Cross-generational mentoring develops workforce both ways

It’s hard to find good help, but it gets a little easier when employees are willing to bring new colleagues on board—and sometimes those new colleagues bring fresh ideas in return.

According to MissionSquare’s 2025 State and Local Government Workforce Survey Results, counties and other levels of government have seen improvement in recruitment in the past year, with 60% of respondents reporting success in recruiting younger workers. 

However, almost 50% report that they expect the largest wave of retirements is still to come and that succession planning still needs to improve to ensure smooth transitions. With an aging workforce and challenges such as constraints on offering salaries that compete with those in the private sector, counties are seeking to build effective teams, foster a strong work culture and adapt to new technologies while navigating the complexities of local government. 

Dallas County, Texas, Clerk John Warren found a solution in cross-generational reverse mentorship. Pioneered by General Electric CEO Jack Welch in the 1990s to help older workers learn to use the Internet, this approach expands on the traditional mentorship model — rather than replacing it — by encouraging two-way learning that can boost job satisfaction, productivity, and team relationships.

Warren ran into intergenerational work challenges when implementing a new case management system. His veteran employees knew the history of why things were done a certain way and the regulations governing their work and were most comfortable with what he called “the manual way.” On the other hand, his younger employees were eager to embrace new technologies. Still, they did not always understand the complexities governing their work or have years of experience in their roles. 

“Everything we do in local government is about ‘you shall’ or ‘you may,’ but we still need to evolve,” he said. “Using the [new technology] platforms we have available to us is what creates efficiencies.” 

Both more experienced and less-experienced team members needed to work together to ensure adherence to all relevant rules while maintaining resident services and modernizing to meet current data management requirements and improve efficiency. 

To solve this, Warren matched his staff members across generations and encouraged them to ask “Why?” The newer staff gained perspective on the reasons for the current status, and the older staff received hands-on individual training that helped them learn to use the new system more easily. 

One proven benefit of cross-generational work is that older staff report renewed enthusiasm for their work. For Warren, getting the new system up and running was so exciting for his younger staff that it had a domino effect on the team, reminding his older workers of how much it improved their work when they migrated to computers from typewriters. The cross-generational mentorship method worked so well that Warren used it to change how the county managed property records and deeds and it has become standard practice when implementing new systems in his department.

Warren, who sits on the Elections Commission, began hearing from his colleagues in election administration about similar intergenerational challenges. Focusing on the role of the election judge, who serves as the presiding officer at Texas polling locations, Warren instituted a program to pair experienced election judges with less-experienced alternates by recruiting from area high schools and colleges and targeting young people seeking civic engagement opportunities. 

As the pairs spent time on the job together, with the more experienced judges training the younger ones on election process and the younger ones helping manage the technological aspects, they also had plenty of time to talk about bigger topics like the importance of public service, career paths and the many ways counties serve the community. The project was so successful that several alternate judges went on to apply for and take on full-time election administration and other county positions. 

Supporting county challenges pertaining to recruiting and retaining county staff is a major focus of NACo’s County Workforce Network, where members share innovative strategies such as Warren’s intergenerational reverse mentoring program. 

The network is open at no cost to all county administrators, human resource professionals and benefits directors. NACo EDGE Managing Director of Retirement Services Carlos Greene is the staff liaison to the network.