Webcast: Building a Millennial Mainframe Powerhouse

How are you going to fill mainframe jobs as your in-house experts retire?

It’s a real concern for three reasons:

1. Openings will likely triple over the next 10 years
2. Nobody can learn your mainframe overnight — knowledge transfer is essential
3. The millennial generation differs in important ways from previous ones

With these issues in mind, Compuware and Ensono recently hosted a webcast called “Building a Millennial Mainframe Powerhouse: Tips to Attract and Retain the Next Generation of Mainframe Development.”

Mainframe veterans — Compuware Vice President of Development, Dave Rizzo, and Ensono Director of Mainframe Services, Ken Harper— discuss their experiences and lessons learned. They’re joined by two young software developers from their organizations, Noah Al-Armanazi of Compuware and Andrew Meister of Ensono.

Two overall challenges both involve convincing people. Upper management must understand that mainframes have a big future and recruitment is worth an investment. Meanwhile Millennials — with more exposure to new technologies — will need some convincing themselves.

The webcast takes up these two challenges in depth, addressing such aspects as:

• Why it’s critical to recruit and retain a new generation
• How Millennials and their expectations differ from Boomers and Gen X
• Myths about Millennials
• Why modern tools, processes, and workplace culture matter

Drawing on their own successes, the panelists also offer some real world tips in key areas, including:

• How and when to plan
• Where to find recruits
• Characteristics to look for
• How to meet generational expectations
• Weaving the generations in the workplace
• And other insights

There’s a lot of institutional knowledge and wisdom in your aging mainframe workforce, but you don’t have to lose it. View the webcast here.