BEST PRACTICES Talent Development and Succession Planning · LEARN . GROW . ACHIEVE COURSE MATERIALS . BEST PRACTICES . Talent Development and Succession Planning . Frank Benest

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COURSE MATERIALS BEST PRACTICES Talent Development and Succession Planning Frank Benest Donna Vaillancourt CI-380

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380 Talent Development and Succession Planning

Faculty Biographies Dr. Frank Benest

Until August 2008, Dr. Frank Benest served as the City Manager of Palo Alto, California. Frank is a noted consultant and trainer on rightsizing public organizations, entrepreneurial government, civic engagement, leadership development and succession planning. Prior to his appointment in Palo Alto, Frank served as City Manager in Brea and Colton, California. He has a doctorate in management from Brigham Young University; a Masters in Public Administration from California State University, Long Beach; and a Bachelor of Arts degree

from Yale University. Frank is a Credentialed ICMA Manager and serves as the Senior Advisor to ICMA on Next Generation Initiatives. Frank is Past President of the California City Managers Department and past Vice President of the International City/County Management Association. Frank teaches at Stanford University and has been inducted into the National Academy of Public Administration. Donna Vaillancourt

Donna Vaillancourt is the Director of the Department of Human Resources with San Mateo County. Donna is passionate about pursuing the Department’s mission to position San Mateo County as an employer of choice and maximize individual and organizational potential. To that end, she has spearheaded new workforce planning efforts and leadership development programs to attract and retain talent in a dynamic organization consisting of 5,500 employees. She was honored with the Calpelra “Moving Forward Award” for Innovative Leadership in 2009 and a “Circle of Service Award” from CSAC in

2011. She is currently the Vice President of the County Personnel Administrator’s Association of California.

Donna’s career and personal experience has exemplified her commitment to providing outstanding public service at the local level. She previously held leadership positions in a variety of departments including Community Services and most recently as Deputy Director of Administration and Airports in the Department of Public Works.

Donna began her career with the County in 1981 after serving overseas for three years in the U.S. Army.

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Talent Development and Succession Planning

Talent Development &Succession Planning

CSAC Institute

Aug 29, 2013Dr. Frank Benest

[email protected]

Donna Vaillancourt

[email protected]

Let’s Start with Questions

1. In the minds of line employees and support staff, what are the images of the work of senior management?

2. From your perspective, what are the rewards, benefits, and joys of senior management?

Overview

1. Demographic crisis

2. Impacts of “retirement wave”

3. Exercise: “My most powerful development experience”

4. Focus on talent development

5. Importance of people skills

1



Overview (con’t)

6. Case study and best practices

7. Four-prong approach

8. Lessons learned

9. Five things to get started

10. Resources, reactions, and key learnings

The Demographic Crisis

The Numbers

80 million Baby Boomers

(1946-1964) leaving economy

50 million Gen Xers

(1965-1980) replacing them

88 million Millenials

(1981-2000) entering workforce

A Different Time

Why did a whole generation of baby-boomers join public sector?

2



Age Distribution

One Public Agency

Average age: 50 yrs

“At risk” of retirement within 3 yrsAdministration: 72%Utilities: 67%Watershed: 61%

The “Retirement Wave”

What are some typical organizational impacts of the “retirement wave”?

3



“My Most Powerful Development Experience”

Two questions:

1. What did the experience entail?

2. What were the key ingredients making it such a robust learning & development experience?

Talent Development Goals

Create “leader-full” organization

Develop a pool of talent ready & able to step into leadership positions at top levels & throughout organization

(Private sector metric for succession is 3 inside qualified candidates for every key position)

Talent Development

Historic ViewTalent Development = classroom training

Contemporary ViewTalent Development = series of “stretching”

job experiences coupled with helpful and candid coaching

4



The Importance of People Skills

The Essence of Leadership

“Leaders do not force people to follow. They invite them on a journey.”

Charles Lauer

Accelerating Development

Focus on “learning by doing”

Understand 70/20/10 rule

Seek “sweet spot”

5



Workforce and Succession

Management ProgramSan Mateo County

CASE STUDY

What is Succession Planning in SMC?

Why Succession Planning in SMC?

Director Level Mid-Management Other

% of County Workforce over 50 Years of Age

6



Why Succession Planning in SMC?

Director Level Mid-Management Other

% of County Workforce Eligible to Retire

Changing Workforce5 Years Ago…

7.4%

47.9%42.4%

2.3%

Traditionalist

1922-1945

Baby Boomer

1946-1964

Generation X

1965-1979

Millenials

1980-1993

Today…

1.7%

43.6%43.7%

11.0%

Traditionalist

1922-1945

Baby Boomer

1946-1964

Generation X

1965-1979

Millenials

1980-1993

Succession Planning History

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Goals and StrategyTalent

Leadership

Culture

Knowledge

Performance

= Effective Organization

Talent

Strategies

Focus Groups

Surveys

STEP

College Recruitment

Next Gen

Community Outreach

Internships

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Results

50128

Number of Interns at

San Mateo County

in20082012

Leadership

Executive Leadership Academy Leadership Forums Core Competency Development

ProgramManagement Development Program Rotational Analyst ProgramManagement

Talent Exchange Program First Line Supervision Academy Coaching services for Aspiring Managers/other interested employeesCountywide Employee Development Plan

ProgramOnsite MPA Program BA/BS Degree program options Transition management

training and resources Training for employees on core competencies

Strategies

Directors

Deputy Directors

Managers

Supervisors

All Employees

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Results

Positions filled with Internal Candidates 2011-2012

Highlight: Executive Leadership Academy

Culture

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StrategiesTraining

Coaching

RecognitionCultural Competency

Wellness Program

Engagement Findings To-Date

Responded Good or Very Good for Overall Experience working

for County2011 & 2012

Recommend the County as a Great

Place to Work2012

Knowledge

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StrategiesOverlap Key Positions

Transition Management

Capture Knowledge

Internal Trainers

Results• Retiree Skills Bank

• Reference Guide to Planning forEmployee Retirement

• Transition Planning Guide

Performance

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Strategies

Collaborative Performance Management SystemMeaningful Goals. Motivated People. Maximum Results.

Projected Results

in

yearsParticipation in CPMSPerformance Management

Critique• What went well?

• What did not go so well?

• What are lessons learned for future practice?

13



Role of Employee Engagement

Retention of high

performers

Shared commitment to org. goals

Productivity, effectiveness

Problem‐solving,

innovation, adaptabilityEngagement

Why Engagement Matters

Why Engagement MattersActively EngagedActively Engaged

Loyal and productive

Not Engaged

Not Engaged

Average performers

Actively DisengagedActively

Disengaged

ROAD Warriors

CAVE Dwellers

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Engaging Employees in their own Development

• Organizational Expectation

• Shared Commitment

• Personal Responsibility

Supporting Supervisors

• Essential Supervisory Skills Training

• SOS Website

• Yammer Groups

Essential Supervisory Skills Training

Coaching Goal Setting

Feedback Performance Evaluations

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Other Resources for Supervisors

• Supervisors On-line Support o One-stop resource center

• Onboarding• Policies• Performance Management• Training & Development

• Yammer Groups• ESS• Performance• Innovation• Best Practices

Resources• The Surprising Truth

About What Motivates Us

http://youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc• SMCO Employee

Engagement:http://www.smcgov.org/hr/EmployeeEngagement/

• Marcus Buckingham –First Break All the Rules

• Daniel Pink – Drive

• Teresa Amabile – The Progress Principle

• SOS Websitehttp://www.smcgov.org/hr/SOS/

Talent Development

Why is issue of talent development even more important in tough times?

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Four-Prong Strategy

1. Accelerate development of talent in local government pipeline examples: Interim management or special projectsTraining on how to conduct development

conversationsManagement Talent Exchange Program (MTEP)

Leadership AcademyCal-ICMA Coaching Program

Four Prong Strategy (con’t)

2. Capture and transfer knowledgeexamples:Desk manualsTransition planning formatsWiki’s (“palopedia”)Videotaped interviews with

retireesExpert yellow pages


3. Re-recruit and retain talent, including early-, mid- and late-career talentexamples: Learning and “stretch” opportunities

“Stay interviews”Employee engagement efforts

17




4. Attract young people into the pipelineexamples: Re-brandingJob shadowingInternshipsManagement Fellowships

Barriers

What are the barriers in your organization to undertaking an effective talent development & succession management effort?

Cost-Effective Talent Development

Cross-train

Use internal trainers or

“train-the-trainers”

Teach supervisors simple coaching skills

Place emerging leaders in interim positions

Include a learning plan in annual work plan for each employee

Rotate key talent through Executive Team

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Cost-Effective Talent Development

Conduct “talent readiness assessments”

Structure assignments to include interaction with advisory boards & community groups

Exchange an aspiring manager with a neighboring jurisdiction

Collaborate with adjoining local govts to create a regional talent exchange, internship, or training consortium

Sampling of Metrics

Increased number of qualified applicants for key positions

Reduced turn-over Increased % of internal promotions Reduced time to hire Increased % of employees

with development plans Increased % of employees

exhibiting leadership competencies

Best Practices

What are 1 or 2 best practices from your county organization?

