The new presidential administration has signaled heavily, especially with the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, that it will be extremely focused on finding efficiencies in and modernizing government. One place it can accomplish those goals while realizing cost savings is by modernizing federal human resources systems.

“There are some interesting metrics on how modernized HR systems can affect the bottom line. This is especially true when you’re looking at agencies that have dozens — if not hundreds — of legacy systems cobbled together. Running and maintaining all those systems is not at all efficient,” said Yoko Jolly, federal industry lead at CrossVue. “And some of the metrics we’re seeing in the private sector indicate that it is possible to achieve significant, double-digit percentage reductions in an organization’s operating expenses just by moving legacy systems to a single cloud-based platform.”

With the recent executive order freezing federal civilian hiring and additional executive orders expected to resurrect skills-based hiring and elimination of Schedule F, the new administration is signaling that they will massively restructure the federal workforce. And agencies will be expected to respond promptly.

The good news is that compared to five years ago, the government is doing much better when it comes to recruiting new candidates, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement on how much time the hiring and onboarding processes take. Candidates, especially those coming from the private sector, are used to much shorter wait times and more transparency in the overall process. They’re also used to smoother, better integrated onboarding processes once they’ve been hired.

And in their private lives, they’re used to more transparency as well. Think about anyone who orders a package online. They can now open an app or go on a website and track that package to know when it will arrive.

“The government is not giving its workforce the experience they expect,” said Ella Fitzgerald, executive vice president of emerging markets at Groundswell. “Their first exposure to the federal government is through its hiring and recruiting systems. That is the government’s opportunity to put its best foot forward. It’s a very similar feeling to people wanting to know where their package is. Job candidates want to know where their ‘employment package’ is in the process.”

Finding efficiencies and cost savings

Jolly said that according to statistics maintained by Workday, public sector organizations that implemented its Human Capital Management platform found on average an 81% reduction in time to onboard and an 83% reduction in time to fill open positions. And because it’s a modern, cloud software as a service offering, it reduces the need for government to maintain costly infrastructure required by legacy applications. That includes the cost of the hardware and hosting services, as well as the technology team to maintain it.

It also helps boost data security for the agency — HR data is personally identifiable information. That data, when held in a known, static on-premises location, is much more vulnerable as a target for digital adversaries than it is in the cloud.

“Some of the larger, three-letter agencies can have as many as 34 different systems or more needed to operate their HR. Even if you could eliminate 25 of them, that’s 25 different contracts that you no longer have to pay for,” Jolly said. “You’re consolidating not just the cost for operations and maintenance, labor, software licenses and even hardware and hosting in some cases, but you’re not having to expend precious government resources — contracts and program management staff — to administer those contracts.”

Automating processes

By adopting modernized HR solutions, agencies can also achieve time-savings and improve user experience by automating workflows and creating a better user journey. For one thing, automation can trigger communications through various channels when certain milestones are reached. That helps make the process more transparent for applicants, delivering the experience they expect.

Automation can also reduce the number of systems and trainings newer employees need in the onboarding process. While there are varying onboarding requirements dependent on agency and job classifications, there are common sets of requirements for every federal employee. A single system could collect an employee’s financial, benefits and personally identifiable information, along with other necessary documents and data.

It could also recognize certain steps in the hiring process. For example, a law enforcement agent might need a physical fitness test, and the system would forward it to them. Another federal employee might need regular drug testing as job requirement, and the system could notify them. At many agencies, different systems now handle these HR steps, and new employees therefore must learn to use multiple systems.

“The federal government is about each agency’s mission. They need to free up employees’ time to make sure they address the mission and not spend dollars and time recreating back-office systems,” Fitzgerald said. “Mission applications are very unique and require customization. But back-office functions like HR, finance and procurement all have pre-baked solutions available from industry at lower cost that are very secure and proven.”

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