Make Invisible Talent Visible

With strengthening and empowering the Federal workforce as a key tenant of the President’s Management Agenda, the critical need for people with cybersecurity skills and an aging workforce, now is the time for government to re-evaluate how it looks at the skills of employees. Moving to a data-driven talent strategy allows agencies to match the right people to the right work at the right time which also enhances that employee’s experience and engagement with their work.

Progression not Promotion

The first step is realizing that skills are not a title. For too long, career success has meant moving up GS levels or in title. A change in title does not necessarily mean being exposed to new experiences, gaining new skills or even gaining responsibility. The growth that comes with new challenges is what keeps employees fulfilled. That can happen when employees move into positions across an organization. Sideways needs to be the new up – not just for the growth of employees but for the mission achievement of government.

ServiceNow Federal Workforce Talent Blog Embedded Image 2023Keep Talent in Government

People enter public service because they have a tie to the mission. They want to work for that organization with a line of sight toward that mission. They do not leave because they stopped believing in the mission, they leave because they have not been given an opportunity to grow and develop. Research shows that one third of millennials and Gen Z workers leave a job because they did not see an opportunity to grow their career.

Talent sharing across agencies is a concept whose time has come. Government employees need to see career path options outside of their current organization. Where can their skills make an impact in another office or agency? Seeing a growth path will keep the talent within the government ecosystem rather than losing them to good commercial companies.

Diversify the Workforce You Already Have

A data-driven approach can go a long way in driving out bias and growing equity. Across government there are many opportunities for people to get involved in steering committees, pop-up projects and short-term initiatives. However, getting involved requires employees to be informed. We assume that people will seek out these opportunities. Employees only network with people they know – this limits what they are exposed to. Employees miss opportunities every day that are tailor made for their skills and career goals.

A data-driven approach automates the ability to engage. Opportunities can be pushed to employees that meet specific skills and capability criteria. Those employees can then engage with the opportunity through a digital workflow allowing them to quickly and easily break into a new network within the organization. No longer are we dependent on who we know. Now technology becomes a proactive, enabling force in finding the best fit based on skills, not position or education.

Personalize the Journey

Studies show that 94% of employees will stay with an organization longer if they feel it is invested in them. Providing a dynamic career path backed by training and mentoring opportunities is a way to demonstrate commitment to an employee.

A one size fits all training program ends up fitting no one. Employees have come to expect a personalized experience from all of the brands they interact with – whether that is music or movie recommendations or reminders to order more toilet paper. Data-driven organizations can offer that same experience by feeding employees programs and trainings that people actually want to participate in and learn from.

For organizations, knowing the growth areas for employees allows for more targeted efforts in offering reskilling and upskilling opportunities to the people who will most quickly benefit from the training.

 

ServiceNow is proud to support organizations ready to make the leap to a data-driven skills-based model. Our recent webinar showed how to move away from spreadsheets and emails and begin managing skills in an automated way that works for everyone – HR, agency leaders, supervisors and employees. View the full session here to learn how to transform how you hire, reward and grow your team.  

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a Pillar of CX Service Delivery

Integrating DEIA Into the Larger CX Picture

The Whitehouse Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) in the Federal Workforce promotes standards that can be applied to improving Government customer experience (CX). These include strengthening the ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote and retain the nation’s talent, removing barriers to equal opportunity and creating a space where all employees and customers are treated with dignity and respect. The standards offer Federal and State and Local Government agencies the opportunity to move toward equitable service delivery.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 5 CX Blog Embedded Image 2023Developing a DEIA strategy involves a multitude of moving pieces like analyzing data, enforcing requirements, measuring effectiveness and ensuring progress. All of these areas culminate in sustainable cultural intelligence for organizations. Starting the conversation around DEIA in the context of CX begins with the on-going theme of communication rooted in trust—especially employee and customer trust in the Government. During Carahsoft’s 2023 Customer Experience and Engagement Summit, panelists examined how their organizations are creating more trusting, inclusive and resilient workplace environments which translates to improved services for customers.

A Focus on Human-Centered Design

In the realm of CX, trust is one of the most important aspects of customer, employee and leadership interactions. One panelist found that previously coming from a background in the user experience (UX) transformation space, all human-centered design exclusively existed within UX. In furthering their understanding of the broader CX spectrum, they discovered that UX is only a small part of the CX journey. While UX refers to the way users interact with an organization’s specific products, CX is how users view an organization’s brand and experiences with the business. The critical missing component to elevate CX is communication and transparency to build trust. Much of the progress made through DEIA initiatives aims to rebuild trust with undervalued communities so they feel secure receiving assistance both personally and virtually.

