Client: National Government Integrator

Our client, a government integrator supporting dozens of technical programs across the country with over a 1,000 employees. They are a Prime Vendor, providing complete network support for a large government agency for nearly 15 years in Missouri.

Consultants on the program include a large team of UNIX Engineers, Deployment Engineers, Cloud Architects, Project Managers, and other IT Professionals. All consultants are required to have an active TS/SCI Clearance when hired and need to wait for the government to cross their clearance over before starting in their job.

The Challenge

Though they had been running this program for 15 years, our client’s contract was coming up for recompete. Because of this, they had lost a number of long-term employees who were concerned about job security. This left them very short handed on a program that required 24/7 technical support.

Complicating matters, the positions were in a part of the country that did not have a local talent pool of TS/SCI cleared professionals. There were few other integrators and no military base in the immediate area. Many of the departing employees had obtained their clearance in the program and there was no one locally to replace them.

Even when they were able to identify a consultant to join the program, they were losing consultants who could not wait through the 8-10 week onboarding process.

The Solution

Our client reached out to us based on our reputation for delivering cleared technical consultants across the country. They needed a national reach to attract the type of cleared talent they needed. Softworld employs a national recruiting model and has developed an expertise in relocating cleared professionals for projects. It was obvious that we would be able to leverage our network of consultants, developed over 20 years, to identify and deliver the talent our client needed.

Softworld understands the difference between a regional and national consultant. Our national consultants regularly relocate for the term of the project and we have been successful in placing consultants in all 50 states. Softworld’s large team of working consultants are regularly spread over 35+ states at a time. Using this experience we were able to quickly develop a recruiting strategy to get our client back on track.

We met with a dozen hiring managers at the client in Missouri, setup a weekly position-review meeting, and immediately tapped into our network of cleared consultants. We categorized the positions into three buckets: Network Engineering, Project Management, and Technical Support. We then engaged the Softworld recruiting teams, who specialize in each of these specific areas, in order to deliver the talent.

Due to our expertise in clearance processing, Softworld’s FSO was able to work with the client to decrease the onboarding time.  Softworld was able to quickly maneuver through the clearance paperwork that needed to be submitted to the government. We shortened the onboarding process to four weeks which dramatically increased the retention rate of candidates waiting to start.

The Success

Within three months we were able to get our client back to appropriate staffing levels. Using thorough technical interviewing techniques, over half of the consultants we presented for consideration were extended job offers.

Softworld has filled over 70 TS/SCI positions on this program and employs over 30 active consultants on behalf of our client. For two years running we have been their exclusive staffing partner on this program. Our client has actually increased their workshare due to Softworld’s ability to fill their positions, negating the need for them to give those positions to subcontractors on the program.

We have become a strategic partner for them on the program and are working closely with them in their recompete efforts.