First ‘Whole of Nation’ Talent System Offers Flexibility

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is creating a digital talent management system to quickly pull in more expertise to its workforce, leveraging “gigs” or temporary opportunities. The platform, called GigEagle, is part of the lab’s Agile Talent Ecosystem effort, explained Brig. Gen. Mike McGinley, director of GigEagle. 

“With the Agile Talent Ecosystem, I’m looking to break down the stovepipes of our existing personnel system to allow our military to engage talent from outside, not just from another organization or a military service, but outside the Department of the Defense, to other federal agencies and beyond,” he said. 

The Agile Talent Ecosystem effort is an operational framework designed to be a whole-of-nation approach to national security talent permeability, accelerated by artificial intelligence (AI), Gen. McGinley stated. It creates an ecosystem of the workforce with relevant talent for national security. The second part, the GigEagle platform, implements the Agile Talent Ecosystem and is the first national talent marketplace in the Department of Defense (DoD). 

Inspired by the use of ride-hailing applications, Gen. McGinley launched the initiative in 2018 to match talent to short and longer-term opportunities, based on skill sets. The effort is meant to “unlock” the DoD’s supply of talent and break down the bureaucracy to provide more opportunities across all areas of the workforce—active-duty, reservists, guardsmen, civilian, academia, contractors and other industry experts, he said. 

The general purports that the Agile Talent Ecosystem has the power to transform future public service.

“Companies like Uber and Lyft were already using algorithms to match the demand signal with a supply of talent,” Gen. McGinley explained. “Why couldn’t the Department of Defense do the same thing with our own talent? That’s what began the Agile Talent Ecosystem.”

He envisions the system being able to assist DoD organizations that have rising needs—say, for example, when the U.S. military in 2022 saw that the Russians were using Iranian drones. The platform would help commanders rapidly assemble teams to help address the need.

“Obviously, the first step would be to look at who is on the current team,” the general stated. “GigEagle, this talent market, then would allow a commander to go in and say, ‘This is the problem I’m trying to solve’ and have the system present a list of additional people with the requisite skill sets. Somebody may be a Farsi speaker; maybe somebody else is a drone pilot. With all these people, you can identify those skill sets and then engage with them. And you can bring together a team in a matter of hours. That is unprecedented.”

To develop a prototype, Gen. McGinley’s team harnessed congressional funding and worked with the Defense Innovation Unit to adapt an existing commercial talent intelligence system for military needs. The GigEagle platform went live this past spring and is already pulling in warfighters. 

Phase One of the platform started with identifying Reserve and Guard components, bringing civilian skill sets to benefit active-duty missions—a natural fit, the general said. The second phase will expand to all active-duty members, DoD civilians and government workers. It will also strive to engage with members of the inactive Reserve. 

“Additional funding came in from the services and we now have participation from members of every service,” the general shared. “And we already started having cross-service support. In one project, we had a Space Force Guardian support the Army Reserve’s 75th Innovation Command with some data analytic work.”

Interested warfighters create a profile with the ability to copy the URL from their LinkedIn profile or upload their resume or CV. Then, they identify areas of interest and skill sets. On the other side, mission stakeholders identify the problem they are trying to solve and list the length of the ‘gig’ and the specific mission outcome or outputs they want to achieve. Mission stakeholders can communicate directly with interested parties, hiring multiple people, if needed.  

Naturally, warfighters need approval from their leadership to participate in the talent identification and matching processes before any mission is executed. Pay would be determined specifically based on the hours needed.

“Imagine a scenario where you could augment your own military unit with any individual in the country without the cost or the pain of hiring them,” Gen. McGinley noted. “Who do you pick? You essentially are able to create your own dream team, bringing in experts from diverse fields or unique skills. And at the same time, you can flip it and think, who would pick you? So, we are opening this up to members of the Department of Defense to do supplemental work. With supervisor approval, you can start to think about your own role very differently.”

For example, the importance of AI , especially generative AI, has put forth a whole new set of mission requirements and needs that the military must address. To identify and engage folks that have AI-related talents is imperative. 

“Some of those people will be in the DoD,” he suggested. “It could start off maybe with someone in the Air Force, or it could be a soldier or a sailor, and it could go beyond to someone in academia. It could be that MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] professor with specific skills in artificial intelligence.”

The general saw first-hand the demand for skilled workers when he was the director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) operations in Boston. “I was frustrated because we were a small office, and I could not match the demand signals that DIU was getting from all of our services with a supply of talent that we needed,” Gen. McGinley shared. “We had portfolios across artificial intelligence, human systems, space operations, and we were constantly getting asked to assist with specific projects in those areas. I knew the talent existed. I was living and working in Cambridge, and the talent was everywhere, but we couldn’t match it fast enough.”

Although every branch of the military has its own talent system, the systems are siloed. The DoD needs an enterprise-wide solution designed to allow permeability and access to talent across the entire department.

“It is not because America doesn’t have the talent—we do,” he specified. “The problem is that, especially for a country that prides itself on its speed, we are too slow to identify the talent that we have and to engage it.” 

In the third phase of the effort, Gen. McGinley’s bold notion is to apply it as a whole-of-nation human capital approach. “This means anyone would potentially have a chance to participate,” he said.

And for a nation that is shoring itself up against the challenges of Great Power Competition, such a tool could not come too soon. “We are in a war not just for talent but for talent superiority,” Gen. McGinley stated. “And the stakes of this battle are high. I truly believe the fate of Great Power Competition hangs in the balance.”

For more information on GigEagle, interested warfighters can visit https://gigeagle.mil/