To truly develop more equitable service delivery models, organizations must be able to manage workplace tension by building both internal and external progress. For example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has worked to provide tools for success in both areas through various touchpoints. Externally, NSF teams launched a redesign of the agency’s website that allowed them to collect information from several demographic communities. In doing so, the NSF was able to redesign language inputs and outputs to better serve their website visitors. Internally, the NSF has implemented a call-listening program that analyzes empathy, psychological safety and compassion to protect not only customers, but employees as well. The NSF has also designed a DEIA maturity model, which helps to measure the efficacy of DEIA capabilities, identify critical barriers and benefits to employee advancement and operationalize a sense of inclusion and belonging across the foundation.

Moderating Workforce Development for the Future

Recruiting, hiring and retaining employees is successful when an organization considers a wide range of talent representation. Also, being data-informed is critical for an agency’s mission. Collecting data via methods like staff surveys to identify members’ interests and strengths as well as understand where that talent can best serve the agency is imperative for progress. Baking this into daily processes by working with human resources counterparts ensures the DNA of the organization is varied. Ultimately, diversity within CX talent can positively set one organization and the way its employees interact with customers apart from another.

 

Read the previous blog and check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

 

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Following the Funding of Innovation in Customer Experience

In the world of business, methodology is always changing along with users. While this innovation can be expensive, it is vital that agencies move alongside the private sector with technology implementation and customer service standards. At Carahsoft’s 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit, panelists discussed ways to cut costs and foster innovation.

Innovating to Maintain Pace with Customer Needs

When a business works with clients, most of its focus will naturally be on the customer experience (CX). What was a revolutionary addition in the past, may be an expected feature in the present. As a result, agencies need to continually adapt and grow. Technology can be used to spearhead that innovation. Many people who interface with Government systems are also Government employees, so quality software is vital both internally and externally.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 4 Blog Embedded Image 2023Agencies should design interfaces with CX at the forefront. Professionals, such as designers, whose job is to understand how users adapt to natural patterns in software, should have a seat at the table to help integrate new features. This way, new technology is as easy to understand as possible, by as many people as possible. Allowing users to get involved in iterative cycles as updates are added will allow agencies to evolve their solutions as they go. By following previous successes, the overall user experience will improve.

The speed and agility of technology and service systems is one vital component. Both customers and employees will grow frustrated with slow, out of date technology and appreciate Government initiative for agile development. By rolling out iterative cycles during changes, users have the opportunity to evolve with solutions.

Cost Effective Service

Public agencies have been advocating for more funding to keep pace with the financial challenge of customer service. The current presidential administration has issued several executive orders that promote enhancing customer service and experience in the public sphere including additional funding for agencies to implement those upgrades. However, acquiring these funds requires having modern and secure technology and technical strategy already executed in an agency. Although implementing modern technology and the securest cybersecurity strategies can be expensive, it will help agencies save costs down the road.

If agencies do not qualify for Government funding, there are additional initiatives they can implement in the meantime. Agencies can partner with technology vendors to develop solutions that will improve CX. By leveraging existing data, such as data from performance.gov or analytics.usa.gov, agencies can figure out ways to improve customer service. Paying attention to internal service metrics such as the number of closed cases, time to close cases, success rate and satisfaction level can illustrate how well a company is performing with CX before reviews come in. Agencies can decrease helpdesk wait times and lower costs by focusing on self-remediation. Through championing these efforts alongside quality partners and vendors, agencies can view CX problems through different lenses, leading to the best possible process. Agencies can also utilize pilot programs to test situations out before implementing them and affecting both employees and users. Technology should be used to positively influence user behavior. By guiding a wide variety of customers through services with simple, easy to understand instructions, agencies can help both customers and employees which will keep wait times down and save money.

 

Read the previous blog and check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Maximizing Service by Engaging Employees as Customers

At the end of 2021, the Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government stated, “Our Government must recommit to being ‘of the people, by the people, [and] for the people’ in order to solve the complex 21st century challenges our Nation faces. Government must be held accountable for designing and delivering services with a focus on the actual experience of the people whom it is meant to serve.” Panelists at Carahsoft’s 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit agreed that this mission begins with an organization’s employee experience.

A New Approach in Customer Experience Over Time

With the recent introduction of mandates and the new executive order, Government agencies have increased momentum to move customer experience (CX) from being a standalone initiative to weaving it into every facet of daily operations. Jill Leighton, Vice President of Public Sector Strategy and Solutions at Qualtrics, said that today, agencies are not just singularly improving a particular service or touch point. Now, they are taking that insight and implementing it into policymaking, strategic planning, reporting success and designing programs, while also learning where to invest and prioritize.

