The Future of Work: Building a Government Talent Strategy for 2022

For many Detroit workers, taking the bus is the only option when it comes to getting to work. Unfortunately, that also means risking the spread of the coronavirus pandemic while on public transit.

Government leaders discuss managing risks and vulnerabilities of remote work.

The last recession pummeled the government workforce. Now, the pandemic has hit and once again, layoffs have become a fact of life. But not every state and local government is cutting jobs to stanch revenue losses.

California needs 10,000 workers to act as contact tracers, but it has only trained about 950. Gov. Newsom has said if state workers don’t volunteer to be contact tracers, they might be temporarily reassigned to the job.

Federal workers are worried that they will be forced to return to work before health precautions have been implemented. Government agencies are using different approaches to reopening their offices.

Because some unemployment insurance cases require human intervention, even states with updated technology can barely keep up with the surge of unemployment insurance claims caused by COVID-19.

Every state is at least partially reopened, but layoffs persist across the nation and unemployment continues to rise. Even as many are returning to work, they may still struggle to make ends meet.

The state’s computer crashed Monday when workers flooded the system with requests for relief. Immigrants could apply for a one-time payment of $500 per individual or $1,000 per household.

Washington state halted unemployment payments for two days as they tried to block $1.6 million of fraudulent claims. While the state has not been ravaged by unemployment, about 1 million unemployed workers still seek aid.

Unprecedented. The word has taken on the quality of ubiquity in the COVID-19 era. It signals in part that some things are changing everything — the Internet that allows work to be virtual and done anywhere; a suite of permanent coronavirus precautions that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago; and the prospect of what Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer calls the “Greater Depression” because of its anticipated depth, breadth and length. Against all that, you just want to go back to work at the office. You miss seeing your colleagues and the chance conversations that help solve problems, and even the goodies left in the breakroom. After eight weeks of being “safe at home,” getting back to the workplace sounds good — but don’t bet on it.

The debate over workspace digitalisation and how to promote collaboration is timely, as more companies are completing their digital transformation.

Just as private-sector companies are preparing their organizations for teleworking, state and local governments need to do the same.

A cooperative contract is an agreement between a local, state, regional, or federal government and businesses. The contract secures affordable rates and establishes delivery terms on goods that many agencies or offices need to have.

Whether your agency is already a well-oiled DevOps machine, or whether you’re just in the beginning stages of adopting a new software development methodology, one thing is certain: The security of your product is a top-of-mind concern.

The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2022, over half of the workforce will require significant reskilling or upskilling to do their jobs—and this data was published prior to the pandemic.

A new operating model is emerging for state and local government leaders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s transforming the delivery of citizen services and engagement in ways that will accelerate resiliency in government. It will also help government attract, support, and retain the next generation of workers. But what changes will it bring and how can you prepare?

Now that 2021 is upon us and there is a faintly visible conclusion to the pandemic, the question remains — will public-sector contact centers revert to the models they had relied on prior to COVID-19?

While the key focus on cybersecurity and network safety will remain paramount in 2021, ongoing remote work will present opportunities for training, awareness building and collaboration.