Millennial generation workers—those born since 1980, who now make up 16 percent of the federal workforce—pose some unique management challenges for federal agencies, OPM has found in a breakout report on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey conducted earlier this year.
On the positive side, 77 percent of millennials indicated their supervisors listen to what they have to say, and more than two-thirds say they have trust and confidence in their managers and believe that their immediate supervisors are doing a good job. And 66 percent say their supervisors support employee development and provide them with opportunities to develop their leadership skills.
However, they gave the government low grades on opportunities for career development overall, and for encouraging creativity and innovation—only about a third responded positively on those questions. Such issues raise questions of retention, especially given that the typical millennial employee stays in a job for less than three years.
OPM also found some demographic differences that might drive changes in agency personnel policies over time: while the proportions of white, Asian-American and Native American millennials are about the same as in the overall federal workforce, fewer millennials are African American, 15 vs. 18 percent, and more are Hispanic, 10 vs. 8 percent.
