Among leadership observations, hybrid work has been normalized to a large degree after decades of discussion. Recognizing those who have roles that can be performed outside of the office, understanding how to connect with employees and attracting new workers across the state were discussed.
Below are some of the responses from the daylong event.
Daniel Avitia, executive director, Texas Department of Motor Vehicles:
“We have an amazing workforce that showed us that the doors can stay open and that business can continue every day.”
“I like where we are today. ... We’ve identified who has to be in the office, who can continue teleworking, and where it’s absolutely necessary for recruitment and retention to make a position — not the person — 100 percent remote or some variation thereof.”
Brooke T. Paup, chairperson, Texas Water Development Board:
“I have half my workforce that still work at home a few days a week, and they’re very happy doing that. I think it’s actually given us a lot of opportunities. For recruiting, [some] really look for that flexibility, and I’m happy to be able to give it to them.”
“Being able to let someone work at home occasionally is a wonderful thing to offer them. You know, we’re at about, what, a 12 percent vacancy ... and I know most of the state agencies have a lot of vacancies. We can’t pay what the private sector pays, and Austin is extremely expensive. Any tool that we have for recruitment we need to utilize and use.”
Anh Selissen, chief information officer and director of the IT Division for the Texas Department of Transportation:
“The pandemic really made me realize: How strong is the culture of your organization? Is it strong enough to be able to deal with something that took two years of our lives?”
“We had great leadership at the top. And that great leadership bonded us and gave us a perspective of where he wanted to go, and what he wanted to do, and how he wanted to roll out, you know, the safeguards for the pandemic, and I think it really showed great leadership so that we were steady.”
Cecile Erwin Young, executive commissioner, Texas Health and Human Services Commission:
“I do think one of the challenges of telework is it’s very difficult sometimes to spot talent if you’re not around people, and I really think that you have to be more intentional about how you recognize upcoming talent.”
“And then, the teamwork can sometimes suffer. You have to really work at that — it can’t just be something that you assume is going to happen.”
*The IT Leadership Forum is put on by Government Technology, a sister publication of Industry Insider — Texas.
