2013 and 51 percent in 2011.

Federal mobile device usage also rose significantly in 2014, to 80 percent versus 73 percent in 2013 and 63 percent in 2012. The most popular mobile devices were iPhones, Android phones and iPads for viewing news websites, social media and video, but one device continues to remain popular almost exclusively for checking work email – the Blackberry.

In addition, the sharp rise in mobile devices indicates that agencies are beginning to mitigate security issues and implement Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, strategies, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the number of federal employees accessing social media websites at work remained flat over the past year (49 percent), with the majority using Facebook (57 percent), YouTube (47 percent), LinkedIn (41 percent), Google+ (33 percent) and Twitter (18 percent).

(Image via corgarashu/Shutterstock.com)

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When Federal CIOs and Hiring Staff Work Together for IT Talent

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:56:33 -0400

Numerous reports have pointed to the need for agency chief information officers to connect with their counterparts in the human capital office to determine how best to recruit, hire and retain top information technology talent into the federal government.

That will be one topic at this year’s CIO Council Boot Camp, taking place June 18-19, in Washington, D.C. Bill Zielinski, deputy commissioner for systems and CIO at the Social Security Administration, writes in a blog post on CIO.gov that he, along with Reggie Wells, chief human capital officer at SSA, will talk about the importance of fostering a CIO-CHCO relationship.

“Having the right people in the IT organization is a core responsibility of a CIO,” Zielinski writes. “To be successful, CIOs need a human capital strategy that enables managers to bring top-notch candidates onboard to fill the roles that are critical for smart IT delivery. It takes a lot more than a stack of resumes from qualified candidates to make this happen. The Social Security Administration’s success in finding and keeping top talent results from the strong partnerships between IT and HC staffs.”

Zielinski notes that aligning the goals of the IT and CHCO offices with the agency’s mission has helped the agency better position itself to recruit and retain a workforce that is “ready to confront the technology challenges of the next generation.”

That relationship should go both ways, of course. CHCOs should also seek out relationships with agency IT leaders to determine how they can best leverage IT to deliver better services, from analyzing workforce data to reforming the federal hiring process. According to a recent Partnership for Public Service report, only 30 percent of agency CHCOs see technology as key to success in their role.

(Image via Lightspring/Shutterstock.com)

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Cyber Workforce Honor Roll

Brittany Ballenstedt — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:04:27 -0400

Several achievements of federal employees and contractors working in the cybersecurity field were honored Tuesday evening as part of the 2014 Government Information Security Leadership Awards.

The annual awards program, run by consulting firm (ISC)2, recognizes individuals and teams who have significantly enhanced the information security workforce by demonstrating a leadership role in any information security workforce improvement initiative, program or project on either a governmentwide or agency-specific basis.

Roberta “Bobbie” Stempfley, deputy assistant secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications (CS&C) within the Homeland Security Department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, received the Lynn F. McNulty Tribute award for her leadership in moving CS&C through years of transition into the organization it is today – comprised of five divisions that lead interagency and public-private initiatives to enable all sectors to better secure their cyberspace.

“Ms. Stempfley has shepherded CS&C through years of transition and has superbly represented the department through important changes,” said Joe Jarzombek, director for Software & Supply Chain Assurance at DHS. “You will also find her serving in many behind-the-scenes roles that have enabled CS&C to better serve the nation and our partners. Her actions and level of commitment truly exemplify the way Lynn McNulty served our information security community of practice.”

The McNulty award was created in 2012 in honor of cybersecurity pioneer Lynn F. McNulty, who died in June 2012. McNulty served in several high-profile roles throughout his career, including associate director for computer security at NIST, and was the first information systems security director at the State Department. The award recognizes a member of the federal cybersecurity community who upholds McNulty’s legacy as a visionary and innovator through outstanding service and commitment.

In the workforce improvement category, the Cyberspace 200/300 Professional Continuing Education Team at the Center for Cyberspace Research for the Air Force’s Cyberspace Technical Center of Excellence, under the direction of Dr. Robert F. Mills, won the award for their work in planning and creating intermediate and advanced cybersecurity courses using innovative tactics that provided real-world, hands-on training. The education program contributed to the graduation of approximately 400 Defense cyber professionals and continues to provide the Air Force with a continuum of learning that fills current voids in cyber workforce education.

