Department of Defense pursues Net Generation for IT workforce

The Defense Department is putting the finishing touches on a new manual to help agencies attract the next generation of technology workers. And if the response the Pentagon received from the most recent IT Job Shadow Day is any indication, the military is starting to grasp what the next generation of workers want.

"When I was coming along money was the number one object," says Joyce France, DoD's director of Chief Information Officer Management Services, who is leading the development of the manual on behalf of the CIO Council. "It's not true for a lot of the NetGeners. They want flexibility. They want to work from home. So we are looking at all of these types of things to see how we can incorporate those types of things in DoD and the federal government."

The Partnership for Public Service estimates that agencies will hire more than 11,500 employees in IT between 2010 and 2012. The Partnership also finds that more than 16,400 technology workers will be eligible to retire by 2012, leaving a dearth of skills and knowledge that must be replaced. France says the expected retirement wave will have a severe impact on DoD. Over the next 5-to-6 years, about 33 percent of the 78,000 IT professionals in the military today will be eligible to retire.