The Next President: Four Generations and Seven Years from Now

[Federal News Radio]

Andrew Krzmarzick
Graduate School, USDA


The 2008 presidential race has been remarkable for many reasons. One of the most intriguing aspects of the contest has been the incredible diversity reflected in the candidates and their running mates. Consider the unprecedented role of gender, race and religion. Each of these elements has been present in previous elections, but never before has there been such a unique confluence of these factors.

While these three aspects of the race have received the most press, one may contend that the election will turn on a fourth factor: age. At 72 years old, John McCain would be the oldest, non-incumbent nominee in history to take the presidential oath of office. He represents the birth cohort born between 1901 and 1945 known as Traditionalists or Veterans. In selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (44) as his running mate, McCain has come the closest to placing a member of Generation X in the mix. Barack Obama, born in 1961, is on the cusp between Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and Generation X (1965-1981). Joe Biden (66), a Veteran or Traditionalist, was selected as the Democratic vice president.

After all the ballots are cast in November, age diversity will become unimportant as the new administration takes office, right?

On the contrary, the phenomenon of four generations in the workforce is likely to shape the policies of the President for another decade or more. Consider the following factors:

• More than 60 percent of current Federal employees are eligible to retire by 2015.

• Almost 90 percent of Federal executives will become eligible in the same time period.

• Two out of three Boomers have indicated in surveys that they will (a) cycle between periods of work and leisure during retirement or (b) not retire at all!

• Government fills just 15% of employment vacancies with external applicants

• Generation X and Y change jobs every 2.8 years on average

• Just over 40 percent of college students indicated an interest in Federal employment, but only 13 out of 3,000 college students felt “extremely or very knowledgeable about Federal employment.”

• The average Federal new hire (33 years old) cited “length of process” as the greatest obstacle that they faced in their Federal job search. These challenges also present an opportunity for the next administration, its appointees and career public servants to modernize government before these issues become major competitive disadvantages.

Adding to the list of recommendations for the next President at www.newideasforgovernment.com, below are some considerations:

1) Urge Congress to remove the annuity penalty so that former Federal employees under FERS can return to part-time work without losing their full retirement compensation – let the Boomers come back and work if they want!

2) Create an incentive for Veterans and Boomers to serve as volunteers/mentors: for those Boomers that are comfortable with full-time retirement and do not want or need the extra money from part-time work, reward them for sharing valuable information with their successors and contributing to knowledge transfer.

3) Mandate telework and flexible working schedules so that Boomers contribute from wherever and whenever they happen to be cycling between work and leisure, Gen X’ers gain the work-life balance they desire, and Millennials operate in a virtual environment that reflects their reality.

4) Call for the streamlining of the Federal hiring process - neither retired Boomers from private industry seeking encore careers nor new hires from Gens X and Y will wait two months for an answer to their application.

5) Incorporate Web 2.0/social media tools into business processes – blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking sites, YouTube channels, Second Life and many more interactive tools enable people to communicate across demographic and geographic distances. Think about your new hires listening to or watching interviews with Veterans and Boomers on their iPods and cell phones as a strategy for on-boarding and continuous learning or capture a repository of job-related information on a wiki that is updated once the baton is passed from one generation to the next.

6) Advocate for the Public Service Academy: a civilian counterpart to the military academies, this forum could become the nexus for seasoned Federal personnel to pay forward the lessons learned from long careers in the public sector to eager, able undergraduates.

7) Advertise available positions in places other than USAJobs.gov: while it’s nice to have all Federal positions in one convenient location, what if people seeking government jobs aren’t aware of its existence? A recent OPM marketing campaign deployed TV ads in strategic locations around the US…but why buy commercials for limited markets when well-placed banner ads on Google, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn will reach a much broader audience?

8) Emphasize that government provides the perfect combination of doing well and doing good: the widespread perception is that government jobs do not compensate on par with their private counterparts. That’s not true according to a recent study by the Cato Institute. Not only do government jobs pay better in a direct comparison of private versus public wages, but they offer excellent benefits, long-term security and a greater sense of contributing to the common good. Boomers can feel good about giving back and

Regardless of who takes the oath in January 2009, his ability to harness the power of a four-generation workforce will have a lasting impact on our government’s service to its citizens and our global neighbors.