White House Archives

The Office of Personnel Management has awarded a contract to provide 50 iPad tablets for a new mobile testing center.

VideoTape Products Inc. of Burbank, Calif., will equip OPM with the iPads at a cost of $29,375 to help implement a mobile testing center for federal employees to complete exams. It's unclear what the mobile testing concept is, but I've contacted OPM in hopes of getting to the bottom of it.

OPM said it researched a variety of tablet computers available in the marketplace and determined the iPad2 was the optimal tablet for implementing officials' mobile testing concept. The most important factors in selecting the iPad2 were its battery life, screen shape, and display and user interface.

OPM said it plans to use the tablets exclusively for testing purposes.

The Office of Personnel Management is asking agencies to identify federal employees to serve as potential mentors to students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

In a letter to agency chief human capital officers, OPM Director John Berry called on agencies to participate in the Department of Defense Education Activity effort to get students to consider federal careers in STEM fields.

The DoDEA initiative is an educational program designed to inform and interest students in a variety of STEM careers, particularly in the federal government. The initiative brings together federal STEM professionals and DoDEA educators to create lessons and activities for participating students. Federal employee participants will guide interested students into higher levels of math, science, computer programming and engineering coursework, and will lead sessions designed to expose students to federal careers and internships in STEM fields, Berry said.

The program will bring students and STEM professionals together at a variety of worldwide events in the spring, with most focused on technology engineering, robotics engineering and medical and health sciences.

"Our main goal is to ignite the passion of students to pursue education and careers in STEM disciplines," Berry wrote.

The federal government is doing a great job retaining cybersecurity professionals once they're in federal jobs. The challenge for most agencies is finding and hiring qualified candidates, a new survey suggests.

According to the 2012 Career Impact Survey, released Tuesday by (ISC)2, federal cybersecurity professionals are experiencing nearly full employment as well as career advancement opportunities and salary increases in 2011.

The survey of 545 federal cybersecurity pros found that 97 percent are currently employed, and only 8 percent were unemployed at any point in 2011. Cybersecurity pros also are seeing pay raises, with 62 percent receiving a salary increase in 2011 and 48 percent expecting one in 2012. Eleven percent of respondents said they received salary increases of 10 percent or higher last year.

In addition, federal cyber pros are not suffering from a lack of career opportunities in the federal government. Of the 60 percent who changed jobs last year, 43 percent did so to pursue advancement opportunities, and 31 percent did so because of personal preference.

Still, most hiring managers are having a hard time finding qualified candidates to fill cybersecurity jobs. Eighty-three percent of federal hiring managers surveyed said it was extremely difficult to find and hire qualified candidates. Hiring managers noted that the average length of time for hiring cyber pros included less than one month (8.3 percent), one to three months (42 percent), three to six months (33 percent) or six or more months (17 percent).

The top three skills federal hiring managers are looking for are certification and accreditation (68 percent), operations security (55 percent) and telecommunications and network security (53 percent), the survey found.

Federal respondents also indicated that certain programs had little or no impact on recruitment efforts. Programs like the U.S. Cyber Corps (1 percent), recruiting on college campuses (2.9 percent) and job fairs (3.8 percent) were considered the least effective recruiting tools, while referrals from colleagues (50 percent), online job websites (33 percent) and networking (10 percent) were considered the top ways agencies recruit cyber professionals.

The majority of respondents (61 percent) said most or all of the cybersecurity staff at their agency hold certifications, with the most popular certifications being the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Security+.

"Information security professionals with the right mix of knowledge and experience remain in high demand by government hiring managers, but qualified candidates are hard to come by as agencies try to build their security teams," said W. Hord Tipton, executive director of (ISC)². "While decreasing budgets are a key factor in this hiring challenge, these results reinforce the need for a distinct career path in this field and a definition of roles in order to make it easier for hiring managers to find and place candidates with the right qualifications. They also demonstrate that the government's existing methods to fill the pipeline are not working."

The Obama administration plans to continue building on initiatives started in 2011 to strengthen the federal IT workforce.

The president's fiscal 2013 budget proposal, released Monday, noted success on IT workforce initiatives launched within the last year and plans to continue and build on them in fiscal 2013. Those initiatives include creating a new job title and specialized position description for IT program managers within the IT specialist job series "as part of ensuring that the largest most complex IT investments in the government are managed by experienced, talented individuals," the budget states.

The administration also touted the Presidential Technology Fellows Program, which launched in September as part of the administration's 25-point plan to reform federal IT management. In October, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel said that the program had already received more than 5,000 applications.

The administration also stated plans to help close the productivity gap between the private sector and government, in part by equipping feds with the modern tools and technologies needed to serve citizens effectively. These initiatives will include developing smart telework policies that give employees increased flexibility. The strategy also will enable agencies to think strategically about how they buy, manage and use mobile devices and collaboration tools cost-effectively and securely, the budget states.

