Contact Jordan LaPier Director (202) 495-3320 jlapier@ourpublicservice.org Personnel, retention challenges facing the federal workforce February 14, 2019 According to a new report released by the Senior Executives Association, there are some wide-ranging workforce issues affecting the federal government. These include an increase in political appointees at agencies, and a “brain drain” from skilled federal workers retiring. Mallory Barg Bulman, vice president of research & evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, says that finding the talent that the federal government needs is going to be very difficult.