31st International Symposium on Public Personnel Management

World BankThe main discussion topics were Innovations in Recruitment, Assessment, Selectionand Retention and Creating Continuous Learning Organizations/Mentoring. Background discussionpapers on these two topics are appended to this report. There also was a panel discussion on theUnited Nations World Public Sector Report on Human Resources Management, which is titled“Unlocking the Human Potential for Public Sector Performance.II.Discussion SummariesA. Innovations in Recruitment, Assessment, Selection and RetentionMr. Chitral Amarasari, IPMA-CP, Deputy General Manager, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Ltd.Sri Lanka, provided a comprehensive overview of the “war for talent.” Mr. Amarasari openedhis presentation by describing the current challenges facing employers. Turnover is at an all timehigh, the population is aging, employers are “offshoring” jobs, moving the jobs overseas wherelabor costs are lower, and tighter immigration laws reduce access to foreign talent. The cost ofturnover can be as much as the employee’s annual salary and turnover has other costs –loweredmorale.Given these challenges and the need successfully manage talent, organizations must conducta needs analysis to compare the number of current employees against future demand.Unfortunately, a key step – gap analysis – is often overlooked. This is the step whereorganizations identify gaps between forecasted demand and internal/external supply. Once thisstep is taken, the organization must decide whether to build or buy talent. Mr. Amarasari said thatwhile buying talent has the advantage of being “just in time” building talent can be a better longtermstrategy in terms of employee loyalty and ensuring that the employee has the right skills forthe particular job.If an organization chooses to buy talent, then it should engage in best practices such as workforceplanning, using appropriate assessment tools and creating and completing an onboarding process.When Libby Sartain, former VP of HR at Southwest Airlines, was asked how Southwest got itsemployees to be so nice and service oriented, her response was: “We didn’t. We looked for nice,service oriented people and prepared them for the jobs. We hired the person first, not the resume.”Examples of good recruitment processes for external candidates include using incentives forcurrent employees to refer candidates, incentives can include extra vacation time or referralbonuses. Another good method is to develop relationships with local universities and associationsto target appropriate populations. Swapping with other jurisdictions can also be an option.Mr. Amarasari noted that many traditional recruitment processes lack focus and that a betterapproach would be to target employees who are likely to fit the organization and to develop abrand and market the organization.3