The Department of Veterans Affairs is working to transform its approach to workforce development by actively recruiting outside talent and shifting to a more remote-friendly environment that favors enhanced flexibility, a senior VA official said during a keynote address at the GovExec Workforce Summit on Tuesday.

Nathan Tierney, the chief people officer at VA’s Office of Information and Technology—or OIT—highlighted the department’s ongoing efforts to recruit workers displaced by widespread layoffs across the tech industry in recent months, noting that “we’ve had an incredible opportunity to welcome more skilled technologists into our workforce due to the recent layoffs in Silicon Valley and other tech sectors.” …

As part of the VA’s effort to entice workers coming from the private sector, as well as to take advantage of teleworking opportunities spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic, the department is placing a greater emphasis on filling these types of more flexible roles. Tierney said VA has “now moved 63% of our OIT employees to working remotely,” adding that “if we fail to adapt to how we attract and develop employees, it can negatively impact VA’s mission.”

“We just cannot afford to let good people go, which is why we’ve got to focus on people,” he added. “We’ve also seen throughout the pandemic—and now that we’ve shifted more to remote work—that 44% of our OIT employees are actually working more than their normal duty hours, mainly because of the flexibility that is offered through our telework and remote work statuses.” … Read the full article here.