Welcome to OCIO's IT Workforce Planning & Development's website. As one of the largest Federal agencies, the USDA faces the critical challenge of recruiting, retaining a skilled Information Technology (IT) workforce. In addition, this large IT workforce needs ongoing training to develop and deliver the very best in IT services to the USDA and the citizens it serves.

In an effort to address an increasing shortage of skilled information technology workers at USDA, OCIO and the Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) work closely together to provide USDA managers with recommendations and solutions on how to continually improve their IT workforce. The increased focus on the strategic management of human capital dates to the Clinger Cohen Act of 1996. One of the requirements of this Act is the mandate for all federal Agencies to perform an IT workforce assessment. The Act requires federal Chief Information Officers to implement a professional development strategy to ensure that IT staff posses the knowledge, competencies and skills necessary to meet agency requirements as they relate to information resources management.

In partnership with OHRM, OCIO has an established USDA IT-HR Working group. This working group works closely with every other team within OCIO to achieve the goal of recruiting, retaining, and training the most qualified team of IT professionals. In addition, this group meets monthly with representatives from numerous agency's IT and HR specialist within the Department. The Working Group is focused on developing, implementing and promoting recruitment and retention strategies to ensure that USDA maintains a quality IT job force, capable of leading the Department to meet its mission objectives. Working group members are briefed regularly on all activities occurring at the federal level in the area of IT workforce improvement. They are responsible for assisting USDA's IT and HR leadership in planning for and implementing effective recruitment, retention and training strategies. The USDA IT-HR Working Group is the Department's only forum for active IT-HR collaboration in the area of IT workforce planning.

http://www.ocio.usda.gov/itwork/index.html
Last Modified: 03/01/2012