Government Workforce Management: How Technology Beyond Traditional HR Can Help

The “Great Resignation” has affected all industries, and one of the hardest hit has been state and local government services. According to a recent article by Deloitte, State governments and the coming talent shortage: Competing—successfully—for talent in the public sector, governments have always struggled to retain qualified talent partly because the private sector offers higher compensation, better benefits, and additional perks to entice and retain employee. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made matters worse, sidelining many employees who have either had to stay home from an infection or else have chosen to remain out of work and not return. In either case, many state and local governments now are short-staffed, yet must continue to provide services to their constituents. In short, government workforce management is a problem.

Regardless of the level of government – state, local, defense, federal, or central– many government organizations have “big HR” legacy systems that are large, complex, and cumbersome…but still don’t cover all the bases, especially today’s challenges. One drawback is that Big HR often is centrally managed, which removes the ability for local users to extend the features of the system to manage local government workforce management challenges, such as scheduling the right person for the right task, skill matching, or managing employee activities like training, certifications, and security levels. This makes it difficult for local governments to deliver the services required to meet the needs of their community.

Fill in the gaps in HR software with a People Accelerator

Recently, Jack Kelly, Director, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform for State and Local Government, invited HSO, a Gold-certified Microsoft partner that has been helping state and local governments digitally transform for more than 25 years, to introduce HSO’s People Accelerator and how it can help with government workforce management. 

HSO’s People Accelerator is a workforce platform that government organizations can use to manage employees to solve local challenges. For example, People Accelerator allowed a mid-sized country government to modernize many aspects of their position and personnel management, including recruiting, onboarding, and time keeping using mobile apps and employee portals.

People Accelerator is built on the Microsoft Azure platform and is protected by Azure’s security and reliability, such as redundant, global servers, automatic backup, and failover systems to avert data loss in the event of a catastrophic event. Microsoft Azure also provides a government cloud – a partitioned space within the cloud for government customers – and comes with additional security checks and additional certifications, including CJIS, FedRAMP, DoD IL2 and IL5.

The People Accelerator also leverages the capabilities of Microsoft’s Power Platform: Power BI to analyze data and create reports, Power Apps to develop applications and automate processes using low-code tools, Power Automate to build solutions that integrate with third party systems, and Power Virtual Agents to create virtual agents, like chatbots, with little to no coding required.

Want to see how you can tackle your government workforce management challenges?

Watch this pre-recorded digital event: People Accelerator for State & Local Government

You’ll see how you can optimize your workforce based on attributes you require, like location, skills, or availability. In this recording, Andrew Welch, VP and Director of Cloud Application Platform, and Betsy Appleby, VP and Global Industry Director of Public Sector, introduce HSO’s People Accelerator, sharing real success stories and demonstrating the potential of People Accelerator.

Learn more

• Read how a government municipality is using HSO’s People Accelerator to modernize and automate processes
• Dive into the Power Platform with our educational series of on-demand webcasts