Hybrid Workforce: Making Sense of the New Reality

MAKING SENSE OF THE NEW REALITY

The pandemic has changed dramatically how government employees work. Working from home — long a forbidden freedom — is now standard procedure for many offices. It takes care to establish a successful hybrid workforce, though, and it means managing the needs and expectations of an array of employees, their supervisors and other professionals. The following approaches can help agencies in 2022 as they transition from COVID-induced telework to a more permanent hybrid workforce.

BE PROACTIVE AND INTENTIONAL

“From an organizational standpoint, we can’t rely on serendipity anymore, we can’t rely on 8 to 5…on work that gets done at the watercooler. So, it’s critical that there’s time [when] people have an opportunity to talk about their lives and share.”

–Dan Pomeroy, GSA

For all the benefits that a hybrid workforce can bring, one item might suffer: interpersonal connections. There are no impromptu conversations in the hallway or wandering out to lunch, and although some employees may be onsite, a rather empty office can seem less welcoming.

It’s absolutely true that inclusiveness and accessibility are key to building a successful hybrid workplace. Employees must have technology that allows them to do their jobs effectively and that accommodates any disability or other challenge they might have.

But according to Dan Pomeroy, Deputy Associate Administrator in the General Services Administration’s Office of Information Integrity and Access, Office of Government-Wide Policy, being proactive and intentional goes beyond that. It goes to the heart of what office “culture” means.

Pomeroy said that virtual open-door policies can help and that time employees typically spend searching for conference rooms could be used differently. “That time needs to be set aside for the social buffers we’ve all gotten used to,” he said. “We have to use every minute that we can to build an effective and positive culture.”

MAKE VIRTUAL TRAINING QUICK AND ACCESSIBLE

For remote workers already glued to their computer screens, online training can be difficult to bear. There’s often no eye contact with your instructors, no give-andtake dialogues that can enliven the subject matter. And, too often, as with in-person courses, virtual coursework can be excessively long.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a solution: SelfHelp Online Tutorials (SHOTs).

These roughly three-minute videos break down a topic, such as safety leave, into specific items that employees can rewatch if necessary, without searching a longer training video to find what they need. The approach offers ondemand assistance that ultimately makes government workers more efficient and saves an agency money.

For remote employees at a physical distance from their leadership, SHOTs can be especially valuable.

California has built an online resource — a one-stopshop, if you will — where state employees, leaders and others can learn the ins and outs of making a hybrid workforce work, including how to oversee both onsite and remote employees.

The website (telework.govops.ca.gov) — which notes that “the shift to remote work requires improved collaboration with new approaches” — is clean, clear and comprehensive. It advises agency workers on setting up their workspaces, getting technology in place and communicating with managers, among other tips.

Managers can view specific guidance, videos, checklists and resources to create and lead successful hybrid teams. For IT administrators, it’s about comparing options for virtual communication, securing networks and identifying hardware needs.

The section for organizational leaders reflects California’s enthusiastic support for hybrid work, and it features an online dashboard that shows what According to SHOTs Program Director Kelly Barrett, who launched the idea in 2013 and continues to build out the program as hybrid work becomes more popular, the videos respond to how human beings learn.

Too much information at once is hard to digest.

“Take a little bit at a time and learn bit by bit,” Barrett said. “You build knowledge on top of each bit of information. ”

Barrett said employees depend on the SHOTs program as a valuable resource. “Many have told me that it’s the first place they look to learn something new,” he said.

CREATE ONLINE

TELEWORKING HOW-TOS

percentage of eligible employees are teleworking and how much they’re saving in commute time and travel costs, among other data.

A template “Telework Agreement” — an official document between a manager and a remote employee that outlines their specific telework arrangement — provides a solid foundation for hybrid work success.

What makes California’s online resource particularly helpful is that it offers specific guidance — not abstract truisms — in a way that’s easy to navigate and understand.

WHAT AGENCIES HAVE LEARNED ABOUT CYBERSECURITY VISIBILITY

An interview with Tim Brown, Chief Information Security Officer, SolarWinds

Agencies can’t defend what they can’t see, including IT networks. So, what happens if the way agencies look at their IT networks changes?

The answer is cybersecurity visibility must also evolve. Today, more agencies have hybrid workforces than ever. With some employees at home and others at the office, agencies need to monitor their networks differently than before. For many agencies, hybrid work is an innovative business model; subsequently, an equally groundbreaking approach to security is the best way forward.

Enter zero-trust security. Zero-trust security centers on distrusting all computing entities until their identity can be verified. As a strategy, zero-trust security aims to provide agencies with continuous visibility into their potential risks.

“Security comes from knowledge,”

said Tim Brown, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at SolarWinds, an IT operations management software provider. “You need that

visibility to get that security.”

