GovExec Daily

The COVID-19 crisis brought a potential reshaping of the way people approach work. A recent Microsoft survey found more than 40 percent of the workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer within the next year. Perhaps organizations can adjust to this new normal by creating a more connected culture by increasing emotional compensation.

Michael Lee Stallard is a GovExec contributor and the co-author of the book Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, now in its second edition. He has a post on our site right now headlined "To Cope with the Labor Shortage, Raise Emotional Compensation" He joined the podcast to discuss emotional compensation and how it affects team connectedness.

When President Joe Biden announced last week that on-site feds would have to "attest" that they have been vaccinated or submit to regular screening for COVID-19, he did not specify how the testing would be administered or how the attestations would be executed.

GovExec reporter Eric Katz joined the podcast to discuss the testing administration and vaccine mandates in the federal government.

The House last week passed, on a 219 to 208 vote, a package of fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills. Absent in the package is mention of a pay raise for feds, of which there are two proposed numbers. The minibus now heads to the Senate.

GovExec senior reporter Erich Wagner covers the federal workforce. He joined the podcast to discuss the pay raise and other stories that affect federal employees.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced that federal employees who work on-site would have to "attest" that they have been vaccinated, or agree to wear masks at all times and submit to regular screening for COVID-19. Visitors to federal facilities will have to also have to abide by the mandate.

Courtney Bublé writes the Coronavirus Roundup on GovExec.com. She joined the podcast discuss the vaccine rule and other COVID-19 stories.

The ways that people interact with government have changed quite a bit with changing technology and the pandemic has moved many interactions online. But, those interactions can be dicey and the relationships between customers' expectations of and experiences with government digital service delivery. A new report from Salesforce and the Boston Consulting Group entitled The Global Trust Imperative looks at how digital interactions transform the citizen experience with government.

Casey Coleman is Salesforce SVP of Global Government Solutions and the former CIO of U.S. General Services Administration. She joined the podcast to talk about the Global Trust Imperative and the connection between digital services and trust in government.

Each year, National Whistleblower Day is observed on July 30 to commemorate the first American whistleblower protection law, a resolution passed by the Continental Congress in 1778 after ten whistleblowers reported wrongdoing and abuses committed by a superior officer in the Continental Navy. Since the beginning of the United States, whistleblowers have been an integral part in government oversight and accountability.

Irvin McCullough is a National Security Analyst at the Government Accountability Project. He joined the show to discuss National Whistleblower Day and the state of whistleblower rights.

The pandemic shut down government offices nationwide seemingly overnight in the spring of 2020. Agencies had to reorient their way of managing, resiliency and planning in the face of uncertainty that came with the COVID0-19 crisis. Government financial professionals bore the brunt of much of this planning.

Ann Ebberts is the CEO of the Association of Government Accountants and was previously a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. Tony Scardino is a Grant Thornton Managing Principal and was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They joined the show to discuss the joint AGA/Grant Thornton report in the CFO Survey Series, The COVID-19 Challenge: CFO Views on Organizational Resiliency in Pandemic Conditions.

Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management issued guidance for agencies to begin to implement their reentry and post-reentry places for feds. Remote work and hybrid work will be a part of the post-reentry future for agencies, but one agency has been a telework model since before the pandemic. The Patent and Trademark Office embraced telework long before the pandemic, starting in 1997 with 18 attorneys working remotely. In 2019 before the pandemic, the agency had 11,000 employees regularly working remotely at least one day a week. As such, the agency had the experience to move seamlessly to maximum telework in March 2020.

As part of a panel during Government Executive and Nextgov's Future of Work event recently, I spoke to Danette Campbell, Director of the Telework Program Office at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Campbell discussed managing a hybrid workforce, the pandemic's effect on telework and how her agency manages the complications of remote work.

In the months since the COVID-19 vaccines have become available, the number of eligible Americans who have received shots has fallen short of the White House's 70% goal. The administration has decried public disinformation on traditional and social media, targeting it as a reason for the recent slow vaccination percentage increases.

The University of South Florida recently conducted a survey to measure exposure to misinformation and common objections to vaccination and the researchers have a post on our site right now about the survey results and how public officials can overcome vaccine hesitancy. Stephen Neely, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Public Administration at the University of South Florida's School of Public Affairs. He is one of the co-authors of a post on our site about the research headlined "To Overcome Vaccine Hesitancy, Public Officials Need to Get Creative." He joined the show to discuss the post and the survey results.

The political and social divides in the United States are deep and can affect relationships in all parts of someone's life. The COVID-19 crisis has brought new divisions into these relationships around the pandemic itself. As workplaces reopen, employers and employees will have to navigate a new environment.

Leslie Parker is a partner based in the San Francisco office of the management consulting firm Kearney and a member of the firm's Operations and Performance practice. She also chairs the global strategy and management consultancy's People Committee of the Kearney Board, which covers Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in its agenda.She is the author of the Kearney article, "COVID brings the "culture wars" off Twitter and into the workplace." She joined the podcast to discuss her post and how to navigate culture wars around COVID-19 in the workplace.