David Smith
Though the U.S. enjoys the lowest unemployment rate in eighteen years at 3.9 percent, this only highlights the challenges of finding qualified talent. Nowhere is this more evident than in the government contracting marketplace, where both federal agencies and private sector companies are finding it difficult to find qualified employees. The more specialized the individual, the more difficult to find.
A recent article from The Hill highlighted the numerous unfilled cybersecurity positions at the Department of Homeland Security. The article, which acknowledged the government’s efforts to train and retain skilled employees, said the demand for skilled cyber specialists only continues to increase. Similarly, Cybersecurity Ventures predicts there will be 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions globally by 2021, up from 1 million in 2014.
In the fall, ACT-IAC published a report, Talent as a Service (Taas), highlighting how the federal government can enhance the way it identifies, recruits, and onboards employees. Addressing the overall improvement of federal hiring, the report discussed three core areas; sourcing, recruiting and onboarding as it overlays the foundation of process, infrastructure and policy.
This revolution in talent acquisition has led to the creation of new companies harnessing technology to find qualified talent within the govcon marketplace. One such company is GovFlex.
GovFlex, formerly known as GovProp, was founded in 2014 as an online service connecting both government agencies and contractors with freelance consultants. GovFlex will be rolling out v2.0 on May 11. Users input their position requirement and GovFlex, through patented algorithms, returns qualified candidates matching the position requirements in a matter of seconds. Eric Adolphe, GovFlex’s chief executive officer, asserts his company’s mission as bringing “the liquid workforce†to government contracting. According to him, GovFlex helps facilitate the marketplace’s transition from the legacy role-based workforce model to a liquid workforce on demand.
A Randstad 2025 Workplace Report estimates that by 2019 up to 50 percent of the workforce will be liquid.
The govcon marketplace is undergoing a revolution in talent acquisition and GovFlex is at the heart of it helping government agencies and contractors transition from the legacy role-based workforce models to the liquid workforce on demand. Adolphe says GovFlex can help government agencies and contractors manage this ever-growing liquid workforce talent pool.
