How a Tradition-Bound Agency Attracts Workers in the Flexible-Work Era  

BY Sheryll Poe | October 25, 2022

Workers are redefining work in the post-pandemic world, with expectations for more remote work options, a significant increase in pay and benefits, and greater work-life balance.

While all of these new worker demands can be a challenge for private sector employees, it can be near impossible for a government agency with 400,000 employees responsible for America's largest integrated health care system, according to the Veterans Health Administration’s chief of human capital management, Jessica Bonjorni.

“People are re-evaluating what’s important to them,” Bonjorni said during From Day One’s Washington, D.C. conference on how organizations can build stronger bonds of trust with their workers and their communities. “They’re looking for flexibility in how and where they do their work, which isn’t easy in a healthcare environment.”

Bonjorni spoke in a fireside chat with Sam Fulwood, dean at the American University School of Communication, to discuss how the relationship between employers and workers has changed and how employers can figure out how to compete for labor, whether it’s through compensation, total rewards, or a sense of mission and purpose.

Empowered Workers and High Turnover

While the VHA has a strong sense of mission and purpose that resonates with job candidates and incumbents alike, its charter as a government agency can constrain the agency’s ability to provide compensation and benefits that can compete with the private sector. The VHA, which is faced with thousands of job vacancies and high turnover, has to ask Congress to set higher pay caps and provide funding for expanded benefits.

“Right now, there are more jobs than people,” Bonjorni said. “There’s a sense of empowerment among workers and high turnover, especially among entry-level workers, many of who were able to shift to virtual work during the pandemic. That [job] loyalty is not really there anymore.”

Bonjorni emphasized “letting people talk about who they are and what’s going on in the world”

What the agency and HR professionals like Bonjorni can do, however, is focus on work culture. While the VHA can’t offer a 100% remote work option in most cases, some flexibility, for example working from home one or two days a week, makes a big difference, Bonjorni said. “Giving people some choice, some flexibility it goes a long way,” she noted.

The agency is also touting its growth and development opportunities as well as a commitment to employee empowerment. That includes investing in training and coaching for VHA leaders, as well as those in entry-level positions.

Tackling Tough Conversations at Work

Bonjorni pointed to VHA’s “Own the Moment” initiative, which reminds employees that they are in control of how they connect with one another and how they treat each other. “It’s important to bring your whole self to work,” Bonjorni said. With the recent racial justice movement, and changes and protests around social and ethical issues including voting rights and abortion, more employees want to feel free to discuss what’s happening outside of work, she noted. “Letting people talk about who they are and what’s going on in the world, which a lot of times is reflected in the streets outside my office,” allows employees a chance to be seen and heard, rather than just being treated like cogs in the machine, Bonjorni said. “We’re all going through something.”

The focus, Bonjorni said, is as much on retaining existing workers as it is on attracting new ones. “In HR, if feels like we are in a thankless job. What you can do is focus on retention doing ‘stay’ interviews rather than ‘exit’ interviews,” to figure out what employees need to stay in a job.  Keeping a worker is easier than getting a new one.

Bonjorni recommended that organizations can make existing employees happier by looking for ways to get rid of “administrative nonsense” and bureaucratic red tape, she noted. “People want to have hassles reduced in their lives.”

Sheryll Poe is a freelance journalist based in Alexandria, Va.

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