Carahsoft Customer Experience Engagement Summit Part 3 Service Blog Embedded Image 2023Untapped Resources

Using the best resources and constantly staying on top of innovation is an undertaking for any agency. Employees can be the most underutilized asset for organizations, so it is important for agencies to understand what employees need for peak performance. An immense amount of change has happened throughout the pandemic in working environments, and organizations need to take full advantage of the newer talent capacity and building opportunities within teams and employee talent pools. Additionally, agencies can unlock insights from employee and CX satisfaction through data gathering tools like conversational analytics, natural language processing and machine learning.

Artificial Intelligence in CX

Ironically, the possibilities presented by AI technology are critical to a human-centered CX strategy, Leighton said. With the implementation of AI, agencies are able to automate data analysis in various formats, perform automatic cataloging categorization and background filtering. For example, employees on the front lines of call centers can benefit from weekly, even daily summary reports showing the customer’s most pressing problems, their satisfaction levels and other aspects of their experiences. Using AI for the purpose of collecting qualitative and experience data, call operators can gain valuable insight into how to improve their human-centered CX approach and learn how to personalize each interaction they have. Additionally, using that data to optimize efficiency will improve service delivery. These solutions help move employees away from manual processes so they may focus more on interactions with customers.

What Is Impacting the Work Force?

Many aspects of Government operations can be difficult to navigate. Panelists referenced a general talent shortage, lack of funding and outdated solutions as barriers for the CX workforce. One panelist said they encounter homegrown identity and access management solutions and piecemeal fixes throughout their organization’s CX efforts, which makes it challenging to provide a seamless experience for customers and employees. Another problem CX professionals face is increased expectations from those consuming Government services.

Ron Vickery, Area Vice President of Customer and Industry Workflows, Government Health and Higher Education at ServiceNow, expressed, “We are putting employees in a really tough situation if we are not empowering them to deliver against that expectation. So, I think that, across the board, is a big trend; rising expectations of the way service should be received and making sure that we have empowered these employees to deliver that level of service.”

Translating the Employee Experience to Customer Experience

Government agencies must prepare employees to provide excellence service with a mission-driven mindset as well as proper resources and technology to deliver it. Benefits such as flexibility in the workplace, operational efficiency, training and easy access to tools and resources can attract new talent as well as retain existing employees. If they feel supported by and invested in their agency, workers will be more inclined to provide the quality of service expected by their leadership.

Nicky French, Customer Service Branch Manager for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said that the TSA’s security mission presents a unique challenge as this agency must balance national cybersecurity with customer experience. She stated, “Our officers in the front lines have to enforce rules, and sometimes that can come across as a little more militant than we would like. So, we try to make sure that the officers are professional and polite. We spend a lot of time just level setting what customer service means.”

Employees need to know that their organization pays attention to their needs. When positive change is made, employees know their voice is valued and has an impact. Addressing challenges within operations enables employees to make a difference and move their agency’s CX mission forward.

 

Read the previous blog and check back soon to read the rest of Carahsoft’s insights from CX industry thought leaders at the summit.

To learn more about the latest in the CX landscape and how Carahsoft’s industry-leading partners can support your Customer Experience initiatives, please visit our resource hub to access all on demand recordings and information from the 2023 Government Customer Experience and Engagement Summit.

Sea-Air-Space 2023 Showcases Strategic Insights for the Navy

As the landscape of defense technology across the United States Armed Forces continues to advance and transform, the military must also evolve and adapt with it. At Sea-Air-Space 2023, the Navy League’s Global Maritime Exposition, key leadership from the U.S. defense industry and government technology experts came together for educational and collaborative sessions across a variety of topics. A record number of attendees gathered for the three-day conference where many vendors including Carahsoft and 45 of its partners demonstrated their technology solutions to meet military needs. Fed Gov Today joined Carahsoft on the show floor to speak with military thought leaders on staffing, cybersecurity and more.

Carahsoft Sea-Air-Space Recap Tradeshow Blog Embedded Image 2023Sea Service chiefs attending the conference noted that currently, maintaining and developing the workforce is a high priority for the military as it emphasizes the role of people as resources. Defense agencies are looking to engage young, talented individuals interested in serving the armed forces.

“Whenever you see the defense budget start to go down…a lot of times you’ll see training and education reduced,” Carahsoft’s Program Executive of Navy and Defense Strategy, Mike McCalip, said. “What you end up with is a workforce that can be five or 10 years behind in technology.” To mitigate this, McCalip sees this as an opportunity for industry vendors to “help [the Navy] to educate and keep their workforce on the tip of the spear when it comes to technology.”

Another important concept discussed at Sea-Air-Space was the Department of Defense’s shift to ever evolving Zero Trust. Throughout the conference, Sea Service chiefs and tech vendors fielded many questions and conversations surrounding cybersecurity’s role within defense strategy. Military leaders and vendors shared an eagerness to collaborate and explore opportunities for growth together in the future.

