Talent Management - September 2008 - (Page 45)

available, Speight said. The organization’s local ofﬁces recognize the need and have stood behind the effort. “Their ideas were solicited when the idea ﬁrst came about, so they were engaged throughout the entire process,” she said. “They’ve been very supportive, [and] their questions were primarily, “How soon?’” Challenges to Succession Planning The public sector faces more than just politics when it comes to succession planning; it also faces budget cuts and hiring freezes. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a hiring freeze in the federal government under which middle managers were laid off, and now the government is left with many young employees, many employees on the cusp of retirement and few in between. “When they’re looking at who are going to be leaders of the different agencies in the next ﬁve [to] 10 years, they’re seeing the vast number of employees who are going to retire and very few seasoned leaders who can step up and take on those roles,” said Susan Tonkin, senior manager of product marketing for performance and talent at Saba, a provider of human capital development and management solutions. On the other hand, public-sector employees tend to have longer retention rates that justify development investments to build and groom talent. “The average tenure of an employee for most commercial organizations today is getting shorter and shorter,” said A.G. Lambert, vice president of marketing at Saba. “One of the strengths of government is you get people who view it as a career, so there’s more opportunity to develop [them]. In commercial organizations, they may not be able to cost justify that investment because there’s too much turnover in the employee ranks.” “Baby boomers aren’t getting any younger,” Novak said. “And we’re going to retire, if not today, then maybe tomorrow or the next year. We need to be preparing for the eventuality that we’re going to be leaving.” Succession Plans Require Strategic Talent Management “The challenge is the same for the federal government as for the private sector: having the best talent possible to accomplish the mission,” said Sydney Smith-Heimbrock, deputy associate director at OPM. “As we see our most experienced workers retiring, we’re very conSUCCESSION continued on page 56 Christopher Hester, PHR Human Resources Orica Member since 2003 I AM EVEN HR SUPERHEROES like Chris Hester need a hand once in awhile. That’s why he calls the SHRM Knowledge Center, where advisors assist him on issues ranging from compensation to retaining talent—giving him the tools he needs to combat his every challenge. www.shrm.org keyword: knowledge center http://www.shrm.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - September 2008

Talent Management - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance: Stop Wasting Money on Training Leading Edge: No Whining, No Excuses Learning Connections: Do You Get It? The Untapped Resource Reinventing HR Doing Compensation Right: The Winning Spread Managing Performance in the Knowledge and Innovation Worker Age Stop-The-Clock Time Management Preparing for the Future in the Public Sector SAS: Connecting People, Process and Products Talent Transformation at Textron The Price of Finding the Right Gen Y Candidate Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Talent Management - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.