Jaime Vargas, chief information security officer of the Homeland Security Department’s Office of the Inspector General, received the Technology Improvement award for his work in designing, developing and implementing an information security continuous monitoring program for the office’s IT infrastructure. The program has supported the implementation of the Risk Management Framework and improved the effectiveness of safeguards and countermeasures that diminish vulnerabilities, placing the OIG as a federal leader on compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act.

Erich Fronck, regional information security director for the northeast region at the Veterans Administration, received the Community Awareness award for his work in raising the training compliance level for regional users. As a result, compliance rose to 99.62 percent in the Northeast region and decreased the number of individuals deficient in training from 8,000 to less than 2,000.

In the process/policy category, Jeff Harriss, team lead for access control at the operations security branch at the Agriculture Department, won a for his work in reducing the large number of users granted elevated permissions on their desktop computers to reduce overall risk within the USDA’s user base of 37,000 accounts.

Finally, Sunny Tuteja, president and chief executive officer of AssurIT Consulting Group, won the Federal Contractor award for his work in developing a plan of action and milestones dashboard for USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service to deliver a strategic view of system weaknesses and improve the service’s overall security posture.

(Image via urfin/Shutterstock.com)

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What Google Lacks in Diversity It Makes Up for in Salaries

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 13:45:48 -0400

Google last week made public its own workforce data showing it is made up of mostly white and male employees, in a move the company hopes will open up the conversation about the need for more women and minorities in technology fields in general.

Diversifying the tech talent pool would be good news, especially considering that employees at Google ranked the company at the top for compensation and benefits, according to Glassdoor’s new Top 25 Companies for Compensation and Benefits list.

Google employees touted the company as best on salaries, retirement contributions, health plans and the offer of a free bike to ride to work. The company boasts average high salaries for key information technology positions like systems administrator ($104,079), software engineer ($118,971), and senior manager ($178,300).

The majority of the remaining companies on the top 25 list were technology-focused: Facebook (3), Adobe (4), Epic Systems Corporation (5), Intuit (6), Salesforce.com (9), Qualcomm (13), Riverbed Technology (14), Verizon (15), VMWare (16), T-Mobile (17), Microsoft (18), Orbitz (22) and eBay (25). Top responses among these companies were the focus on work culture and environment, rewards such as fitness programs and free food, career development opportunities and potential for career growth.

Unfortunately, no federal agencies made the list, and when comparing Glassdoor’s list to the most recent Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, it’s difficult to see where agencies could measure up. In 2013, job satisfaction among feds dropped three points to 65 percent; pay satisfaction was down five points to 54 percent; and organization satisfaction fell three points to 65 percent.

Still, areas where the federal government can shine, particularly when competing with top tech companies for new Millennial talent: strong mission, challenging work and telework.

How does your agency stack up against the top 25 companies for compensation and benefits?

(Image via Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com)

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Lack of Training Hampers Agency Cyber Incident Response

Brittany Ballenstedt — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:08:58 -0400

Federal agencies have not demonstrated that they are effectively responding to cybersecurity breaches or incidents, in part due to a lack of employee training on incident response roles, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

GAO detailed its analysis of a statistical sample of cyber incidents reported by agencies in fiscal 2012. While many agencies identified the scope of an incident in most cases, they frequently failed to show the impact of an incident or their handling of it.

GAO examined six agencies selected at random – the Energy, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation and Veterans Affairs departments and NASA – to provide a statistical sample of agency cyber incident response preparedness. While all six agencies had developed parts of policies, plans and procedures to guide incident response practices, their efforts were not comprehensive or consistent with federal laws and requirements, GAO found.

Those shortfalls were due in part to a lack of consistent training for incident response personnel, according to the report. While Justice, Transportation and HUD maintained lists of incident response personnel and their dates and types of training, Energy and NASA only partially addressed training issues, and the VA has not addressed them at all. This could result in inefficient incident detection and analysis, as well as costly mistakes, the report stated.

“If staff do not receive training on their incident response roles, they may not have the knowledge or skills to ensure they are prepared to effectively respond to cyber incidents affecting their agency,” GAO said.

GAO recommended that the six agencies as well as all agencies responsible for cyber incident response establish clear requirements for training incident response personnel.

(Image via photokup/Shutterstock.com)

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The Link Between STEM Training and Civil Rights

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 29 May 2014 14:11:31 -0400

Securing America’s future in science, technology, engineering and math fields requires more than expanding opportunities for women. Promoting interest and opportunities for minorities also should be a national imperative, particularly as more than half of children born in the United States today are of minority descent.

