Department of Defense and Baby Boomer Exodus:

Is Anyone Paying Attention?

By:

eadership and Organizational Behavior

Instructor:

20 June 2013

Overview of Organization:

The organization this writer chose is Naval Supply Center (NAVSUPP) in Mechanicsburg, Pa... It is my current place of employment and will serve as a representative sample for any Department of Defense (DOD) base in the United States. The base has various elements under its control such as where I work in Foreign Military Sales (FMS), a storage center for ship components called Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and various other entities that support all kinds of weapon systems for the navy.

Current Situation:

I work in FMS which is funded by foreign countries, not the U.S. Government, for logistic support of weapon systems. The importance here is we will not be subject to any furloughs or cuts in pay or in any reduction of force as is the rest of DOD as a result of the sequester that is about to take place. The key point here is everyone else in DOD will lose 20% of their salary for 11-14 weeks. A lot of anger, jealousy and envy are therefore created.

In 2012, the entire navy went to a one stop and shop, do all computer program called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). It was a total shock toboth Active Duty and civilian navy personnel, in how it performs supply, human resources and asset control. Numerous legacy systems were shut down even though the systems were still reliable and all employees knew how they worked. In other words, it was shoved down everyone’s throats with little time to educate current employees on its use. An individual would be hard pressed to find anyone who neither likes the system nor can utilize all its functions proficiently. There is an extreme amount of frustration with dealing with a program that no one like or completely understands!

Based on the results of the most current results of the last “Defense Equal Opportunity Climate Survey (DEOCS) a computer based survey that measures command climate and demographics conducted yearly by DOD via the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI), some interesting data came to light” (DEOMI, 2013). The most important item from this survey is the average age of a government service (GS) employee. The average age of a GS worker DOD wide was 56 years old, while the base was 59 years of age. The average pay grade was a GS-12 with an annual salary of just above 74,000 dollars gross annum. Also, the average number of service years being 36 years of service. This tells me we have a very old, tired, but extremely experienced work force with most having enough years in to retire. Especially since most GS employees are under the CRCS pay system which went away and was replaced by the FERS system in 1986. Why is this important?

Currently 60% of the workforce is under CRCS. Under this system, no one paid into Social Security. Retirement was solely based on number of years in and then the top 3 years of pay averaged. One maximizes retirement arithmetically at 40 years of service. At this point in ones career, a person is entitled to 80% of their highest 3 years of salary. Furthermore, those who signed up for Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) which is nothing more than a 401K that began in the 90’s, which is also the basis of FERS plan retirees, were allowed to save extra. Those who were on CRCS were therefore able to take advantage of both, while newer FERS employees were stuck with a 20% maximum annuity with TSP and Social Security.

So when one sees the closeness to retire, given the above data, the majority of CRCS employees are extremely close and able to retire, especially if they chose or can if they took advantage of TSP in its infancy. Furthermore, as mentioned above CRCS employees will suffer in the computation of retirement dollars the longer they are under sequester this year and under possible future sequesters.

One more piece to the puzzle. The DOD has been under both a hiring freeze for a year and a pay freeze for 3 years. The future for any possible pay raises and open hiring off the street is bleak in the current political environment to shrink government.

Organizational Problem:

What I see now. I see many seats becoming and staying empty. I see no training of those who have gotten hired before the freeze. I see a lot of senior employees working off the clock to get the work required done and to avoid arguments with management. I see a lot of frustration with computer program elements few know how to use efficiently and effectively. I see tired eyes on most people’s faces both young (less than 40 yrs old) and those with a lot of snow on their heads. I hear rumblings of discontent under people’s breath. Some interesting questions arise from what is taking place!

Why are people retiring with little to no advance warning? What can local Management do! What in our text can we utilize as model of motivation, leadership, team building and so on to reduce the impact of a decreasing worker population that is close or is at retirement eligibility but does not have to go on retirement just yet? What will keep people in the game and not sit on the bench? Can any of the authors of theories posed in our text offer plausible solutions? What does Herzberg, Maslow or any of the other’s offer as a solution?

Literature Review:

Below are seven references, six not counting the text (#7). The first reference is actually a link to all instructions having to do with civilian government employees as it pertains to all aspects dealing with Human Resources. It covers hiring practices, bonuses and awards, disciplining employees, hiring preferences, retirement and benefits, and many other elements. For this paper’s purpose: it gives us an answer to what can we do to incentivize employees to stay!

The second reference stresses that we are under a baby boomer drain of 30% or greater. This is by far the leading statistic for available workers. So, why should employees stay when they can avoid the hassles of learning new methods? “Some agencies are facing hefty turnover as nearly one-third of the federal workforce becomes eligible to retire during the next four years. ELIGIBLE TO RETIRE BY 2016: 30% AGRICULTURE 33.8% USAID 34.4 COMMERCE 35.2 DEFENSE 27.7 EDUCATION 33.2 ENERGY 34.9 EPA 34.9 GSA 35.3 HHS 29.9 DHS 19.6 HUD 41.7 INTERIOR 35.9 JUSTICE 28.6 LABOR 33.5 NASA 33.2 NRC 33.9 NSF 37.7 OPM 37.2 SBA 44.1 SSA 317 STATE 29.9 TRANSPORTATION 39.1 TREASURY 33.8 VA 31.3 ALL OTHER AGENCIES 31.5 “ (Clark, 2012).

