With security clearance delays reaching all-time highs and employers struggling to find enough cleared candidates to fill open positions, Congress is feeling the pressure to act. Tomorrow, the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), along with The George Washington University, hosts Virginia senator Mark Warner for a discussion about cybersecurity and reforming the security clearance process.
Sen. Warner (D-VA) has proposed a bill in the Senate that seeks to streamline the investigations process and clear up the 700,000 backlog of investigations. The legislation focuses on cost transparency and reporting requirements, hoping more accountability will increase timeliness.
The Real-Life Toll of Security Clearance Delays
In advance of the event, NVTC conducted a poll of its members and their experiences with the security clearance process. Some of their findings were compiled in the infographic below:
- 85% of respondents said that delays in the security clearance process are hurting their bottom line.
- It takes an average of over a year to acquire a Top Secret clearance.
- 64% of respondents said they’ve lost job candidates because of their inability to acquire a clearance (It is not clear how many respondents included candidates who could not be considered because they were unable to wait out the security clearance process).
In addition, 78% of survey participants have said that the clearance process has negatively impacted their capture management strategy.
What do these numbers mean?
John Shaw, NVTC’s Research and Strategic Initiatives Manager, connected the dots for us on what exactly these numbers mean in practice. “The market has moved to where the major players in clearance-requirement contracting have moved to a buy-it-off-the-shelf model almost exclusively, meaning they no longer even consider an otherwise over-qualified candidate if they don’t hold an existing security clearance.”
One respondent replied, “We will no longer hire anyone without a current, active clearance. Most people who already have a clearance aren’t looking for a job so we have good, $100K+ salary positions that have been vacant over 6 months.”
Remember, this also means that when one company hires a cleared employee, another company loses one. That is a huge impediment to an industry that is already competing for the nation’s top tech talent.
The Numbers Don’t Say Everything
Some of the most interesting data from the survey can’t fit nicely into an infographic. When asked what survey takers were doing to mitigate problems associated with not having enough staff with the required security clearances, these were some of the replies:
- “Giving up on a hopeless process.”
- “We’re a pretty small company, so we don’t have many options. In some cases we are able to split cleared employee’s time across multiple programs, but that’s not always permitted. This is an area of grave concern for us.”
- “Hiring less qualified people with clearances to fill staffing requirements.”
- “Patience? Hell, I want to kill someone.”
Hopefully Sen. Warner and his colleagues in Congress will be able to reform this process and ease the frustration of candidates and employers.
