This week, The Buzz presents a session from our first ever Future Evolution of the Workforce Forum.For decades, the Government has competed with private industry for talent by offering what were generally perceived to be better benefits, job stability, improved working environments and a greater sense of fulfillment via a sense of purpose built around agency mission. Unfortunately, workers entering the job force today do not universally perceive government employment as offering those benefits. New entrants into the job market have a very different perception of their government than previous generations, and new ideas about the relationships between employers and employees, and about how work fits into their lives and lifestyles. Agencies failing to recognize and address those changes will not succeed in attracting, hiring, or retaining the world-class workforce they need to accomplish their missions.This panel will discuss the expectations of new entrants to the job market and what OMB, GSA and some agencies are doing to meet them. Speakers:Joe Paiva (Moderator) - Creator and Host of Federal News Network's "A Deeper Look"Javier Inclán - Assistant Inspector General for Management and CIO at the National Science Foundation OIGRocio Bauer - Deputy Assistant Secretary of Army (Data, Engineering and Software)Tony Brannum -Associate CIO at USDA

Last month marked the 1-year anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The somewhat simple name belies the breadth and scope of this enormous piece of legislation. Among other changes like tax code and Medicare reform, the IRA is also the most comprehensive piece of US climate policy in history, and it contains a dizzying number of new programs and incentives that seek to reorient the US industrial base and economy towards green infrastructure. Despite the bill's potential impact, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll revealed in August that 71% of Americans surveyed know "little to nothing" about the IRA. This week on The Buzz, we're trying to change that.  Our guest is Grace Smith, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund who, along with colleagues at Columbia Law School, maintains the Inflation Reduction Act Tracker. She’ll help get us up to speed on what's in the IRA, how implementation is proceeding, and what’s coming next. Also check out Rewiring America's IRA Savings Calculator!For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

This week, we present our season finale of How Government Built This! This year, our theme was "Strengthening and Empowering our People and Culture", and we looked at how applying the principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) can promote innovation within an organization.This week, our guest host is Jennifer Lasko,  Human Resources Specialist and DEIA Advisor at the Bureau of Fiscal Service. She's joined by Melanie Krause and Justin Marsico to discuss how supporting employees in their training and upskilling efforts benefits everyone.   Melanie is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at the IRS while Justin serves as the Chief Data Officer at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service  Thanks for listening to this season of How Government Built This, a miniseries produced in partnership with the Bureau of the Fiscal Service's Office of Financial Innovation and Transformation. For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2023 Climate Change Summit. DoD, DHS, and the State Department have long recognized that climate change’s impacts - including sea level rise, weather-related challenges to installations and operations, and forced migration - can significantly threaten our national security.  In January of 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14008 that declared climate change to be an essential element of national security and directed agencies to integrate climate considerations into their operations.  This discussion will highlight the science, risks, and realities that DoD, the Coast Guard, and the Statement Department are wrestling with as they implement their climate adaptation plans and frameworks and incorporate consideration of climate change into future planning.  Speakers:John Conger (Moderator) - Director Emeritus, Center for Climate & SecurityChelsea Cervantes de Blois, Ph.D. - Climate Security Analyst, U.S. Department of StateCandace Nachman - Senior Oceans Policy and Program Advisor, U.S. Coast GuardEster Sperling - Senior Climate Advisor, U.S. Air ForceSubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org. 

As detailed in the President's Management Agenda and Executive Order 14058, a major priority of the current administration has been to improve government service delivery to the American public. The challenges of receiving federal benefits have been well-documented - from confusing paper applications to unclear responsibilities between multiple federal agencies - and so a reform effort is underway to make service delivery faster, more effective, and more human-centered than ever before. Out of this effort has grown the Life Experiences Project - a framework that focuses on the major life events where Americans have the greatest need to interface with the federal government to help them navigate these challenging moments. These are make-or-break opportunities where a positive experience accessing services will do a world of good, but a bad experience can be ruinous. In this miniseries, The Buzz will be exploring the five major life experiences that CX teams from the US Digital Service focused on as a part of this project in collaboration with their agency partners. This week, we're kicking things off by looking at how new parents interact with the federal government to help them handle the trials and joys of having a child. We're joined by OMB's Federal Customer Experience Lead Amira Boland to introduce us to the framework, as well as Maya Mechenbier, the Birth and Early Childhood Project Lead from the US Digital Service. Resources:Having a Child and Early Childhood Overview at Performance.govJoin the team at USDS!Executive Order 14058 on Customer ExperienceThe Biden-Harris Management AgendaSubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.