Recently, Ammon’s blog post “Will Younger Workforce Ease Fed New-Media Fears?” mentioned the impending wave of Baby Boomer workforce retirement.

A younger, tech-savvy labor force is arriving ready to prove their digital prowess, but lingering security concerns remain. I was wondering, though, even if the Federal administrators and training decision makers were open to letting the kids play, what of the retirees that will be targeted for full-time, part-time or encore work? Plenty of Boomers are leaving the public sector, but many from the private sector are showing up, sharing their experience and enjoying a late-career shift to public service.

How will they be recruited? How will their skills be matched to Government need? And will they be prepared for next-generation of digital work environments?

Last year the Partnership for Public Service initiated a campaign to recruit passionate, experienced retirees from nonprofits and the private sector into the Federal workforce, banking on the echo of JFK’s initial call to duty.

While tapping into this pool makes sense, the Partnership describes several obstacles that make the task difficult, one the most obvious being recruitment. The Partnership describes the Federal Government as “isolated” and gun-shy of hiring “outsiders.” Largely a cultural issue, but HR issues of preferred promotion from within, security clearance, and general flexibility remain issues they are actively seeking to improve.

In order to recruit these individuals, it seems a combination of new and traditional media will come into play. Why do I say this? The older generation (in an ageless cycle) will get their information from younger new-media junkies. A Gen X or Gen Y parent will call Boomer grandparents to remind them that the grandkid wants a Webkinz for his or her birthday. The call (or IM exchange) will go something like this:

>”WEBKIDs? what’s a Webkid?

>”Webkinz, Dad…with a z.”

>”{expletive}”

(Note: Actual conversation heard at recent party.)

After twenty minutes of attempted explanation, Grandpa was fascinated but still unclear about the whole process. Someone whipped out a laptop, got onto the Internet via wi-fi, and gave him the virtual tour, which has Flash animation and audio commentary. In less than five minutes, Grandpa understood Webkinz. As luck would have it, he then opened a present—a Magellan GPS navigation device. In half an hour a former technophobe was ready to navigate both virtual and real landscapes.

How do you connect GPS devices, cuddly web denizens and next-generation Government employees? Simple: Retirees have experience and leadership that could surely help alleviate the impending Federal workforce crisis, provided they can be quickly trained and are able to easily access and implement emerging training architecture.

If the Government can quickly train Grandpa for his new Federal job while simultaneously getting him comfortable with new technology, it will be able to more quickly tap his expertise and avert its organizational mission-performance concerns.

Bottom line? Be nice to Boomers. They just might be our ticket to a well-trained, technologically proficient, high-performing Federal workforce.