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“We learned to do a lot of things on the fly,” one executive said.
A lasting impact on the workplace
After nearly a year-and-a-half, the expectation is that the workforce and workplace will likely be forever changed. The executives said only a minority of employees have expressed a desire to return to working in the office full-time. They said some employees will never return, but the majority will likely come in for a few days a week.
“Some people really need adult interactions,” one executive said.
Many employees have made it clear that they only want to return to the office for a specific purpose, such as collaboration, brainstorming sessions or training. They do not want to come to the office simply to make phone calls or complete paperwork. “No one wants to be on the Beltway for hours just to do that,” an executive said.
Although some agency customers are pushing for contractors to return to on-site work, companies are care- fully resisting out of concerns that mandatory in-office work will under- mine productivity.
“The future workforce has grown up doing this,” one executive said. “They get out of bed, get on their laptop and work. A lot of leaders are sensitive to this and want to build a bridge and accommodate that.”
Back-office functions, for example, are ripe for a remote environment. “I can now recruit somebody who lives in Tennessee, Minnesota or Califor- nia,” another executive said. “They don’t have to be physically close.”
Several attendees voiced the fear that if customers want contractors to be on-site, recruitment and retention will become an even bigger challenge. Software and systems engineers in particular “can find jobs anywhere and find jobs in the commercial sec-
tor that allow them to work remote,” one said.
Shifting the emphasis to
outcomes and results
There are legitimate concerns about security, especially for mission-criti- cal systems, so industry as a whole needs to develop tools and processes to increase security and customers’ comfort levels.
“No one wants to be the person who said OK to remote work and then there’s a breach,” an executive said. “But this isn’t going away.”
Several companies are seeing if they can divide software develop- ment, for example, into work that can be done outside a secure facility and then brought inside for the highly sensitive work. “Customers are will- ing to have those conversations,” an executive said.
“There is a lot that can be done off- site that doesn’t compromise securi- ty,” another said.
The executives acknowledge that they are still looking for ways to fos- ter camaraderie with remote teams. One said they now start meetings with informal chats that can last for five minutes or 25. However, some exec- utives expressed concern that the informal exchange of information and knowledge isn’t taking place among remote workers and that the increase in productivity won’t be sustainable.
They acknowledged that the way employees are managed will have to change, with more emphasis on out- comes and results rather than time and attendance.
“I know some companies check and make sure people are online, and there are tools for that,” one execu- tive said. “But I think it has to come down to performance. We’ve all seen people who show up at the office and don’t do anything.”
Redefining performance expecta-
tions, career paths and training for remote employees takes more effort on the part of managers, the execu- tive added. “I’m not there yet. I’m still learning, but I think we all have to do that.” n
PARTICIPANTS Jessica Artz
Executive Vice President, GTL
Tim Cooke
President and CEO, ASI Government
Jeremiah Cunningham
Senior Director, Federal Sales and Strategy, Citrix
Gil Dussek
CEO, Gunnison Consulting Group
Chet Fincke
Director of Business Development, Citrix
Kathryn Freeland
President and CEO, A-Tek Inc.
Kristie Grinnell
Vice President and CIO, General Dynamics IT
Tina Kuhn
President and CEO, CyberCore Technologies
Robert Lohfeld
CEO, Sev1Tech
David McClure
Principal Director, Federal CIO Advisory Services, Accenture
Dolly Oberoi
CEO, C2Technologies
Larry Reagan
Vice President, Maximus
Anil Sharma
CEO, 22nd CenturyTechnologies
Jeremy Wensinger
Chief Operating Officer, Peraton
Note: Washington Technology Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman led
the roundtable discussion.The
April 14, 2021, virtual gathering was underwritten by Citrix, but both the substance of the discussion and the published article are strictly editorial products. Neither Citrix nor any of the participants had input beyond their April 14 comments.
August 2021
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