ACT IAC: 13 steps for hiring, keeping acquisition pros

A virtual cottage industry has sprung up in Washington around coming up with remedies for both agencies and industry.

Filling acquisition positions at your agency has been an ongoing challenge. The quality and quantity of talent available has generated a fight over people that often has the agencies coming out on the short end. And a virtual cottage industry has sprung up in Washington around coming up with remedies for both agencies and industry.

ACT-IAC is contributing to that body of knowledge with 13 ideas for recruiting and retaining acquisition pros. The leader of the group who put together a white paper on the subject is Jeff Shen, Vice President of Red Team Consulting. Jeff and I talked about the 13 ideas, including:

–hiring people who have degrees other than business degrees
–a referral program that pays bonuses to people who bring talent to agencies
–internship and mentorship programs and training
–using information gathered at exit interviews to amass data on why people leave the agencies
–rotational assignments that let people “recharge their batteries” at a different assignment
–good old cold hard cash – paying a premium to supervisory contracting officers for added responsibilities

You can hear the whole conversation with Jeff by clicking the audio link.

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