 

Check out the rest of my industry insights and highlights from the event floor at Sea-Air-Space 2023 in my full blog at FedGovToday.com.

DoDIIS Takeaways: IT Workforce, Partnerships, Interoperability and Data Management

As the defense and intelligence communities reflect on 2022 and plan for the future, several key takeaways will guide upcoming initiatives. At the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DoDIIS) Worldwide, a conference sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), attendees from the military, industry, government and academia gathered to collaborate and share insights on accomplishing the Department of Defense’s mission.

Agency leaders highlighted that every aspect of the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) is critically enabled by IT. Not only is IT the first-in and last-out function for every crisis, oftentimes IT is the mission, not just a supporting role. The DIA recognizes that to innovate with current technology and invest in emerging tech, the journey to maximum productivity often includes the critical evaluation of processes and programs. With IT, misuses must be corrected, software needs to be transparent to users and technology simplified to promote a seamless integration. In essence, IT should be viewed as an evolution instead of a revolution.

To accomplish these goals, the DIA laid out its five main areas of prioritization for the coming years:

  • IT workforce retention
  • JWICS modernization, resilience and autonomy
  • DoDIIS modernization
  • International connectivity and partnerships
  • Capability delivery pipeline with Zero Trust and data management

The first part of this two-part blog series covers the discussions of DoD and IC challenges in relation to IT workforce development and retention, partnerships and interoperability and data management. The second blog will cover the enabling technology being deployed including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the cloud.

Carahsoft DoDIIS Recap Blog Embedded Image 2023IT Workforce Development and Retention

The DoD and IC have encountered challenges upskilling the workforce and uncovering new talent. To fill the gap in applicants, the DIA and IC have turned to contract hires and those from industry who want to spend only a few years in government. The DIA also offers an Education With Industry (EWI) Program where DIA employees can get joint duty credit while working with an industry partner. In addition, the DIA and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) have developed recruiting programs for high schoolers and partnerships with local universities to offer high school internships in hopes of encouraging students to develop interest in a government career.

High competition for talent has increased the need for retention incentives and additional education so agencies can maintain the current workforce. To address these concerns, the DoD and IC have begun modernizing their HR systems and seek to automate HR processes and provide self-service capabilities in hopes of expediting the talent acquisition timeline. Another endeavor includes modernizing training platforms for current employees to keep their skillsets up to date. Investing in continuing-education for these agency subject matter experts is important since they play an essential role in advising commanders and building tech options to address threats. Leadership is looking to academia and industry to source individuals with understanding of the current DoD and IC challenges and the global crises. By pulling from these outlets, the DoD and IC can expedite the process rather than having to train from the ground up with high school recruits. To successfully integrate industry workers into the government sphere, the DoD and IC must adapt to make commercial approaches work as well.

Partnerships and Interoperability

In the realm of defense and intelligence, partnerships and interoperability of technology are key to achieving results that maximize each agencies’ unique capabilities and pool combined strengths. By engaging with other agencies and countries, commanders have access to additional information and options. Investing in these resources offer some resolutions to the DoD’s current challenge of how to rapidly develop new warfighting capabilities while also simultaneously addressing current threats.

These partnerships can make a difference through data sharing, which offers new knowledge to commanders for more informed decision making. To make this information and technology sharing a reality, systems and processes must ensure cross-domain security and allow for interoperability throughout data sourcing countries and agencies. Partnering more significantly with Five Eyes countries (FVEY), will be a major source of increased intelligence as the DIA shifts towards integrating systems. In the near future, any DIA cybersecurity programs that do not align and add value to the FVEY countries will be either adapted or removed.

DoD and IC leaders also hope to collaborate with allies such as the Five Eyes to establish baseline international policies that will open doors for easier parity of information and comparability of systems and technology. Without a universal frame of reference, definitions, and laws, practical progress and innovation is impeded.

Connecting with industry has proven to be another valuable resource as DoD and IC leaders are seeking to better understand the full capabilities of current and emerging technology and gain insight into how industry can solve mission challenges. The DoD and IC desire to foster a culture that values systematic, strategic and equitable private sector engagement as well as addresses barriers to those relationships.

Involving the community through continued conversations and strong alliances provides an integrated deterrent and an advantage over the adversary. While these partnerships have taken a back seat in the past, DoD and IC leaders believe that this needs to be a crucial change and take priority.

Data Management

One of the main cruxes for the DoD and IC is harnessing the power of data. Since everything begins with data, the DoD and IC recognize the responsibility to think and act strategically from data collection to exploitation, dissemination and disposal, and seek to improve current data handling methods. Dr. Stacey A. Dixon, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, believes that developing strategies in the IC to accelerate delivery of that data to those that need it, is the greatest challenge of our time for defense and the IC. Currently the DoD has crossed the limit of data input, overwhelming existing data strategies and making data too siloed, too slow and too hard to find to successfully stay ahead of threats. As the volume of data increases, several measures must be put in place to leverage the wealth of information.

