Beating the Brain Drain: States Focus on Retaining Older Workers; Finding Replacements Won’t Be Easy
In a 2014 report, Missouri state employees said that the BackDROP program had been an incentive for them to stay on the job. Some used the money to pay off debt, while others put in savings for their children to inherit, something that they cannot do with traditional pension plans, Curl said.
But in 2010, legislators amended the program. Employees hired after Dec. 31, 2010, aren't eligible to participate in the program.
Public sector employees skew older than private workers. In 2013, 52 percent of full-time federal, state and local public employees were between ages 45 and 64, compared to 42 percent of full-time private sector workers, according to the Congressional Research Service. Fifty percent of state workers and 52 percent of local government workers were in that age group in 2013.
And states and local governments have already seen their workforces shrink in the past decade, thanks to budget cuts enacted during the Great Recession, according to the Center for State and Local Government Excellence.
State agencies also cut back on training and development programs, NASPE’s Scott said. As a result, younger employees aren't prepared to step in to key management positions, she said. Meanwhile, many state workers — those who werent laid off in the midst of cutbacks — postponed retirement.
Some still are, which can give states some breathing room in which to plan to replace them. In Virginia, for instance, Redding Wilson said some younger boomers in their 50s are staying on the job to keep the state's health care coverage.
But that won't last long. As the economy continues to improve, more state workers are expected to retire, Scott said. And the remaining talent pool for top managers is much smaller. During the recession, many layoffs happened at the middle-manager level, she said.
The retirement wave will hit all sectors of government, from teachers to nurses to law enforcement. But finance, engineering and management, along with information technology, are areas that could see the biggest losses, according to Elizabeth Kellar, the center's CEO. There are also big challenges to recruiting and retaining nurses, epidemiologists and doctors for public health jobs, she said.
"It's a huge issue," Kellar said. To maintain a strong workforce, she said, states need to focus on recruiting and retaining good people, develop talent through training, offer competitive compensation and have a succession plan for passing on duties to younger workers.
At the same time, states must adjust to the characteristics of a new generation of workers, who are more likely to hop from job to job, and between the private and public sectors.
"If they're coming in [to work for the states], they're not staying," Scott said.
In Maine, where roughly a quarter of the state’s IT workforce is eligible for retirement in the next two years, “about 3,000 years of experience is going to be walking out the door,” said Jim Smith, Maine’s chief information officer.
"It's going to be transformational. We’re going to need to do something radical to address this change."
For the past couple of years, his agency has been focusing on how to keep seasoned employees on the job while attracting new talent. His agency allows retirement-age employees to work part-time. But, he said, “That’s a short-term solution.”
To attract millennials, his agency drastically streamlined its hiring process. Now, applicants can apply for jobs using a mobile app. Applications have increased 35 percent since the app launched, Smith said.
The state also launched an intern-mentor program, partnering with local universities and community colleges to identify potential hires and pair them with veteran workers. Since the program started in 2013, 70 percent of the interns have become full-time employees, he said.
But the state isn't just focused on hiring young workers. It's also recruiting seasoned professionals who've spent their careers in the private sector and don’t mind taking a pay cut to work in civil service.
One example of this: Smith. In 2012, after more than 30 years working in the private financial services sector, he decided, rather than retiring, he'd go to work for his home state. "I wanted an opportunity to give back," Smith said.
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