That was the topic of a symposium at the National Academy of Sciences on Tuesday that sought to find solutions for providing minorities and women with proven pathways for obtaining good jobs and a higher standard of living through STEM education.

The event, hosted by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, highlighted that now, 60 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, education in the United States remains separate and unequal for many minorities, children with disabilities and those living in high-poverty areas. STEM is one area that has great potential to reverse that trend and help the United States maintain a competitive edge, experts noted.

“The era of pick-and-shovel jobs is gone,” said Wade Henderson, president and chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Those who would support themselves in the 21^st century need a high school diploma and more -- career training, an associates degree, or ideally, a four-year college degree.”

The symposium explored the need to pique girls' and minority children's interest in science and math; the importance of expanding access to Advanced Placement courses and broadband access; and the need for more technology-competent teachers.

The Obama administration’s five-year strategic plan for STEM education shows that only 2.2 percent of Hispanics and Latinos, 2.7 percent of African Americans and 3.3 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives have earned a first university degree in natural sciences or engineering by age 24. Women represent less than 20 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients in areas like computer science and engineering, and hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs.

“We have only 21 percent of students in high school STEM programs who are girls, and we know girls are about half of the kids in high school,” said Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. “We are not serving our girls period in STEM.”

David Johns, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, spoke about programs like My Brother’s Keeper that aim to unlock opportunities for boys and young men of color.

Lhamon urged symposium participants as well as government agencies, policymakers, educators and the public to visit OCRdata.gov, the Education Department’s civil rights data collection website, to analyze student equity and opportunity. She also stressed the need for continued funding for programs like Race to the Top, which provides competitive grants to states willing to innovate and reform K-12 education, in helping open up opportunities in STEM to minority students and women.

“We should be asking questions about whether disparities present in the data warrant further action and warrant changes at our schools and districts in our state,” Lhamon said. “We should be doing better than offering calculus to a few said students; we should be doing better than offering physics to a few said students. We need to be sure we have access to teachers that are prepared for them and schools that are prepared for them. … We should be one joined community in demanding civil rights for all of our kids.”

(Image via wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com)

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Preparing for a Shortage of Feds in Science and Tech

Brittany Ballenstedt — Wed, 28 May 2014 17:49:56 -0400

While the federal government has developed a strategy to close the workforce gap in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical fields, little has been done to address specific gaps in these fields in the federal government, according to a new report.

The report, released last week by the IBM Center for the Business of Government, found that there is currently no governmentwide plan to recruit and retain entry-level STEMM employees, nor an effort to train up existing mid-career STEMM employees for senior leadership positions at their agencies.

“While the need for STEMM succession planning is clear, there has been insufficient action on this challenge,” the report stated. “It requires a great deal of forethought, planning and adaptability, given the rapid changes and budget cuts faced by agencies.”

The IBM Center identified four key drivers that require increased focus on STEMM succession planning at federal agencies: a pending retirement wave of senior STEMM staff, delayed development of the STEMM talent pipeline as positions are left vacant as a result of budget cuts and sequestration, fewer STEMM graduates entering the federal workforce versus the private sector, and a lack of qualified candidates to fill vacant senior-level STEMM positions.

A report released last year by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton outlined how agencies can leverage tools already at their disposal to effectively recruit, hire and retain professionals in STEMM fields. That report indicated that STEMM fields are more top-heavy than other federal job fields, with 74 percent of federal STEMM workers over the age of 40, and just 7.6 percent under age 30.

“The cumulative impact of generational trends, such as government employment boosts in the 1970s, federal downsizing in the 1990s after the Cold War, and lack of recruitment of the Millennial generation, have created a need for strategic and effective succession management,” the report stated.

The IBM Center identified six best practices for agencies to implement STEMM succession planning:

Formulating a strategy for STEMM succession planning to account for rapid changes in STEMM fields;
Identifying mission-critical positions to fill in the event of attrition and the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for success in those roles;
Expanding career development for STEMM employees both at the beginning and middle of their careers to better prepare them for senior leadership roles;
Tracking and validating the professional development and performance of candidates in the STEMM succession pool;
Implementing effective onboarding programs at various career levels that outline the unique aspects of an agency’s strategic mission;
Developing metrics to track and measure the progress and effectiveness of STEMM succession programs.

