Succession Planning: Succession planning ensures a continuous supply of highly qualified candidates to fill critical positions in the New Brunswick Public Service. It is a systematic process for:
- Identifying critical positions that are instrumental to achieving strategic and operational goals;
- Anticipating gaps in those positions due to retirements and other factors;
- Defining the qualifications and competencies required to perform successfully in the positions;
- Implementing focused strategies to attract and develop pools of qualified candidates who will be ready to compete for critical positions as they become vacant;
- Enabling individual employees to become “the best they can be” and helping them to get ready for emerging opportunities;
- Facilitating the timely transfer of knowledge from incumbents to successors; and
- Ensuring that supportive strategies and processes are in place to retain and fully engage employees.
Critical or key positions: Critical positions are defined as those positions that are instrumental to delivering on GNB commitments and corporate priorities or exert a critical influence on achieving operational and strategic goals.
There are a number of factors taken into consideration when defining whether a position is critical for succession planning purposes. These include:
- Organizational impact – the position plays an instrumental role in the overall organization and a prolonged vacancy would cause serious difficulty in achieving operational and strategic goals.
- Likelihood of a vacancy – the position is at-risk due to the imminent retirement of the incumbent or vulnerable due to intense skills shortages and competitive pressures.
- Difficulty to fill – the position requires specialized or unique expertise that is not readily available in GNB or the labour market.
Talent pools: Talent pools (also known as acceleration pools) are groups of high-potential candidates who are being developed to meet the competency and other requirements for critical positions that have been identified through the succession planning process.
Knowledge transfer: Knowledge transfer refers to the act of transferring knowledge from one individual to another by means of training, mentoring, coaching, documentation, or other methods such as the use of technology to capture, retrieve and share information.