Economic Downturn Presents Prime Opportunity for Federal Government to Replenish and Renew Workforce View a print-friendly version Washington, DC (December 1, 2009) – There are approximately 1.8 million civilian jobs in the U.S. government. The federal government hires about 200,000 people annually, and the Obama administration is planning to bring hundreds of thousands of jobs back in-house. Adding to the complexity, roughly 40 percent of the current federal workforce is eligible to retire in the next six years. With so many jobs to fill and so many people looking for work, why is it so difficult for federal HR executives to find the right people, recruit them and get them onboard quickly? What’s wrong with the federal hiring process and how to fix it is the topic of a new white paper – “The Talent for Change” – published by EquaTerra, a leading advisor to both public and private sector human resources organizations. “Economic uncertainty is providing a unique opportunity to replenish the federal workforce and attract new talent to tackle the enormous challenges our country faces,” says Glenn Davidson, managing director of EquaTerra's public sector practice. “To do that effectively, however, government needs a unified HR function that can identify workforce needs, recruit, hire and onboard quickly, and measure success against performance targets.” EquaTerra’s whitepaper highlights steps federal HR executives can take to attract high-caliber candidates and streamline the government’s cumbersome hiring processes: Stop, look, listen– Know where you are before determining where you want to go. Benchmark current policies, practices, processes and outcomes. Then envision the optimum service structure and determine the steps to get there. Creating a comprehensive roadmap for recruitment and hiring, along with a gap analysis, is essential to balancing efficiency and effectiveness. Lease don’t buy technology – Leverage software as a service rather than investing in expensive and soon outdated systems. Not only is it faster to implement, it’s cheaper to use. Foster a new work culture to get the most out of new software services, which should automate 75 – 85 percent of an organization’s HR processes. Use innovative tools to recruit younger candidates – Deploy and use social media to recruit college graduates. With private sector college recruitment slowing, the federal government has a unique opportunity to recruit the best and brightest from graduating classes across the country. Participate in virtual job fairs sponsored by top schools to tap pools of prime candidates economically. Establish rigorous government-wide hiring targets – Establish and enforce an end-to-end hiring target of 80 calendar days or less to ensure top candidates are not lost to other potential employers. The countdown should begin the day the hiring manager opens the position and end when the new employee starts work. Implementing an aggressive hiring target forces every agency to reengineer current recruiting and hiring processes rather than simply automating inefficient ones. Communicate – Let applicants know where they are in the process. Stay in touch to express continued interest and avoid losing candidates. Also provide regular status reports to hiring managers. Measure results against a performance matrix and share best practices. “The real roadblock to change is apathy,” said Davidson. “Fortunately, federal HR managers understand they have a broken hiring system and are attempting to fix it. If they don’t succeed agencies will lobby Congress for, and likely get, more direct hiring authority, which will make the hiring process even more complex.” To download the paper, “The Talent for Change,” click here. About EquaTerra EquaTerra sourcing advisors help clients achieve sustainable value in their IT and business processes. Our advisors average more than 20 years of industry experience and have supported more than 2,000 transformation and outsourcing projects across more than 60 countries. Supporting clients throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, we have deep functional knowledge in Finance and Accounting, HR, IT, Procurement and other critical business processes. EquaTerra helps clients achieve significant cost savings and process improvement with internal transformation, shared services and outsourcing solutions.  For more information, please contact Lee Ann Moore at +1 713.669.9292; www.equaterra.com. North American Media Contact: Kim Messerschmitt Director of Marketing +1 972 987 1686 kim.messerschmitt@equaterra.com