To Attract Young Workers, Government Should Modernize its Office Culture

The workforce is changing, and the workplace needs to change with it. As Generation X (people born roughly between 1960 and 1980) nears retirement, millennials’ expectations of the workplace are quickly reshaping office culture. In order to better attract this new generation of workers, while realigning priorities and increasing productivity along the way, the private sector is turning to innovative tools, such as VARIDESK standing desk solutions. If the public sector wants to keep pace with their private sector counterparts, it needs to bring its offices into the modern day.

The public sector has long fallen behind the private sector in attracting employees from the youngest generation of workers. This year, millennials make up about 40 percent of the total U.S. workforce (and 75 percent by 2025). But they only make up about 16 percent of the government workforce. Worse, in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study only about 2 percent of millennials polled said they had plans to work in government. This poses an important challenge, as the federal workforce is aging quickly — about 31 percent of federal workers are eligible to retire this year. In order to rehire for those positions, and attract top talent in a younger generation, government offices will have to undergo a large cultural shift.

Millennials, individuals born between 1980 and 2000, are the largest generation in history. According to Architect Magazine, “millennials expect the workplace to be adapted to their preferences.” Unfortunately, things that often attract millennials to job opportunities are often in direct contrast with those that attract Baby Boomers (people born between 1940 and 1960) and Generation X. In the private sector, companies have opted for a variety of solutions to address this gap — casual dress, nap spaces, ping pong tables — but many have found success with the standing desk. Even more traditional industries such as law are opting for standing desks to better attract this new generation of talent. Some offices, including Deloitte, have experimented with other non-traditional work spaces such as treadmill desks to attract different types of workers and maximize productivity.

Many government agencies have started utilizing VARIDESK standing desk solutions, and are seeing success. In 2015, the White House requested $700,000 in standing desks over a five-year period. Elsewhere, VARIDESK solutions have been utilized in the National Institutes of Health, the United Nations Secretariat and the Federal Reserve. According to Canada’s Global News, after sit-to-stand desks were installed in the labor program at Employment and Social Development Canada, “70 percent said the standing desks boosted their productivity at work, and 85 percent said they had more energy because they could stand for any length of time.”

Standing desks are no longer a fringe technology — they are effective, appealing and they’re here to stay. The success offices experience when using standing desk solutions usually have a ripple effect: many offices begin with just one, and order more as coworkers see the desk’s effectiveness and benefits. For government agencies that want to attract young talent, implementing standing desks can be an effective way of shifting office culture to be more desirable to millennials.

To learn more about how VARIDESK can modernize your office culture, visit here.

This content is made possible by our sponsor. The editorial staff of Government Executive was not involved in its preparation.