(Don’t worry, I promise that this will be the last post on FedPitch…*grin*) 

The first annual competition to improve federal workforce management was held last week on the National Mall in Washington, DC.  It was a hot and sunny day and the sixteen contestants looked strange in their dress clothes when compared to the thousands of tourists streaming in and out of the Smithsonian Museums.  Nervous energy was in the air and it wasn’t limited to the presenters.  Many of the sponsoring organizations had been questioned in prior weeks as to whether an original idea from the ether could actually drive change in the federal workforce.  

The rules were simple – each “pitch” was limited to two minutes and the presenter could not use notes, wear logos, mention their parent company (if private sector) or do anything other than speak from their memory and heart.  I was slated to present last, which gave me ample time to drink two bottles of water and a large Gatorade (which unfortunately was the blue color, making it look like all blood had been drained from my lips).

Here was my pitch:

1. Research shows that organizations with positive brand identity have increased employee retention, higher productivity and larger recruitment pools when compared to those with negative or neutral brands.
2. The federal government and it’s workforce have three primary brand challenges – a) it is amorphous; b) it is impersonal; and c) it is disproportionately negative. (And yes, I know there are many more but keep in mind I had 120 seconds….)
3. To counter these challenges and improve brand equity and identity, two specific initiatives should be undertaken in parallel:

• Demystify Federal Value-Add: Begin to quantify the daily touch points that we citizens take for granted as consumers of federally produced “products” (such as weather forecasts, bank deposits, traveling on the highways/in the air and consuming untainted food) as a means of increased cognitive awareness.
• Localize and Personalize the Federal Workforce: With 90% of the 1.8 million civil servants not in Washington, DC, we have the opportunity to create campaigns that show government worker’s contributions as members of local communities, with real faces and real people offering real services.

The idea here is that increased brand equity and positive brand affinity would likely aid a rapidly draining federal workforce pool.  The Partnership for Public Service estimates a deficit of 530,000 federal workers by 2012, so this is a real exodus that needs to be addressed.

As you can likely surmise, I didn’t win.  The winner was a very nice young woman from the Office of Personnel Management.  She was a bit nervous but had a nice concept for creating an online career quiz that matches an applicant’s interests and work history to available government positions.  For those readers in the commercial sector, this isn’t revolutionary, but it is something that should help with the perceived and real complexity of the federal application process.  Her victory makes sense to me because – a) she works for OPM, the de-facto HR department of the federal government responsible for implementing such a solution; b) FedPitch needs a success to carry this initiative into next year; and c) the recruitment process must be streamlined to more closely parallel private sector approaches.

I really hope to see Miss Dingledine’s career quiz in production, if for nothing else than to prove that innovation, no matter how small, can be applied to the seemingly immovable federal machine.

Let’s keep the conversation going.