The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

Approximately 60 percent of the new hires are from Generation X, having been born between 1965 and 1980. Another factor driving the hiring is the recognition that as early as 2010 the Bureau of Information Resource Management will begin to face significant turnover with the retirement of 270 of its mid- and senior-level man- agers. In 2004 then-Chief Information Officer Bruce Morrison shared with me his concern about this problem. The number of management positions in 2006 — those in grades FS-2 through MC — is 274. This group is pre- dominately Baby Boomers (born between 1945 and 1965) or Veterans (born before 1945), with a few recently-pro- moted FS-2 Generation Xers. Because State’s mandatory retirement age is 65, by 2010 all veterans and those Baby Boomers born in 1945 will have been forced to retire. But given that FS personnel can retire at 50 years of age, and many elect to leave the work force well before turning 65, IRM can expect its managers to begin retir- ing in large numbers even before 2010. Exacerbating the problem, the pool of employable Generation Xers is 15 percent smaller than any generation since World War II, making it that much harder to find new managers to fill those slots. Members of the current group of new hires are slated to replace these retirees, yet retention of Gen Xers is a pervasive problem in the U.S. workplace. One in three Gen Xers change jobs annually, and their average organizational tenure is three years. Accordingly, IRM and other IT organizations will have to modify the workplace environment and offer their high-technology workers perks in order to retain them. But such changes represent only a patch, not a solution: Most information technology entities can expect annual Gen X turnover of at least 20 percent. The challenge for State is even more daunting than the sheer numbers involved: Compared to other Foreign Service personnel, an IRM specialist is more likely to leave the department. First, specialists tend to have more job options outside State than their Foreign Service generalist colleagues. A specialist with overseas experi- ence, current IT training and a security clearance is an F O C U S 46 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 6 T HE R EMINGTON