Small Towns Address the IT Talent Gap with Outsourcing and Hybrid Work

Alan Shark, executive director of the Public Technology Institute, believes Naples is handling its IT challenges correctly.

“A couple of years ago, I issued a challenge, and I wrote a piece discussing 10 reasons why all local government should outsource IT,” Shark says.

“I didn’t mean to be right. I meant to set up a debate,” Shark says. “But I was amazed that everyone who wrote and called me said, ‘You’re right.’“

Why Local Governments Might Choose Outsourcing

“There are too many small local governments in today’s world that shouldn’t be running their own systems,” Shark continues. “Not because they’re not capable. It’s because of the threats. They can’t keep up.”

Many small towns have surrendered their own police and fire departments and instead rely on the county or another larger jurisdiction to respond to emergencies. The same economy of scale applies to 911 call centers, Shark says. It makes sense for these jurisdictions to pool their resources. And the U.S. General Services Administration manages the infrastructure for all federal government websites, Shark says.

READ MORE: Hybrid work boosts delivery of citizen services.

“I would love to see something similar on a state scale that looked at every state in terms of regions, and that’s going to be based on resources and population,” he says.

Still, Naples and other small cities should retain at least one key IT administrator as a public sector employee, Shark says.

“When you outsource everything, you lose touch with the requirements of all of the staff. And therefore, conversations with a managed service provider are more like a sales conversation as opposed to a service conversation.”

How Remote Work Helps Employees Balance Priorities

In Naples, CIO Hunter says the city helps his small staff manage operations in part through remote work.

“We’re happy to provide some remote work flexibility. Generally speaking, we like our people to be in the office as much as possible. Part of that is because we have a managed service provider that is 100% remote. From a communications perspective, being onsite as much as possible is helpful,” Hunter says.

In January, Cisco released a report on hybrid work in government that surveyed federal, civilian, and state and local government employees on hybrid work attitudes. The report found hybrid work appealed to employees, with 88% of respondents replying that they were “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with their current remote work arrangements. Eighty-four percent of the respondents said that remote work improved their work-life balance.

That’s how Hunter views remote work in Naples, as a way to maintain work-life balance.

EXPLORE: States experiment with hybrid work models.

“We use remote work as a way to manage our day-to-day activities. In other words, if someone has a personal issue going on, or if someone needs to be at home because a contractor is coming or whatever,” he says.

Naples’ IT shop supports remote work with Microsoft Teams.

“We leverage Microsoft Teams for not only the audio and video component but for the real-time collaboration pieces as well,” Hunter says. “We will use other collaborative platforms for smaller partner and vendor meetings, mostly for those that are partner- or vendor-initiated.”

The Cisco survey also found that 82% of survey respondents “feel just as productive or more productive,” working remotely as they do in the office. Hunter agrees with that sentiment.

“I find the more that we grant that benefit to the local team, the more we get in return in terms of work hours and quality,” he says.

How Small Towns Can Overcome Hiring Barriers

Small towns comprise perhaps 30,000 units of government across the United States, Shark estimates. When he talks to many of these small towns on behalf of the Public Technology Institute, he often learns they have only one IT staffer.

“I jokingly say they have ultimate job security. But there’s no room to grow. They enjoy what they do, but they’re afraid to retire because they don’t know how they could possibly be replaced. So, there’s an issue here about scale,” Shark says.

About half of those 30,000 small communities have only one to three IT staffers, Shark estimates. “That becomes a problem unto itself, both for governance in terms of attracting talent and getting the job done,” he adds.

In the 2024 EY Federal, State and Local Trends Report, 78% of responding state and local agencies said “it is difficult” for them to compete with the public sector for tech talent. Shark acknowledges that public sector salaries overall are not competitive with the private sector for IT jobs. And local governments may not have funds for robust training programs.

Still, small towns may be able to appeal to potential hires with quality-of-life arguments. Cities such as Pittsfield, Ill., have reputations for being great places to live with a low cost of living and pastoral landscapes. (Interestingly, Pittsfield does not employ a single IT staffer but instead outsources all of its IT operations to a managed service provider.) Small cities can also streamline bureaucracy, simplify job titles and descriptions and recognize employees for their accomplishments to attract and retain talent, Shark says.

Like larger jurisdictions, small towns also can abandon requirements for four-year degrees and still find qualified candidates, Shark says.