STATE VP VOICE | BY HUI JUN TINA WONG Contact: wong@afsa.org | (202)-647-8160 State’s Talent Retention Objectives Many of our members tuned in to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director General Marcia Bernicat’s Talent Retention Townhall on Sept. 4, when they unveiled the department’s first Talent Retention Plan. The plan, a 41-page report available on the State Department intranet, documents findings from a three-year investigation into retention and employee experience challenges at the State Department. According to the preamble, “the Plan [is] an important step in re-establishing the department’s reputation as an employer-of-choice for a talented and diverse workforce.” Let’s take a closer look. This Talent Retention Plan is changing the conversation about how our institution understands the employee experience in the department. Its authors acknowledge that economic officers, Pickering and Rangel Fellowship alumni, women, and Black Americans (especially women), as well as women across all Foreign Service specialist tracks, have been experiencing higher levels of regrettable attrition (the loss of talented employees due to job dissatisfaction) than average rates when compared to other employee categories. The plan recommends the prioritization of improvements in professional growth and development, more equitable and transparent talent management systems, stronger management and leadership training at mid- and senior-levels, family support for FS employees, advancement of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) principles, and support of workplace and career flexibilities. Unfortunately, many of these recommendations are conceptual rather than actionable, and do not include any office/bureau commitments, budgetary allocations, or specific objectives. AFSA sees the need for the department to communicate these specific details to the entire workforce, including and especially in the appendix, called “the Talent Retention Action Plan,” which has not been made available to AFSA or employees. I have urged State Department leaders to share that specific action plan this fall. AFSA is excited about partnering with the department to advocate for the resources to build out an ambitious Talent Retention Plan, and it is vital that our union is part of this journey every step of the way. I understand our members remain frustrated about vital programs that have been held back from the workforce, such as emergency backup care or the ongoing concerns about slow promotion rates for our FS-3s and FS-2s across generalist cones and mid-rank specialists. Our common sense of mission must combine with tangible career growth and attainable career paths for our dedicated and talented workforce. Too often we hear from employee organizations and individual members that the department does not get that recipe right. Many of the bureaucratic processes inside our institution make it seem like our talent retention objectives perpetuate redundancy and internal hurdles rather than building collaborative systems and providing workforce opportunities that pave the way to a truly modern and nimble Foreign Service. I do want to credit the plan’s acknowledgment of the need to seek more representation across our department to reflect the diversity of the United States, particularly striving to meet U.S. workforce demographic benchmarks. I also strongly endorse recommendations to strengthen recruitment and training of our workforce in critical skills areas aligned with the Secretary’s Modernization Agenda. However, many other areas outlined in the plan, such as “workforce management” and “succession planning,” appear to fall short in addressing real resource constraints and existing bureaucratic hurdles. When our workforce is busy dealing with one global crisis after another, while they are trying to navigate unnecessary hurdles such as pet importation restrictions or payroll issues outside their control, there is no space to decompress, engage peers at the working level, or study lessons learned. The bottom line: we need peer learning platforms to learn from both our policy successes and failures, and we need to build a culture that values and fully realizes employee talents. Employees want to see more than just the Talent Retention Plan, and we have a lot more to get done together. n AFSA NEWS Many of the bureaucratic processes inside our institution make it seem like our talent retention objectives perpetuate redundancy and internal hurdles rather than building collaborative systems. 64 NOVEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL
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