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Steve Dobberowsky is the VP of Public Sector-Federal team at Cornerstone. Steve’s 15 years of Federal Services have involved civilian and intelligence agencies, as well as leading talent management initiatives for the Treasury Shared Services Center. Steve has led numerous organizations through successful implementations of unified talent management suites. Steve leverages his expertise to assist organizations in all industries in all things talent management. Through his career experiences, he’s become a proven business-savvy leader with a track record of providing high-quality, innovative services and solutions in support of the Federal government. Steve’s knowledge and insight have made him a trusted partner, and one of Cornerstone’s strongest minds in the areas of learning, employee development, content, and skills. Steve is a regular speaker at SHRM, ATD, and Partnership for Public Service events, and he has served on the Executive Board of the Training Officers Consortium in Washington, DC. 

Steve Dobberowsky

Business and the public sector are confronting new challenges. In the search for the best talent and recruitment strategies, a number of imperatives are becoming pretty clear.

Strategies for Effective Leadership in the Public Sector

Human capital managers at government agencies face many challenges thanks to strict budgets, compliance policies, and organizational hesitancy for change. These challenges often prevent them from offering innovative projects to younger employees, using compensation as a performance motivator or touting growth opportunities, which are frequently defined by tenure rather than performance. As a result, 71 percent of local and state government workers are not engaged in their jobs, according to Gallup.Considering this culture, HCM leaders must seek out innovative tools and leverage creative strategies such as job rotations, flexible work arrangements, or mentorship programs to increase engagement and provide continuous training and development. But it’s no easy task—The State of Human Capital Management in Government report highlights five key obstacles HCM leaders grapple with at government agencies, and how to overcome them.Skills Gaps and Private Sector CompetitionRecruiting people with the right skills for the job is one of the top three talent management priorities for 53 percent of leaders, according to the Human Capital Management Group (HCMG) study. An aging workforce, combined with an observed skills gap in the incoming workforce, means that HCM leaders must find ways to empower and excite employees to attract talent, boost retention rates, and remain competitive with the private sector.Creating a formal mentorship program, putting shadowing opportunities in place, and allowing employees to explore different functional areas are ways to attract talent and build needed skills on the job. To sustain an empowering culture, lead administrative workshops on how to problem solve, create positive change, and implement core values in daily work.Succession PlanningSuccession planning is essential to building a well-trained workforce—36 percent of leaders report that improving succession planning is their greatest staff development need, and 70 percent say they are currently investing in leadership development.By finding ways to develop internal employees for advancement, HCM leaders can build skill sets and create an environment that people want to stay at long term. Incorporating annual employee performance reviews, prioritizing professional development, and having clearly defined competencies can encourage learning across the workforce and inspire future leaders.Limited BudgetsHCM leaders focus much of their time, energy, and resources on employee engagement. And rightly so—when employees feel undervalued or that there isn’t room for growth, they will either leave or disengage, resulting in low productivity and morale. For HCM leaders in government, engagement efforts are typically complicated by a smaller budget.Despite this limitation, agencies are getting creative in their approach to engagement: 81 percent are implementing employee recognition programs and 71 percent are implementing flexible work-from-home options.Listening to employees and implementing flexible solutions that align with their needs helps drive commitment and loyalty. Encourage employees to participate in town hall meetings, roundtables, focus groups, and employee surveys. Based on feedback from these activities, the agency creates targeted, focused, strategic initiatives around engagement.Change ManagementOther than budget, change management is the most cited barrier preventing agencies from reaching their talent management goals. To successfully roll out new initiatives, HCM leaders must first receive buy-in from organizational leaders.Once they have approval, HCM leaders should discuss the goals, benefits, and rollout plan using a variety of communication methods, giving early adopters the tools they need to get the word out and be transparent and clear in messaging.Data-Based Decision MakingHCM leaders can rely on data for information on employee skill level, engagement, and development so they can make better decisions for their workforce. Despite its far-reaching capabilities, data is underutilized by HCM at government agencies.Currently, data is mostly being used to streamline onboarding and assessment processes. But, that is just the tip of the iceberg—data can also be applied to succession planning, recruiting, and talent retention efforts by using employee surveys to gain feedback, or people management software to identify and close skills gaps, or uncover themes and trends to boost satisfaction.As agencies increasingly rely on data to enhance their talent management practices, they must also navigate the complexities of data security. This is particularly important for government agencies, where the stakes of data protection and cybersecurity are exceptionally high. Ensuring that their talent management platforms meet stringent security standards is not just a best practice but a necessity.The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) plays a crucial role in this regard. It is designed to authorize and monitor cloud products and services across the entire government landscape. FedRAMP provides security tiers ranging from impact-level 2 (IL2) to IL4, with IL4 authorization ensuring the highest security standards are met.Despite the many challenges that government agencies face, HCM leaders can build a loyal employee base and nurture future generations of leaders by finding ways to boost employee engagement, provide learning and career development opportunities, and utilize data to generate insights and make decisions.

Top 5 Employee Engagement Challenges That Government Agencies Face

Adaptable leadership responds to challenges in real time and works in the context of fluctuating realities.

Adaptable Leadership in the Public Sector

Cornerstone, in partnership with the Institute for the Future, identified five super skills that will help you and your organization meet the demands of the future of work.

To Survive the Future of Work, You'll Need to Master Five Skills

Talent leaders must work to build strong cultures of learning that empower employees to cultivate the skills they will need in the future.

Courage in the Face of a New Skills Economy

Cornerstone spoke with Chief Human Capital Officers at several government agencies about how HR and IT are successfully collaborating.

Lessons From Government: The Value of HR and IT Collaboration

Your organization needs to build new skills to meet the future. Your people want to feel prioritized, part of your mission, and in control of their own destinies. Now, more than ever, leaders need to unlock the power of people to ensure mission accomplishment. You can do this through personalized, targeted learning experiences that engage your people and drive your agency forward and that are founded on a scalable, artificial-intelligence-powered skills framework.
During this demo, you will learn:

Why learning, skilling, and career development are becoming mission critical people initiatives
The barriers facing organizations when implementing learning experiences at scale and with agility
How EdCast by Cornerstone can deliver a targeted, democratized learning experience in partnership with your people 


Demo: Democratized Learning: How to Build a Skills-First Learning Strategy that Scales

Preparing for never-ending disruption, change and innovation is a fact of daily life for organizations since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. But how do they keep up with the pace of change and become resilient?
To remain nimble and adapt to constant change, L&D Professionals must develop the skills of their people for the jobs of today.
This dynamic and interactive webinar will give you the foundation for building a customized skills strategy that aligns to your mission and people strategies.
You’ll learn the three critical steps in designing a skills strategy that drives growth for the future:

Effective business strategy and inspiring vision
Valuable internal feedback as a primary source for better decisions
External environment in shaping the future of industries or organizations
 


How to Design Your Skills Strategy

It’s hard to believe that 2020 is just around the corner, but it should be top of mind if you are thinking strategically about your talent. The future workforce isn’t only about  Millennials—it’s about the impact of technology, globalization, and the changing expectations of our employees of all ages. The workforce of tomorrow (and today!) expects to be hired, managed, compensated, and engaged much differently than they did even just ten years ago. We will tackle these topics and more during this webcast: 

an understanding of the needs and desires of the modern workforce
an understanding of how HR will serve the workforce of 2020
talent strategies for meeting the demands of the future workforce.
 


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