Photo By John Snyder | Watervliet Arsenal staff get ready for the job fair the arsenal conducted Jan. 19, 2017.... read more read more
WATERVLIET ARSENAL, N.Y. – As the youngest baby boomer here now turns 52, the arsenal must turn its attention to the generation that has taken over as the largest population demographic in the country — the millennials — to build the workforce for the future.
For nearly 50 years, baby boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964, were the largest population group at the arsenal. This fact should not be a surprise given that baby boomers by 1964 numbered more than 76 million in America, which was about 40 percent of the population.
But as baby boomers now leave the American workforce, as well as the arsenal, in significant numbers, there is a concern here, and to manufacturing centers across America, as to how to replace this talented group who have tens of thousands of hours of experience. Recent studies have shown that baby boomers are turning 65 at about 10,000 a day.
That leaves the arsenal now redirecting a lot of its recruiting efforts at what is called the millennial generation, those born between 1981 and 1997. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials now number more than 83 million and represent more than one quarter of the nation’s population. Given that American demographics have changed, the arsenal must change, too.
To reshape the arsenal workforce for the next generation of defense requirements, the arsenal leadership is placing a lot of energy behind workforce development strategies, which range from succession planning to the transfer of knowledge to a new workforce.
Whereas, succession planning has been ongoing for several years, earlier this month arsenal Commander Col. Joseph Morrow took action to provide for a seamless transfer of knowledge. He directed the arsenal to conduct a job fair.
At first glance, the fact that the arsenal participated in a job fair is not news. But what was new is that this was the first job fair conducted on the arsenal in more than 35 years.
Morrow said the importance of conducting a job fair here is that he wants to build the workforce of the future now, by leveraging the tremendous depth of skills that reside with those who will soon retire. He said that more than 30 percent of the arsenal’s workforce could retire in the next few years and he wants that retiring workforce to share their knowledge with a new generation of workers before they depart.
In the weeks building up to the job fair, that arsenal’s Director of Human Resources, Tina Pond, said she was a little concerned that the job fair may not interest a large number of prospective applicants. After all, the arsenal did not have any one who had experience in an arsenal-hosted job fair. And so, there was no historical record to help anticipate potential interest.
Nevertheless, Pond energized the arsenal leadership and staff to give their full support and boy, did it work.
On January 20, the arsenal conducted a job fair and more than 900 prospective applicants were met by the commander; the directors of Installation Management, Operations, and Human Resources; as well as by 25 other subject matter experts. The arsenal has about 100 positions in 36 career fields that are currently open or will soon be open.
This full-court press was a significant change in how the arsenal has built its workforce. The arsenal has participated in a large number of job fairs in the last few decades, but that participation was always off post and supported by a few human resource personnel. Having senior leadership and subject matter experts, from machinists to security officers, engage prospective applicants, allowed the arsenal to achieve great success as hundreds walked out satisfied with the information that they received.
The goal of the job fair was to offer tools, tips and advice to assist applicants with the job search process and to explain how to maneuver through the Federal and arsenal hiring process. Human resource personnel were available to discuss the current and future status of job openings that will be offered in nearly 36 different career fields. Applicants would still need to apply through the USAJOBS website at https://www.usajobs.gov/.
A few things the arsenal learned from this job fair; there is tremendous value in conducting a job fair on post because there is no competition with other businesses or government agencies for high-quality applicants and; that after more than 200 years of operation the arsenal is still perceived as a great place to work.
| Date Taken: | 01.24.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 01.24.2017 11:11 |
| Story ID: | 221141 |
| Location: | WATERVLIET ARSENAL, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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