Strategic human capital planning in the federal government has never been as important as it is at this point in time. In a recent blog in which INPUT's Executive Vice President, Kevin Plexico discusses the government's reliance on contractors, he noted the struggle Federal agencies face in finding qualified personnel to support the increasing level of spending. Hillary Clinton's plan to reduce the number of contractors by 500,000 over the next ten years struck a chord of fear among many contractors, for good reason. This begs the question: who is going to step into contractors' place once Hillary Clinton pulls them out? As the government prepares for a new administration, let's look at the workforce environment from a number of angles:

1. On January 20, nearly 3,000 political appointees will leave their government positions. For seven departments, departing executives represent between 13% and 33% of their leadership teams.

OPM and the Chief Human Capital Officers Council are working to improve recruitment, hiring, and retention to help fill the voids that will surely be felt on January 21. One initiative establishes a 45-day time-to-hire model to address one of the loudest complaints among job seekers – the length of time it takes to land a government job. This is a critical piece of the puzzle considering the commercial opportunities that have attracted many talented workers away from government.

Considering the capability gaps in government contracting and IT program management, there needs to be a well-defined plan for filling the void. Many industry observers are urging the next President to avoid reducing the contractor issue to a "numbers exercise." However, playing the numbers game may be useful, as long as all of the numbers are included in the picture.

The INPUT Executive Program will be releasing its study, "The Federal Contractor's Guide to the 2008 Transition" on April 21, 2008.