The third reference from Brian Summerfield emphasizes a drain of knowledge and before the baby boomers all leave, we must ensure that training is conducted or many businesses face a danger of an uneducated workforce. It clearly states that there possibly will not be enough bodies to pick up the slack.

To the fourth reference which talks about the old retirement system of government called: Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). It is solely based on the last high three years of employment averaged together, then taking into account the number of years worked, 40 years worked is maxed out), one can retire with 80% of those high 3 years averaged. People who are tired of the “hassles” know that is a comfortable retirement. Those hired after January 1986, only get 20% and the rest comes from a 401K (no guaranteed return) and Social Security. This is not a good a deal in my books!

To the fifth reference, the writer, Mr. Losely, continues to confirm in a May 2013 article that OPM continues to under estimate projections of those retiring. It goes into a recent congressional testimony by OPM’s current director, Mr. John Berry, who continues to sound the alarm of a very high retirement rate that is much higher than planned across all government and not just Department of Defense.

Finally, the sixth and final reference, not including our own text, is from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI). Since its beginning, this government body

Puts out annual and required to comply survey’s of government civilian employees and measures the corporate climate in every command, entity, of government and reports it onto higher decision makers.

Analysis:

The base has two levels of flag officers on base that can be utilized to promote and initiate plausible solutions. It is unknown if they are real Admirals or merely some guys wearing stars impersonating as leaders. Find ways and means to motivate them to cause a positive reactionary response. It is this individual’s recommendation to research the leadership and look for clues on what they have done in the past to risk a bit of skin to do the right thing. Show them it is to their benefit to have some “skin in the game!” I believe that this can be done but a lot rides on the top most leadership to “get onboard with ensuring that enough of the senior workforce remains until this sequester and government drawdown has run its course.

Looking at this phenomena, from a larger perspective, there is no reason that those in high levels of government did not see this possibly happening back in 2006 nor are unaware that it is currently coming through fruition today. Ignorance of this event is no excuse!

Given that most people would like to shrink the size of government by 10-20 percent, well they are certainly having it given to them with or without sequestration. Every article you look for about the exodus of baby boomers whether government or public, says the samething, baby boomers are leaving at an alarming rate. It begs the question, what will we do when there are not enough trained workers to do the job, whether government or public?

Solutions:

As Mr. Summerfield wrote seven years ago, we need to educate those we are leaving behind. Prepare them to work as if there were one or two others working with them. For as Mr. Losely clearly points out in his 2013 article, “ we are now losing over 30 percent of our work force by the end of 2016” (Losely, 2013).

Government leaders need to slow down this train wreck, it is imperative that we motivate people at the local level to want to stay, so as to provide time enough to train our replacements. One way, is to revitalize a government program of mentorship, which is still on the books, but seldom used. It is being done at some places, where I was working before in Indiana, the Navy base was performing this program, though intermittently.

For those employees who hate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). We as leader can pair up those who have little to no problems using it with those who hate it due to inabilities and talent to fully utilize this program, that is not going away!

As what is mentioned over and over in our text, and the homework assignments on LSI, OCI and in our discussions. Communication up, down and side to side, between all workers and levels of management must occur to promote open dialogue between Workers, Union and Management. This will facilitate what we learned early in class on developing job satisfiers and reducing the effect of job non-satisfiers.

We already have a good start to measure this. As the professor stated and quoted a management researcher in class, “ it must be measured if it is going to mean anything! DEOMI is there if managers actually utilize its results to correct problem areas.

Reflection:

It is time to act. If I, a single GS-12, can see this train wreck coming, why can’t others. To this writer, this is a national crisis that is brewing, and will damage our economy, possibly worse than any Federal Reserve, could do to damage our way of living. We must prepare, now!

References:

1. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Guide to Processing Personnel Actions (GPPA).

Retrieved on 16 June2013 from:

http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/personnel-documentation/#url=Processing-Personnel-Actions

2. Clark, C. S. (2012). Facing Hurdles. Government Executive, 44(12), 23-28.

http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.devry.edu/ehost/detail?sid=3dfff591-2388-4c76-86fb-51f283ae954b%40sessionmgr115&vid=8&hid=123&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=mth&AN=83191443

3. Summerfield, B.. (2006). The Baby Boomer Exodus: Educating Those Left Behind. Chief Learning Officer, 5(5), 28-32.

http://anitacrawley.net/Articles/The%20Baby%20Boomer%20Educating%20Those.pdf

4. OPM.GOV. CRCS. Retrieved from:

http://www.opm.gov/retirement-services/csrs-information/computation/

5. Losely, S. (5 April 2013). Retirement numbers continue to outpace projections. Retrieved from:

http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130405/BENEFITS02/304050005/Retirement-numbers-continue-outpacing-projection

6. Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute Home page: http://www.deomi.org/

7. Schermerhorn, John R (Nov, 2011). Organizational Behavior, 12th Edition. John Wiley &

Sons.