Brown shared three ways agencies can use cybersecurity visibility to protect their hybrid workforces going forward.

1. Begin with the basics

Nowadays, agencies may have on-premises IT, the cloud-based variety or a mix of both. No matter the configuration, agencies must understand what resources they’re defending before taking bigger steps.

Consider cloud computing. At agencies new to the cloud, workers may need to learn about configuring cloud environments correctly. Without this lesson, data and other assets may be vulnerable to security threats. “If you understand your environment, you can put good controls in it,” Brown said. “Controls without knowledge won’t do much good.”

Automatic software patching is one control agencies can establish to keep their cloud environments from having security holes.

2. Say goodbye to perimeters

For decades, building perimeters like firewalls around their networks has served agencies well. But today, networks often extend so far, these physical borders disappear.

“It is about embracing a perimeter-less environment,” Brown said. “Your visibility can go beyond the four walls that don’t really exist anymore.”

To navigate this sprawling landscape, agencies need the ability to continuously monitor their applications, workloads and other valuables wherever they are.

3. Live a zero-trust security lifestyle

Whether entities are users, devices or something else, zero-trust security endlessly watches them for risks. “It’s not just buying a solution and you’ve got zero trust,” Brown said.

If zero-trust security sounds like perimeter-less security, it is. Zero-trust security assumes breaches are inevitable because threats can come from inside or outside any perimeter.

IT management software tools such as SolarWinds can support zero-trust security no matter how agencies’ workforces are dispersed. Agencies can use these tools to continuously monitor their IT networks and enforce zero-trust security principles agencywide.

“You are truly able to view the entire environment in one place,” Brown said of SolarWinds solutions. “It helps you plan, discover and answer questions that you may not know you’re trying to answer.”

Work Re-Imagined

The digital transformation ushered in by pandemic realities of remote work and social distancing is here to stay. Today, agencies are challenged to look at their investments and processes to ensure both are as efficient as possible. ServiceNow is proud to provide a platform that helps agencies • Get the most out of digital investments by eliminating silos of service • Grow user-friendly online offerings quickly with low code/no code approach • Provide more transparency into the status of requests and activity For more information on how ServiceNow can support the needs of modern government workforce, visit us your.servicenow.com/federalsafeworkplace.

A NEW DIGITAL PARADIGM FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

An interview with Christopher Anello, Solution Consulting Leader for Federal Healthcare, ServiceNow

The pandemic forced government agencies to find innovative, digital ways of managing at-home workforces and continue delivering on the mission. Although COVID-19 infections ultimately will subside, the digital transformation is here to stay.

The pandemic has ushered in a new world of work” and forced agencies to get more value out of their existing digital capabilities and explore new technology, said Christopher Anello, Solution Consulting Leader for Federal Healthcare at ServiceNow.

Take the Veterans Affairs Department (VA), for instance. Using its existing workflow system, provided by ServiceNow, VA configured and deployed laptops to its workforce when COVID shuttered government offices. (ServiceNow specializes in delivering digital workflows with low-code capabilities.)

“There’s a new challenge that the world has provided,” Anello said. “Our customers ask themselves, ‘How do we adapt to change and become resilient?’”

Make Workflow Systems Multi-functional

In addition to getting more out of capabilities they already have, agencies want to grow their catalog of digital offerings. Chief information officers are looking at their IT platforms, and saying, “How can I leverage three or four different platforms in my enterprise that can deliver services across multiple functions? And how do I break those silos across government to deliver outcomes?” Anello said.

However, a multifunctional system — for example, one that addresses the needs of IT, HR, finance and other departments simultaneously — can be unwieldy if the employees who historically managed the system don’t understand what the new functional areas require.

That’s where centers of excellence come in.

Anello described these as specialized teams that each focus on a functional area and ensure that its services are developed and delivered as needed.

Focus on Human-Centered Design

Anello has seen greater interest in making systems more engaging based on how humans interact with technology. While traditional software primarily was built for function, employees now expect systems to be accessible via any device and user-friendly.

Empower Employees to Drive Innovation

Agencies want control over the innovation process, Anello said, and increasingly are using low-or no-code platforms that allow agency employees to develop secure, cloudbased applications tailored to the agency’s needs.

“You’re empowering your employees to be in the driver’s seat and build their future, design the systems they need to do their jobs,”

Anello said.

Leverage Technology to Innovate Securely With Agility

Great example of this trend is a case study from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), which uses ServiceNow for HR functions. When HHS was charged with confirming the vaccination status of its 80,000 employees, the department didn’t need to custom-build a new application. HHS used a product that ServiceNow had developed for its own use — and it went live at HHS in just three weeks.

Having entered a new paradigm, agencies are looking at the past, Anello explained, and asking, in general, “After getting value from digital transformation, perhaps other business process can be reevaluated and modernized to transform how government deliver services?”