Human Capital Management in Government: Replacing Government Retirees

Abstract

Faced with high levels of senior civil servant retirement in the coming years and limited by civil service requirements, government organizations often struggle to maintain the knowledge base of previous processes and results while promoting people who are truly interested in being leaders in an agency. Upcoming generations of public sector workers do not share the same motivation and workplace characteristics of current exiting civil servants, further complicating smooth transitions of leadership. Government personnel systems for the most part are inflexible and slow to hire, and retention methods for workers do not encourage succession planning. Against this backdrop, a five-phased human capital management system, using some of the best practices found in both public and private sector organizations, is proposed as a solution for replacing government retirees with workers who are prepared for their leadership and management roles.