"Overall, the government needs to shift away from a paper-based mindset and focus on delivering information efficiently and effectively using digital tools," the budget states.

With many federal agencies tightening their budget belts, many federal employees are worried about the potential for layoffs, hiring freezes and cuts to federal pay and benefits. But President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget proposal, released Monday, calls for a slight increase in full-time federal employees.

The budget estimates an overall increase of 2,000 workers next year, which would make 2013 the fourth straight year that federal civilian employment has topped 2.1 million employees. Even with the slight increase, however, the budget estimates 18,000 fewer workers in 2013 than 2010.

Not surprisingly, agencies like the Defense Department would face cuts to their full-time workforce. Defense would have an estimated 7,000 fewer workers in 2013 than in 2012, bringing the total number of Defense employees down to 757,000.

The Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Education departments and the Social Security Administration also could see slight decreases in the amount of full-time workers, according to the budget proposal.

Still, other agencies would see slight increases in full-time employment. The most notable increase would come at the Veterans Affairs Department, which would add an estimated 5,000 new employees. The Treasury, Justice and Homeland Security departments also would add workers, while the Transportation and Interior departments would keep roughly the same number of workers.

What are your thoughts on the 2013 workforce projections? Given Obama's commitment to improve the efficiency of the government workforce going forward, should the hiring of additional IT workers play a role?

Recent studies have come to different conclusions on the value IT certifications bring to your paycheck, career and bottom line. A recent study by Network World and SolarWinds, for example, found that the majority of federal and private sector IT professionals who earned certifications saw a salary increase or bonus. Another study by IT consulting firm Foote Partners found that global instability and a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy has led to a flattening of salaries between workers who have IT certifications and those who do not. So which is true?

This month's issue of the Dice Report indicates that tech professionals are finding value in certifications, particularly when it comes to landing a new position. Forty percent of tech professionals said obtaining a certification helped them land a new job, which is about 10 percentage points higher than their colleagues working in traditional roles, Dice found.

The survey of more than 18,000 IT professionals also found that Project Management Professional certifications were among the most highly valued. The PMP certification is the most frequently desired certification in job posts on Dice, with nearly 2,200 requests in job postings on any given day, up 9 percent over last year. "Project management is a lucrative role, with an average salary of about $104,000," the report states. "Add PMP and average salaries jump to nearly $120,000."

Security certifications like the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Network+ are other career-boosting credentials among IT professionals. The high demand for such certifications in government is one factor driving the high level of tech professionals (53 percent) who have at least one certification and are based in Washington, D.C., Dice found.

Demand for the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) credential also is increasing, with those obtaining the certification expanding their job options and commanding salaries of nearly $110,000.

Other valued certifications among IT professionals were: A+, Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Security+, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), according to the survey.

"It's important to remember that not all certifications create the opportunity for a new job or a fatter paycheck, so tech professionals have to be certain that the investment is worth it," the report states.

Federal cybersecurity workers might not be far from being able to access top-notch training directly from their computer desktops.

Robert Hollingsworth, director of the security engineering and computer security training division at the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security Training Center, told Wired Workplace on Thursday that State and the Homeland Security Department have begun training federal cyber pros using virtual worlds, where each user has an avatar and is walked through different cyber scenarios.

The virtual worlds courses are part of the Federal Cybersecurity Training Event, or FedCTE, a joint program between State and DHS. The program started in 2008, after the Obama administration's Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative identified a need for addressing cybersecurity training and education within the federal workforce. FedCTE courses also were developed using the specific cybersecurity roles identified by the National Initiative on Cybersecurity Education, Hollingsworth said.

Thus far, the virtual worlds program has trained more than 243 students from 68 agencies on cybersecurity topics like cyber protection, response and mitigation, Hollingsworth said. "The demand is going through the roof," he said. "It's a way for these remote programs to address these cybersecurity areas and be continually modified as vulnerabilities are discovered and new security practices are identified. Even previously trained people can address new concerns in a timely fashion."

Still, Hollingsworth noted that one challenge for government is simply defining the roles, requirements and job tasks needed for federal cybersecurity work. But a goal of the virtual training is to help overcome that hurdle, he added. "We're finding there are a lot of roles and responsibilities that may be unique to a department, and we can go in and customize those portions and touch those individual job descriptions and tweak it," he said. "That would be too hard to do in a real classroom every time, but it's not too hard to adjust these virtual modules."

Going forward, Hollingsworth said the program will continue to expand to include more cybersecurity workers, particularly as it gets more popular through word of mouth. "It's in the ground floor now, but we feel it's going to be mainstreamed and that this form of training will become more of a normal activity for federal security workers," he said. "It will be on their desktops at some point and they can train as needed. It's another tool in their toolbox."