19



Lessons Learned

1. Ensure leadership from top

2. Make “talent development” a primary responsibility of senior managers

3. Target efforts but make development opportunities available to all

4. Integrate “growing leaders” into strategic plan

5. Go beyond classroom training to provide job experiences that stretch aspiring leaders

Lessons Learned

6. Provide array of opportunities

7. Align all organization systems

8. Partner with governing board and unions

9. Place responsibility on employee

10. Allow mistakes

Five Things To Get Started

1. Do workforce analysis2. Identify key talent pool3. Offer & promote menu of

cost-effective development opportunities4. Engage dept heads in talent readiness

assessment5. Train all supervisors in how

to conduct development conversations

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Resources

Cal-ICMA Coaching Programwww.cal-icma.org/coaching

Webinars

One-to-one coaching

Speed coaching

“Women Leading Govt” Initiative

Career Compass advice columns

“Hiring 2.0” Best Practices Guide

Resources (con’t)

“Retaining and Growing Talent—Strategies to Create Organizational Stickiness,” Public Management, Oct 2008

Creating a Talent Strategy to Avert Brain Drain and Other Future Disasters, International City/County Management Association, 2009http://bookstore.icma.org

Municipal Management Associations of Northern California & Southern Californiawww.mmanc.org

Reaction Panel

What resonated with me?

What did not resonate with me?

What do I have to add?

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Wrap-Up

What is one thing I learned from today’s session?

What questions do I have?

“One Thing”

“Beginning on Monday, what is one thing I will try in order to promote talent development in my organization?”

22

How to Hang On to Your High Potentials Emerging best practices in managing your company’s future leaders by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Boris Groysberg, and Nitin Nohria

ArTwOrk Vincent Fournier, The Man Machine: ReemB #1, Pal, 2010, Barcelona

Spotlight

THE wAr FOr talent shows no signs of letting up, even in sectors experiencing modest growth. According to a global study we conducted, only 15% of companies in North America and Asia believe that they have enough qualified successors for key positions. The picture is slightly better in Europe, but even so, fewer than 30% of European companies feel confident about the quality and amount of talent in their pipe-lines. Moreover, in the regions where many compa-nies are focusing their growth strategies—emerging markets—the supply of experienced managers is the most limited, and the shortage is expected to con-tinue for another two decades.

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SPOTLIGHT on TalenT

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SPOTLIGHT on TalenT

One popular battle strategy is to institute pro-grams aimed at “high potentials”—the people that companies believe may become their future leaders. The appeal is clear for both sides: Promising manag-ers are attracted to companies known for strong de-velopment opportunities, and a well-managed talent pipeline dramatically increases the odds that a com-pany will appoint great leaders at the top.

But these programs aren’t simple to execute. The selection criteria are often confusing. Employees are frequently mystified by who’s included and who’s excluded. Company leaders have to weigh the up-side of putting top performers into developmental opportunities against the downside of temporarily distracting them from an enterprise’s immediate needs. Firms risk demoralizing solid contributors who are not anointed as high potentials—the vast majority of managers, the people who keep the trains running on time. Sometimes the chosen few don’t stick around or don’t live up to expectations. And too often, the programs fail to maintain mo-mentum, leaving companies unsure they have paid off and fueling worker cynicism.

There are exceptions, of course. Companies such as GE, Unilever, PepsiCo, and Shell have long been known for their careful attention to talent manage-ment. But those companies are not the norm.

As far as we know, no one has yet studied the pro-cess of managing high potentials from end to end. In order to fill this void, in 2007 we launched a joint research project with the executive search firm Egon Zehnder International, conducting a large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of how companies assess and manage their rising stars. We also interviewed executives from 70 companies that have programs for high potentials—firms of all sizes, located around the world.

From this research, we identified a set of cutting- edge practices. Some are from unexpected places—such as an Argentine manufacturer of steel tubes that’s become an international leader despite re-gional and industry turbulence, and a Turkish bank

that has gone global. Some are broad—such as the direct involvement of a pharmaceutical-device maker’s senior management team in the develop-ment of that company’s 600 most promising leaders. Though high-potential programs abound, the field is so new and so dynamic that these practices haven’t yet been time-tested. Still, they can provide valu-able ideas and inspiration to companies looking to strengthen their talent pipelines.

One important finding of our research was that the effective management of the next generation of leaders always encompasses three sets of activities. The first involves the establishment of clear strategic priorities, which shape the way companies groom high-potential leaders. The second involves the careful selection of high-potential candidates—and communicating who they are to others in the organi-zation. This can be touchy. And the third comprises the management of talent itself—how high poten-tials are developed, rewarded, and retained.

There is no cookie-cutter method for creating a successful program. Just as you can’t lift any other people management process directly from another

company, you can’t assume that a high-potential program that works somewhere else will work for you. Your strategy and your culture influence the nature of the program that will be most effective. If your strategy is to aggressively expand through ac-quisitions in emerging markets, for instance, you’ll need a different type of program than you would if you were pursuing low-cost leadership through op-erational and productivity improvements.

We’ll outline the strategic, selection, and mana-gerial aspects of effective high-potential programs below. But first, let’s start with a definition.

what Is Potential?We were a little surprised to discover how many companies launch high-potential programs with-out first clearly establishing what they mean by

“potential.” We use the following simple definition: Potential indicates whether someone will be able to

The desire to have a positive impact on others for the good of the organization is a key predictor of executive potential.

4 Harvard Business Review October 2011Purchased by Donna Vaillancourt ([email protected]) on October 10, 2011 24

succeed in a bigger role in the future. It is a person’s ability to grow and to handle responsibilities of greater scale and scope. By “greater scale” we mean a job in the same area but with, say, a larger budget or staff; by “greater scope” we mean a job involving activities of substantially more breadth and complexity.

Consider a sales vice president who consistently meets her budget forecasts. Could you reasonably expect her to take responsibility for marketing as well? Might she be able to lead a multidivisional ini-tiative—repositioning the business from a product- centric to a customer-centric organization? She doesn’t have to be ready to take it on tomorrow to be high potential. However, if you’re going to invest significantly in her development, you want to be rea-sonably confident that the investment will pay off.

Before classifying her as an up-and-coming leader, then, you’d look for signs of her capacity to learn quickly on the job, genuine interest in broad-ening her scope (is she inclined to show up at meet-ings where she might learn something that doesn’t directly relate to her job?), and willingness to take on extra work on short notice. She might be very bright and a highly valued contributor but still not qualify as a high potential.

A basic model for assessing executive potential, developed by Egon Zehnder International, is de-picted in the exhibit “The Essentials of Executive Potential.” It contains five elements, shown in the exhibit as a section of five concentric rings. These range from very difficult to change (motives) to highly teachable (skills).

At the inner core are the individual’s motives. These predict consistent patterns of behavior over time. They tend to be stable, are usually not con-scious, and are highly related to what people enjoy and get energized or engaged by. Does the person get satisfaction from seeing others succeed? Does she demonstrate a passion for the organization’s mis-sion over personal reward? Foundational research

at Harvard long ago showed the relevance of the “Three Social Motives”—achievement, affiliation, and influence. One form of the last motive, the de-sire for socialized influence (having a positive impact on others for the good of the larger organization), is a predictor of senior executive potential. To a certain extent, it may be something you’re born with—or at least a product of early social interactions. However, positive work experiences and wise mentorship can help people develop better motives.

One level out you’ll find a series of abilities we call “leadership assets,” which predict how far and how fast an executive will grow. There are four im-portant assets: A high potential derives insight; she can make sense of a vast range of information and discover and apply new ideas that transform past practices or set new directions. She also effectively engages others through emotions and logic, commu-nicating a persuasive vision and connecting individ-uals. She demonstrates resolve and keeps on driving toward goals despite challenges. Finally, and per-haps most important, a high potential seeks under-standing; she constantly looks for new experiences, ideas, and knowledge; asks for feedback; and adjusts her behavior accordingly.

At the next level is a sense of self, or identity. Iden-tity is how you see yourself on the stage. For high potentials, this means envisioning yourself as a se-nior executive—not just for the prestige but because you want to fulfill a passion for developing a team or make things happen. Individual contributors may be motivated by others’ success, for instance, but may have no wish to play an enterprise-wide role.

The characteristics found in the three innermost rings—which are so hard to change or learn—are es-sential to high potential. The things in the outer two rings of the model—skills and knowledge—can be acquired. Skills—what an executive is actually able to do and apply—can effectively be taught or learned on the job. And in order to perform an individual job

Idea in briefin the war for talent, the most effective weapon is the careful manage-ment of candidates for top jobs.

Unfortunately, the develop-ment of a company’s future leaders, or “high potentials,” is often haphazard: There are no agreed-on best practices. selection criteria are confus-ing; solid contributors are often

demoralized by their exclusion from the process; develop-ment programs tend to remove promising managers from day-to-day operations.

in a far-reaching research effort, the authors have identi-fied several sets of activities—

“emerging” best practices—employed by companies with strong talent programs. They include:

Aligning the programs with corporate strategy, rather than adopting cookie-cutter approaches that seem effective in other organizations.

Choosing candidates carefully, through a combina-tion of nominations and objec-tive assessments, so expensive resources aren’t wasted on the wrong people.

Rotating people through jobs that match their develop-mental goals and experiences.

Communicating honestly. companies are often reluctant to acknowledge who’s made the list, but the only real rea-son to keep it quiet is that you suspect the process is overly subjective or unfair.

October 2011 Harvard Business Review 5

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SPOTLIGHT on TalenT

well, every manager needs some specialized knowl-edge (say, about a market, a business, or certain practices), which should be tested and eventually supplied before any critical promotion.

Align Development to StrategyMany companies’ programs for high potentials sim-ply replicate those in place at other firms, as if tal-ent could be developed with an off-the-shelf model, without taking into account an organization’s goals. Potential is situational, and programs that manage it should be aligned with a company’s strategy. (If your value proposition to employees is that you’ll develop them for successful careers wherever they go, that’s a legitimate aim, but it’s not something that will nec-essarily strengthen your talent pipeline.) There is no universal great manager, as we found when con-ducting an analysis of a large group of GE “graduates” who went on to become CEOs at other companies.

Some added tremendous value to their new organi-zations, but others proved disastrous. Doubtless all of them went through a rigorous development pro-cess at GE, but they could excel in a new company only if it was a strong strategic, organizational, and industry fit.

