Federal employees under the age of 30 report above average job satisfaction and agencies need to find ways to preserve their positive attitudes because this influx of talent is needed to offset mass retirements on the horizon, the Partnership for Public Service has said in a report.
According to "The Best Places to Launch a Career in the Federal Government" — based on OPM’s 2010 employee viewpoint survey – employees under 30 at just four agencies scored below the overall government-wide average satisfaction index score of 75 out of 100, those being Agriculture, Army, Education and Housing and Urban Development. OPM and DHS were also among the bottom third of 26 agencies. Employees in VA, GSA, SSA and the EPA rated their jobs and their agencies among the highest in the government.
These employees represent the future of the federal workforce – 100,000 new employees under 30 began working for the government from 2006 – 2009 — and agencies need to figure out how to leverage this talent as well as how to keep it. A big part of that will be determined by their view of their supervisors and leaders.
That entails whether they feel their contributions are valued, whether they have some level of autonomy and self determination in their jobs, and whether their supervisors are good mentors on some level that treat them as colleagues first, subordinates second.
