Page 42 - GCN, May 2016

TELEWORK
motely and I can have confidence that not only can I reach them but I can also understand where in a task delivery they are, that is ideal,” Bonnell added.
Managing and participating in work- groups is also the aim of Broadsoft’s One Hub, a cloud-based tool that bun- dles unified communications services, including telepresence, texting, and au- dio and videoconferencing.
“Having access to a technology that shows me you’re actually available and working with me side-by-side, logically and digitally, is very important.”
— TAHER BEHBEHANI, BROADSOFT
“Having access to a technology that shows me you’re actually available and working with me side-by-side, logically and digitally, is very important,” said Taher Behbehani, Broadsoft’s chief digi- tal and marketing officer. “I think that’s a huge advantage.”
Integration across such tools is criti- cal, Bonnell said.
The use of videoconferencing sys- tems and even more avant garde tech- nologies such as Double Robotics’ tele- presence robot, which gives remote employees a physical presence in the office, can be effective in keeping tele- workers integrated into the workplace.
“The best telework systems will quite simply remove the concern of technol- ogy from the equation and will become seamless aspects of our daily life,” she said. “They will make us feel connected at a very human level, will be easy to use [and] will have an incredibly low learning curve.” •
40 GCN MAY 2016 • GCN.COM
The millennial workforce
A third of today’s private-sector employees were born between 1980 and 1995, but those younger workers make up only a quarter of federal, state and local government employees, according to workforce studies conducted by Deloitte.
What’s more, the research firm said the share of the federal workforce under the age of 30 dropped to 7 percent last year, the lowest figure in nearly a decade.
That trend has prompted agencies to look for ways to attract, support and maintain millennial workers, a tech-savvy demographic considered essential to public-sector success in the coming years.
It’s a talented but restless group, according to Deloitte researchers, who say one in four millennials would quit his or her current employer to “join a new organization or do something different.”
To address those workforce challenges, agency IT and human resources managers are trying to keep millennial employees happy by incorporating collaborative apps, social media tools and powerful web-based conferencing tools into their telework toolkits. That approach has in turn led to innovations in how agencies recruit new employees.
Fairfax County, Va., for example, has begun encouraging managers to tap social media to expand hiring programs and target specific audiences, which supports the county’s mobile and digital workforce aims.
“It’s an invaluable tool for recruiting,” said Fairfax County CTO Wanda Gibson, who added that the county is using YouTube to produce videos about its programs. “This provides more reach to the county’s program.”
“The millennials don’t go to newspapers to look for jobs anymore, so we have to go to them,” said Jeff Porter, the county’s IT infrastructure director. “It’s basically an attractive feature for drawing millennials to government service and also reaches the public we serve.”
“Telework is now morphing into the way we now work overall in the current mobile, agile environment,” telework policy analyst Mika Cross said. “It’s now a part of the way we look at our overall mobility strategy rather than as a separate piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, it’s about connecting your services to your customers and the American public.”
— PAUL McCLOSKEY