As the government's most powerful leaders prepare to retire, a new study takes a close look at federal agencies' talent management strategies.
In the next five years, nearly two-thirds of the Senior Executive Service (SES)—an elite cadre of high-ranking civil service executives—will be eligible for retirement. Are federal agencies prepared for this turnover? Are they actively identifying and developing high-potential employees to step into these critical roles?
The Partnership for Public Service and McKinsey & Company explore these questions in their new report, Building the Leadership Bench: Developing a Talent Pipeline for the Senior Executive Service. They investigate the current state of talent management for the SES, and present options for improving it.
Perhaps the biggest area for improvement in talent management for the SES is in forming a cohesive program among all federal agencies for identifying, developing, and recruiting talent. Currently there is no central authority responsible for talent management, which results in some agencies having their own robust programs, and others lacking an effective strategy for developing talent.
The report also found that the majority (76 percent) of SES members were hired from the agency subcomponent in which they already were working, and that most agencies hire fewer than 10 percent of their SES members from outside the federal government. This may prove to be a crutch since current government challenges demand new skills and broader perspectives.
Building the Leadership Bench also recommends holding senior agency leaders accountable for developing high-potential employees. Currently, some agencies' leaders pay insufficient attention to leadership development and succession planning. This could be remedied by building metrics into senior executives' performance reviews on how effectively they engage in these processes.
Despite the significant turnover that will occur in top government roles in the next several years, federal leaders can still take action to ensure that these critical positions are filled with the right people. As the report's authors write, senior government leaders "cannot just be good program managers."
These future executives must be able to think strategically, have broad perspectives, and react wisely to changes in our volatile global environment. They also must make talent management a priority to maintain effective government leadership.