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FORT LEE, Va. (May 18, 2017) -- With more than 34 percent of federal employees able to retire by 2020, the government has to start enticing younger generations – including millennials and generation Z – to join the workforce.
A 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, “Federal Workforce: Lessons Learned for Engaging Millennials and Other Age Groups,” revealed that millennials (which included those 39 years of age and younger in the report) make up nearly 45 percent of the civilian labor force but only about 30 percent of the civilian federal workforce.
In testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Robert Goldenkoff, director of Strategic Issues, GAO, said federal agencies are facing critical human capital management challenges, and to be able to continue its mission, the government must recruit a top-notch workforce.
“The nation continues to face new and more complex social, economic and security challenges, and all of these issues will need to be addressed in an environment of a large and long-term fiscal imbalance that will put resource constraints on most agencies,” he said before the Senate. “To help ensure agencies have the capacity to address these challenges, it will be important for them to recruit and retain employees able to thrive in organizations that are flatter, results-oriented, and externally focused, and that collaborate with other governmental entities as well as with the private sector to achieve desired outcomes. In short, agencies need to be competitive in the labor market for top talent, including millennials.”
And it won’t be easy, according to George Beall, a consultant who has authored several reports about millennials and generation Z in the workplace. Generation Z includes the population beginning to enter the workforce – 18-20 year olds – like those just entering military service.
“One of the most important things to realize with gen Z and millennials is they choose where to work not based on ‘developing a career’ but on whether or not they enjoy working there,” he said. “Starting with millennials, young people began to realize, ‘Wait, I don’t need to count down the time until 5 p.m. and dread Monday morning coming each weekend.’ So, it is critical for managers specifically to focus on ‘company culture.’
“Building a strong company culture is hard and requires a truly honest conversation among the managers and with the employees, where honesty and solutions are rewarded and no one should feel afraid of saying their concerns,” Beall continued. “In short, make the workplace enjoyable, try to make it fun and rewarding, and help young people feel like they can own their work.”
This attitude shift from older generations is evident and impact a person’s goals, said Beall. Those identified as Baby Boomers grew up in the post-World War II era and are used to government benefits and a robust government.
“They lived during the rise of suburbanization and were sold on a very cookie cutter image of life and success,” he said. “Overall, they want a paying job, their Social Security check, a healthy family, a paid-off home and normalcy.”
Gen X grew up during the Cold War and Watergate and they are more cautious and risk adverse than their predecessors, said Beall, whereas millennials grew up during the dot-com era where anything was possible and people changed the world while making large fortunes in technology companies.
“Millennials, in this respect, are dreamers who care about enjoying their life, traveling, pursuing happiness and change rather than money, and are more willing to use technology rather than personal interactions,” he said. “Gen Z grew up on social media, which is a very different world from technology in the early-2000s, and experienced the brute force of the Great Recession as kids. They were forced to work and save up for things they wanted since money was not loose. In this way, they are just as entrepreneurial as millennials but in a very different way. They care about revenue and results, not necessarily chasing the next ‘unicorn.’”
One thing that is similar between the age groups, though, is their desire for authenticity and innovation in the workplace.
“If a young person works at a place that inhibits them due to a lack of technology, they will be more likely to quit and work for a ‘forward thinking’ employer,” said Beall. “Also, in line with authenticity, companies need to display a vision for what they are doing to keep millennials and gen Z interested in the work. They want to be excited about work and believe they are making a difference in pursuit of a larger goal, whether growing a company, impacting lives or what not.”
Part of getting the younger generations excited about the work they do is feedback and the supervisor-employee relationship is vital to the organization’s success. In Goldenkoff’s testimony, he listed constructive performance conversations, career development and training, work-life balance, inclusive work environments, employee involvement, and communication from management as the strongest drivers of engagement for all employees, not just millennials. But Beall said employers also need buy-in from those generations.
“It is not good enough to tell them to do something, if they do not understand why,” he said. “In line with this, know why you do everything you do. If you require everyone to wear a suit to work, think about whether that brings a benefit to the organization. If you do feedback sessions, know why you do it, how you should structure it and what your target result is.”
Additionally, Beall said, many millennials and those in Generation Z are turned off when organization hierarchy is the only thing that matters.
“‘Pulling rank’ is not a solution that solves problems, it ends discussion,” he said. “If the target result is ‘better engaging with customers’ and my boss blatantly ignores my opinion because he thinks I’m wrong and says ‘I’m the boss, we’re doing it my way.’ I will quit. That allows an extraneous and arbitrary factor to weigh-in on an important decision. As an employee, I would feel the company is wrong, my boss does not care about me or my contributions, and my potential to contribute to the success of the organization and own my work is limited. Some of the best companies have gotten rid of corner offices and even offices overall, because it is unfair treatment.”
While the hierarchy is impossible to dismiss in a government organization, focusing on the previously cited engagement drivers will help employers get their employees from all generations to support the mission.
“More than simply a goal in its own right, higher levels of engagement can enhance an agency’s ‘brand’ to job seekers, reduce turnover, and most importantly, improve organizational performance,” said Goldenkoff. “Moreover, while our analysis and the experience of our case study agencies suggests that developing a culture of engagement does not necessarily require expensive programs or technology, it does necessitate effective management strategies such as leadership involvement, strong interpersonal skills on the part of supervisors and thoughtful use of data.
“The starting point is valuing employees, focusing on their performance and career development, and ensuring their inclusion in decisions affecting their work,” he summarized. “These engagement efforts, combined with other components of a robust talent management strategy covering the full lifecycle of federal employment, provide an ample tool kit that should position agencies to be competitive in the labor market for top talent.”
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.18.2017 13:28 |
| Story ID: | 234311 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, 'Buy in' from younger employees vital to workplace engagement, by Amy Perry, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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