IRS keeps pipeline of qualified employees flowing with interns

The IRS is similar to most federal agencies as a growing number of its workers are reaching that magical age of retirement eligibility.

Today, about 12 percent of the tax agency's 84,000 employees could walk out the door, says Susan Greer, director of IRS's recruitment office.

And while the IRS is facing fewer potential retirements as compared to other agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it is still is taking steps to limit the affect on baby boomers leaving the agency.

A May 2008 Partnership for Public Service white paper states that FAA and HUD expect 26 percent of their workforce are eligible to retire, while the Social Security Administration faces a 23 percent retirement eligibility rate.

"We are likely to see a spike in next the 10 years, but the retirement bubble hasn't happened and whether it's because of the economy or other issues, we do know eventually these folks will go," Greer says. "It is important to develop strategies so when these folks do start going we have a ready, diverse and qualified workforce to carry on."

Greer says the IRS is finding success in ensuring the pipeline of workers remains steady in a number of ways, including establishing relationships with professional organizations to recruit mid-and-senior career level employees.

"We find we are attractive to mid-career professionals because they work with the IRS so they find a lot of what we are about," she says. "We don't have any difficulty attracting mid- career workers. But entry level employees are a tougher nut to crack. It's more difficult to get them to understand the interesting and meaningful work they would do here."

One way the IRS is cracking that nut is through its internship programs.

Linda Wallace was helped lead the IRS's internship program before retiring Sept. 30. She says each organization within the agency from media and publications to human resources to auditors receive interns each year under a specific program to expose students to a wide variety of IRS people and work.

"We have gone from organization to organization within the IRS and used the same model," said Wallace in an interview before retiring from government. "We've seeded those organizations and hopefully those seeds will grow and interns will grow."

The IRS works with the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars and other similar organizations to recruit students.

Wallace says the IRS evaluates several hundred applications and interviews only the best and the brightest. Most programs take on average between 7 and 10 each year. Overall, the IRS has about 150-200 interns at a time working across the agency.

She says each potential intern is given a list of up to 30 tasks to choose from should they work at the agency.

"We go out before we interview interns and request from GS-14s, 15s and Senior Executive Service members to give us assignments that must be non-clerical and high impact assignments," she says. "Once the interns are hired, they will pick a list of 5-to-8 assignments they want to work on. They may work on a team with other interns, work with one other person or work alone. We offer them a variety of assignments so they can make contacts at high levels, which gives them more contacts for future permanent jobs."

Each intern class has two other support people-a senior intern who already has been through the program and someone like Wallace who takes care of the administrative work from evaluations to budgeting to anything else that needs to be done.

This program is one of several intern programs the IRS has, Greer says. The tax agency also has programs to attract Native Americans, Hispanics, veterans and other diverse populations.

Greer says the internship programs help provide an important starting place to hire the 1,500 entry level workers the IRS brings on each year.

"Our conversion rate of hiring interns is pretty good," Greer says. "I didn't know the governmentwide average was really low, something like 6.6 percent. At the IRS, and depending on the program, our conversion rate is between 25 and 55 percent."

Greer says the IRS also recruits heavily on college campuses, and depends on word of mouth from former interns to attract new recruits.

"We have executives matched with some of the schools to demonstrate our commitment to bringing on entry level workers," she says. "We are on the cutting edge for a lot of social networking. We use Twitter and Second Life, where we have a career island, a race track and other neat things to reach communities we've found thrive in second life. We also have an incredible Web site, jobs.irs.gov. We are making a lot of enhancements to that, using streaming videos so visitors can see what it's like to be a revenue agent. We want to help candidates looking for more information about jobs with the IRS."

Wallace says the goal of all of these programs is to develop interns in several ways to prepare them for positions in the government. She says students receive specific classes in resume writing or SharePoint or even sign language, while they also go on field trips to Capitol Hill or other federal agencies. Senior IRS officials sit down for brown bag lunches to discuss their histories and reasons they work in government.

"We prepare them to be very competitive for IRS jobs or other positions in the government," she says. "We make sure they make contacts within the IRS before they leave, and make sure they meet those people and have their e-mail addresses and other contact information."

Greer adds that because of these programs and other things the IRS is doing, surviving the retirement wave is not among her biggest concerns.

"We are in a good position," she says. "We are more focused on how we make this the best place to work and continue that over the next 15 years. We want to make sure our workforce has the skills and competencies needed to meet the changing complexity of the work economy."

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On the Web:

IRS - Student employment Web site

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars - twc.edu

Students.gov - List of agency student employment programs

Partnership for Public Service - Internship Web page

FederalNewsRadio - Washington Center, IRS partner up to turn interns into feds

FederalNewsRadio - New Jobs for young people at PPS

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