If, for instance, a company’s strategy is to grow in emerging markets, it might focus on a more global talent pool as well as people who have demon-strated flexibility operating in unfamiliar settings. In contrast, a company that is committed to being the low-cost leader might target people who are highly disciplined and results-oriented.

Best-practice organizations start with this strate-gic focus but periodically reexamine their strategic priorities and refresh their pool of candidates. Such flexibility is key; from what we’ve seen, companies that set rigid goals about the type or number of high potentials, instead of taking a dynamic approach, be-come complacent and don’t get much out of these programs.

One more note on tying talent management to strategy—it’s not a matter to be left to HR. If the se-

nior management team is not involved, the process may be doomed. It can be tough to get the senior-most executives viscerally engaged in talent devel-opment, but if they aren’t personally invested from the start, the whole program could easily head down the wrong path.

Select with CareThough it can be tricky, choosing candidates for these programs is an extremely important part of the process: The consequences of a faulty assessment can be costly. Not only is it wasteful—in terms of training and developing people unlikely to become leaders—but it undermines employee morale and the credibility of the whole program. Furthermore, poor assessments also mean that people who have strong potential are excluded. Disheartening a pro-spective star for the wrong reasons can be extremely expensive.

Identifying promising candidates. Selec-tion usually begins either with nomination by the employee’s immediate supervisor or through the annual appraisal process. At several companies we studied, including a Caribbean financial services firm, an Italian utility, and a Cypriot bank, managers are expected to pinpoint high-potential employees. At some companies, managers are expected to put forward candidates from their own departments but can nominate individuals from other departments as well.

Other companies, like one Danish bank we stud-ied as well as a European airline and a Scandinavian online service provider, allow employees to nomi-nate themselves. However, we found that the prac-tice is not prevalent, because it carries risks. Across the board, people overestimate their potential. Their self-assessments might be useful but need to be taken in context.

Using annual appraisals to make the first cut brings more objectivity to the process. At a gas pipe-line company we studied, two years’ worth of out-standing reports qualify an individual as high poten-

A firm focused on emerging markets needs flexible people who can handle the unfamiliar; a low-cost firm needs disciplined people.

6 Harvard Business Review October 2011Purchased by Donna Vaillancourt ([email protected]) on October 10, 2011 26

tial. At an insurance company, the annual appraisal process specifically calls for categorizing individuals as lateral, potential, or high potential: lateral signi-fies that someone is ready to move into positions only at the same level; potential, readiness for pro-motion in two years; and high potential, the ability to make two major moves upward in the next five years. But annual appraisals alone are not enough—research has shown that most high performers are not, in fact, high potentials. That’s why we recom-mend supplementing appraisals with a subjective view of candidates—like supervisors’ recommenda-tions and other inputs.

After you’ve identified your first cut of candi-dates, the next step is to develop valid and reliable assessments of their potential. Many companies rou-tinely use personality tests to do this. The practice is somewhat more commonplace in North America and somewhat less popular in Asia and Africa. We don’t recommend it; though some research in the early 1990s provided evidence that personality can predict job performance, it has become clear that personality tests have low validity. Furthermore, if they’re self-reported, you can’t prevent people from gaming them. The best tools for assessing potential are references and behavioral interviews. At some companies, psychometric tests are used only to cus-tomize development plans for candidates who have already been selected by other means.

Increasingly, major organizations also comple-ment their own internal appraisals with periodic in-put from qualified external partners. External assess-ments decrease the element of bias and offer a broad set of benchmarks—allowing companies to compare their talent against strong outside candidates.

Just as important as the choice of methods is the person conducting the assessment. Most people aren’t nearly as good as they think at sizing others up. Indeed, most managers are dismal at predict-ing employees’ future accomplishments. The good news is that it’s not about intuition: Accurate assess-ment can be learned. And the right person using the right model can learn to assess potential (predicting whether a person will not be promoted, will be pro-moted once, or will be promoted twice or more over the next four to five years) with 85% accuracy.

Communicating wisely. Many organizations try to “hide” high-potential classifications, as if that were possible. A study conducted by Anthony J. Fre-sina and Associates in 1987, featuring 225 corpora-tions in 10 industries, found that 78% of companies

did not inform high potentials of their designation, but 90% of the time employees knew anyway. Yet even in that study, informing high potentials of their status was clearly associated with enhanced reten-tion and improved productivity.

Nonetheless, this is a delicate topic. If you’re completely open about who is on the list, you have to prepare for the disappointment of those not anointed and even the frustration of high potentials whose expectations are not met. We believe strongly in transparency—let people know if they’re high potential; acknowledge it when they are not. To some extent, the instinct to keep the list private is understandable, because the process is new at many firms and because companies have so much trouble evaluating even past performance. Still, we’ve found that the main reason companies don’t communicate

This model shows the elements of potential, with the hardest to change—motives and leadership assets like the ability to engage others—at the core. Wrapped around those traits is a leader’s sense of identity. it has a major impact on whether a man-ager will use a particular capability. He might, for instance, be able to create change in an organiza-tion, but if he doesn’t define himself as a change agent, he won’t. High levels of competence alone, therefore, can propel people to some success and some promotions but won’t be enough to sustain them in large leadership roles.

The Essentials of Executive Potential

EAsiER TO CHAnGE HARdER TO CHAnGE

kNOwLEDGEWHaT THe execUTive knoWs

SkILLSWHaT THe execUTive can do

SENIOr ExECuTIVE IDENTITyaccepTing THe cosTs oF THe execUTive posiTion; seeing yoURselF as a senioR execUTiveLEADErSHIP ASSETSdeRives insigHT; engages oTHeRs; deMonsTRaTes Resolve; seeks UndeRsTandingMOTIVES desiRe To Have a posiTive iMpacT on oTHeRs




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SPOTLIGHT on TalenT

openly is that their process is overly subjective or un-fair and therefore indefensible.

To make sure they provided the right type of feedback, the companies we studied would typically inform managers in private discussions that they had or hadn’t been designated as high potentials. Some companies also communicated status indi-rectly, by suggesting enrollment in special programs or appointing the managers to special developmen-tal roles and assignments. However, transparency wins over secrecy.

Develop and reward Thoughtfully The development of high potentials needs to go beyond formal education programs and include self-directed learning and other types of training. On-the-job development is also key. Changing un-derlying motives and traits is hard, but a combina-tion of targeted mentoring, coaching, education, and job experiences can achieve considerable impact. The best companies in our study look for experi-ences that will both challenge and motivate people, and strongly encourage senior leaders’ involvement in key activities like mentoring.

Programs for high potentials typically employ a handful of time-tested methods. One Eastern Eu-ropean financial services company we looked at of-fers a classic example of a formal, well-thought-out program. At this firm, in addition to performing their regular jobs and stretch assignments, selected young middle managers attend a 15-month training pro-gram designed and taught by business-school fac-ulty and featuring case studies and other business-school content. They receive coaching at the same time. When the program ends, they get a three- to six-month foreign assignment, chosen for its oppor-tunities for personal development, to do a job closely related to their job at home.

It’s useful to involve company leaders as teach-ers—in both formal programs and informal conversa-tions—and as networking resources. High potentials need visibility with senior executives, as well as role

models of leadership. At a major pharmaceutical company we studied, the CEO and other members of the senior team meet one-on-one with people on the leadership development track. “They’ll ask them about their experience being a member of the talent pool,” explains the company’s executive vice president of HR and corporate affairs. “Do they feel they’re getting appropriate development? Are they getting good coaching from their leader? How can we help them? Do they understand the benefits of being a member of the global talent pool? When the CEO spends time doing this, it shows you how im-portant he thinks it is.”

Job rotations. It’s well established that on-the-job experiences are by far the biggest lever you can pull in developing the skills that will take high poten-tials to larger, more senior, and more complex posi-tions. As long ago as 1988, a study on managing high potentials conducted by C. Brooklyn Derr, Candace Jones, and Edmund L. Toomey showed that 84% of firms used job rotations as the primary strategy to develop high potentials.

Rotations that develop managers include big-ger scale, bigger scope, line-to-staff or staff-to-line switches, cross-moves (handling a very different set of activities across divisions, functions, or indus-tries), start-ups, turnarounds, change management initiatives, and international assignments. Changes in level, organizational unit, location, industry, and circumstances all help managers grow. Ideally, job assignments will involve novelty and the need to adapt. The greater the change in scope and respon-sibility, the greater the learning. There is, however, a fine line between a challenging assignment and an overwhelming one.

Because job rotations are costly, they should be chosen with care. Here again, it helps to go back to the strategic goals of the organization. What is it that this high potential would need the most to further contribute to our strategic objectives? If it’s, say, broader international experience, consider a geo-graphical shift with an eventual increase in job scale.

Make sure you don’t overload people. There is a fine line between a challenging assignment and an overwhelming one.8 Harvard Business Review October 2011


But make sure you don’t overload people—if you’re expecting somebody to lead a significant overseas expansion, don’t add too many new challenges in other dimensions.

Rewards and incentives. Some companies seem to believe that the high-potential classification is a significant reward in itself. But the best compa-nies think beyond the benefits of participation in specific development programs and make consid-ered choices about their high potentials’ compensa-tion, as well as how it’s paid out.

Financial incentives should not be excessive—compensation is only one part of any reward strat-egy—and they must be properly aligned with the objective of building lasting strengths for the com-pany. And external incentives like money work only in conjunction with internal motivators like the need for achievement and recognition. While companies need to pay people well to attract and retain high potentials in the first place, they should be careful not to overdo it, because that is the surest way to de-

motivate employees who are not classified as high potentials, who may feel unfairly paid.

IF PEOPLE are your most important asset, as compa-nies like to say, then high potentials are vital to your future. We are hesitant to definitively label the pro-cesses we describe here “best practices,” because they are evolving and we don’t yet have long-term evidence of their merit. But we give credit to the companies experimenting with new approaches, because they are on the vanguard as we move into what may prove to be the most intense battle yet in the global war for talent.

