Registration closes Thursday for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s panel on millennials in the Intelligence Community. Register here.
The Intelligence Community workforce is in a time of transition – declining budgets, an evolving counterterrorism mission, and a large segment of retirement-eligible employees are all emerging issues. Insider threats have pushed the IC to look inward, challenging the suitability and quality of the cleared workforce.
Enter millennials – a generation often described as entering adulthood around 2000 – a population that numbers approximately 80 million and is quickly filling the employment gap left as baby boomers retire. But this population of digital natives has also tried the nerves of the government apparatus, with their frequent job hopping, Snapchatting and addiction to iPhones. Next week the Intelligence and National Security Alliance delves into this topic with a panel titled “Millennials, the Community, and Social Media.” Their panel of government, private sector and media representatives will discuss how millennials are changing the intelligence community as societal norms shift.
Your Online Presence and Your employment opportunities
ClearanceJobs got a preview this week in a discussion with panelist Adam Lurie, vice president of government solutions at Social Intelligence, a company providing social media data, tools and support to government and commercial sector clients. Amongst their suite of capabilities is a pre-employment screening service that provides a ‘comprehensive picture of an applicant’s complete, publicly available online presence.’ As an executive within a company providing online analytics, Lurie is very familiar with both what’s out on the web today, as well as what it’s like to manage the demographic – of Social Intelligence’s 75 employees, approximately 90 percent are millennials.
“There’s a concept of connectivity and the ability to be social,” said Lurie. “Employees want to engage in a connected fashion, have a vent, engage in social media activities, as well as feel like the company they work for is something bigger than simply working for a corporation.”
Millennials – impatient, not entitled
Lurie said that millennials have often been falsely mischaracterized as entitled. A better description, while being overly general, is impatient.
“They’re used to constant job turnover, constant job changes – and everything they get now is delivered to them in an instant fashion, whether it’s as simple as groceries being delivered to your door…there is an understanding that they can get whatever they want immediately.”
Lurie noted that this shift has been largely brought about by technology. The same technology that delivers the latest electronic gadget to your door within 24 hours will also record every moment of your life, from your intimate sexual details to your brushes with the law. Does that online ‘transparency’ make for greater concern about an applicant’s ability to obtain a security clearance? It depends.
societal shifts and the security clearance process
ClearanceJobs.com contributor Marko Hakamaa, a security specialist and former background investigator, wrote earlier this year about four particular areas of the security clearance process that are shifting with society – foreign influence, experimental drug use, debt, and sexual behavior. The articled noted:
“The challenges that security professionals face in today’s society are many. Lines are blurred, attitudes change, and acceptable behavioral norms are constantly shifting. In order to make sense of what it all means as far as risk to your security, analysis and understanding requires adaptability, flexibility, and a fair amount of common sense. Security today is all about managing and assuming an acceptable level of risk. Security guidelines are just that: guidelines.
Lurie agreed that societal shifts will play a critical role in the security clearance process for millennials. Behaviors that would have caused a clearance denial fifty years ago are unlikely to cost a millennial his or her clearance in the future (not even all of those naked selfies).
“It is not the intent of the government to become the morality police – it is the intent of the government to protect assets, information and infrastructure,” said Lurie. “Social norms will change, and behavior which used to be derogatory will no longer be…It really will eventually breakdown to the individual. The same piece of content applied to two separate individuals can be different.”
the IC employment trump card – a mission worth working for
So what does all of this mean for the intelligence community workforce? As millennials job hop their way across commercial and government sector employers, companies are realizing their management styles also need to adapt. Millennials want more feedback, more engagement, and what is perhaps the best selling point for the IC – a better sense of mission and purpose. It’s that purpose that will keep millennials in government even as security clearance procedures potentially become more stringent, and continuous monitoring becomes the norm.
“You’ll still have a significant portion of people who have a patriotic duty to serve the government. And those are going to be the same people who are willing to turn in those records and turn in their social media and undergo a polygraph,” said Lurie. “You will still have a very significant portion of this group who wants to be patriotic and serve their country.”
