having a skilled and capable workforce is essential for mission success however attracting hiring training retaining that talent well as you imagine it's not very easy and in fact it's getting harder as increased workloads lead to burnout there's failing morale and lower employee engagement scores across the government so what can be done joining us today is kevin brooks kevin is the field cto and executive strategy strategist for defense and national security at servicenow and kevin is joining us to talk about how we can better prepare the workforce of the future so let's start there kevin because as we aligned it's it's hard out here right now so what does a future government work force even look like um wow so it's gonna look multi-generational much more diverse than it is today um more assertive and wanting an elevated experience and i'll break each of those down really quickly so multi-generational you've got boomers who are still such a large demographic they're still going to be working for a while you've got gen x in there trying to assert itself a little bit more as they get i think as they get a little older but still that youthful spring in their step you got millennials who are getting some sharper elbows saying wait a minute i want my tie too and then you got gen z who's coming on fast so that's what you have four generations of work and you've had it before with traditionalists but they're a much smaller generation uh and boomers quickly replace them in the workforce and they tended to retire sooner so there wasn't that competition boomers are hanging around longer so it's making it complicated for those three generations behind them to move up into senior positions and to just be able to have a much more fulfilling careers more diverse the country is getting more diverse as we go along um the push for more uh people of color and women in not just the workforce but in senior positions in the workforce at the table helping make decisions and drive company culture is going to be even more important as we look at workforce in the future and finally more assertiveness in how they want um their work life to be the especially the gen z and younger millennials really want work-life balance it's about experiences it's a lot less about compensate direct compensation it's about more of that holistic life i would say that in the u.s you will probably see those generations push more for a european model where it's hey i don't mind if i make a little less but i want a 40 hour work week and i want longer than just two weeks of vacation a year so i think that's where the workforce is going it's it's such an interesting idea and concept and you know i think part of this evolution obviously is stemming from the past two years of dealing with the pandemic and just seeing the the vast changes that have happened along the way is is crazy to see so much change happen in two years or two plus years i guess at this point and that's going to continue so if this new workforce or this new mindset is going to succeed we're obviously going to need new skills new kind of pathways forward how can the government best upskill their current workforce in order to make sure that they're heading in the right direction okay well i start starting with the current workforce because i think it's actually more than just upskilling the current workforce i think so picking the right uh lanes for the new for new hires but let's start with the with the upscaling of your current workforce okay uh what's this figure out the workforce you want and the mission that you're going to have going for in the future and start building a robust internal training program the federal government because i'm a former fed sometimes we don't do a good enough job of looking into the future and saying what is this workforce need to look like and how do i start building that in right now let's just use data analytics as an example we need to make more data-driven decisions within the federal space so we need a workforce that's capable and comfortable with working with data they don't have to be data scientists there's tons and tons of data analytics software that will help them but they have to be comfortable with the concept of making decisions based on that data analytics so you want to build a modern um a modern learning platform that helps employees get to where they're going to go and meet your development and their development goals secondly you want to give them tools that allow them to do meaningful work instead of repetitive work so they can be more fulfilled in that job and therefore get rid of all the stuff that they don't need to do because upskilling is also care we talked about the gen z's and then and the millennials that that meaningful work matters and so part of upskilling is also upskilling the uplifting their experience at work and i'll talk about that a little later but and then finally you want to shift your recruiting model for the future to address the gaps in your current workforce so the beautiful thing is you can bring in someone at a certain level from outside to fill in a gap while you develop the rest of the force you can second somebody out to an organization where they can get more experience and you know plan for that workforce that reflects your future needs not just today's landscape you know who knows what the next crisis will be so do you have the right people in the right places who have um the emotional iq the analytic skills whatever you think your agency needs to support that mission yeah my next question might seem a little obvious based around where this conversation has already gone but for a lot of a lot of times when we're talking about government services they have to happen no matter what right like you have to pay your taxes if you're gonna apply for your driver's license you have to go through this so