Attract Qualified Employees in a Shrinking Workforce
The workforce is shrinking.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America will continue a period of economic growth from now through 2014. During this time, employment is expected to increase by 18.9 million new jobs. Over this same period, almost 36 million workers are expected to leave their occupations, creating a deficit of employees that needs to be replaced.
Federal agencies have to deal with the additional burden of an unprecedented drain of agency talent and experience due to impending retirements. Dubbed “crunch time,”1 the next few years could find some agencies, such as the Energy, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments, losing up to 60 percent of their workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50 percent of federal employees and 70 percent of federal senior managers will be eligible to retire by 2010.
Several agencies have already taken a proactive approach to this dilemma. Determined to help “the federal government … win its share of the talent pool in the emerging seller’s market,”2 OPM Director Linda Springer said her agency is counterbalancing the exodus by stepping up college recruitment, beginning marketing campaigns and bulking up the Web site, www.USAJobs.gov.
Tap Into New Candidate Pools
Federal agencies must now target new candidate pools like never before. The good news is that the candidate pools are available if they are approached with the right set of benefits and accommodations to meet their needs. The Federal Times3 reports that young people do want to be federal workers. Millions of baby boomers are looking to transition to careers serving the public good after leaving their midlife careers.4 Both entry and mid-career workers are looking for benefits such as flex time, ergonomic programs, telework, retirement packages, health insurance, job stability, a swift applications process and flexibility when job hunting. Federal agencies are already ahead of the curve in offering many of these benefits but most people outside of the government don’t know this.
To attract new workers, agencies must advertise these benefits. This will involve changing marketing strategies. Joe Stiks, former manager in the OPM’s Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington offices, indicates that diversity is a critical aspect of HR planning and agencies should “take the opportunity to say we’re going to target our recruitment activities at certain segments that we know will increase the applicant pool.”5
When targeting people with disabilities, organizations are reaching out to young workers, baby boomers, racial and ethnic minorities, women and other diverse groups. Disability transcends all ethnic, racial, age and gender lines. A powerful marketing approach would be to point to examples of employees with disabilities who have already benefited from all that the federal government has to offer, thus showing all prospective employees what would be available to them. The IRS is already doing this with recruiting campaigns featuring IRS employees competing in the Paralympics.
Shorten the Recruitment Process
The time it takes to apply and get interviewed for federal jobs is a known deterrent to attracting new workers to the federal government. To attract more applicants, the federal government should use and market that they are using alternative practices such as special hiring authorities. This can be done under the current laws and policies. By hiring people with disabilities through Schedule A non-competitive hiring authority, the federal government can show that the hiring process does not have to be a barrier.
Increase your Workforce by Retaining Workers
Preparing the workplace for people with disabilities will not only help attract more applicants but it will also aid agencies in retaining their older workforce as these employees acquire impairments associated with aging. The strain on replacing workers can be alleviated by convincing valuable employees to stave off retirement, allowing federal agencies to retain their knowledge and expertise. With the right accommodations, people who acquire disabilities and impairments can remain on the job and be as productive as ever.
1 Stephen Barr, “Another Warning of a Retiring Workforce,” The Washington Post 17 August 2006: D04.
2 Linda Springer, “From the Director’s Desk,” U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 3 May 2007.
3 Daniel Friedman, “Young people do want to be feds,” Federal Times 11 December 2006.
4 Partnership for Public Service, “Partnership for Public Service Launches Effort to Stem Federal Brain Drain: A New Call to Service for America’s Baby Boomers,” 10 January 2007.
5 Laura Jeffrey, “Building a plan for your people,” Federal Times 28 September 2006.
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