Reference no: EM133829193

Question

Under the Human Capital Framework, talent management is a key area my agency struggles with. In 2019, a new city manager was appointed to my agency by our council. This individual inherited an out-of-date and out-of-touch organization that suffered from decades of mismanagement. As a result, my agency experienced a complete overhaul of our operations including organizational restructuring, creation of new departments, and a strategic plan. The strategic plan highlights the city's goals and outlines key projects or programs needed to achieve these goals.

This new direction was very exciting at first. That was until the workload associated with these ambitious goals and the impact of the pandemic left workers feeling burnt out. In addition to this, we are also one of the lowest-paying cities which makes competing with neighboring cities or special districts more difficult. Ineffective leadership is also an issue that my organization faces. The new city manager brought in three new department heads with him. Of those three, only one person remains and this person is the director of the department I currently work in.

These factors contribute to the high employee turnover we have experienced in the past four years. The result is that we have lost a valuable knowledge base of workers who have been with the city for decades to higher-paying positions or early retirement. Furthermore, there are no contingency plans to ensure a smooth transition while searching for a replacement. The organizational restructuring affected our hierarchy by removing the assistant director from each department which significantly increased the workload of our department heads. Not only do they have to serve as the representative on big-picture items, but they are also putting out fires in day-to-day operations. This also means there is no one to fill in for the director when turnover occurs. In order to produce the high performance our community deserves, we must address the talent management issues we often overlook.