Hbr reprint R1110d

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a senior adviser at egon Zehnder international, the author of Great People

Decisions (Wiley, 2007), and a frequent keynote speaker. boris Groysberg is a professor of business administration in the organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business school. Nitin Nohria is the george F. Baker professor of administration and the dean of the faculty at Harvard Busi-ness school.

“Remember when i walked past your desk this morning and didn’t fire you? in today’s economy, that counts as a raise and promotion.”ca

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Public Management October 200820

Local governments are caught in a war for talent. As 80 million baby boomers (born

1946–1964) retire from their role in the U.S. economy, only 50 million Gen Xers

(born 1964–1981) are available to replace them. Because most baby boomers have

risen in their careers by the time they retire, the greatest talent replacement gaps are

at key administrative, managerial, and professional levels. To make matters worse for

local government, proportionately more baby boomers—part of the JFK era—joined

the government sector than the private sector workforce.

The talent crisis is further exacerbated in the public sector because government

agencies need more knowledge workers than the private sector. As indicated in a

2007 study by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence in Washington,

D.C., 68 percent of all government employees are classified as knowledge workers

compared with 32 percent in the private sector workforce.1

Consequently, it is imperative that local governments “grow” their own leaders and

other key professionals. To do so, local government agencies must retain and acceler-

ate the development of emerging leaders at a time when talent can easily leave, given

the shrinking labor pool.

Premises

My key premises include:

•Governmentisaknowledgeindustrydependentontalent.

• Governmentfacesatalentcrisis.

Retaining and Growing Talent:

Strategies to Create Organizational “Stickiness”

by Frank Benest

30

ICMA.org/pm 21Public Management October 2008 21

• Most next-generation talent tendto view themselves as “temps.”

• Turnoverandemployeedisengage-ment are very costly.

• Providingcompetitive salariesandbenefits is necessary but insuffi-cient for retaining talent.

Becoming emPloyer oF choiceProviding competitive salaries andbenefits is necessary but insufficient for attracting and retaining talented employees. Assuming that organiza-tions provide good wages and ben-efits, they will either win or lose the war for talent based on organizational culture. In fact, a positive and engag-ing organizational culture must be viewed and marketed as part of the benefits packet.

To become “employers of choice,” public agencies must shape their cultures to respond to the values of employees, especially members of Generations X and Y. John Izzo, in his book Values Shift,2 identified five key values of the next generation:

Meaning. All employees, especially younger ones, crave meaning in their work. Meaning is the most powerful motivator of behavior. In fact, author DanielPinkproclaims that “meaningis the new money.”3 Therefore, the role of organizational leaders is to link the work of the organization to people’s sense of meaning. Given the inherent nature of public service, this is an area in which local government has a competitive edge over many pri-vate sector organizations.

Challenge. Younger employees must be constantly challenged and stretched through new or evolving assignments and roles. The key for leaders is to stretch people but not overwhelm them.

Learning. The opportunity to con-tinuously learn is a big value for Gen X and Y. In my previous city organiza-tion, Palo Alto, California, we pro-vided and funded an array of learning opportunities even in these tough

budgetary times. We called it the “PaloAltoLearningCommitment.”Ina shrinking talent market, it was our “learning edge.”

Partners in the enterprise. Next-generation employees do not want to wait 20 years before they get a piece of the decision making. They want to be partners in the enterprise now.

Balance. Baby boomers have always been committed to career. Twenty-five years ago, when I was applying for my first chief executive job, I would have gone anywhere in California to become a city manager. Now execu-tive recruiters report that they cannot pry loose talented up-and-coming

managers and their families from their “home” metro areas. Gen X and Y managers are still committed to careers, but they also want time for family and personal pursuits.

The Hodes 2007 workplace study confirms the centrality of organiza-tional culture to attract and retain employees.4 According to the study, employees are looking for positive organizational culture and benefit packets that include work-life balance and flexible scheduling.

The new social glueThe old social contract in the gov-ernment sector was based on public agencies providing decent wages, good benefits, and especially security (in some cases, lifetime employment) to public employees. In exchange, public employees provided loy-alty and commitment and stayed with their government organization. Be-cause government is now in “perma-

nent fiscal stress,”5 and agencies must sometimes resort to layoffs to balance their budgets, the old social contract is dead.

The new social contract between public agencies, as well as private organizations, and their employees is based on learning and development. The new social contract is that em-ployees will stay with the organiza-tion as long as employees are learning and growing. Learning and employee development thus help retain employ-ees and create organizational “sticki-ness.” Learning provides the new social glue.

A learning environment is not only important for retaining employees; it is also critical for attracting talent.

In fact, one local government in California markets itself in all its job announcements as a “learning organization.”

creaTing a learning culTureHow does a local government agency create a learning culture as part of its efforts to attract and retain talent? Here are some key approaches:

Provide a strong rationale for con-tinuous learning. Amid the escalating demands on local government, it is necessary to focus the attention of employees and the organization as well as some resources on learning. Consequently, top management must provide an evidence-based and strong strategic rationale for continuous learning.Palo Alto in 2006, for example,

conducted a “retirement-wave sur-vey” of all employees. The survey data indicated that 50 percent of all man-agement and professional employees were eligible to retire in three to five years, and 35 percent stated that they would in fact retire. To combat this massive brain drain, the city obvious-ly had to promote employee learning and accelerate the development of the next generation of leaders.

In addition to leadership develop-ment, other strategic rationales for continuous learning may include

To win the war for talent, employers must tie benefits to the values of employees, especially the next generation.

31


the need to encourage innovation, improve customer service, enhance productivity given constrained re-sources, or retain talent. It is helpful if continuous learning becomes an explicit part of an agency’s long-term strategic plan.

Offer an array of learning and devel-opment opportunities. Because of the diverse needs of employees and their different stages of development, an agency is wise to provide an array of learning and development programs. This menu of development opportuni-ties may include special assignments, interim positions, job rotations, cer-tificate programs, and supervisory and management academies.6

Palo Alto has expanded devel-opment programs through two in-novative approaches. First, in con-junction with the other local governments in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, the city offers high- potential employees a three-month assignment in another agency and a different department through the ManagementTalentExchangePro-gram(MTEP).MTEPprovidesnewskills, relationships, and growth experiences.

Second, borrowing a strategy fromthecorporatesector,PaloAltoassigns employees to “action learning teams” outside their fields of exper-tise. Multidisciplinary teams focus on key issues facing the city, conduct re-search, make recommendations, and then implement the recommendations after their approval by the executive team or city council, or both.

Focus on “doing.” Historically, tal-ent development has been viewed as classroom training. Classroom train-ing is good for creating a theoretical or conceptual framework for new behavior, but it cannot in and of it-self create the new behavior. Adults learn through actual experience and doing. Therefore, the contemporary view of talent development focuses on providing employees with a series of challenging and “stretching” job experiences coupled with helpful and candid coaching.7

Both the MTEP and action learn-ing teams rely on experiential learn-ing. While the city provides learning forums as a classroom educational element to the experience, the focus is onlearningbydoing.MTEPalsopro-vides a mentor at the exchange agency so the employee can be coached and supported during the three-month experience.

Provide coaching resources. When Palo Alto conducted its retirement-wave survey, almost half of the em-ployees indicated that they felt that they were ready or almost ready to move up in the organization as long-time employees retired. However, when they were asked “Does your su-pervisor think you are ready to move up?” most employees responded, “I don’t know.”

It was clear from the survey data that supervisors and employees were not engaged in “development conver-sations.” Consequently, the city con-ducted a two-part training program for all supervisors on how to conduct development conversations with di-rect reports. The workshop helped employees identify their aspirations, overcome obstacles to their hopes and dreams, plan some action steps, and build a supportive dream team. The next step is to train all employees on how to engage their supervisors in these types of conversations.

The city is also one of many lo-cal governments across the state to participate in the Cal-ICMA Coach-ing Program. This coaching programoffers telephone panels and webinars on leadership and career development topics, one-to-one coaching match-ups (senior-manager coaches are listed on

the Cal-ICMA Web site), e-coaching, intensive workshops, and other educa-tional and networking opportunities. Through the city and county manager associations of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, emerging leaders can also access an annual networking and “speed coaching” event.

Encourage employees to develop an annual learning plan. All management and professional employees in the city are required to submit an annual learning plan. At the end of the year, supervisors evaluate them on their ac-complishments, including their learn-ing goals. In fact, their performance bonuses are tied in part to achieving their development goals.

Allow for mistakes. If senior manag-ers are going to encourage employees

to take on new job assignments and engage in new learning ex-periences, mistakes will happen. Missteps will certainly occur if employees are assigned to action learning teams outside their fields of expertise; step up to lead project teams; or make presentations in front of governing boards, commis-sions, or community groups. There is no learning without mistakes. Learning cannot happen in a zero-

risk environment.To institutionalize the concept

of learning through mistakes, PaloAlto’s employees follow the public safety practice of debriefing almost any experience. Staff often write up the findings and recommendations from the debriefings and share them with all those involved. In fact, the city’s leadership development team has recently initiated a series of fo-rums at which a department shares a real-life case study and then key talent from across the organization critiques the experience and identifies lessons learned. The forums also help people in the organization put these lessons learned into practice with other cur-rent projects.

If employees commit to learning and excellence, top management must allow for mistakes and provide a pro-fessional safety net.

Providing competitive salaries and benefits is necessary but insufficient for retaining the best new talent.

