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It requires a specific kind of employee to pursue security clearance work. These individuals must embrace pressure and want to make a difference in national security. The constrained talent pool of cleared employees shows how unique this population is, and, on top of that, cybersecurity and technology roles in the intelligence community and government agencies require extremely specific skill sets. The rapid advancement of AI is accelerating this trend even further.

“The recent Executive Order on AI adoption is just the latest driver of talent demand in the security-cleared space,” says Andy Gill, strategic talent acquisitions lead with MetroStar, a northern Virginia-based digital services and IT modernization company focused on Federal, Department of Defense (DoD) and national security customers at the highest security levels. “The need for technical skills and security clearances means it’s more important than ever to not only find the right candidates but also to retain the cleared folks you already have and ensure talent mobility,” he adds.

How can staffing firms and HR professionals manage talent acquisition (TA) with this employee population and keep key positions filled? By emphasizing learning and development (L&D) opportunities, recruiters and TA teams can address both sides of this coin — recruiting qualified candidates and retaining valuable employees.

London, 31 Oct. 2024 – Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L), the world’s lifelong learning company, today announced it has acquired the assets of Revibe Technologies, a digital therapeutics company that has developed technology to treat children with attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

After many years of an arguably “hidden” status in schools, dyslexia has emerged as a critical concern in education thanks to parental advocacy and because of dyslexia’s far-reaching implications for a child’s well-being and educational success. However, while awareness and recognition have increased, dyslexia may still go unidentified or misidentified in elementary school classrooms.

As a speech-language pathologist (SLP), assessment professional, and parent, I’ve gained an acute appreciation for dyslexia and all the learning I’ve gathered over the decades from research, practice, and individuals/families. Yet, I continue to learn that many professionals still may not be comfortable identifying common symptoms which indicate the need for assessment and will open the door to effective support and growth.

As educators settle into their routines with the new school year well underway, I think daily about supporting teachers who often notice behaviors and student performance before anyone else. While I encourage all my fellow SLPs to step into the classroom and listen to teacher assessments often, I also want to encourage our classroom teacher colleagues (and the rest of the educational team). Here are some of the indicators that can help identify students who may have dyslexia so they can get the support they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Addressing misinformation and promoting evidence-based understanding

If you attended the 2024 ADHD Virtual Summit, you likely watched the ADHD Evidence Project Presentation by Dr. Stephen Faraone. Dr. Faraone is clinical psychologist, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and President of the World Federation of ADHD.

As we know all too well, school districts are grappling with a myriad of challenges — from staffing shortages to surging student needs. While schools are increasingly leveraging technology, how much can digital solutions really help ease the burden as we aim to provide the highest possible services to our students and school community?

Throughout my 25 years as a school psychologist, I’ve seen firsthand how the Digital Assessments Library for Schools can streamline assessments — liberating staff from time-consuming administrative tasks and freeing them to focus on what matters most: supporting students and driving better outcomes. Even more important, digital assessments help promote equity among districts and empower student growth. 

We’re seeing impressive results from those making the switch. In fact, my Pearson colleague Chuck Eberle, who is the Product Owner for Pearson's Digital Assessment Library for Schools, told me that we’ve had steady adoption rates, including by many of the largest school districts, since we launched our digital library in 2017. 

How do you decide whether the DALS is right for your district? We’ve put together this guide to help you figure it out.

The pursuit of equity in education has an important ally in Pearson’s Digital Assessment Library for Schools (DALS), which is helping level the playing field and provide the best outcomes for all students. Throughout my 25-year career as a school psychologist, I've observed how subtle inequalities in testing can have a profound impact, inadvertently creating barriers and limiting the potential of students. 

While all schools strive for equality, it can be difficult when practitioners don’t have access to the most effective tests for their students’ needs, often due to budget constraints. Here’s how DALS helps solve four common scenarios practitioners face.

With the proliferation of AI-driven recruiting software, it may seem that candidate screening is becoming easier than ever. But, for specialized employee populations — security cleared personnel, police and public safety officers, critical infrastructure employees and more — finding quality candidates can’t be solved with technology alone.

Some specialized labor pools are extremely small, like cleared employees. Other security-focused jobs are physically demanding and dangerous. These types of roles can present mental health challenges due to their high-stress nature. As a result, organizations across government and the private sector are struggling to recruit new workers.

Fortunately, there are tools available to HR departments and staffing agencies tasked with finding employees for high-security positions. Personality, behavioral and cognitive assessments complement existing screening tools and interviews, and they help identify potential employees with the personality traits needed for success in high-pressure or security-cleared roles. 

“High-security jobs inherently require a high level of stress management, adaptability and personal integrity in a candidate,” says Patrick Moran, Pearson’s director of sales for government and public safety. “Personality measures capture these and other key aspects of a person’s presentation of themselves in these unique workplace settings.”

Assessments can improve the recruitment process for high-security candidates in a number of important ways, including:

With the end of the Great Resignation, it may seem that employee retention is no longer a top problem for HR leaders. But in high-security industries — those involving security clearances, running critical infrastructure, managing private security personnel and more — retention remains a costly challenge.  

This specialized labor pool is small; for example, just over a million people have a Top Secret security clearance, and while that number seems large out of context, when considering the number of roles to be filled, it’s actually not very big. On top of the constrained candidate pool, hiring in these high-security industries is a laborious process complete with extensive background checks, identity verification and a specific set of skills required.  

The time and effort it takes to hire high-security employees and ensure they obtain the training and clearances they need for their jobs mean that losing an employee carries prohibitive costs and can leave critical roles unfilled.  

What can HR leaders do to prevent turnover in these industries? Competitive compensation packages are table stakes, particularly as inflation hits all sectors of the economy. But there is more to staying at a job than just the salary. HR leaders can utilize these five strategies to reduce turnover in this unique employee population.