Another minor snowstorm is expected to hit the Washington, D.C., area this evening. The Office of Personnel Management has authorized feds to take unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework in order to get off the roads early and avoid potential traffic delays.

This adds to the conversation about federal telework and whether agencies are better prepared this year to enable continuity of operations through weather disruptions thanks to the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act. I wrote last week that while many agencies are embracing telework as a result of the 2010 law, some are having difficulty determining what roles and jobs can be completed while working remotely, while other agencies are challenged by quantifying telework's return on investment.

Tom Simmons, vice president for federal systems at Citrix, told Wired Workplace that while agencies are certainly making progress, many are challenged by the fact that the 2010 mandate came with no funding. "One of the big challenges for agencies to implement telework is 'how do I pay for it?' " he said. "How do I support the infrastructure for remote work in time of planned telework? Or how do I support unplanned telework?"

The cultural issues are still there as well, though not the same degree as they used to be, Simmons added. "As folks are being asked to do more away from the office, those kinds of things are being refined," he said. "There's a new generation of workers coming into the government workforce who are brought up working from anywhere, and they're demanding that kind of work style in their work environment. All of that has a positive impact on the adoption of telework."

What are your plans for today? Must you take unscheduled leave to get an early start against the traffic, or do you have the option to telework? Has the 2010 telework law made this possible?

Mobile computing is becoming more common for federal employees, and many agencies are beginning to allow employees to use their own personal devices for work, according to a new survey.

The survey of 414 federal employees and IT staff by CDW Government found that more than half of federal employees use at least one mobile device at work. Nearly all (99 percent) of IT professionals have deployed mobile devices to agency employees.

In addtion, 62 percent of agencies are allowing employees to BYOD, or bring your own device, to work. Forty-four percent of federal employees using a mobile device are using their own. That strategy appears to be working, as nearly all federal employees who use a mobile device for work believe it makes them more productive, and the majority say increased mobility will improve citizen service, the survey found.

"Mobility is the 'new normal' for Federal employees," said Bob Kirby, vice president of federal government for CDW-G. "Employees increasingly expect to be able to work anywhere and at any time. Agencies responded first by deploying mobile devices, and now they are enabling use of personal devices."

Kirby added that the BYOD trend is likely to continue, particularly following the Obama administration's November 2011 executive order asking agencies to limit the number of IT devices they issue to employees to reduce costs.

Meanwhile, agencies are providing a good security baseline for mobile devices, with the majority establishing data security policies (85 percent) and requiring data security training for mobile device users (84 percent), the study found. Other areas of security could be improved, however, as fewer IT professionals said their agency protects mobile devices with multi-factor authentication (54 percent), remote lock and wipe (45 percent) and data loss prevention software (39 percent), CDW-G found.

Are you using your own personal device for work? What factors are behind this trend at your agency?

Federal agencies are going to face steep competition when it comes to recruiting and retaining information technology and other in-demand workers, as only 3 percent of college students in such fields say they intend to work for the federal government following graduation.

The Partnership for Public Service analysis of the 2011 National Association of Colleges and Employers student survey found that federal agencies will encounter tough competition going forward in filling jobs that require skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Of the 6,868 STEM majors surveyed, 36.7 percent said they plan to enter the private sector, 33.9 percent said they plan to go to graduate school, while only 3 percent said they intend to work for the federal government. The remainder plan to go to non-profits, teach or pursue other endeavors, the study found.

Overall, just 6 percent of all college students surveyed said they plan to work in government at the state, local or federal level, the lowest number expressing an interest in public service since NACE first asked the question in 2008. More specifically, only 2.3 percent of all respondents indicated that they plan to work for the federal government following graduation.

"While the overall portrait suggests that the federal government faces a tough road attracting the top college graduates, it presents an opportunity for managers to better understand students' expectations and desires, and illustrated the need to accentuate the desirable aspects of public service in their recruitment initiatives," the Partnership report states.

Students also were asked what they wanted most in a first job. The opportunity for personal growth was the number one attribute, followed by job security, good benefits, a high starting salary and improving the community. For STEM majors, however, high starting salaries were one of their highest priorities, with 30.5 percent expecting to make more than $60,000 per year.

"Starting salaries for new federal employees with undergraduate degrees frequently are not competitive with many private sector employers," the report states, noting that students can generally anticipate making between $34,075 and $42,209 in the Washington, D.C., area and slightly more or less in other parts of the country depending on local labor costs.

Meanwhile, most students are worried about the impact the tough economy will have on their job search. A majority of students (67 percent) worry about finding a job after graduation, and just over half (53 percent) believe the troubled economy will affect their job search.