why does focusing on upskilling and retaining a workforce why does that even matter and why should it be something that government agencies focus on well first and foremost the fight for talent is real um you know the government can only hire people who are actually out there looking for jobs and it can't compete on salary alone so in order to have a well oiled federal government state government local government whatever it is you have to have the right people who are willing to do the job who want to be there who are motivated by things other than just money so and the fight account's not going away soon we talked about the four generations that are in the workforce right now boomers and millennials are large numerically gen x and gen z are smaller um and so both of those work and they're kind of you know they're sandwiched around this boomer start to retire there won't be enough gen zers to replace them one for one in the workforce and that will be a problem because gen x is already smaller so you have to make sure you're getting the right people and you can can't afford as many misses when it comes to hiring and recruiting the right people to keep that organization going uh secondly the future of work and workplaces will shift and so how do you have the right people in the right workforce in place to maintain corporate culture and tie to the mission when you don't know what that even looks like you know it's like it's like i'm a i like sci-fi a lot of people do and so you know captain kirk was never afraid to fly into some nebula he was never afraid but the crew had to believe in captain kirk and say boss gotcha so you need to have a crew that will fly to that nebula with you and be comfortable operating and be able to adjust at the same speed that you are adjusting to it and so federal government's the same way it's a nebula we don't know what the next what the next election cycle will bring what the next presidential cycle will bring what the the world will bring who saw russia and ukraine a year ago nobody you know so i'm sure somebody really smart did but they didn't tell us but those are the kind of things that you need to have so it matters that your workforce is able to adapt um you know i'm a military guy and i use you know vuca is a big term so volatile assert volatile uncertain chaotic and ambiguous those are usually the how we plan around something so you need to have workforce that with some people who are comfortable working in the vuca i learned a new acronym today i love that um all right so with all of these considerations in place then and i know i need i'm a government agency i'm in hr i know i need to go out and i need to go get this talent you've mentioned it's a competitive job market out there and perhaps the government isn't going to be the highest spender when it comes to salary what are some ways that agencies can be as attractive as possible to potential employees oh great question that's a great question uh so one they have one let's start with understand the labor market they're competing again every agency isn't competing in the same level market as other agencies because you know the the nature of what they do so if you're at usda you know you're competing for agricultural scientists so understanding your specific labor market is the first thing that you have to be able to do uh because that's going to drive you to you know what type of workforce you want to build uh secondly providing modern tools for mission accomplishments is an imperative we a lot of agencies have external customers so i would start with building a modern customer experience and i'll say why i start there instead of modern employee experience and you can go either way but most federal employees again don't come in just for the money but they don't want to also let their constituents their citizens fellow citizens down they want to do a good job no one wakes up in the morning and says i'm going to do a poor job today nobody and so that is a that's the crux of people who come to federal service they want to do good they want to help their fellow americans um accomplish something do something give them information whatever it is what they're trying to do so understanding the tools to build better customer outcomes feeds than the employee experience then you flip it and you talk about you build that robust internal engagement strategy for your employees no matter where the work setting it could be on premises at an operating location somewhere in a field office in the field remote hybrid whatever how do you now build a remote engagement strategy that includes uh ways for a manager to check in on their employee periodically if they're not in the same location how to allow the organization to gather data on the health and well-being both physically and emotionally of their workforce how do you build that common culture across multiple geos that's a key to federal going forward you know we talk about a hybrid workplace but if you think about the federal government it's been hybrid forever you know you know if you work for the national park service you could be a five-person team in yellowstone and your boss could be somewhere down in colorado or utah and we've been the way forward for a long time so it's not new so in that respect i think the federal government if it looks at the lessons learned really could be ahead of private sector because they've been doing that for quite some time i is that such an interesting example too because i think we always think about sometimes the government agencies at the federal state and local level being a little bit behind the private sector and a lot of areas but i think you're absolutely right especially when you're talking about remote work or field work you know you've got a whole lot of avenues where employees are working in different environments whether it's