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The Case for Federal Workforce Agility

Five key factors that make closing skills gaps and transforming HR technology and processes critically important.

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Wed Jan 15 2025

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Unprecedented technological, demographic, and geopolitical shifts mean that none of us can rely on what worked in the past. But people and organizations aren’t equipped to adapt fast enough, resulting in a workforce readiness gap. To bridge this readiness gap, organizations need a workforce agility strategy that enables them to develop and deploy a skilled workforce, ready to pivot with change, stay productive, and drive organizational performance.

This is nowhere truer than in the federal government, where we can see five key factors that make closing skills gaps and transforming HR technology and processes critically important.

Shifting Demographics

For the first time in modern history, five generations are working side by side, each bringing distinct needs, expectations, and approaches to engagement and career development. In government agencies, these challenges are even more pronounced. Federal workers tend to be older than the average US employee, with the median age of public administration workers at 45.1 years in 2023 compared to 42.3 years old for the overall labor force. This aging workforce is on the verge of a significant wave of retirements. Meanwhile, fewer than half of college graduates are considering careers in the federal government, leaving agencies with a shrinking pool of young talent.

The combination of an aging workforce, declining interest among younger workers, and difficulty in filling open positions signals a looming crisis in skills and institutional knowledge that agencies must address urgently.

Technological Limitations

In the federal space, exponential technological advancements coupled with new security threats have led to an urgent need for new skills, particularly in areas like cybersecurity, data science, and AI. But, in many cases, government hiring technology is outdated, compounding the difficulties of attracting and retaining skilled workers.

Furthermore, generative AI has great potential to disrupt government operations in the next decade. The lack of skilled workers to implement and manage these technologies is a major concern, with government agencies facing skills gaps as a barrier to adopting AI.

Political Climate

With power shifts, new administrations bring changes in leadership, policies, and program priorities. This results in frequent talent movement within the public sector as new administrations bring on re-prioritized initiatives, funding changes, and hiring freezes or surges.

Research shows that senior civil servants are 30.9 percent more likely to leave during the early years of a new administration, particularly if the incoming administration’s ideology differs significantly from the outgoing one. For federal HR leaders, this lack of predictability poses a challenge in maintaining a stable, mission-ready workforce. Agencies must adopt talent strategies that can adapt to these political shifts while ensuring continuity in essential roles.

Skills-Based Talent Trend

The White House has taken significant steps toward skills-based hiring within federal agencies, moving away from traditional degree requirements to focus on applicants’ abilities and experiences, such as military service or technical training. This approach helps address talent shortages, particularly in tech fields, and allows government agencies to position themselves to compete with other sectors for top talent.

Compliance and Security Threats

Another pressing trend that emphasizes the need for workforce agility is the increasing risk of non-compliance with government regulations and inadequate protection of sensitive data, both of which can lead to significant financial and reputational damage.

Federal agencies must be equipped with skilled cybersecurity professionals and continually adapt their strategies to prevent breaches, ensure compliance, and safeguard public trust. Without such agility, agencies risk not only financial losses but also the erosion of confidence in their ability to protect sensitive data.

The Way Forward

While these macro trends present significant challenges, they also highlight the unique and evolving talent management needs of federal agencies. To foster workforce agility, federal agencies will need to:

  • Mobilize training at scale with a system that fully meets federal security standards for managing sensitive information, along with 508 requirements for equitable access to learning and career development.

  • Develop a pipeline of employees across various segments, such as cybersecurity, project management, and policy development, who can take on leadership roles as they arise with strategic, data-driven workforce succession planning.

  • Leverage a skills-based Learning Management Solution (LMS) to build leadership skills at all levels, ensuring that up-and-coming leaders have the resources and guidance they need before they step into critical roles.

  • Connect learning to development goals and the discussions that occur during the performance management process, drawing a clear line from learning to performance.

Meeting the demand for new skills and more adaptive talent approaches will be essential for ensuring that federal operations remain efficient, secure, and responsive to an ever-changing environment.

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