The Value of Benefits

This part of Alyssa Rosenberg's story yesterday on the perils of falling back on generational stereotypes in recruiting really stood out to me:

According to an upcoming MSPB study that will include a review of hiring records and a survey of 2,000 federal employees who were hired in 2005, young employees say they valued the stability of federal government jobs and the pensions and traditional benefits that come with those jobs as highly as their predecessors, and they value these even more highly than workplace flexibilities.

That finding doesn't exactly surprise me. When you set up and perpetuate a system in which the primary value proposition for prospective employees is job security and traditional benefits, then you're going to end up with a self-selected set of workers who value those things -- no matter what generation they come from. And you'll miss out on a whole lot of other highly talented potential employees who are more interested in things like workplace flexibilities and the opportunity to advance quickly. That doesn't seem to me like a path toward attracting the best and the brightest.