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A Three-Year IT Plan |
Over the next three years, the Peace Corps' top IT projects will focus on collaboration and infrastructure.
2007: Create better systems for volunteer management and collaboration; improve telecom infrastructure
2008: Begin data warehousing and document management; initiate next phase of collaboration; enhance mobile computing
2009: Optimize certain IT infrastructure through a new computing model
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Touring With the Corps
If his staffers feel the strain of achieving Anderson's three-year plans as they and their colleagues openly interview for their next jobs, Anderson remains unfazed. After all, having worked in senior IT or business management roles for Iridium Satellite LLC, Sodexho and Accenture, he has seen a lot.
"Turnover is what we do. For us, it's almost planned termination or planned leaving," he declares. Anderson figures he's better off knowing about employee departures in advance. "If you wait until the jobs are ready to be filled, you're always reacting. And staff management is not something you can do reactively."
On the hiring side, the Corps has no shortage of applicants, which Anderson attributes to its unique status in the federal government. It was founded in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy as an independent federal agency with a mission to use American volunteers to help willing countries improve their basic infrastructure. As an independent agency, it is supposed to be able to pursue its mission without regard for changes in political climate.
In its early years, the Corps focused on teaching children and improving agricultural methods and access to clean water. Today, the agency's volunteers also try to improve AIDS awareness, IT infrastructure and local business development. It now has more than 7,700 volunteers serving in 73 countries.
Even though IT employees in the Washington, D.C., office aren't on the front lines, many like the idea that they support those who are. Anderson notes that he found the mission attractive enough to leave the private sector, where at times his annual bonus exceeded his current annual salary.
Others are drawn to the Corps as well. For one recent senior position, Anderson counted 100 résumés. Of those, 57 made the first cut, seven were invited to interviews, and only two -- both senior executives from private industry -- emerged as finalists.
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