Managing the Net Generation in Government – new report

Check out this new report from DOD and the Federal CIO Council on adapting to the influx of Gen Y’ers in the government workforce. Although most of us aren’t the target audience of the report (it’s written mainly to the Boomers and Gen X’ers that have the privilege of managing us), I must say it’s pretty spot on about what to expect with us in the workplace, and what government has to do to compete for our talent.

I’d be interested in everyone’s thoughts. I know we’re all pretty saturated with reports on this topic these days, but I’m honestly surprised this report hasn’t made a larger splash, because it’s pretty good. (Plus, it’s pretty well done visually, which I’m a sucker for.)
One thing that did catch my eye is the fact that government agencies have fallen off the list of the top 10 ideal employers among college students. For how service-oriented our generation seems to be, I’m concerned to see government slipping here.

Leave a Comment

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Henry Brown

My comments are definitely my PERSONAL opinion, and I fully understand the danger of drawing generalities from any kind of report like this…

One of the reason(s) that the report did NOT make any larger of a splash is because to a certain extent some of the audience are making like an ostrich hoping that by ignoring something they don’t want to hear from someone (Vivek Kundra Federal CIO) whom they don’t yet have full confidence in.

I believe that another reason that this report has NOT gained a lot of traction, is the middle managers, who are going to have to accept and take for action this report, have generally felt threatened by power sharing and as the reports conclusion says:

“The federal information technology (IT) environment will be undergoing tremendous change on many levels over the next decade. As the Federal Government transforms agencies into a network of more transparent, citizen-centric organizations, implementing the necessary policies, processes, and secure technology to power the exchange of information and ideas will create tremendous challenges for the federal IT workforce charged with this transformation.

The Net Generation, with its inherently more collaborative and IT-savvy nature, is most likely to embrace the changes, which will more closely mirror the way they already prefer to engage with technology and to share information.”