Next Generation of Hires Must Be Cultivated Quickly and Differently, OPM Chief Says
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
|
The government will likely face a "retirement tsunami" in the next few years and needs to begin taking steps now to expand employment opportunities for the next generation of public servants, the director of the Office of Personnel Management said yesterday.
Linda M. Springer said that 60 percent of the government's 1.6 million white-collar employees and 90 percent of about 6,000 federal executives will be eligible for retirement over the next 10 years. OPM projects that the high-water years will be 2008 through 2010, as baby boomers and others leave Uncle Sam.
"So what we are looking at, essentially, is a very different, a very new set of people who will be here eight, nine, 10 years from now. The time to think about that is now, not then," she said at a breakfast forum sponsored by the Council for Excellence in Government and The Washington Post.
Springer acknowledged that retirements can be tricky to project. Such events as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and personal decisions about saving more for retirement often prompt federal employees to stay in their jobs longer than expected, she said.
But, she added, her visits to field offices often include talks before audiences where almost all of the federal employees have more than 20 years of service, a sign that these offices will face substantial turnover in the next few years.
That makes it imperative for OPM to come up with strategic plans for the federal workforce and how career patterns may change in the future, Springer said. The government cannot afford to be caught by surprise, assuming that it can easily recruit a new generation of employees interested in a federal career that spans decades, she said.
"Do we expect that we are going to be replacing this type of traditional career pattern? Will that still dominate in this new population that we have, once we get beyond the crest of the wave? We don't think so. We think the population of the federal workforce will be different," Springer said.
The federal workforce of the future will likely include a mix of career patterns that permit increased mobility, require different kinds of training and encourage more flexibility by managers, Springer said.
Some agencies, she suggested, are hiring more mid-career professionals from the private sector and may take more interest in hiring people who have made their mark in the private sector, are near the ends of their professional lives and would like a chance to use their expertise on behalf of public service.
Mid-career and late-career hires will not be looking for the same kind of training as younger hires and probably won't face steep learning curves, she said. They may be looking for work or resources that only the government can offer, or they may want the satisfaction of helping push a special project to completion, she said.
Some experts might move from agency to agency, serving as short-term project managers for new technology or financial systems, she said. Others may want to move in and out of government "to get the best of both worlds," some may want to work odd hours and some will telecommute, Springer said.
As the government offers more flexibility in employment conditions and careers, it may even become "a different kind of environment" that needs to rethink job benefits and their portability, especially in the area of pension benefits.
The forum's moderator and president of the council, Patricia McGinnis , suggested that many flexible career options, including jobs that allow parents to work from home, are not possible or can be used only in limited circumstances. She asked Springer what needs to change to take advantage of nontraditional work opportunities.
"The first thing that needs to change is our mind-set," Springer said. "We can't say this can't be done. . . . Everyone is going to be looking for talent, and we've got to be competitive. So we don't have a choice."
Diary Live Today
Robert F. Danbeck , an associate director at the Office of Personnel Management, will take questions and comments about the 2006 OPM Federal Workforce Conference at noon today on Federal Diary Live at http:/
E-mail:barrs@washpost.com
