As we have discussed many times in the Municipal Recruiting Report, the march of the baby boomers toward retirement is unrelenting. Boomers are turning 65 at the rate of 1000 a day in Canada, and it's going to continue like that for the next 17 years. Imagine the impact of 365,000 boomers retiring each and every year! There is no municipality in Canada - yours included - that will remain untouched by this boomer brain drain!

Wise local government organizations are adopting and implementing a broad and systematic succession planning approach to deal with the inevitable. I would argue that identifying and addressing current and future workforce needs is an immediate and pressing need.

Last week, I attended the Fall Workshop of the OMAA (Ontario Municipal Administrators Association) held at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville Ontario. Deerhurst, which hosted the G8 in 2010, is a beautiful venue in Ontario's Muskoka Lakes region. The fall colours were spectacular, and the conference content was outstanding.

The theme was Succession Planning.

Identify Future Service Needs: With talent gaps quickly becoming a reality for most organizations, planning and managing succession is every municipal leader's responsibility. There is a big need to identify potential gaps - including the qualifications that will be needed by those who will fill them. Succession planning is an ongoing, dynamic process that ultimately helps a municipality to align its service goals.

Identify Key Positions and Competencies: Recognize which roles are crucial to the future success of your municipality. Certainly, senior leadership roles must be included, but don't forget the customer service people who deal with your ratepayers across the counter, and the technical and other staff that demand specific skill sets, ranges of experience, and/or knowledge that cannot be easily replaced.

Select High Potential Candidates: Once you have established which positions are "at risk", you may need to accelerate the development of high potential people by either retaining or recruiting staff with the potential to move into those key positions quickly.

Select Training and Development Activities: High potential candidates must be carefully selected and then provided with training and development to prepare them for the local environment. They will, one day, become the leaders of your municipality. Their development needs to incorporate a broad range of learning opportunities, and they should be exposed to as much of the working environment as possible. This will help them to gain a solid understanding of what the municipality requires to remain successful.

Implement the Plan: It is not enough to simply develop a comprehensive plan for an employee. The plan must also be executed. This means attending training and instituting development activities. It also means carrying out the plan not just when it's convenient - or as some like to refer to it, "when I have the time..." - it means being diligent to ensure that training and development activities are viewed as essential to an employee's successful performance and not simply as perks or options.

Monitor and Evaluate: Periodic check-ins should be completed for both individual employees and the workforce in general to determine the impact and subsequent outcome of implementing the plan. Sample questions to consider when assessing progress should include:

þ    Are employees more prepared now to assume new responsibilities than they were before?

þ    What results are being achieved that weren't there before?

þ    How have perceptions changed among your workforce regarding their preparedness for upcoming workplace challenges?

þ    How are employees who have been promoted performing in their new role?

Training plans need to be reviewed at least annually, but monitoring and review of strategies must be carried out more frequently.

It is the succession planning process that ensures employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the municipality.  It is succession planning that puts you in a knowledgable position to recruit superior staff, develop their abilities, skills and knowledge, and prepare them for advancement or promotion to increasingly challenging roles.

Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed to fill each needed role. As your organization expands, loses key employees and provides opportunities for promotion, a good succession plan will guarantee that you have the "right people" on hand ... ready and waiting to fill vacated and new positions.

Proactive and effective succession planning also includes bringing people into your municipality with the help of a professional recruiter. A healthy succession plan should include a strong business relationship with an organization like Ravenhill Group.

Remember - a good plan will leave your organization well prepared. Successful succession planning builds bench strength - and a winning team!

 Call

1-877-830-0500  

Jeannette@ravenhillgroup.com

ext 706

or

Bruce Malcolm  ext 727