32

ICMA.org/pm 23Public Management October 2008

Reconceptualize the role of manag-ers. Especially in these difficult times of constrained resources, managers see their primary roles as pushing out the work from their work units and overseeing staff. Typical managers do not perceive promoting learning and developing talent as key functions. To help reconceptualize the primary roles of managers, top management must not only provide a strategic rationale and program resources for continuous learn-ing; we must also recognize and reward managers if they are going to expend their time and focus on these roles.InPaloAlto,departmentdirectors

and all other managers are evaluated on talent development and receive performance bonuses based in part on this key function. Moreover, as managers begin to focus on talent development and see how their people stretch and grow with sup-port, they begin to appreciate the intrinsic value of these efforts.

PromoTing liFe-work BalanceIn addition to learning, life-work balance is a key value. In the past, organizations have viewed employee life-work balance as a nice but dis-cretionary effort, often related to the needs of women with young children. Today, balance initiatives must be viewed as a core business strategy if organizations are to retain most of their employees for long periods.

Life-work balance issues are impor-tant to Gen X and Y employees want-ing an outside life as well as a career, parents of teenagers as well as young children, employees caring for elderly parents or an older spouse, and baby boomers who are eligible to retire but may be willing to work longer with some additional flexibility.

What are some practical ways to offer life-work balance? Here are some suggestions:

• Survey employees regarding theirneeds and interests in balancing work with family, leisure, and other personal pursuits, and form a citywide team to analyze the survey results and recommend pro-

grammatic responses.• Develop and implement a policy

promoting alternative work sched-ules compatible with the varied demands of local government.

• Encourage some telework for em-ployees whose job assignments can accommodate it.

• OfferITsupportsoemployeescanset up home offices, including a computer from which they can do some of their work.

• Help organize support groups thatmeet at lunchtime for employees who care for frail parents or are grieving the loss of family members. The agency’s employee assistance program, a church group, or a non-profit group may be able to provide facilitation or other resources.

• Workwithchildcareandeldercare

providers in your communities to provide information and other re-sources; consider ways to include child care and elder care resources as part of the benefits package.

Even small efforts can often make a bigdifference.InPaloAlto,forexam-ple, a city council protocol was devel-oped that requires a councilmember to notify the city manager by noon before an evening council meeting if the councilmember is going to pull a consent calendar item for separate discussion. If there is no notifica-tion, the manager sends home the employee who has responsibility for the agenda item. Given the long com-mutes in Silicon Valley, this practice is much appreciated by employees who would normally have to attend a council meeting after working all day.

Five sTraTegies For winning The war For TalenTTo win the war for talent and create organizational stickiness, consider five overarching strategies:

1. Engage the governing board and employees in the talent issue. To gain the support of the governing board and the organization, the manager must raise the talent issue, provide workforce demographic statistics on the retirement wave, and generally provide a strategic rationale for focus-ing on employee retention and devel-opment. In Palo Alto, we conductedthe retirement-wave employee survey and then convened a leadership devel-opment team consisting of managers from all departments.

After sharing the employee sur-vey data with all employees in large meetings, the team created an action plan to respond to the survey results. This leadership development action plan and update reports on the ac-complishments have been shared at

regular intervals during the past two years with senior managers.

To gain support for the talent agenda and resources for program initiatives, it is critical to engage the governing board because lead-ership development and employee

retention are not typical worries in the minds of elected officials. For the past two years in Palo Alto, the citymanager and the Leadership Develop-ment Team have held an annual study session with the council.

The first session focused on our next-generation challenge and pro-vided results from our workforce analysis and employee survey. The second updated the council on our actions to become an employer of choice and attract, retain, and grow talented employees.

To grab the attention of governing board members, I asked the council during the study session why they should care about talent development. After a dialogue in this open and televised session, councilmembers concluded that they could not achieve their policy agenda without staff tal-ent. Councilmembers may have great dreams and ideas, but these ideas are worthless without organizational talent to execute them. As a result of these sessions, the governing board has been extremely supportive of our talent initiatives.

Learning cannot happen in a zero-risk environment.

33


2. Retool the benefits package to reflect the values of the next genera-tion. Providing competitive compen-sation is of course necessary in a tight labor market; however, that just keeps you in the talent game, it does not win the game. Therefore, local govern-ments need to modify their compen-sation and benefit programs so they resonate better with next-generation employees.

Given that next-gen employees are more footloose than baby boomers, benefit portability is important. Cer-tainly top management should work to ensure that their public agency has a pension program that is portable among public agencies within the state.Organizationsalsoneedtopro-vide learning programs, professional development opportunities, and life-work balance initiatives and specifi-cally define them as key elements in the benefits plan.

3. Fix up organizational cultures. If people feel unstimulated, unin-volved in key decisions, pigeon-holed in narrowly defined jobs, or overwhelmed with work, the culture must be fixed before it is marketed as part of an organization’s “employ-ee value proposition.”

Again, to gain support from depart-mentdirectorsandthecouncilinPaloAlto, I asked both groups to identify key issues that inhibit our ability to attract, retain, and grow talent. Both the council and the executive team acknowledged the need to reduce non-value-added process and coun-teract a hypercritical environment as part of our talent strategy.

4. Market culture as a benefit. To succeed in the war for talent, senior managers must engage in initiatives to enhance organizational culture and specifically market positive culture as a benefit.

5. Re-recruit employees on a con-tinuous basis. Employee turnover and disengagement are costly, especially in lost productivity. Based on its survey research, the Gallup organization esti-mates that 72 percent of all employees

in public and private organizations in the U.S. are “not engaged” or are “ac-tively disengaged,” costing employers in absenteeism, workers’ compensa-tion claims, and lost productivity.8

Therefore, just as new talent is wooed as part of the recruitment process, existing employees must be reengaged as part of an ongoing pro-cess. Re-recruitment involves engag-ing employees in conversations and dialogues about the vision and goals of the organization; conducting “stay interviews” with employees regard-ing their individual hopes, dreams, and values and possible ways to ful-fill their aspirations; offering people concrete opportunities to stretch and grow; and generally engaging them as part of an agency’s evolving “story.” Re-recruitment helps retain talented employees even though they could go elsewhere.

Amid all our political, financial, de-mographic, and technology challenges, we in local government must refocus on retaining and growing talent if we are to survive and prosper. PM

1Stuart Greenfield, Public Sector Employment: The Current Situation (Center for State and Local Govern-ment Excellence, 2007).

2John B. Izzo and Pam Withers,Values Shift: The New Work Ethic and What It Means for Business (Fairwinds Press,2002).

3Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New

Mind—Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Riverbank Books, 2006).

4Playing for Keeps/Recruiting for Retention: The Hodes 2007 Workplace Study (Bernard Hodes Group, 2007).

5David Osbourne and PeterHutchinson, The Price of Government— Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis (Basic Books, 2004).

6Frank Benest, “Best Practices inPreparingtheNextGeneration,Public Management, June, 2004.

7“The War for Talent,” McKinsey & Company, 2001.

8Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Great Managers Do (Simon and Schuster, 1999).

Frank Benest, ICMA-CM, is former man-ager of Palo Alto, California, and co-chairs the Cal-ICMA Coaching Program ([email protected]).

These publications are available for more information:

Benest, Frank. Commit To Learn—Transforming Government from the Inside Out. Phoenix: Alliance for Innovation, 2000. www.transformgov.org/.

Local Governments Preparing the Next Generation—Successful Case Studies. Califor-nia: Cal-ICMA, 2006. www.cal-icma.org.

Talent development programs:Cal-ICMA Coaching Program. www.cal-icma.org/coaching.

Management Talent Exchange Program. www.cityofpaloalto.org/mtep.

Resources

Coming in

PMstrategic Planning

34

Best Practicesin Local Government Hiring & Employee Retention

WHAT PEOPLE WANT IN A JOBBeing a great place to work is fundamental to successfulrecruitment. In the last decade, a great deal of research has beenconducted about what people want in a job. This research says thatemployees, particularly young employees, are looking for jobs thathave these characteristics:

� Challenging and interesting work� Continuous learning� Excellent management� Alignment with personal values� Flexible work environment� Technologically savvy workplace � Ability to use own initiative and judgment� Diverse workforce� Ability to be part of a team

TRADITIONAL HIRING PRACTICES DON’T MATCH TODAY’S NEEDSMany of the traditional ways of hiring staff are not working as theydid before. Best practices in recruitment and hiring now combineclear marketing with personalization of benefits and workschedules to address the specific needs of different demographics.By doing this, organizations can capture a greater cross-section ofthe available job market of skilled and qualified employees.

Organizations are changing their practices so that—

� Candidates easily understand the jobs being advertised, how to apply, the qualifications and skills needed, and the timelinefor the process.

� Candidates get quick responses to their questions and applications.

� The process makes it easy for departments to participate in hiring the best person.

� Candidates feel they are sought after.

Contact any of the local government resource people listed in this brochure, and check out the Cal-ICMA website at www.cal-icma.org.

For more information about any of these best practices, please contact Jan Perkins, Partner, at [email protected],

939.202.8870 or visit www.managementpartners.com.

Getting the talent you need and keepingthe talent you have

Hiring and keeping talented employees is

requiring more creativity. It’s especially

true in times of budget cutbacks and

reduced staffing. When our organizations

are challenged to get the work done with

fewer staff, we need to make sure we

have talented people to do the job. There

is no single answer to how to attract and

retain local government employees. The

varied approaches offered here, however,

can be added to your tool kit to help your

agency get the talent you need and keep

the talent you have.

Graphic Design provided by Hurd & Associates | ihurd.comJoan Hurd (925) 930-8580 | [email protected]

Use Technology: PDAs, wikis, wirelessconnections and on-line access to all sorts of information are the norm in daily life.Today’s employees—particularly youngerones—expect to have fast, reliable, andconstantly improving technology as part of the workplace.

Transferring Institutional Knowledge:Create ways to document and impartknowledge of retiring employees to others.This can include creating an internal city wiki.Resource: Palopedia, Jon Abendschein, Resource Planner,City of Palo Alto, [email protected]

Vacation Leave: Provide more time off fornew employees while reducing the timelimits to accrue vacation hours.

