After implementing a plan late last year to recruit high-skilled workers displaced by layoffs across the technology sector, the Department of Veterans Affairs is using the start of 2023 to further hone its talent acquisition initiative, in an effort to fill a number of vacancies across its Office of Information and Technology.
VA officials previously spoke at a media roundtable in December about the department’s efforts to actively target professionals laid off by tech companies amid a downturn in the sector, noting that the sudden flood of talented workers on the job market coincides with the VA’s focus on modernizing and transforming its IT systems. Giant tech behemoths and small startup enterprises alike have both experienced widespread layoffs, with Amazon announcing earlier this month that it plans to lay off 18,000 workers…
While the number of tech-related vacancies within VA was pegged at around 1,000 during December’s media roundtable, Tierney said the department’s hiring initiative has already helped to narrow that gap—an approximately 25% reduction thus far—with VA expecting that number to continue decreasing as it works to bring on more high-skilled talent throughout 2023. These openings include a range of tech-focused positions, from user-experience designers to cybersecurity professionals and engineering leads.
“We have been successful over the past month in our talent acquisition approach and as a result have reduced our vacancies to 744, and another 178 are pending onboard to the [Office of Information and Technology],” he added, noting that there are also “361 more candidates in the pre-selection stage.” … Read the full article here.
