Last Friday, I helped plan and organize the City of San Francisco’s first Workforce & Succession Planning Conference at our Main Public Library. You might be wondering, “What’s the point?” Or even thinking, “Another City conference…that’s great, but is anything actually going to happen as a result of it?...What are City employees even doing? Do they even care?” 

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t say I haven’t wondered similar things. As a member of the 2008-09 San Francisco City Hall Fellows Class, half of my Fellowship year was spent analyzing the changing demographics of the City’s workforce as we prepared for a report and conference on the topic of succession planning. With the economic downturn, departments in local governments everywhere are grappling with dealing with a diminishing workforce as a result of budget cuts while still preparing for the mass exodus of retirements expected in near future. At the beginning of my Fellowship year, it seemed daunting to be able to get people thinking about “solving” this problem. Did you know that the City is the single largest employer in San Francisco, with 28,000 employees? Did you also know that the average age of a City and County of San Francisco employee is 47.6 years old? When you consider the fact that over 20% of City employees are eligible for retirement, the potential impact is no small thing. 

For the past couple of months, I’ve been buried in analyzing statistics about the City’s workforce and reading about, “building your future workforce.” When thinking of the City’s workforce, I would think in terms of its statistics. And future workforce? I figured that there were enough problems today that to think about that the future always seemed so far off. Thinking about creating any sort of “change” in an organization this big, I admit, seemed pretty ambitious. 

Last Friday, however, I realized something. Scanning the audience at the conference and wondering if the presentations had enough take away points to be meaningful, I took a moment to step back. I looked out and saw individuals, people I had met during this past year at meetings, people I had had casual conversations about what the City could do differently, everyday people who I knew were doing great things. I saw people who cared about the future of their departments. I heard stories from Baby Boomers who were concerned about the development of the staff they would be leaving behind and then heard from the few younger employees in attendance (did you know that only 3.9% of the City’s workforce is under the age of 28 yearsold?) who spoke about wanting to learn and invest themselves in providing services to the City. And more than just these stories, I heard departments sharing the steps they’ve already taken to invest in their workforce, improving their services – things I was unaware of. What I realized is that, despite the fact that it’s so easy to just think of City employees as statistics, the City is an organization of dynamic individuals creating small changes everyday. Behind all the City services you and I receive are these individuals, people who may share common frustrations about the bureaucracy of government, but who also are committed to making changes where they can. 

City government, admittedly, has a lot of critics. And change? Well, change in local government doesn't exactly have a reputation for happening quickly. I had been worried about the impact the conference would have - if it would be effective. And now that it's done and over, I'm confident in saying it was - while there may have not been an answer to all the City's problems or created an immediate change in procedures, it got people talking - sharing their progress, thinking seriously about the future of the City, and stepping from behind the titles of their departments and connecting on an individual level with each other. So maybe there hasn't been an immediate change just yet, but the was I see it, the “future” we talk about – well, it begins with, and it is in, the conversations and the dialogue we have today.