Why the Future of Work Is a Challenge for Government

Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com

The federal workforce needs to be reskilled. Expect major disruptions ahead.

A hopeful article in Harvard Business Review concludes that, in the private sector, “Employees are eager to embrace retraining” and organizations need to take advantage of this opportunity. Government agencies need to hear that message as well.

Co-authors Joseph Fuller, Manjari Raman, Judith Wallenstein, and Alice de Chanlendar surveyed workers and business leaders in 11 countries and found the two groups saw the future in different ways. Business leaders were anxious about finding and hiring the skills their companies needed and worried about what they would do with existing employees. The workers, however, saw opportunities and benefits from the pending changes, and were “much more eager to embrace change and learn new skills than their employers gave them credit for.”

Forces Shaping the Future of Work

The authors identified half a dozen forces that are shaping how work will be done in the not-too-distant future. Organizations have to begin now to prepare for the transitions that will be driven by:

  • Accelerating changes brought about by technology, such as robots and driverless trucks
  • The growing demand for technical skills, such as cybersecurity
  • Changing employee expectations, such as a desire for greater team autonomy
  • Shifting labor demographics, such as an increase in older workers
  • Different work models, such as an increasing reliance on work done through complex partner ecosystems instead of within a single organization
  • Evolving operating environment, such as greater political and economic volatility

Interestingly, in their survey of workers, the authors found: “significant majorities of workers reported that they—and not their government or their employers—were responsible for equipping themselves to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving workplace.” Still, there were actions that organizational leaders can take.

The authors identified five ways leaders can get started:

1. Don’t just set up training programs, create a learning culture. Organizations can no longer engage in training at specific times (e.g., upon hiring new employees), but rather they need to develop a continuous-learning model. This might be online or in-person, but increasingly will involve job rotations and hiring for attitude.

2. Engage employees in the transition instead of herding them through it. As organizations transform, they have to engage employees in the change, not merely inform them. One organization, instead of targeting reductions, required all employees to resign and re-apply for the newly-created positions in the redesigned organization.  

3. Look beyond the “spot market” for talent. Allow employees to retrain for new jobs rather than turning to the broader market. For example, as AT&T moved from a hardware-centric to a software-centric company, it undertook a strategic workforce skills assessment and identified 100,000 employees whose skills would no longer be needed, and identified areas where there would be skill shortages. It then invested $1 billion to develop online training for new jobs such as cloud computing and an internal talent pipeline for these re-skilled employees.

4. Collaborate to deepen the talent pool. Competition for scarce talent generally ends in failure. Private sector utility companies, for example, have joined together to build a new talent pipeline by targeting elementary, middle, and high schools to encourage students to work in their industry and develop needed skills. In the federal government, this is done by some specialized agencies needing STEM talent, such as NASA and the Department of Energy, but there is not yet a systematic approach across government.

5. Find ways to manage chronic uncertainty. Organizations need to be able to respond quickly to shifts in their environment. Some private sector companies have internal platforms that allow employees to volunteer to work on projects outside of their own function. This allows employees to develop new skills and benefits the organization by drawing on untapped talent within their organization. This approach is used in some federal agencies, called GovConnect, organized by the Office of Personnel Management.

The key lesson, according to one manager interviewed by the authors, is: “If you give people the opportunity to learn something new or to show their craft, they will give you their best work. The magic is in providing the opportunity.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.