Empowering government innovation with strategic talent engagement

U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is launching a call for government partners for our talent focus area.
By: Keith Wilson, Krista Canellakis, Brittany Mascio

Government jobs offer a unique opportunity for technologists to make a substantial impact. Every day, digital experts help governments champion user research to improve access to public services, deploy the very code that builds modern government infrastructures, and write content to connect more residents to their local agencies.

At the start of this year, nearly 25,000 skilled digital professionals from the private sector were suddenly seeking new opportunities, and wondering if big tech is where they actually want to be. At the same time, governments across the country are announcing investments in customer experience and service delivery. Because of these converging shifts, there’s a timely opportunity for government agencies to attract new tech talent to the public sector and simplify access to these impactful government careers.

From helping the City of Baltimore stand up its digital service team to establishing CODE PA with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U.S. Digital Response (USDR) has developed and strengthened best practices for building modern digital talent organizations in government. We’re committed to helping government agencies harness this moment to build a stronger digital workforce — and sharing our latest lessons learned so jurisdictions across the country can do just that.

Developing Holistic Talent Engagement Strategies

Recruiting technical talent for government roles is challenging, and creating hiring practices that inspire candidates to recognize their potential contributions can be key to emphasizing the significant impact of public sector jobs.

When the City of Baltimore set its sights on building a robust technical team during a similar period of massive tech industry layoffs, USDR helped establish intentional hiring strategies and deliverables, including comprehensive interview and evaluation processes. The City not only developed successful, repeatable hiring practices but also assembled a talented digital team that’s significantly improving how Baltimore residents access city government services online.

Optimizing Digital Delivery Teams

Government agencies can complement the deep well of knowledge and experience of their current staff by embracing digital upskilling and technological advancements. Tapping into “what’s possible” with technology can not only advance existing staff’s expertise to produce better outcomes but also appeal to private sector candidates. Offering career paths that resemble technology-driven environments can make public service positions more attractive and government agencies more competitive.

In South Bend, Indiana, the Department of Innovation and Technology was already underway with incorporating more automation and AI into the City’s work. As the needs of the department grew, so did the need to create a team within their organization to focus on digital deliverables. The City embarked on creating a new Digital Team to advance and automate processes for the city’s business, human resources, and legal teams, as well as support customer service requests to assist residents with services online. USDR worked with their team to update job descriptions and developed competency rubrics to complement the department’s ongoing efforts to upskill existing staff.

Enhancing Visibility and Engaging Candidates

​​With this increased potential to attract private sector candidates, governments must make job postings easy to find and compelling. However, these roles are frequently buried in jurisdiction-specific career sites and listings which can be challenging for newcomers to the government space to navigate and comprehend. With this hurdle in mind, Rebecca Heywood, governments team lead at USDR, offers her advice on what technologists should know as they transition from big tech to government in a blog series.

When The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania set out to assemble a leadership team to develop a more resident-centered and effective public digital experience, USDR collaborated on the new team’s organizational chart and job descriptions for the key Deputy-level hires. USDR then developed an online landing page for candidates to learn about the new CODE PA team and to publicize the roles. Then, USDR helped design robust candidate communication templates, evaluation rubrics, and interview scripts to ensure the team had a smooth process that landed them on the right candidates.

Connecting with Diverse Talent Pools

Connecting with established and emerging networks of technology and civic sector professionals, whether they are new to or returning to government, offers a pathway to strategically engaging a broad talent pool. This approach not only widens the recruitment reach for diverse skills and experiences but also promotes the building of public sector digital transformation teams that better reflect the communities they support. Tech to Gov, a coalition of public interest tech organizations created to help digital talent find positions in government, routinely sees thousands of individuals register for their virtual career fairs.

To help the City of Baltimore in its recruitment efforts, USDR and the Beeck Center’s Digital Service Network deployed a Virtual Job Fair specific to the City, showcasing their four available roles. This experience, alongside amplifying across USDR networks, resulted in the City filling all of its open positions and left them set up for success in filling future technical roles and recruiting top talent.

Leveraging Expertise to Seize the Moment — Find a Partner

With this most recent surge in available mission-driven technologists from a wide range of industries, there’s never been a better time to bolster digital teams and elevate public service initiatives.

USDR understands the value of this moment. If you’re a government agency looking to build or expand your digital talent, we stand ready to be your hands-on partner, bringing a wealth of resources and expertise to the table. Use this form to reach out!

‍‍About U.S. Digital Response‍

U.S. Digital Response is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works alongside governments at all levels to ensure they have the capacity to support the critical needs of the public. Founded in 2020, USDR connects governments with technology, resources, and support, leaving them better equipped to deliver services and support to millions of people nationwide. To date, USDR has built a dedicated community of over 9,000 volunteers driven to serve in a time of need and has partnered with 400 government and nonprofit partners on more than 400 projects.

Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash