Federal information management professionals say the government needs to upgrade the skills of its workforce in risk management and electronic records retention, cited by 34 and 24 percent, respectively, in a survey asking where is the highest need for improving skills.
They similarly said that that risk management/security/data privacy will be the most desired information management skill set over the next three to five years, cited by 54 percent, followed by analytics and content/records management.
“The data indicates there are significant gaps between the skills records management professionals currently have and what they believe they will need in the future,” said the Iron Mountain company, which conducted the survey of 200 federal employees involved in day-to-day records and data management policy and operations.
It recommended that agencies: “evangelize a more holistic approach to information management, and prepare to sell it internally; meet the demand for specialized skills with a focus on information security, quality management and analytics; focus on soft and technical skills in need of improvement, and understand why improvement is needed; leverage the knowledge and mentoring skills of older staff before they retire; provide professional development training in the formats employees most prefer; create a forum for the sharing of ideas and best practices.”
