Deborah Hartman, director for human resources at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the intelligence community must develop a workforce of careerists as the sector plays catch-up in the age and experience profiles of its federal professionals, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.Jared Serbu writes the sudden drop in hiring after the Soviet Union fell in the 1990s was followed by a hiring spree after 9/11, leaving huge gaps in a talent base where seasoned employees who are about to leave have few candidates to replace them.
“Strategic management is key to this,†Hartman said at an industry forum last week.
“We need to develop our folks internally as well as (bring) in new folks so that we can develop careerists who can go across the IC and be successful,” she added.
According to Deborah Kircher, the intelligence community’s chief human capital officer, agencies are already making an effort to balance the hiring of new talent with constrained funding, conscious of moving away from the 90s-era attrition strategy.
“A lot of IC agencies are going much more to the ‘rank and person’ concept,” she told the forum participants, describing the construct as a motivator for a person to do a good job and level up, versus the traditional “rank and position” process of getting there because it’s their turn.
“It’s a much more methodical and deliberate process,” Kircher said.