Cafeteria Plans: Allow employees to tailor their benefits to their needs. Someemployees need benefits to enable them tocare for elderly family members (flexibilityto care for aging parents, referral services,etc.), while others have small children andneed nearby childcare and schedulingflexibility to attend to family responsibilities.

Life/Work Balance: Provide a variety of flex scheduling options (e.g., 9/80, 4/10),depending on the needs of employees and theirwork groups. Allow telework opportunitiesand provide appropriate technical support.Offer resources (such as info-referral) andencourage self-help support groups toemployees regarding child care, elder care,grief support, and other family support needs.Resource: Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of MountainView, [email protected]

Employee Self-Service: Create self-serviceapplications so employees can log in theirown benefits modifications, tax withholding,beneficiaries and other personal changes. Resource: Heather Shupe, Sr. Administrator for HR, City ofPalo Alto, [email protected]

Employee Orientation or “Onboarding”:Use the orientation to immediately impress.This is the first opportunity to impress uponthe new employee what the culture is of theorganization. Orientations should not berushed and should include the organizationalvalues, challenges and opportunities alongwith pathways for involvement. Resource: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]

Preventative Healthcare Programs:Individuals respond positively to organizationsthat embrace the total health and well-beingof employees. Preventative care programs notonly reduce cost, but also result in morehealthy and productive employees.Resources: Peter Bassett, Benefits Manager, San Mateo County, [email protected]; Bill Henderson, Risk Manager, City of Livermore,[email protected]

Systematize Innovation: Consider ways tointentionally incorporate initiative andinnovation in the workplace. Allow a certainamount of time per week that employees canuse to develop new programs and serviceseven outside of their department.Resource: Holly Brock-Cohn, HR Director, City ofLivermore, [email protected]

Values-Based Ethics Programs: Membersof emerging generations, especially, aremore accustomed to the positiveconsequences of doing the right thing,rather than the negative consequences ofdoing the wrong thing. Consider theimplementation of an ethics program thatemphasizes the ideal values for an employeeat your organization.Resource: Carol McCarthy, Deputy City Manager, City of Santa Clara, [email protected]

Environmental Responsibility: Show acommitment to the environment andsustainability by creating programs toaddress these issues. Examples include aninterdepartmental Sustainability Team andincentives for using alternativetransportation.Resource: Steve Emslie, Interim Deputy City Manager, City of Palo Alto, [email protected]; Kathy Hamilton, HR Specialist, City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

1¢

Hiring 2.0

An Initiative of the Cal-ICMA Coaching Program

1¢

1¢

Many of these best practices can be implemented inexpensively.Indicates low or no cost for the best practice.

O T H E R I D E A S

Further Reading� http://www.hotjobsresources.com/

pdfs/MillennialWorkers.pdf

� Generation Y: Thriving (and Surviving) With Generation Y at Work by Peter Sheahan, Hardie Grant Books, 2006

� Millennials Rising: The Next GreatestGeneration by Neil Howe and William Strauss, Vintage, 2000

� Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty by Peter Cappelli,Harvard Business School Press, 2008

For more information...

Cal-ICMA would like to thank Management Partners for its contributions in identifying best practices and developing this brochure.

35

Cal-ICMA Coaching Program: Encourageyour staff to get involved in the CoachingProgram. Make opportunities available to them to participate in mentoring,webcasting and other programs offeredthrough Cal-ICMA. Resource: www.cal-icma/coaching

Strategic Workforce Planning: Plan aheadby forecasting talent needs based on turnovertrends and expected vacancies. Analyzechanges in tenure, age at resignation andretirement, and other trends.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Color-code your organization charts to showstaff ages to illustrate expected workforceturnover and opportunities for promotion foryounger staff.Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto,[email protected]

Talent Readiness Assessment: Utilizeassessment tools for employees who areinterested in moving up in the organizationto help determine their readiness forleadership positions.Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto, [email protected]

Re-conceptualize the Role of SeniorManagers: Modify expectations of yoursenior managers to include, as an essentialresponsibility, the professional developmentof their staff to help them grow in their jobsand be prepared for higher positions.Evaluate and reward your senior managersfor their success in growing their staff. Resource: Gordon Youngs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea, [email protected]

Internships: Create structured jobs forcollege students or recent graduates. Create a focus on keeping talented people once they complete their internships.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]; Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, County of San Bernardino, [email protected]

“Stay” Interviews: Interview your staff, just as you would with potential newemployees, to ask about their goals andaspirations. Determine how the organizationcan help them stay interested and motivatedto prevent them from moving on to otherorganizations.

Employee Meetings: Have your seniormanagers meet with employees—to keepthem connected, engaged and motivated.Employees want to know what is going onand to feel that they are part of somethinglarger than their individual job. This is agood way to connect, ask questions abouttheir satisfaction and find new ways tochallenge and involve them.Resources: Holly Brock-Cohn, HR Director, City ofLivermore, [email protected]; GordonYoungs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

One-Year Management Assistant orFellowship Program: Hire recent Master’sDegree graduates from a publicadministration, public policy or urbanstudies program. Place them into a rotation-based program in the organization, give them challenging and inspiring work,provide mentors, and assist them in findingpermanent jobs at the end of the prorgam. If you are not able to hire someone full-time,consider sharing the position and expensewith a neighboring city.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Action Learning Teams: Engage emergingleaders in your organization in cross-departmental teams to address importantproblems. This enables emerging leaders tolearn new skills and discover hidden talents. Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto,[email protected]

Management Talent Exchange: Partnerwith another local government to exchangeprofessionals for a three-month period toexpose staff to new ways of doing things. Resource:http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/hrd/training.asp

AA, BA, MPA Degrees On Site: Provideclassroom space for employees to pursuedegrees. Partner with universities to providescholarships for tuition and arrange coursecredit for programs offered through the localgovernment’s supervisory and managementtraining program.Resources: Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of MountainView/Silicon Valley Regional Training Consortium,[email protected]; Allison Picard, Human Resources Director, Kings County,[email protected] (contact for MPA programs only)

Early Career Experiences: Enable youngerstaff to attend conferences and regionalevents, make presentations to the governingbody, job shadow, take on larger projectsand have other experiential learningopportunities. These “stretch” assignmentsprovide a sense that they are makingcontributions early in their careers.Resources: Donna Pontau, Legacy Livermore ProgramManager, City of Livermore, [email protected];Gordon Youngs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

Mentoring: Pair an employee with a seniormanager as a mentor to provide career advice.Resource: Ken Pulskamp, City Manager, City of SantaClarita, [email protected]

O U T R E A C H A N D H I R I N G R E - R E C R U I T I N G Y O U R E M P L O Y E E S

Website Marketing: More candidates andhires are coming through website marketingthan from newspaper ads. Where do talentedjobseekers look? Facebook, Monster.com,jobs.icma.org, CALOPPS.org, and evenYouTube are being used as marketing toolsto attract a wider market.Resources: Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, County of San Bernardino, [email protected];Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City of Livermore,[email protected]

Rethinking Position Descriptions:Communicate an exciting and positivemessage early on in the description, avoidjargon and exclusive language and fullyexplain all benefits (e.g., what exactly a 9/80is) and how they relate to organizationalvalues (e.g., work/life balance). Instead ofpromoting the duties of the position,consider promoting the meaning and resultsof the job in the organization and community.Resources: Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City of Livermore, [email protected]; Rachael Hendricks, HR Analyst, City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

Hiring for Talent: Redefine the concept of “most qualified.” HR departmentstypically translate the merit rule to hire the “most qualified” to rigidly mean the“most experienced” in local government and require extensive applications todocument experience. The concept of “most qualified” must be expanded toinclude talent, “fit,” and leadershippotential. If local government is to compete for young professionals and second careerists, these factors need to be taken into account if not outweigh mere experience.Resources: Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, Countyof San Bernardino, [email protected]; GordonYoungs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

Branding: Use consistent messaging andstandards in communications to describewhat the organization does and why. Public service, if communicated clearly ascontributing to the broader community, will resonate with younger candidates. Examples of hiring branding used by local governments/cities are: “Shaping Your World”(http://www.shapeyourworld.com.au/),“Making a Difference in your own Backyard”and “Building Community, CreatingOpportunity.”Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City,[email protected]

Performance Metrics: Measure, analyze andimprove processes to increase the ratio ofleads to invites, invites to interviews,interviews to offers, and offers to hires.Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San MateoCounty, [email protected]

Mapping Your Hiring Process: To findways to streamline your hiring process,create a map of the process—from initialrequest to fill a vacancy to the start date ofthe new employee filling that job. Identify all of the steps, how long it actually takes at each step, look for bottlenecks, and find ways to cut out steps and time.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Hiring Plan: Create a plan for each step inthe process of filling a vacancy—fromrecruitment and outreach, to candidateassessment, to keeping in touch withcandidates, to background checks, final offer,and first day on the job. Use the hiring planas a way to move the process along quicklyand keep the candidates in the forefront. Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City,[email protected]

Position Specific Hiring: Recruit for eachvacancy, as soon as the decision is made tofill the position, rather than waiting torecruit for an entire classification.Resource: Mark Danaj, HR Director, City of San Jose,[email protected]

Quick Turnaround: Gen X’ers andMillennials expect to apply for a job and be moved through the process quickly. Web-based technology can streamline yourpractices to cut recruitment time by 50–70%.Resources: Rebecca Burnside, HR Director, Foster City,[email protected]; www.neogov.com;www.calopps.org

Open Until Filled: Accept applications forvacancies without a deadline, and whensufficient applications are received (based onthe quality of candidates), proceed withcandidate screening and assessment.Resources: Mark Danaj, HR Director, City of San Jose,[email protected]; Kathy Hamilton, HR Specialist,City of San Luis Obispo [email protected]

Employee Referral Program: Pay a bonus toexisting staff for referring a candidate who isultimately hired into a designated “hard tofill” position.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources, County of Solano,[email protected]; Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of Mountain View,[email protected]

Electronic Signatures for PositionRequisition Sign-Off: Speed the approvalprocess by allowing required signatures to bedone electronically. Also, consider electronicdistribution of eligibility list and applications.Resource: Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City ofLivermore, [email protected]

Emailed Job Openings: Allow job seekers toreceive email alerts when openings arise inareas they have specified.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]; TedCooper, Employment Division Chief, County of SanBernardino, [email protected]

Ongoing Skills-Based Tests: Regularly andrepeatedly hold skills-based tests (Word,typing, proofreading, numeric data entry), so people are then ready when a specific job becomes available.Resource: Doug Stevenson, Sr. Personnel Analyst,City of Brea, [email protected]

Flexible Job Classifications:Create job classifications that enable you to hire people early intheir careers, help them grow anddevelop, and then promotethem to higher levels as theyincrease their skills andcapacity.Resources: Kathy Farrar, HRDirector, City of Mountain View,[email protected];Rachael Hendricks, HR Analyst,City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

Career Pathways:Provide examples ofcareer pathways in localgovernment on your HRwebsite. Youngerindividuals, specifically,are interested in makingdecisions with an end goal in mind.