According to DoD and IC officials, the one thing industry and government agencies alike can collectively improve, is interoperability; however, unless data source countries’ systems are secure and the data can be worked together, this cannot be accomplished. Because a large, diverse set of data is needed for good ethics and proper execution, the DoD and IC look to gain increased ability to integrate data across classification levels. Maintaining Zero Trust and consistent monitoring is also critical to freeing the data from other sources.

Over the coming years, the DoD and IC seek to implement widespread data tagging as a foundation for effective data management and quality results. This will allow the combining of commercial and government data to merge with the context and experience that the DoD and IC possess to achieve well rounded, sound decisions.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its IC Data Strategy 2023-2025, which outlines its plans for improving the management and use of data. The strategy aims to leverage data to operate, collaborate and communicate at any time, in any place and in any security domain at speed, scale and securely. To achieve this transformation, the strategy focuses on four areas: performing end-to-end data management, delivering data interoperability and analytics at speed and scale, seeking advanced partnerships for continued digital and data innovation, and transforming the IC into a data-driven enterprise. Finally, it outlines a modular and agile framework that integrates business, functional, technical, security and data standards to provide a blueprint for the use of data in the IC.

Dr. Raj G. Iyer, former CIO for Information Technology Reform, Office of the Secretary of the Army, stated that data will be the new ammunition. At the end of the day, it comes down to enabling optionality for commanders, enabling mission command and enabling a common operating picture. Dr. Iyer emphasized that this is not a technology strategy, but a digital transformation to change operating models and leverage data in ways that U.S. competitors have not.

Utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and the cloud will empower these goals. Read part two of this series to find out more.

 

Check out our Fast Facts and Future Initiatives of the DoD and IC Resource for more information and key insights for the IT industry.

*The information contained in this blog has been written based off the thought-leadership discussions presented by speakers at DoDIIS 2022.*

Advancing the Art of Data Analytics

Within days of the transition of the presidential administration, the new administration emphasized the centrality of data in addressing both the COVID-19 pandemic and racial inequity. Before that, laws and initiatives such as the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, and Federal Data Strategy pushed agencies to build their capacity for data-driven operations. This overall goal has led many agencies to create and appoint data-focused roles, including senior-level chief data officers (CDOs) and first-ever data analysts. They have begun advancing data strategies and investing in solutions. But through these mandates and government-wide initiatives, how can agencies bring their goals and strategies to life to address their most pressing problems? Four basic areas of data competency – governance, security, literacy and ethics – are key to becoming a data-driven agency. Additionally, to carry out a data strategy, an organization needs to ensure that its staff has all the necessary skills. In December 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) emphasized the importance of making data competency part of an agency’s culture. That same month, as part of the Federal Data Strategy, GSA released the Data Ethics Framework to help encourage ethical data decision-making throughout the federal government. Download the guide to read more about how agencies at the Federal, state, and local levels are updating their data strategies with the latest technology.

 

Before You Start Data Governance…

“Once agencies have a strategic plan in place, they can begin to set the regular rhythms of using the data. The processes and procedures should be a well-documented plan that deals with day-to-day technology needs. Externally, it’s important to establish a communications plan that standardizes interactions with data users throughout the data lifecycle. Internally, it’s critical to create procedures that allow data management platform operators to manage services in a reliable fashion, whether that’s DevOps or backup and recovery. Ultimately, these processes should all indicate a measure of trustworthiness to data stakeholders. SAP NS2 can provide a data platform that agencies can rely on, in turn.”

Read more insights from SAP NS2’s Principal Business Processes Consultant, Michael Towles.

How to Develop Strategic Value From Your Database

“Even if they would like to, agencies can’t replatform every legacy application they have. That’s why a strategic way to prioritize development initiatives is to start new efforts with the best technology. Moving toward a modern infrastructure out of the gate will save time and effort in the long run, Leech said, particularly if it works the way people work today. For instance, relational databases are traditional storage tools that have been around for 40 to 45 years. People use data differently now, and tools like MongoDB’s document database solution keep that in mind. It functions as an operational layer over huge data repositories to help agencies extract the most applicable data for their mission, and securely through enterprise tooling.”

Read more insights from MongoDB’s Regional Vice President for the Public Sector, Brent Leech.

