How can government cloud migrators wade through the talent uncertainty?

A blog post by Meghan Sullivan, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Malcolm Jackson, Specialist Executive, Deloitte Consulting LLP,  Joe Mariani, Research Manager, Deloitte Services LP, Pankaj Kamleshkumar Kishnani, Researcher, Deloitte Services LP 

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated government organizations’ adoption of cloud and facilitated the flexibility and scalability governments needed to meet the urgent challenges of the pandemic. These investments have rapidly introduced the many benefits cloud can offer to government organizations that were once hesitant to leverage cloud, leaving them with the decision of how best to use cloud to accomplish their mission.

Our latest Deloitte Insights report, Don’t just adopt cloud computing, adapt to it, cites that 70% of state and local government executives prefer the cloud environment for hosting citizen and mission data.[1] Sixty percent of state CIOs aim to leverage cloud by expanding their managed services model over the next three years.[2]

But to fully adapt to a cloud-first culture, government CIOs and technical leaders must address a talent gap—a reality of any technology modernization. As agencies shift to how cloud is most effectively used, they must also prioritize attracting new talent, reskilling existing workers, and retaining hired talent to get the most out of cloud.

Cloud helped mitigate a global health crisis, but what’s next?

Everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to work remotely. To keep their biggest asset—people—safe, organizations were quick to adopt remote working protocols and leveraged cloud technology to combat the unprecedented challenges the pandemic introduced to their organizations. While many government organizations had previously invested in cloud, those investments were often piecemeal. The past two years rapidly accelerated adoption and forced many agencies to adopt cloud at scale to meet the flexibility of demand from the pandemic.

Additionally, cloud has helped organizations to not only continue business during COVID-19 but also create tools to combat the virus itself. The cloud-based National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) platform helped set up an extensive database with more than 10 billion rows within weeks.[3] Government researchers and commercial firms could exchange ideas, data, and observations that helped identify possible treatments.

While these advancements are indeed impressive, to fully harness the brilliance of cloud in the long term, having an updated technical inventory is not enough. A workforce with cloud fluency that extends beyond the IT department and with a virtual mindset is imperative to success.

When technology needs are evolving, how can talent strategy be business-as-usual?

Technology modernization requires human intelligence, because even the best technology is useless without the right people involved. Now that many organizations have transitioned from legacy systems to cloud in record time, they’re now facing talent gaps that make the widespread adoption of cloud within an organization more challenging:

1. Skill shortage: To achieve cloud maturity, agencies need cloud-fluent people. Training employees in software-as-a-service and as managed service providers is important, but digital transformation often transcends the IT department. For instance, it’s equally important to build basic cloud fluency in the financial management staff who handle budget, contracts, and operational processes. This way, they can prevent unnecessary spending on physical assets if cloud can serve as a cheaper and more efficient alternative.

2. Competitive talent landscape: Even if the public sector succeeds in training or attracting the talent needed, they are competing with the commercial sector for their cloud talent, such as IT and professional services (see figure below). Therefore, government could easily find its employees tempted to leave the public sector for higher salaries and better growth opportunities in commercial industries.