Agencies also should not have to start from scratch when beginning STEMM succession planning, instead borrowing best practices from other agencies and customizing procedures to meet their own unique needs. Agencies also should emphasize mentoring, job rotations and project-based learning experiences to help groom up-and-coming STEMM leaders for more senior-level jobs, the IBM Center noted.

“Succession planning programs already in place throughout federal agencies are an underused resource,” the report states. “The needs and mission of agencies are a common foundation that can initiate sharing and program development.”

(Image via 18percentgrey/Shutterstock.com)

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White House Spotlights Contributions of Girls in STEM

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 27 May 2014 14:32:24 -0400

The White House on Tuesday welcomed some of America’s most innovative students for the fourth-ever White House Science Fair, which this year emphasized the specific contributions of girls and young women who are excelling in science, technology, engineering and math.

Among those highlighted at the conference was Elana Simon, 18, who was diagnosed with a rare liver cancer at age 12, and her work with one of her surgeons to find a common genetic mutation across samples of other patients coping with the same cancer.

Cassandra Baquero, 13, Caitlin Gonzolez, 12 and Janessa Leija, 11, of Los Fresnos, Texas, also showcased their work as part of an all-girl team of app builders who built “Hello Navi,” an app that gives verbal directions to help their visually-impaired classmates navigate unfamiliar spaces based on measurements of a user’s stride and digital building blueprints. Girl Scout Troop 2612 of Baltimore, Md., demonstrated their computer program designed to automatically retract a bridge when flood conditions are detected by a motion sensor embedded in the river bed.

In remarks after viewing this year’s science projects, President Obama cited statistics that just one in five Bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer science are earned by women, while fewer than three in 10 workers in science and engineering fields are women.

“That means we have half of our team we’re not even putting on the field,” Obama said. “We have to change those numbers. These are the fields of the future.”

Obama announced new efforts to invest in STEM education, including a $35 million grant competition by the Education Department to help train and prepare STEM teachers in support of the President’s goal to train 100,000 excellent STEM teachers.

The president also announced an expanded effort to provide STEM learning opportunities to more than 18,000 low-income students this summer through the STEM AmeriCorps program, which launched at the 2013 White House Science Fair. The summer program will bring together AmeriCorps members with community groups, educational institutions and corporate sponsors to help students learn about STEM – from building robots to writing code for the International Space Station to participating in “scientist-for-a-day” programs to explore various careers.

Seven cities across the country also will launch STEM mentoring efforts through the US2020 City Competition, sponsored by Cisco, which challenges cities to develop innovative models for scaling STEM mentorship for young students, particularly girls, minorities and low-income families. The goal of the program is to mobilize 1 million STEM mentors annually by the year 2020.

“Last week, we had the Superbowl champion Seattle Seahawks here, and that was cool,” Obama said. “But I believe what’s being done by these young people is even more important. As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Superbowl winners.”

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Is Your Manager Becoming Less Committed to Telework?

Brittany Ballenstedt — Thu, 22 May 2014 10:06:21 -0400

Employees in the U.S. are sensing a weakened commitment from their managers when it comes to work-life balance. Some employees point to examples at high-profile companies like Yahoo! and Best Buy, which last year put an end to their telework and flexible work programs, as reasons for that weakened sense of commitment, but most employees are pointing to a lack of adequate training and guidance, according to a new study.

The study, released last week by Flex+Strategy Group and Work+Life Fit, Inc., found that while 97 percent of the 556 full-time employees surveyed reported having some form of work-life flexibility in 2013, 45 percent perceive a waning commitment to flexibility from their employers.

“Most of us are flying by the seat of our pants when it comes to making flexibility work,” Cali Williams Yost, a flexible workplace strategist, author and leader of Flex+Strategy Group, told Wired Workplace. “When you see that more than half weren’t able to use the flexibilities they have because of workload, time and fears about their jobs, it’s evident that people are not being given the skills and tools to be a good partner in flexible work success.”

One of those tools, Yost said, is effective training and guidance, on topics ranging from how to make the most effective use of technology for remote work to maintaining balance at home with the “always on” culture of mobile devices. More than half (57 percent) of employees surveyed said they did not receive training or guidance on how to manage work-life flexibilities.

In addition, those who did receive employer training were significantly likely to say their employer had a strong commitment to work-life flexibility (58 percent) versus those who did not receive training and guidance (38 percent).