IIG GovLoop Data Analytics Blog Embedded Image 2021How Automated Analytics Can Fuel Digital Transformation

“Deriving data insights through analytics is no longer just nice to have – it is critical for the operation and improvement of government, especially in times of crisis. But there are many challenges to deriving insights, whether that’s having the data available to analyze or having the right skills to analyze the data. Automation can help. For years, agencies have strategically adopted digital technologies to transform their business processes and services. But according to a 2018 McKinsey report, only a third of initiatives have succeeded. Those who succeeded were able to flourish because they converged these three pillars for digital transformation: data democratization, process automation and people upskilling. Analytic process automation (APA) meets all three needs at once by addressing the whole analytics lifecycle through one unified platform.”

Read more insights from Alteryx’s Solution Marketing Director’s Andy MacIsaac.

 

How to Drive Mission Value with Your Data Governance

“When it comes to data governance, the best defense is not necessarily a strong offense. Data governance, the policies and processes that define how data can or should be used, ought to be focused on supporting an organization’s mission and its operational goals. Unfortunately, many government organizations take a defensive approach, focusing governance efforts on compliance. This creates rigid organizational practices that leave agencies unable to adapt to changing circumstances. The solution? Adaptive data governance. This flexible governance structure not only ensures compliance but also helps accomplish mission objectives amid change through empowering collaboration.”

Read more insights from Collibra’s Senior Vice President of Public Sector, Aileen Black.

 

How Data Analytics Complements Institutional Knowledge

“We are 90 years old, and we have been operating with a unique model since our founding. We provide library materials to Americans and individuals with disabilities. And we generally ship those materials around the country — print braille and audio cartridges via mail. Now, we’re going through an organization-wide modernization that is probably the biggest change in our operating structure since we’ve been founded. And we are shifting from a predominantly U.S. mail-based delivery mechanism to a predominantly online streaming-based mechanism. The idea with creating my position was to ensure we had the right data organization-wide to serve our patrons as best as possible, to make sure we are providing them with everything they need throughout the course of this modernization.”

Read more insights from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled’s Data and Analytics Officer, David Spett.

 

Cutting ‘Data Gems’ to Train Census Data Users

“Before, we only offered data training to the public via webinar or in person, and these had to be provided based on request. So, you had to know we existed and you had to be knowledgeable about our services. And an organization could request one of our trainings, but it was only available at that time for those guests of that organization. It simply wasn’t accessible to everyone who needed it at all times. Think of a grant writer with a deadline at midnight and they need help, say, two hours before the clock. There’s no workshop for them, no presentation. A person like that is more likely to start Googling information. So we felt there was a gap there. We needed to put content for that user, who may not even visit our website but is in need of our data and in need of our help. That’s how we came about to develop the concept of Census Academy.”

Read more insights from Census Bureau’s Co-Found of Census Academy and Supervisor of Data Dissemination and Training Branch, Alexandra Barker.

 

Download the full GovLoop Guide for more insights from these Data Analytics thought leaders and additional government interviews, historical perspectives and industry research on the future of Data Analytics.

The Best of What’s New in Hybrid and Remote Work

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, agencies scrambled to expand secure connectivity and acquire mobile devices, but most state and local CIOs say their organizations transitioned relatively easily to working from home on an emergency basis. Now, with COVID-19 cases in the U.S. dropping dramatically and economies reopening, public agencies face a more complicated issue: figuring out where and how state and local government employees will work going forward. A 2020 CDG national survey found almost 75 percent of respondents anticipate hybrid work — where employees work from home at least on a part-time basis — will be their long-term model. The trend is particularly strong at the state level where just 16 percent of respondents anticipate returning to a fully in-person work environment. Read the latest insights from industry thought leaders in hybrid and remote work in Carahsoft’s Innovation in Government® report.

 

Modernizing Contact Centers to Enable Remote Work

“To ensure callers have a secure, fluid and reliable customer experience, agencies must maintain diverse channels of communication. Another challenge is ensuring that contact center agents have secure and timely access to their agency’s database, intuitively orchestrated communications and sufficient bandwidth for reliable connectivity. Organizations also need to minimize the learning curve associated with introducing new endpoints such as Bluetooth-enabled headsets, softphones and web real-time communication (WebRTC), which eliminate the need for traditional desk phones and enable workers to use their laptop for voice or digital interactions.”

Read more insights from Genesys’s Senior Solutions Consultant, Ivory Dugar.

 

The Digital HQ: Flexible, Inclusive and Connected

“What we’ve seen over the past year hasn’t just been about working from home. It’s been working from home during a pandemic. As the pandemic has stretched into its second year, employees are feeling the strain. The data show that even though the work-from-home experience is better than working in the office full time, employee satisfaction with work-life balance has declined and stress and anxiety have increased. A contributing factor to that stress is the pressure to demonstrate productivity. A third of remote workers say they feel pressure to make sure their managers know that they’re working.”

