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IT Workforce Planning: Leapfrogging the Private Sector
The Chief Information Officers' Council (CIOC) Information Technology (IT) Workforce Capability Assessment Survey (2004), coupled with recent statistics from private sector IT and general workforce studies, provides useful information about workforce trends as well as an opportunity for the federal government to leapfrog the private sector in implementing workforce planning and gap solutions. While the 2004 CIOC survey showed minimal change, in any area, from the 2003 survey, the information generated still provides food-for-thought for IT and human capital leaders.
Survey Results
The survey sponsors, the CIOC and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), had three main goals in undertaking the 2004 study, the second annual survey of this group. They were to:
help agencies recognize the value of strategic IT human capital management satisfy regulatory requirements specific to the IT workforce, including the Clinger-Cohen Act and the E-Gov Act meet broader requirements and mandates related to federal human capital, such as the PMA, OPM guidelines and GAO guidance.
Approximately 28 percent (22,104) of the total federal IT workforce of 78,912 responded to the survey, a slight increase from the percentage of respondents in 2003. (The total federal IT workforce also increased by 3 percent from 76,363 in 2003.)
According to the 2004 survey (virtually unchanged from the 2003 survey), the "typical" federal IT worker
is between 46 and 55 years old (42 percent of all respondents) is male and white (non-Hispanic) is GS-13 (or FS-3 for Foreign Service) has over 20 years of federal government work experience has little to no (3 years or less) private sector experience is likely to retire in the next 11 to 20 years may leave his organization within the next 1 - 3 years has a Bachelor's degree.
Of greatest interest in the survey, given the federal government's overriding concern about the aging of the workforce and the impending retirement wave, is the information on competencies and skills of those on the verge of retirement (that is, those who indicate a likelihood of retiring in the next three years). The following table outlines the top 10 self-reported technical competencies, general competencies and skills of those respondents planning to retire in the next three years.
Definitions:
Technical competencies are job-specific IT functions.
General competencies are cross-functional in nature and are required by most members of the workforce.
Skills are part of the competency that describe an individual's ability to use knowledge effectively in the performance of particular tasks.
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TOP 10 COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS OF RETIRING IT WORKFORCE |
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Rank |
Technical Competency |
General Competency |
Skill |
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1 |
Project Management |
Interpersonal Skills |
Desktop Applications |
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2 |
Hardware |
Problem Solving |
Windows Operating System |
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3 |
Requirements Analysis |
Oral Communication |
Document Management |
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4 |
Technology Awareness |
Customer Service |
Testing |
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5 |
Operating Systems |
Decision Making |
System Analysis and Design |
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6 |
Systems Life Cycle |
Leadership |
Client-Server |
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7 |
Technical Documentation |
Organizational Awareness |
Systems Maintenance and Helpdesk |
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8 |
Configuration Management |
Planning and Evaluation |
Continuity of Operations Planning |
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9 |
Standards |
Influencing/Negotiating |
Mainframes |
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10 |
Quality Assurance |
Administration and Management |
Project Management Software |
Shared Concerns
The CIOC IT Workforce Capability Assessment Survey results show that 30 percent of respondents are eligible to retire in the next 11 to 20 years, and 28 percent plan to retire in that time period. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the US workforce there are over 301,000 IT professionals who are 55 and older, and 11 percent of the 3.4 million IT professionals in the US will reach retirement age by 2005. While the statistics for the overall IT workforce are not nearly as dramatic as those of the federal government, they should raise concerns about the drain of institutional knowledge across both sectors.
And that concern is exacerbated by lack of planning by most organizations to capture the knowledge of retiring workers. A recent Accenture survey of 504 US workers between the ages of 40 and 50 showed that 45 percent of respondents' organizations do not have formal workforce planning processes and/or tools in place to capture their workforce knowledge. Just over a quarter (26 percent) say their organizations will let them retire with no transfer of knowledge, and another 16 percent say they think they will have only informal discussions with others in their organizations prior to retiring.
According to Kathy Battistoni, a partner in Accenture's Human Performance practice, organizations should take three steps to capture and retain knowledge from retiring employees:
understand the extent of the problem, including the skills at risk, and the organization's ability to deal with the problem develop a strategy to capture and transfer core skills from retiring employees and to identify, attract and retain new workers with critical skills manage and measure the progress of the effort.
An Opportunity to Leapfrog the Private Sector
Given the federal government's more dire situation, and its ability to direct strategy across its entire workforce, federal human capital leaders are in a position to leapfrog their colleagues in the private sector in the development of solutions to the retirement tidal wave. Through effective workforce planning and gap analysis, and by using strategies such as those listed above, the federal government can take the lead in human capital life cycle management.
For access to the Chief Information Officers' Council (CIOC) Information Technology (IT) Workforce Capability Assessment Survey (2004) click here.
For access to the Accenture study, click here.
For more information on how Pivotal Insight can help with human capital planning, visit us at www.pivotal-insight.com.
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