[Infowarrior] - Cybersecurity codes being added to all federal job descriptions

[Richard Forno]

Cybersecurity codes being added to all federal job descriptions

Nov. 7, 2014 - 04:23PM   |  
 By AARON BOYD   |   Comments

http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20141107/FEDIT03/311070012/Cybersecurity-codes-being-added-all-federal-job-descriptions

By the end of 2015, the Office of Personnel Management plans to have every position within the federal government labeled with a descriptive code detailing the cybersecurity functions — if any — required of the employees performing that job function.

Federal employees active in cybersecurity account for some 4 percent of the workforce but, until recently, there were no standard job descriptions for the work being done. Prior to OPM’s efforts, there were no clear definitions on cybersecurity workflow in federal agencies and no baseline for hiring managers on what related skills were needed across a variety of positions.

“We needed to collaborate and coordinate our stakeholder efforts to more accurately answer the question: so what is the DNA of the federal cybersecurity workforce?” OPM Human Capital Strategist Lucy Antone said. “We knew it was not a single occupation but rather a work function of many federal occupations.”

An inventory of the federal workforce showed that more than 100 occupation series include jobs that perform a significant amount of cybersecurity work, representing around 1.6 million employees, or 4 percent of the workforce.

The OPM codes and framework — centered on definitions culled from the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) and other stakeholders — divide the cybersecurity functions into 31 specialty areas within seven work categories, as well as providing descriptive codes for program managers, supervisors and work functions where cybersecurity is not a significant part of daily operations.

Antone offered the Interior Department as a potential example of how this system could be used to make better hiring decisions.

“One of the ones that came up was Park Ranger,” she said, noting that most people think a Park Ranger’s duties lie in the woods. However, there are rangers tasked with ensuring that the critical infrastructure around the nation’s parks and monuments are secure, including the related networks.

“So once you put some ideas behind it, you can see that the Department of Interior would need some people who are cybersecurity people,” she continued. “Let’s say the Park Ranger code associated with this would be ‘exploitation analysis’ ... you would then code the position description for the cybersecurity data element — this position has this type of cybersecurity in the job description.”

When looking at applicants in the future, hiring managers at Interior would note the description code, match it to the detailed description within the framework and ensure that prospective candidates have the necessary skills to carry out the cybersecurity function.

Starting in July, OPM required all federal agencies to label all positions within their departments using the new cybersecurity codes. Antone said OPM has set a goal to have every position within the federal government coded by the end of 2015.


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