Clearly, there is no silver bullet on how to balance the need to make the changes necessary to make effective use of new talents while preserving the expertise from previous generations. It will be a difficult balancing act, but the experiences and success of several colleagues in our community show that we can find this balance. In fact, there are facets of government work that may be an advantage in this regard.

With that in mind, I’ve outlined a few steps and suggestions that could be helpful in attracting and retaining not only millennials, but for all generations, to enable a modern and flexible workforce.

Reset and align expectations. In general, millennials may not commit to staying at a particular job for more than a few years. While this is true in many cases, leaders should learn to accept this trend and work to make these workers as effective as possible during the time they are with the organization, however short or long that may be. By doing this, leaders may find that they have inspired these employees and seized opportunities for them to grow – and they may end up staying after all. The key is to understand that millennials have very high expectations of how they are going progress through their careers and want to understand their leaders’ expectations.

Don’t stereotype. It would be a mistake to give credence to stereotypes that millennials have an easier path to jobs than previous generations; that they are interested only in money; or that they don’t work as hard but still want to achieve executive status within days of their arrival in the workplace.

To share a personal story, one of my nephews is talented, thoughtful, humble and hardworking. But within four years of his graduation, he has moved to four different cities with three different employers as he found opportunities for growth in different industries in roles with increasing levels of responsibilities. He sees these moves as a way to meet his career goals and expectations.

My point is that many millennials are patriotic committed workers and see government as an opportunity to do meaningful work (see the FCW Rising Star Award winner for examples). So we need to be aware of these prejudices and avoid generalizations.

Likewise, millennials should rid themselves of the mindset that other generational workers are irrelevant, inflexible and not savvy enough to navigate the digital world. Deep expertise, wisdom and lessons learned by these colleagues are valuable to every organization and to millennials’ growth.

Build a collaborative, modern workforce. Leaders should clearly communicate all-encompassing, common goals to their teams that invite contributions from everyone in the organization. For example, if the agency’s objective is help the disadvantaged, leaders should frame the team’s goals in light of that objective. Moreover, those messages should be customized to reach the entire workforce. To reach millennials, government sector leaders might consider conveying those messages via social media, using crisp, succinct language delivered via a mobile device.

Don’t go overboard catering to millennials. Recently I have seen some organizations focus too much emphasis on how to cater to millennials at the expense of the rest of the workforce.   For example, we should embrace new communications tools like social media and mobile devices but remember it’s also effective to communicate via other methods.  Find out what communications tools work for employees, and don’t judge them for their preferences.

As digital natives who largely don’t know of a world where there was no internet or smartphones, millennials can bring important new skills and talents to government in areas like agile development, DevOps and social media. But as with any new employees, they must be made aware of the organization’s culture, the rules on hiring and advancement, and the organization’s deliberate processes for checks and balances. While these rules and processes may result in a different workplace than millennials may expect, they ultimately also can result in a highly enriching environment where workers can make real and lasting contributions to lives of fellow citizens across the country. It’s a trade-off that can appeal to millennials in the same way it did for preceding generations.

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