Developing Employee Learning Programs: Programs range from leadership developmentto first line supervisory training to technical training for employees. Consider aligningtrainings to organizational values.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Assessment: Programs and participation are based on an assessment of learning needs.All employees are encouraged by their supervisors to participate in learningopportunities. Develop a specific hourly goal for annual training for each employee.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Leadership Development: Identify competencies and skills needed for success in theorganization and develop a comprehensive program involving group and individuallearning, mentoring, coaching and career planning.Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San Mateo County, [email protected]

• Supervisor and Management Development: Using interactive and experiential designs,participants learn first-hand how conduct can either cause or prevent workplaceproblems and liabilities. For example, participants can try out new roles through roleplaying, serve as witnesses and jurors in simulated cases, and design and implement aproject for the organization.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Credentials for Participating: Create a certificate for participating in a series of related training programs (e.g. Supervisory Skills, Ethics).Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San Mateo County, [email protected]

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Many of the best practices provided belowhave at least one resource person listed whocan be contacted for more information.


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Cal-ICMA Coaching Program: Encourageyour staff to get involved in the CoachingProgram. Make opportunities available to them to participate in mentoring,webcasting and other programs offeredthrough Cal-ICMA. Resource: www.cal-icma/coaching

Strategic Workforce Planning: Plan aheadby forecasting talent needs based on turnovertrends and expected vacancies. Analyzechanges in tenure, age at resignation andretirement, and other trends.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Color-code your organization charts to showstaff ages to illustrate expected workforceturnover and opportunities for promotion foryounger staff.Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto,[email protected]

Talent Readiness Assessment: Utilizeassessment tools for employees who areinterested in moving up in the organizationto help determine their readiness forleadership positions.Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto, [email protected]

Re-conceptualize the Role of SeniorManagers: Modify expectations of yoursenior managers to include, as an essentialresponsibility, the professional developmentof their staff to help them grow in their jobsand be prepared for higher positions.Evaluate and reward your senior managersfor their success in growing their staff. Resource: Gordon Youngs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea, [email protected]

Internships: Create structured jobs forcollege students or recent graduates. Create a focus on keeping talented people once they complete their internships.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]; Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, County of San Bernardino, [email protected]

“Stay” Interviews: Interview your staff, just as you would with potential newemployees, to ask about their goals andaspirations. Determine how the organizationcan help them stay interested and motivatedto prevent them from moving on to otherorganizations.

Employee Meetings: Have your seniormanagers meet with employees—to keepthem connected, engaged and motivated.Employees want to know what is going onand to feel that they are part of somethinglarger than their individual job. This is agood way to connect, ask questions abouttheir satisfaction and find new ways tochallenge and involve them.Resources: Holly Brock-Cohn, HR Director, City ofLivermore, [email protected]; GordonYoungs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

One-Year Management Assistant orFellowship Program: Hire recent Master’sDegree graduates from a publicadministration, public policy or urbanstudies program. Place them into a rotation-based program in the organization, give them challenging and inspiring work,provide mentors, and assist them in findingpermanent jobs at the end of the prorgam. If you are not able to hire someone full-time,consider sharing the position and expensewith a neighboring city.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Action Learning Teams: Engage emergingleaders in your organization in cross-departmental teams to address importantproblems. This enables emerging leaders tolearn new skills and discover hidden talents. Resource: Russ Carlsen, HR Director, City of Palo Alto,[email protected]

Management Talent Exchange: Partnerwith another local government to exchangeprofessionals for a three-month period toexpose staff to new ways of doing things. Resource:http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/hrd/training.asp

AA, BA, MPA Degrees On Site: Provideclassroom space for employees to pursuedegrees. Partner with universities to providescholarships for tuition and arrange coursecredit for programs offered through the localgovernment’s supervisory and managementtraining program.Resources: Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of MountainView/Silicon Valley Regional Training Consortium,[email protected]; Allison Picard, Human Resources Director, Kings County,[email protected] (contact for MPA programs only)

Early Career Experiences: Enable youngerstaff to attend conferences and regionalevents, make presentations to the governingbody, job shadow, take on larger projectsand have other experiential learningopportunities. These “stretch” assignmentsprovide a sense that they are makingcontributions early in their careers.Resources: Donna Pontau, Legacy Livermore ProgramManager, City of Livermore, [email protected];Gordon Youngs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

Mentoring: Pair an employee with a seniormanager as a mentor to provide career advice.Resource: Ken Pulskamp, City Manager, City of SantaClarita, [email protected]

O U T R E A C H A N D H I R I N G R E - R E C R U I T I N G Y O U R E M P L O Y E E S

Website Marketing: More candidates andhires are coming through website marketingthan from newspaper ads. Where do talentedjobseekers look? Facebook, Monster.com,jobs.icma.org, CALOPPS.org, and evenYouTube are being used as marketing toolsto attract a wider market.Resources: Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, County of San Bernardino, [email protected];Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City of Livermore,[email protected]

Rethinking Position Descriptions:Communicate an exciting and positivemessage early on in the description, avoidjargon and exclusive language and fullyexplain all benefits (e.g., what exactly a 9/80is) and how they relate to organizationalvalues (e.g., work/life balance). Instead ofpromoting the duties of the position,consider promoting the meaning and resultsof the job in the organization and community.Resources: Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City of Livermore, [email protected]; Rachael Hendricks, HR Analyst, City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

Hiring for Talent: Redefine the concept of “most qualified.” HR departmentstypically translate the merit rule to hire the “most qualified” to rigidly mean the“most experienced” in local government and require extensive applications todocument experience. The concept of “most qualified” must be expanded toinclude talent, “fit,” and leadershippotential. If local government is to compete for young professionals and second careerists, these factors need to be taken into account if not outweigh mere experience.Resources: Ted Cooper, Employment Division Chief, Countyof San Bernardino, [email protected]; GordonYoungs, Personnel Services Director, City of Brea,[email protected]

Branding: Use consistent messaging andstandards in communications to describewhat the organization does and why. Public service, if communicated clearly ascontributing to the broader community, will resonate with younger candidates. Examples of hiring branding used by local governments/cities are: “Shaping Your World”(http://www.shapeyourworld.com.au/),“Making a Difference in your own Backyard”and “Building Community, CreatingOpportunity.”Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City,[email protected]

Performance Metrics: Measure, analyze andimprove processes to increase the ratio ofleads to invites, invites to interviews,interviews to offers, and offers to hires.Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San MateoCounty, [email protected]

Mapping Your Hiring Process: To findways to streamline your hiring process,create a map of the process—from initialrequest to fill a vacancy to the start date ofthe new employee filling that job. Identify all of the steps, how long it actually takes at each step, look for bottlenecks, and find ways to cut out steps and time.Resource: Suzanne Mason, HR Director, City of Long Beach,[email protected]

Hiring Plan: Create a plan for each step inthe process of filling a vacancy—fromrecruitment and outreach, to candidateassessment, to keeping in touch withcandidates, to background checks, final offer,and first day on the job. Use the hiring planas a way to move the process along quicklyand keep the candidates in the forefront. Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City,[email protected]

Position Specific Hiring: Recruit for eachvacancy, as soon as the decision is made tofill the position, rather than waiting torecruit for an entire classification.Resource: Mark Danaj, HR Director, City of San Jose,[email protected]

Quick Turnaround: Gen X’ers andMillennials expect to apply for a job and be moved through the process quickly. Web-based technology can streamline yourpractices to cut recruitment time by 50–70%.Resources: Rebecca Burnside, HR Director, Foster City,[email protected]; www.neogov.com;www.calopps.org

Open Until Filled: Accept applications forvacancies without a deadline, and whensufficient applications are received (based onthe quality of candidates), proceed withcandidate screening and assessment.Resources: Mark Danaj, HR Director, City of San Jose,[email protected]; Kathy Hamilton, HR Specialist,City of San Luis Obispo [email protected]

Employee Referral Program: Pay a bonus toexisting staff for referring a candidate who isultimately hired into a designated “hard tofill” position.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources, County of Solano,[email protected]; Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of Mountain View,[email protected]

Electronic Signatures for PositionRequisition Sign-Off: Speed the approvalprocess by allowing required signatures to bedone electronically. Also, consider electronicdistribution of eligibility list and applications.Resource: Robin Young, HR Programs Manager, City ofLivermore, [email protected]

Emailed Job Openings: Allow job seekers toreceive email alerts when openings arise inareas they have specified.Resources: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]; TedCooper, Employment Division Chief, County of SanBernardino, [email protected]

Ongoing Skills-Based Tests: Regularly andrepeatedly hold skills-based tests (Word,typing, proofreading, numeric data entry), so people are then ready when a specific job becomes available.Resource: Doug Stevenson, Sr. Personnel Analyst,City of Brea, [email protected]

Flexible Job Classifications:Create job classifications that enable you to hire people early intheir careers, help them grow anddevelop, and then promotethem to higher levels as theyincrease their skills andcapacity.Resources: Kathy Farrar, HRDirector, City of Mountain View,[email protected];Rachael Hendricks, HR Analyst,City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

Career Pathways:Provide examples ofcareer pathways in localgovernment on your HRwebsite. Youngerindividuals, specifically,are interested in makingdecisions with an end goal in mind.

