Winning the War on Terror Means Winning the War for Talent

• NCJ Number: 213461
• Journal: Homeland Defense Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2006 Pages: 24-27
• Author(s): Bill Trahant
• Date Published: February 2006
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article cites the recruiting and hiring practices of the U.S. General Accounting Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and Edwards Air Force Base (California) as examples for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and intelligence agencies to follow in meeting their critical demand for personnel.

Abstract

The DOD and DHS must hire more than 150,000 people in the next 2 years, mostly to replace retiring workers and to support expanding government mandates. This does not include the critical covert jobs that must be filled in Federal intelligence agencies. As the Federal Government's need for new personnel is expanding, the skilled talent pool needed to fill these jobs is shrinking; and the Federal Government must compete with the private sector in recruiting from this smaller pool. Defense and national security agencies must streamline their hiring processes in order to get the right people into the right jobs fast. One example to follow is the system used by the General Accountability Office (GAO), which identifies, recruits, develops, and retains top managerial and leadership talent. The GAO maps talent recruitment strategies to its strategic plan and to its new reward-for-performance pay system. The IRS is another Federal agency known for its strong promotion and recruitment as an employer of choice. The IRS uses multiple media and innovative approaches in advertising its jobs. This includes sending blast e-mails to hundreds of thousands of college students based on their enrollment in classes that could indicate their suitability for IRS jobs. Another example of innovative government recruiting is Edwards Air Force Base in California. Working with private-sector consultants, new ads were developed to increase the appeal of jobs at the base for engineers, and the recruiting team strengthened relationships with local universities.