Workforce management in government is under more scrutiny than ever. Agencies have been asked to modernize, adopt AI, and “do more with less”—all while navigating unique challenges that don’t exist in the private sector. Unless we understand those differences, even the most promising technology will come up short.

Falling Into Federal Government.

My own career path illustrates why workforce management in the federal space can be complex. I began as a GS9 at the Defense Manpower Data Center, expecting a one-year stop while finishing my Ph.D.. Fifteen years later, I was in the Senior Executive Service (SES), serving as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness (an SES Tier 3 position) and overseeing a workforce of over 850.

I have a unique perspective having served at so many levels of the government structure. At each level, I saw firsthand workforce complexities: from hiring practices (time to hire can be up to a year), to ambiguous job classification and grading practices, to regulatory requirements, to data systems used (often clunky, but familiar, “legacy” systems).  All challenges compounded by a mission space that changes, sometimes drastically, with leadership shifts. Despite these obstacles, the federal workforce is the “brain stem” of government—nothing happens without them.  

Workforce Management Needs Depend on Where You Sit.

Your part in workforce management relies on many things in federal government but is often influenced by what level you’re at.

At the lower levels of the General Schedule  (“GS” 11 and below), you are the workforce. You typically don’t supervise or manage budgets. You often feel like a “cog in the wheel.” Your career goals are blurry and you’re unsure where you go from where you are. You want to achieve good performance ratings, but your work objectives aren’t always clear, and they shift depending on your manager’s needs. You are called to do the job listed in the job description, but also “other duties as assigned,” which can be considerably varied. Workforce changes happen “to” you, not “with” you. You know it would be easier if you could just move up.

At the next levels (GS 12-14), you may be managing a handful of people and supervising may feel daunting. You need training on how to manage, which often isn’t provided when you need it. As a result, you are learning from your own mistakes. You have to onboard people, but your organization may lack the means to assist you. Your job requirements have increased, and time management is now an added problem. You have a more concrete understanding of career progression, but still don’t know how to get there. And while you’re leading, you aren’t yet leadership. Workforce changes still happen “to” you. You think it would be easier if you could just move up.

Higher-level leadership (GS 15) typically manages many more people and takes a lot of time. You are trying to do your own job while balancing your workforce. You spend days, sometimes weeks, on performance evaluations and goals for your employees. You get the call at 6am from the boss for a quick turn tasker, but also get the call that one of your employees just suffered a heart-attack or lost a loved one overnight. You haven’t been trained on how to respond and fear you may say the wrong thing. You are sometimes at the table for workforce decisions, but rarely have a voice. You think you could make things easier if you could move up but have no idea how to break into the SES because no one has taught you how.

As an entry-level SES (Tier 1 or 2) you are typically managing a few hundred people. Your calendar is filled with meetings, and you desperately need time back. You rely more on your support staff to help, and while you don’t want them to leave, you also know you need to support their careers. You can be tasked with weekly reports on your workforce, which is a frustrating and manual process. You work 10-hour days and try to balance work and life, but often not well. You are now faced with workforce decisions that impact lives: you fire people, cut security clearances, and act on EEO complaints. You need more talent. You need better talent. You need talented leaders. You get climate survey results and bear the brunt of morale issues, but often don’t know how to fix them. You are held to a vastly higher bar on performance evaluations and spend weeks writing them up because your words mean thousands in bonus dollars. You are at the table for workforce decisions and often have a voice, but the decision is typically not yours to make. However, you get blamed by your workforce and your next boss for the outcome. You no longer know if moving up would make things easier, but you know it’s not easy now.

High level SES (Tier 3-4) manage upwards of a thousand or more employees. You have HR complaints, lawsuits, and investigations to address across your workforce. Policies shift with politics and your workforce complies, but bristles at the constant political cycling, for which they again blame you. You are at the table and now must make decisions that impact entire programs and the staff supporting them. You must address massive budget cuts and directed Reductions in Force (the equivalent of layoffs for the government). You try to figure out how many people you can lose without losing your ability to meet mission requirements. You regularly work 12-hour days. You don’t have enough time or people. You often don’t sleep. You fear you may be failing your workforce, your leaders, your family, and yourself all at once. It is lonelier than ever, and you think about when you were a GS12 and life was easier.

While obviously a simplified summary, this is the federal workforce. And this is why modern HR systems must do more. The system supporting the workforce requires tangible benefit at every level of the federal structure.  As someone who has worked across so many of these levels—and who has been accountable for workforce outcomes at the highest ranks— I found that balancing mission demands with human needs is no straightforward task. An efficient government equips leaders, managers, and employees with systems that truly work for them.

Enter Human Capital Management (HCM) Systems

During my federal service, I often didn’t know what was possible. Now, at Oracle, I see how modern HCM systems can reshape the experience for every layer of government. While the core component of the system (core HR) addresses the complex requirements of federal HR, it’s what comes with HCM that sets Oracle apart and addresses key challenges every worker faces.

  • Recruiting module enables skills-based matching for open positions and automates certain workflows to help decrease “time to hire,” while using technology to match internal applicants and help grow careers.
  • Onboarding Self-Service functionality walks new employees through required and recommended actions for onboarding, without the “handholding” required of first-line managers or HR professionals.
  • Benefits module matches benefit options to the individual, with choices that are presented to help ensure the right choice at the right time, again reducing burden on HR professionals and first-line managers.
  • Learning and Development provides targeted trainings to meet requirements but can also be tailored to help workers learn critical skills. Manager-assigned trainings can address learning objectives and upskill talent, bridging the distance between career levels.
  • Goals and Performance modules help establish goals towards desired targets (SES development, managerial roles, etc.), and AI can assist with writing performance assessments (for workers) and evaluation summaries (for managers) based on job descriptions, products delivered, feedback provided– all decreasing burden and providing more time back on the calendar.
  • Work-Life Balance modules help target actions and communications towards issues managers know their force is facing, allowing a leader to leverage feedback from climate surveys to communicate more responsively and increase morale.
  • Health and Safety modules provide basic safe practices in the workplace, but also allow a leader to target health and well-being support to employees (or themselves) when they need it.

Federal service places unique and increasingly stressful demands on its workforce. With the right technology, challenges can be turned into strengths. That’s why Oracle is committed to being the partner federal agencies can trust as they enter this new era of workforce management.

We welcome the opportunity to work with leaders across government to ensure new systems efficiently support the people who keep our mission moving forward.