Two Pennsylvania state employees explain on this week’s Priorities Podcast how they’re accelerating the time it takes to hire new employees. Miranda Martin, director of talent management, and Harrison MacRae, director of emerging technologies, said that through a combination of process changes and technology, they’ve reduced time-to-hire from 90 days to 58 days. “Three months is just too long to compete for talent, so we got to work right away and looked at our processes and procedures and worked really hard to reduce that time,” Martin said. The state also used its ChatGPT Enterprise licenses to ensure that agencies were properly aligning their hiring needs with job classifications.

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Washington state’s technology bureau has partnered with the University of California, Berkeley to better understand how nonprofits in the state may be exposed to cybersecurity risks. Bill Kehoe, Washington’s chief information officer, said protecting nonprofits ensures that the public will get the best from their state and local governments.

Kentucky’s acting chief information officer, Jim Barnhart, has been promoted to lead the commonwealth’s Office of Technology as its statewide CIO. The promotion comes after Barnhart spent nearly two decades serving as the state’s deputy CIO.

And Maine lawmakers last week urged the Trump administration to unfreeze Digital Equity Act funds that they say are essential for the state’s future. Led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the group said that the rural state was depending on the $35 million it was set to receive to improve access to technology and skills training.

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