“Training is more than handing someone a laptop or mobile phone,” Yost said. “We have to show people how to capture and use the work-life flexibility that is available and that makes sense for their jobs to manage the fit between work and the other parts of their life.”

While the Flex+Strategy Group’s study was not federal government-specific, the results of the 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey – in which telework was the only area where feds cited a higher level of satisfaction – may speak for themselves when it comes to gauging overall sense of commitment to flexible work among federal managers. Of course, that is if your manager allows you to telework in the first place.

What are your thoughts on the study? If you’re a teleworker, is your manager still as committed as they have been in the past? Is federal training on programs like telework adequate?

(Image via Artco/Shutterstock.com)

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DHS Cyber Workforce Legislation Advances

Brittany Ballenstedt — Wed, 21 May 2014 17:18:33 -0400

The Homeland Security Department would receive additional hiring and compensation authorities for cybersecurity professionals under new legislation introduced Tuesday and approved Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The bill (S. 2354), sponsored by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., would enable the DHS Secretary to make direct appointments, set rates of basic pay and provide additional compensation, benefits, incentives and allowances in order to recruit and retain critically needed cybersecurity personnel.

“Unfortunately, the demand for cybersecurity experts in the government greatly outpaces the supply, and many agencies have had difficulty attracting the best and brightest and retaining those already in service,” Carper said in a statement.

The new flexibilities would bring DHS in line with recruitment and retention tools currently offered at the Defense Department and National Security Agency. While DHS has a broad cybersecurity mission, it does not currently have in law any tools to hire faster, pay higher salaries or offer retention bonuses.

The flexibilities offered in the legislation would help the department improve its ability to compete with the private sector and other agencies to hire and retain the most skilled cyber workforce, Carper said.

An amendment offered by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, would require DHS to implement the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, a blueprint developed by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education that provides a common understanding of and lexicon for cybersecurity work as well as a uniform classification system for job functions.

The bill also would require the DHS Secretary to report annually on the program’s progress and whether it is meeting the hiring and retention needs of the department.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, introduced legislation in December that includes similar provisions to boost DHS’ cyber workforce, including a requirement that the department develop a workforce strategy to enhance training, recruitment and readiness of cyber personnel.

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Personnel Reform and Better Technology Are Intrinsically Linked

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 20 May 2014 18:08:42 -0400

The roles of agency chief human capital officers are evolving to emphasize how information technology can deliver smarter, more cost-effective services, boost training and encourage cross-agency collaboration, according to a new report.

The report, “Embracing Change,” released Tuesday by the Partnership for Public Service and Grant Thornton, highlights the results of an annual survey of 62 agency CHCOs and human resources leaders. While CHCOs cited common problem areas -- diminished budgets, declining employee engagement, an outdated pay system, an inadequate federal hiring process -- technology was touted in many areas as a solution, according to the report.

Agencies, for example, should make better use of workforce data to facilitate better management, CHCOs noted. A proposal in the Obama administrations’ 2015 budget would boost those analytics efforts through the creation of an engagement dashboard. The Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget also should continue developing and using data-driven HR tools, the report states.

In addition, 30 percent of CHCOs cited technology as essential to success in their role, though the majority cited staff resources (66 percent) and financial resources (66 percent) as most critical to their success.

Consistent with findings in previous CHCO surveys, many respondents to the 2014 survey acknowledged that it is not enough to ask employees to do more with less; many must create more cost-effective ways of doing business. Many emphasized the need to consolidate or share HR services and IT platforms within or across agencies.

Technology also could play a larger role in boosting federal employee training efforts, particularly as agencies look to cut costs and improve employee engagement. Many CHCOs thought that HR University -- developed by an interagency workgroup sponsored by the CHCO Council -- should be continued and perhaps expanded.

OPM’s recently released strategic information technology plan is another example of how agencies can work differently with fewer resources to achieve results, the Partnership and Grant Thornton noted.

“Working smarter with more efficient systems and processes is only part of the equation,” the report states. “Leaders throughout government, including in Congress, must do their part too . . . With some stability returning to the budget process, now may be a good time to reinforce the link between the budget and the workforce an agency needs to get the mission accomplished.”

(Image via Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock.com)

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Women Are Still Scarce in IT Leadership Roles

Brittany Ballenstedt — Tue, 20 May 2014 12:58:57 -0400

The proportion of women in information technology leadership positions has moved little over the past decade, and that statistic may even be trending downward, a new study suggests.