Developing Employee Learning Programs: Programs range from leadership developmentto first line supervisory training to technical training for employees. Consider aligningtrainings to organizational values.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Assessment: Programs and participation are based on an assessment of learning needs.All employees are encouraged by their supervisors to participate in learningopportunities. Develop a specific hourly goal for annual training for each employee.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Leadership Development: Identify competencies and skills needed for success in theorganization and develop a comprehensive program involving group and individuallearning, mentoring, coaching and career planning.Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San Mateo County, [email protected]

• Supervisor and Management Development: Using interactive and experiential designs,participants learn first-hand how conduct can either cause or prevent workplaceproblems and liabilities. For example, participants can try out new roles through roleplaying, serve as witnesses and jurors in simulated cases, and design and implement aproject for the organization.Resource: Bob Bell, HR Director, Redwood City, [email protected]

• Credentials for Participating: Create a certificate for participating in a series of related training programs (e.g. Supervisory Skills, Ethics).Resource: Donna Vaillancourt, HR Director, San Mateo County, [email protected]

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Many of the best practices provided belowhave at least one resource person listed whocan be contacted for more information.


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WHAT PEOPLE WANT IN A JOBBeing a great place to work is fundamental to successfulrecruitment. In the last decade, a great deal of research has beenconducted about what people want in a job. This research says thatemployees, particularly young employees, are looking for jobs thathave these characteristics:

� Challenging and interesting work� Continuous learning� Excellent management� Alignment with personal values� Flexible work environment� Technologically savvy workplace � Ability to use own initiative and judgment� Diverse workforce� Ability to be part of a team

TRADITIONAL HIRING PRACTICES DON’T MATCH TODAY’S NEEDSMany of the traditional ways of hiring staff are not working as theydid before. Best practices in recruitment and hiring now combineclear marketing with personalization of benefits and workschedules to address the specific needs of different demographics.By doing this, organizations can capture a greater cross-section ofthe available job market of skilled and qualified employees.

Organizations are changing their practices so that—

� Candidates easily understand the jobs being advertised, how to apply, the qualifications and skills needed, and the timelinefor the process.

� Candidates get quick responses to their questions and applications.

� The process makes it easy for departments to participate in hiring the best person.

� Candidates feel they are sought after.

Contact any of the local government resource people listed in this brochure, and check out the Cal-ICMA website at www.cal-icma.org.

For more information about any of these best practices, please contact Jan Perkins, Partner, at [email protected],

939.202.8870 or visit www.managementpartners.com.

Getting the talent you need and keepingthe talent you have

Hiring and keeping talented employees is

requiring more creativity. It’s especially

true in times of budget cutbacks and

reduced staffing. When our organizations

are challenged to get the work done with

fewer staff, we need to make sure we

have talented people to do the job. There

is no single answer to how to attract and

retain local government employees. The

varied approaches offered here, however,

can be added to your tool kit to help your

agency get the talent you need and keep

the talent you have.

Graphic Design provided by Hurd & Associates | ihurd.comJoan Hurd (925) 930-8580 | [email protected]

Use Technology: PDAs, wikis, wirelessconnections and on-line access to all sorts of information are the norm in daily life.Today’s employees—particularly youngerones—expect to have fast, reliable, andconstantly improving technology as part of the workplace.

Transferring Institutional Knowledge:Create ways to document and impartknowledge of retiring employees to others.This can include creating an internal city wiki.Resource: Palopedia, Jon Abendschein, Resource Planner,City of Palo Alto, [email protected]

Vacation Leave: Provide more time off fornew employees while reducing the timelimits to accrue vacation hours.

Cafeteria Plans: Allow employees to tailor their benefits to their needs. Someemployees need benefits to enable them tocare for elderly family members (flexibilityto care for aging parents, referral services,etc.), while others have small children andneed nearby childcare and schedulingflexibility to attend to family responsibilities.

Life/Work Balance: Provide a variety of flex scheduling options (e.g., 9/80, 4/10),depending on the needs of employees and theirwork groups. Allow telework opportunitiesand provide appropriate technical support.Offer resources (such as info-referral) andencourage self-help support groups toemployees regarding child care, elder care,grief support, and other family support needs.Resource: Kathy Farrar, HR Director, City of MountainView, [email protected]

Employee Self-Service: Create self-serviceapplications so employees can log in theirown benefits modifications, tax withholding,beneficiaries and other personal changes. Resource: Heather Shupe, Sr. Administrator for HR, City ofPalo Alto, [email protected]

Employee Orientation or “Onboarding”:Use the orientation to immediately impress.This is the first opportunity to impress uponthe new employee what the culture is of theorganization. Orientations should not berushed and should include the organizationalvalues, challenges and opportunities alongwith pathways for involvement. Resource: Donald W. Turko, Director of Human Resources,County of Solano, [email protected]

Preventative Healthcare Programs:Individuals respond positively to organizationsthat embrace the total health and well-beingof employees. Preventative care programs notonly reduce cost, but also result in morehealthy and productive employees.Resources: Peter Bassett, Benefits Manager, San Mateo County, [email protected]; Bill Henderson, Risk Manager, City of Livermore,[email protected]

Systematize Innovation: Consider ways tointentionally incorporate initiative andinnovation in the workplace. Allow a certainamount of time per week that employees canuse to develop new programs and serviceseven outside of their department.Resource: Holly Brock-Cohn, HR Director, City ofLivermore, [email protected]

Values-Based Ethics Programs: Membersof emerging generations, especially, aremore accustomed to the positiveconsequences of doing the right thing,rather than the negative consequences ofdoing the wrong thing. Consider theimplementation of an ethics program thatemphasizes the ideal values for an employeeat your organization.Resource: Carol McCarthy, Deputy City Manager, City of Santa Clara, [email protected]

Environmental Responsibility: Show acommitment to the environment andsustainability by creating programs toaddress these issues. Examples include aninterdepartmental Sustainability Team andincentives for using alternativetransportation.Resource: Steve Emslie, Interim Deputy City Manager, City of Palo Alto, [email protected]; Kathy Hamilton, HR Specialist, City of San Luis Obispo,[email protected]

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Hiring 2.0

An Initiative of the Cal-ICMA Coaching Program

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O T H E R I D E A S

Further Reading� http://www.hotjobsresources.com/

pdfs/MillennialWorkers.pdf

� Generation Y: Thriving (and Surviving) With Generation Y at Work by Peter Sheahan, Hardie Grant Books, 2006

� Millennials Rising: The Next GreatestGeneration by Neil Howe and William Strauss, Vintage, 2000

� Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty by Peter Cappelli,Harvard Business School Press, 2008

For more information...

Cal-ICMA would like to thank Management Partners for its contributions in identifying best practices and developing this brochure.

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Answer the call.

Are you looking for new experiences to enhance your public service career? Would you like to acquire new skills and competencies? We’re looking for top local government performers who are eager to learn and grow. As part of the “Preparing the Next Generation” effort by the City Managers Department of the League of California Cities, the City Managers Associations of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties sponsor a Management Talent Exchange Program (MTEP) for aspiring managers.

How does MTEP work? With your approved application, you will be placed in a talent pool and matched with positions in other local government agencies in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Program participants will be placed in another agency for three months to acquire new experiences, relationships and competencies. Your agency pays only $950 per participant. In addition, your home agency may be eligible to receive a star performer from another agency who will bring fresh ideas, an eagerness to learn, and complementary skills.

MANAGEMENT TALENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Are you a star performer?

Who is eligible? Star performers with potential to move into senior management who are currently in positions such as: o assistant city/county manager o department head o assistant department head o division head o assistant to the city manager o management analyst or similar

position o program staff

Timeline Information Meeting – April 9, 2013 Applications Due – June 1, 2013 Placement Process – July 2013 Orientation Process – August 2013 Placements Begin – September 16, 2013 Placements End – December 6, 2013

To learn more about the program, please attend the

Information Meeting:

April 9, 2013 at 3:30 PM

San Mateo County Government Center

455 County Center, First Floor

Redwood City, CA

BUILDING LEADERS. BUILDING ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY.

www.discovermtep.org For more information, contact

Program Coordinator Myra Yapching at [email protected] or (650) 363-4365.

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ABOUT THE CSAC INSTITUTE

The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) is the voice of California’s 58 counties at tstate and federal level. The Association’s long-term objective is to significantly improve the fiscahealth of all California counties – from Alpine County with a little more than 1,200 people to Los Angeles County with more than 10 million – so they can adequately meet the demand for vital public programs and services. CSAC also places a strong emphasis on educating the public aboutthe value and need for county programs and services.

he l

The CSAC Institute for Excellence in County Government is a professional, practical continuing education program for county officials. The experience is designed to expand the capacity and capability of county elected officials and senior executives to provide extraordinary services to their communities. The Institute is a program of CSAC and was established in 2008 with the first courses offered in early 2009.

For more information please visit www.csacinstitute.org.

Documents

BEST PRACTICES Talent Development and Succession Planning · LEARN . GROW . ACHIEVE COURSE MATERIALS . BEST PRACTICES . Talent Development and Succession Planning . Frank Benest