Read more insights from Slack’s Future Forum Senior Relationship Manager, Dave Macnee, and Customer Success Leader for Public Sector, Kevin Carter.

 

IIG GovTech Blog Embedded Image 2021Giving Remote Workers Access to Resources They Need

“Centralized IT management and virtualization technology are critical to manage infrastructure and address changes quickly and at massive scale — whether that’s to patch a vulnerability across all user devices, upgrade applications or deploy additional computing resources. IT can make a change once via software and then distribute it to everyone’s device within minutes with minimal downtime. Software can monitor network traffic and resource utilization in aggregate and then automatically allocate resources as needed so organizations don’t have to invest in higher-performance user devices or purchase more hardware. In addition, organizations can isolate workloads and systems for security or other purposes, meaning multiple workloads and operating systems can run on the same device.”

Read more insights from NVIDIA’s Senior Manager of Public Sector, Chip Carr.

 

Managing Process and Cultural Change

“It’s projected that 30 to 35 percent of the public sector workforce will remain remote. A lot of these workers will probably be younger. To attract and engage the workforce of the future, you have to keep systems, processes and tools up to date. Younger people run their lives on their phone. If you expect them to submit to completely manual paper-driven processes, you’ll probably never get a chance to hire them, much less retain them. You also have to find out what they need to be successful in a remote environment; show them a path to promotion; and demonstrate that remote, hybrid and on-prem teams are aware of and understand their value to the organization.”

Read more insights from SAP Concur’s Senior Director of Public Sector, Jim McClurkin.

 

Navigating the New Frontier

“Having more flexibility and removing the location barrier opens up real opportunities, especially when it comes to competing for specialties like IT. Some states prohibit hiring out of state, but organizations can still widen the pool to include candidates beyond their local headquarters. They can recruit candidates who want to reside in areas with a lower cost of living or who don’t have the time to commute, for example. This flexibility also helps attract minorities and women, which in IT work, has been a real challenge.”

Read more insights from CDG Senior Fellow, Peter K. Anderson.

 

Download the full Innovation in Government® report for more insights from these hybrid and remote work thought leaders and additional industry research from GovTech.

Technology’s Role in Hire-to-Retire in Government

 

Human capital is the most important resource for any enterprise. However, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2020 that 60% of newly hired government employees only remained for two years. Such a talent drain forces government agencies to consume resources on constantly recruiting and training new personnel.

Agencies are routinely looking for ways to retain talented individuals and provide meaningful career paths, while cutting operational waste and redundancy. Employee lifecycle tools in end-to-end, hire-to-retire (H2R) integrated human resources processes are designed to streamline human resources employment and improve the retention of skilled employees. This provides enormous benefits to both agency management and employees.

Digital Transformation

The government doesn’t always make effective use of its employee data and require more efficient ways to access, query, and visualize the information. Across the government, agency leaders and HR teams are leveraging digital transformation to improve the H2R lifecycle.

Innovative programs use automation, analytics, artificial intelligence, omnichannel engagement, and other capabilities to create a 360-degree view of every employee. This allows HR leaders to provide systems that deliver an improved customer experience—offering tailored, personalized options from the start of an individual’s career, through their training, development, and career progression to the time they retire. The personalized employee experience includes an intuitive, single sign-on from anywhere capability and processes can be streamlined with mobile self-service capabilities.

The HR team can build solutions with helpful apps—from helpdesks to time and attendance–enabling employees to be more engaged. The right blend of people and technology can be a huge boon to employee effectiveness, productivity, and retention. Using a digital transformation plan to digitize form completion and other individual manual processes, agencies save money and free up employees for higher priority work.

Salesforce FedInsider Blog Embedded Image 2021Talent Recruitment

Technology can be invaluable when recruiting new employees. AI solutions provide a more collaborative and effective recruiting experience by automating processes with real-time tracking HR offices can deliver the right content to the candidate at the right stage of the hiring process. Information can be automatically sent to specific candidates with an appropriate cadence that makes them feel wanted. With AI managing applications and qualifications, hiring is easier for everyone.

Onboarding

The right technologies help agencies streamline mandated in-processing forms, individual benefit programs, and personnel record management. Less manual labor and faster processing means employees can start working sooner. Technology gives new hires a smoother experience—from offer acceptance through the training and mission orientation activities in the first year of employment. New employee training and orientation can be integrated into one standardized platform, so managers can track each employee’s progress in real-time. This makes the employee’s onboarding experience more positive and increases agency efficiency.

Workforce Planning

Leaders can use platforms to visualize data, equipping them to make data-driven decisions and draw insights from trends. Greater visibility into the available talent pool allows supervisors to use personnel resources effectively. They can evaluate mission needs, discover workforce talent gaps, and formulate appropriate recruiting efforts.

