Spies can not do business from home—and that’s the reason hurting recruitment in Germany.

“We cannot offer certain things that are taken for granted today,” Bruno Kahl, president of the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, stated. in a live-streamed dialogue monday. He known as recruitment a “major challenge” for the company.

Remote running is “barely possible” for the company’s employees for safety causes, he persevered, and the speculation of ​​no longer having the ability to take cell phones to paintings “is asking a lot from young jobseekers today.”

He famous a loss of recruits for sure roles in science and generation, cyber professionals and Arabic audio system, and stated the BND is the use of “new methods” to recruit inside particular goal teams. He additionally cited a contest for knowledgeable employees from different, better-paying employers.

“Just three years ago, before [the coronavirus], I could always say that we have 10,000 applications every year and can choose the best of them — which also wasn’t enough; even then there were deficits,” he stated.

The BND didn’t right away reply to The Washington Post’s request for remark Tuesday.

Kahl’s remarks seem to replicate a much broader call for for flexibility amongst more youthful employees for the reason that pandemic, as different intelligence businesses internationally adapt to new calls for of the fashionable group of workers and ramp up their recruitment ways.

Last yr, Britain’s 3 primary intelligence businesses—MI5, MI6 and GCHQ— introduced an finish to the requirement for candidates to have no less than one British dad or mum. Now they should handiest cling British citizenship, and MI6 says on its recruitment site that its “flexible working policy means you can work around personal commitments.”

Earlier this yr, the CIA stated that safety problems depart “few chances to work from home or any other unsecured location.” But the company added that it goals to reinforce flexibility in different ways.

The CIA has additionally attempted novel approaches at house and in another country, from publishing recruitment movies on Youtube to release a social media marketing campaign in Russian to recruit new spies, GCHQ (which stands for Government Communications Headquarters) common releases puzzles for participants of the general public who desire a sense of the demanding situations taken with its paintings.

The US the government has additionally been in quest of new tactics to draw ability, together with process festivals and extra internships, as its group of workers ages.

A YouGov ballot performed from August to September 2021 in 14 international locations discovered that 49 p.c of employees in Germany want to do business from home no less than one of the most time sooner or later. In the United States, the determine was once 66 p.c.

Working from house additionally comes with sure protections in Germany: In overdue 2021, a federal courtroom dominated that The path from an worker’s mattress to their table whilst running at house is thought of as a shuttle.