The majority of public sector organisations in CARICAD Member States do not have a Succession Planning programme in place. The reasons often point to a number of factors including financial constraints, the lack of HR systems to support succession planning, the absence of meritocratic systems, and the failure to recruit, train and retain the right individuals who will lead in the future.
The imminent or unplanned departure of key personnel in the public service poses a challenge in terms of loss of experience and expertise. Indeed, the transfer of knowledge and the ‘know how’ of processes are being lost with the aging workforce, retirement of senior management and the movement of the younger workforce. The challenge to replace them is made more difficult by the present high migration level of skilled personnel and competition from the Private Sector. The result of this acute brain-drain is that innovative capacities are lost to public sector organisations and very often to our region. There are increasing concerns with regard to Leadership in the region.
Dealing with this challenge through effective Succession Planning must therefore be high on the Public Sector Transformation Agenda if the public service is to function efficiently and effectively. In this webinar, Rosemund Warrington, Assistant Director, Programmes and Planning at CARICAD, will share on Caribbean public sector research findings on the state of succession planning, and the CARICAD succession planning toolkit designed to address the succession gaps.
