Despite their “outsized” presence, according to the Pew Research Center, the baby boom generation, which peaked at nearly 78.8 million in 1999, will be eclipsed for the first time in 2015 by the millennials, who will grow to 75.3 million while the boomer cohort will shrink to 74.9 million.

In the August 2015 Public Management (PM) magazine cover story “Next Generation Professionals: An Inside Look at What Matters to Them,” a group of local government experts predict that this shift in workplace demographics will lead to significant changes among public sector workplaces. Government leaders at all levels, say these experts, will need to adopt a new mindset in which government becomes an employer that competes for top marketplace talent along with a variety of other public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations.

In early 2015, the group conducted an informal Local Government Workforce Study (LGWS) of younger local government staff members and concluded that these changes require a contemporary approach to workforce development that varies greatly from the “business as usual” approach often implemented by localities. The PM article describes how public sector recruitment and retention—and the ways in which governments proactively prepare their workplaces for the workforces of the future—will look altogether different than in the past.

Recruitment Practices

Two-thirds of the LGWS study respondents indicated that “making an impact on community/public service” was the number one attraction to serving in local government. Government organizations will need to respond by building a pipeline of valuable skill sets among all staff members, rather than simply attracting candidates to specific jobs. This will require them to proactively reach out to potential candidates through social media and web-based channels.

Mobile recruiting will also play an increasingly important role in future government recruitment practices.  Research conducted by Glassdoor.com in 2013 revealed that 82 percent of all job seekers use their smartphones to search for jobs. Less than a year later, that number increased by 7 points to 89 percent or nearly 9 out of 10 job seekers.

Using attention-grabbing ads to attract top talent has also become a necessity, since young professionals won’t respond to boring job descriptions. Consider attracting someone who wants to “….make an impact on [their] community by helping to fund services that will benefit [their] neighbors and friends” versus searching for someone with the “ability to understand statistics and research data.” Expediting the hiring process—even when it requires the completion of written exams or performance tests—is also crucial to maintaining the interest of candidates, as it demonstrates a sincere interest in the candidate and a willingness to customize the interview process.

Retention of Top Performers

Good management, culture, and the quality of coworkers were more important than compensation and benefits to more than twice the number of LGWS respondents who were asked what motivated them to continue their careers in local government. Eighty-six percent of employed workers are looking for work outside their current occupations, according to Fortune, and are essentially seeking their “dream jobs” in nontraditional careers. Because job-hopping today is less stigmatizing to a career than in previous years, nearly a third of employers expect employees to move more rapidly from job to job, as indicated in a 2014 study conducted by CareerBuilder.com.

This means that local government managers must look for ways to not only attract but retain top performers, including:

• Flexible work programs. Job sharing, flexible hours, and telecommuting can make an organization more attractive to women, millennials, and older workers.
• Relationships.According to Gallup’s State of the American Manager report, one in two employees leaves their job because of a failed relationship with their manager or supervisor.  Manager engagement is also an indicator of employee engagement, a phenomenon known as the “cascade effect,” and employees supervised by highly engaged managers are 59 percent more likely to be engaged in their organization than those supervised by disengaged managers.
• Workplace culture.  Nearly one-third of the LGWS respondents indicated that they want their culture to focus more on employee input and communication. The most commonly reported demotivating factor reported by respondents is poor organizational management and oversight.
• Professional development and growth. Forty-five percent of LGSW respondents indicated that investment in employee development by an organization in the form of leadership and professional development and training, coupled with growth opportunities, topped the list of things an organization could do to help employees advance their careers.
• Experiential learning. More than one-third of the LGWS respondents indicated that “general experience with management and leadership” was the number one skill they needed to improve in order to further their careers.

Changes

Government managers must proactively prepare their workplaces for the future, said the authors of “Next Generation Professionals.” Successful strategies include:

• Engaging in proactive workforce planning by analyzing current demographics and projecting attrition among not only older workers but all age groups.
• Partnering with local learning institutions to make staff development opportunities available to employees and to develop a pipeline of future workers through internships and apprenticeship programs.
• Evaluating paid-time-off policies that can provide the foundation for flexible work arrangements and create an employee retention “carrot.”
• Providing cultural awareness training to appeal to the desire among young employees to cultivate a diverse workforce and to send a signal that the workplace is a platform for the discussion of such challenging issues as cultural communication styles, giving and receiving feedback, and reviewing and assessing employee performance.

Listening to the employees of today who will soon become the government leaders of tomorrow is the key to effectively preparing organizations to maximize the great work of the next generation of public servants. Encouraging young professionals to understand the impact of their efforts on a community; increasing training, professional development, and involvement;  and banishing bureaucracy and outdated thinking are just a few of the ways government organizations can attract and retain a talented, highly motivated workforce.