Employee Development

Providing timely and effective training and education helps improve employee retention. By the time an employee is completely onboarded, agencies have a lot of information about them, including training needs, special skills, and preliminary career development goals. With that data, the right digital transformation solution can help employees identify where they want to go next and which skills they will need.

With these tools, education and training can be tailored for each individual’s career goals. Automated systems can alert people to relevant opportunities and give access to training without requiring employees to fill out forms or talk to HR staff. With information at their fingertips for both employees and managers, the agency community remains connected.

Personalization

Many legacy HR systems are impersonal and one-size-fits-all. Systems that allow for personalization increase engagement by doing something very simple: making employees feel valued, noticed, and cared for. AI and machine learning capabilities allow computers to be more interactive with employees so they can pinpoint relevant data and offer very specific opportunities.

Setting Goals

Managers often struggle to set mission goals and then translate them into workforce tasks. With a comprehensive digital transformation solution, management can set specific mission goals and measurements and link them to performance objectives for individual employees. Because all the information is managed on a single, holistic platform, managers can link mission goals to an individual’s desire for a specific kind of assignment or training. With a 360-degree view of an employee, supervisors can also set performance goals with employees and then check progress and provide feedback quarterly or semiannually, helping both the employees and the agencies realize their long-term goals.

 

View our webinar to learn more about how government and industry thought leaders are using Hire to Retire.

Top 5 Unemployment Fraud Trends

The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has created a perfect storm of unemployment fraud—exacerbated by pressure on state agencies to provide unemployment benefits and inadequate anti-fraud infrastructure in those agencies. Fortunately, there is a clear path forward to combat unemployment fraud.

Here are the top five recent trends in unemployment fraud:

Fraud is easier

Pressure on state agencies to provide monetary relief for families, along with a steep increase in claim volume, has made it easier to succeed at unemployment fraud. The volume of claims alone helps to conceal fraudulent activities. Fraudsters have particularly targeted states without an income tax since those states cannot verify identities with tax records. Many states only learn about fraud when notified by citizens who have discovered fraudulent claims filed in their names.

Some states have slowed claims payments so they can verify the information before paying claims. But this slows benefit payments to families in need and adds to their frustration. States are better served by adopting technology to detect and prevent fraud in real-time.

Stolen identities are common

The easiest and most frequent way to commit unemployment fraud is with stolen identities. Massive data breaches in 2015, 2017, and 2019 at credit bureaus, healthcare providers, retailers, and credit card companies have compromised the social security numbers for virtually every American. There is a plelthora of false identities available, and they can easily be purchased on the dark web. Online tutorials explain the process of filing a false unemployment claim.

After amassing a list of stolen identities, fraudsters start trying to open new accounts and file unemployment claims. They often use stolen personal data for people who have just been born, have recently died, are in prison, or are even still employed. Fraudsters also assemble “synthetic identities” by combining information from different individuals to create a false person.

F5 Unemployment Fraud Trends Blog 2021 Embedded ImageFaking an address

During the unemployment application process, individuals must provide an address. Using real addresses of the victims of identity theft would be too dangerous. Instead, fraudsters list addresses for vacant buildings, frequently filing hundreds of applications with the identical physical address.

CBS Los Angeles discovered that empty mansions for sale often had hundreds or thousands of fraudulent unemployment claims listing them as the physical address. In some cases, illicit couriers visit the properties to pick up debit cards loaded with unemployment benefits.

Copy and paste

Fraudsters paste information roughly ten times more frequently than legitimate users. They also tend to open their web browsers only on a portion of the available screen space. The rest of the screen is occupied by a text file to allow copying and pasting. Most applicants don’t copy and paste their first and last names into online forms—unless they’re trying to open hundreds of unemployment claims in other people’s names.

Fraudsters love to hide

States are overwhelmed just handling unemployment claims and rarely have resources to investigate the inconsistencies that might indicate fraud. Fraudsters use a variety of techniques to avoid detection. They often use VPNs and cloud infrastructure to conceal their identities—as well as rotating their IP addresses and user agents. However, when they do this, their devices’ time zones frequently don’t coincide with the geolocation for their IP address.

In addition, fraudsters tend to use familiar devices. Research shows the same devices accessing a large number of unemployment accounts. It isn’t unusual for a single device to be used to access more than 20 fraudulent accounts. (By comparison, most devices access no more than three accounts.)

The pandemic and accompanying economic turmoil continue to create huge challenges. Unfortunately, fraudsters have quickly capitalized on the confusion to take advantage of benefits earmarked for those who really need them. Education about unemployment fraud allows technological solutions to detect and stop it. This can decrease fraud losses and ensure that states successfully direct those funds to the right recipients.

View our resource for more information on how F5 enables State Government Agencies to fight fraudulent claims.