Federal Manager's Daily Report

Federal agencies “continue to be challenged in recruiting and retaining qualified cybersecurity staff,” GAO has said, in part because the federal hiring process causes them to lose out on qualified candidates.

That process “is often an impediment to the very customers it is designed to serve in that it makes it difficult for agencies and managers to obtain the right people with the right skills, and applicants can be dissuaded from public service because of the complex and lengthy procedures,” a GAO official said at a House hearing.

Other problems facing agencies, he said, include assessing needed skills and skills gaps, and the inconsistent quality of internal cybersecurity training and career developmental programs. Agencies also are inconsistent in their use of recruitment and retention incentive payments, even though agency chief information security officers told GAO that “they were not able to offer salaries that were competitive with the private sector for candidates with high-demand technical skills.”

“This salary issue in turn can create problems in retaining talented government employees. OMB has also identified additional potential issues, such as job candidates’ concern that a private sector position may give them more autonomy and a more flexible work culture than a federal information security position,” he said.

GAO said those problems are continuing even though initiatives have been launched and several laws enacted to address the issue. These include the 2015 Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act, which requires agencies to identify IT and cyber-related positions of greatest need; the 2016 Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Strategy, which set goals, actions, and timelines for improvements; the Scholarship for Service program, which provides tuition assistance to undergraduate and graduate students studying cybersecurity in exchange for a commitment to federal service; and federally-backed programs to promote education in the STEM fields and to connect government employees, students, educators, and industry with available training.