food health inspectors or you know even your traffic cops you know they're doing things in the field and different ways that's really that's a really great point i only have a couple questions for you left okay that's fine the first one is um one of the concepts that has really kind of come to the forefront this year is employee burnout for a whole host of reasons employees across the board are feeling overwhelmed overworked and like you don't have boundaries anymore between work and life and life is complicated how how do you balance this if you're a manager or an employee yourself how do you balance this burnout situation that's happening while at the same time i'm trying to get you upskilled and moving into different it feels like a lot yeah um so i'll go back to that last answer i gave about a robust engagement platform you know digital in the modern world you can't be everywhere at once you can't do all things at once so you have to be fine multiple ways to engage your workforce in an example we we talk about the voice of the employee survey here at servicenow which a lot of companies tend to do but it's it's really something that we use internally to figure out what our employees are thinking feeling and and want to do we do uh all hands periodically within the company at least once a month and sometimes by geo as well and then we do manager check-ins and just little things like that that's one way to do it because it's like you can no longer have you don't have the drive by opportunities as much anymore someone's doing a desk and even if you're both working hybrid maybe your days are off cycle or what have you so engaging with your employees proactively either through a digital or other forum is is key to number number one um people are happier in their roles when they're fulfilled when they're doing meaningful work in a meaningful way and making a difference people are more fulfilled and less likely to burn out because they're not keep hitting the bureaucratic wall so if you could expect if you can elevate the customer outcomes through whatever tool that is uh you will make your employees much more likely to stay engaged and less likely to be frustrated and hit burnout and then finally using those two things together elevating the customer experience and the employee experience people tend to feel more satisfied at the end of the day so they're less likely to one when they're working from home stay logged on longer because just because they want to get something done and accomplished if they feel accomplished they're more likely to say you know what it's quick time i'm going to push away and go join my family or if they're in the office they're going to say okay great it's time to go let me get out of here i'm good i've had a good day so elevating the work experience and the outcomes for our customers will inevitably help with burnout just because people want to do a good job and they leave emotionally satisfied and they're not carrying that weight with them when they leave the office wherever that office is i think that's something that isn't talked about quite enough um and i don't know if it's just hitting me today as we're having this discussion but it is so true right when there are days when you are just in back to back to back meetings that maybe could have been an email or something you walk away from your day feeling drained and you're like what did i even do today i don't even know what happened versus days where you have some time to truly be productive and meet those mission outcomes whatever they are you walk away with a different feeling than you do on those days that are just like oh my goodness yeah yeah absolutely i mean if you can if you can if we could automate some of those nitinoid things so that the human experience is a human experience and you get to solve a tough problem instead of just sitting there for four hours inputting data and hoping the right answer comes out yeah you leave a lot more fulfillment at the end of the day all right so we've talked a lot uh today kevin what do you want our attendees to walk away from this lightning keynote thinking about that they've got in the back of their noggins so uh three things listen well the future of work is still not clearly defined and won't be for a while so how work will look in the future the workplace will look like and workforce look like is still being shaped as i said before gen z is coming on fast millennials are getting sharper elbows so that we're gonna have some change for the next couple of years that aren't related to the pandemic that are related to just the nature of change so be prepared for that don't think you have to have the final answer today but continue to look for modern ways to push the unborn two on that note technology is your friend and it can help with not just the work but the engagement piece be creative and how you engage your workforce through technology through digital forums and get their feedback from that as well and engage in an iterative process of how do we upsell this and then finally we get the customer and employee experience balanced or get them both right everybody wins the mission wins the people win leaders win the country wins we all win when we get figure out how to get that balance because happy constituents make happy members of congress leaders happy employees make a better workforce which then just beats itself so get the customer and employee engagement experience right and you'll get much better outcomes at the end of the day i love that i want to thank you kevin so much for sharing your insights with us today you gave me a whole lot to think about and i know you did for our community as well but for our attendees don't you dare go anywhere because up next we are closing out this hour by talking about five myths that prevent modernization and what you can do about them