The new 2014 CIO Survey by Harvey Nash of 3,211 chief information officers worldwide found that just 7 percent of respondents are women, a drop of 2 percent over last year’s survey. While nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of CIOs recognize this gender imbalance and have implemented diversity programs, the proportion of women in IT over the past decade has remained “stubbornly low,” the report stated.

Women IT leaders are slightly more common in the United States, however, with females representing 11 percent of U.S. respondents, Harvey Nash found. Another bright spot is that when compared to other fields, such as human resources, a greater proportion of women in IT are promoted into senior positions.

“This suggests that while we do not yet see enough women entering the industry, if they do embark on a career in IT there is more chance that they could realize their full potential than many other sectors,” the report stated. “If more young women can be persuaded to enter the IT profession, it looks as though both they and the industry will benefit.”

While the global percentage of women CIOs actually lost ground this year, Harvey Nash projects the number will increase as more Millennials move into IT leadership roles. The report projects 13 percent of future CIOs will be women in coming years.

Meanwhile, CIOs in the U.S. also were slightly less affected by the IT skills shortage and more likely to hire IT workers than their global counterparts. More than half (55 percent) believe skills shortage will have an impact, 5 percent lower than the global average, and 46 percent plan to increase IT headcount, 4 percent higher than the global average.

(Image via Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com)

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One Airman's Journey From Linguist to Cyber Warrior

Brittany Ballenstedt — Fri, 16 May 2014 09:57:26 -0400

Bryan Johnson, retiring after 20 years as a linguist in the Air National Guard. was eager to begin a new career. That’s when he discovered he was well suited to pursue a career in the in-demand field of cybersecurity. Better yet, he could pursue this new career in Salt Lake City, in the same unit where he spent his 20-year career.

“I was coming up on retirement, and the timing was perfect because the unit began hiring more contractors as the mission was expanding,” Johnson told Wired Workplace. “I was able to transition into a contracting position here, so instead of being a linguist for the unit, I was able to go right into an IT and information security job.”

Having already obtained his Security+ certification in 2010 as a requirement by the Defense Department’s 8570 directive, Johnson already had some basic knowledge of cybersecurity. When his employer rewrote the organization's statement of work to require both Security+ and the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation, Johnson saw an opportunity to improve his skills, although potentially at a significant cost -- roughly $4,000, all at his own expense.

While researching the CISSP certification one evening last spring on the website of nonprofit certification body (ISC)2, Johnson learned of the new Cyber Warrior Scholarship program, offered by the (ISC)2 Foundation and Booz Allen Hamilton. The scholarship. for qualifying military veterans, covers all expenses associated with a cybersecurity certification, including training, textbooks, mobile study materials, testing and the first year of certification maintenance fees.

Johnson was one of six veterans in 2013 to receive the first round of Cyber Warrior Scholarships. This year, (ISC)2 and Booz Allen Hamilton will award up to twelve scholarships to qualifying veterans over three application periods, increasing applicants’ chances for selection.

“I started studying and found out the CISSP is a great foundation for what I do,” Johnson said. “It’s been a perfect transition for me because the job was here and I had an interest in it. And it’s perfect for the unit because they get someone who’s been here for 20 years.”

Military veterans have frequently been touted as a rich source of talent to groom for the in-demand cybersecurity field, but some experts have questioned the notion that just anyone can become a cyber warrior.

While Johnson admits that having a least a mild IT background helped him pursue his new career, he does believe that many veterans, particularly those transitioning into retirement, can be successful in the field if they devote enough time to it. He advises military personnel nearing retirement or transitioning to civilian life to begin studies in the field on their own. Programs like the Cyber Warrior Scholarship and the post-9/11 GI Bill also could help veterans transition into the emerging cyber field, Johnson said. “One of the best benefits for military folks to transition from their jobs in the military to a contracting position supporting DoD is the opportunity to continue to support the mission that we spent so much time, sacrifice, and for some, shed blood and limbs,” he said.

Besides a passion for his newfound career, Johnson is also happy about the great benefits, competitive pay and job security that it provides, particularly in a time of tight budgets.

“Information assurance and security is so critical to the work in the intelligence community,” he said. “And with such a growing field, it helps secure my future. Everything is changing so rapidly with budgets, and it’s a whole different atmosphere than it was 10 years ago.”

(Image via Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock.com)

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