TMP Government: Digital Marketing and Media Solutions

Turning Bloomingdale’s Buyers into Contracting Officers

TMP GovPortal

Ellis Pines, VP Branding,
TMP Government, LLC

Right now, you may well be facing one of the biggest challenges ever in government hiring: How will agencies find a new generation of contracting specialists and officers? An obvious answer involves casting a broader net, but where do you throw the net? Recently, a government human resources executive mentioned what may seem an unlikely source: "The buyer from Bloomingdale’s has the competencies we need."

This HR leader must hire for a high-tech command within the Department of Defense, which is quickly ramping up its contracting workforce. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has announced that he will be converting 11,000 contractors to full-time government employees and hiring 9,000 more government acquisition professionals by 2015, beginning with 4,100 in FY 2010.

That means 9,000 more qualified job seekers while government has been struggling to fill existing gaps in a declining acquisition workforce, beset by retirements and moves to the private sector. To meet the challenge, some government leaders think that the economic crisis, a difficult job market and President Obama’s “call to serve” should facilitate recruitment. After all, business and financial college graduates and early careerists might find the availability and security of government jobs irresistible.

TMP Government knows that mind-sets form a major obstacle to meeting this stepped-up demand. Our recent experience with many government agencies shows that most "business generalists," from student to mid-career level, know little about federal acquisition. In fact, very few business schools even touch on government issues. Hence, if business majors consider contract management at all, they may envision dreary, rules-bound duties, hemmed in by red tape.

Last year, the Federal Acquisition Institute set out to change this image and cast that broader net for job applicants. Under the aegis of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB), the Federal Acquisition Intern Coalition (FAIC) boldly says, "Be America’s Buyer." Based at www.fai.gov/FAIC, the coalition of participating agencies follows the invitation with three subhead imperatives: "Strategize. Negotiate. Innovate." FAIC then asks the reader, "Do you have the desire to make strategic business decisions?"

If business generalists have these competencies, FAIC and their hiring agency can train them in government contracting. Hence, federal recruiters might be open to sourcing from the untapped realms of retail. Here are some of the key competencies Bloomingdale’s expect of its Buyers:

Do those qualities sound familiar? That might be because they tally so closely with expectations of acquisition professionals. At a time when important government initiatives, such as the stimulus package, hinge on getting good people into contracting, casting a broader net makes sense.

"If there were ever a time when the already beleaguered contracting community needed a white knight, the moment is now," wrote Matt Weitgelt in Federal Computer Week in late March. Just days before Secretary Gates’ announcement, he referred to an anticipated "acquisition meltdown" as a limited number of federal acquisition employees must spend $787 billion in stimulus spending in a tight timeframe.

While pundits slice and dice near-term palliatives, government’s new era of responsibility has already called for the long-term solution: recharging the ranks of contracting specialists and officers with highly qualified recruits. And some of them just might be on Fifth Avenue.

TMP Government’s Ellis Pines, VP of Branding, discusses how to find the talent your agency needs at the Federal Acquisition Intern Coalition’s workshop: “Turning the best and the brightest into America's Buyers: Finding the right people for the future of Government Contracting." View video.