{"id":25958,"date":"2023-03-20T19:24:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T19:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/03\/20\/federal-cyber-workers-can-soon-rotate-among-government-agencies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:52:11","slug":"federal-cyber-workers-can-soon-rotate-among-government-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/career-management\/2023\/03\/20\/federal-cyber-workers-can-soon-rotate-among-government-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal cyber workers can soon rotate among government agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Biden administration is rolling out voluntary six-month and one-year rotations for the federal government\u2019s tech workforce to boost employee job satisfaction and share talent between agencies hungering for experts in IT and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program will allow federal agencies to \u201cborrow\u201d employees who specialize in cyber and allow them to work in temporary stints in other departments of the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such rotational opportunities align with the White House National Cybersecurity Strategy<\/a> \u201cto strengthen the federal cyber workforce by developing and retaining talent,\u201d said Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management, in a memo accompanying the release of the plan last week. \u201cCyber rotations help advance career opportunities and support employee engagement, satisfaction and retention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ability of the federal government\u2019s workforce to ward off increasingly complicated cyber threats<\/a> at home and abroad is hampered by large gaps in pay between the private sector and the rigidity of bureaucracy in the hiring process and in creating flexible workplaces, experts have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two thirds of the federal IT workforce is over 40 years of age, according to a 2020 report<\/a> by the federal CIO Council, and with agency-hopping displacing the workforce as it is, agencies are finding ways to \u201cwork smarter\u201d by enhancing existing jobs and streamlining hiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2022, President Joe Biden signed the \u201cFederal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act\u201d into law, which authorized OPM to lay out a plan for rotational tours of duty in the civil service. Lawmakers<\/a> supporting the legislation said at the time that the government must boost its \u201cvaluable opportunities to serve the country and defend cyber front lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t