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Service N.B. Addresses Leadership
Training: Government organization looks in-house to find managers
John Pollack
For the telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday July 10th, 2010 Like many organizations in North America, Service New Brunswick is concerned about who will fill some key positions in the organization once the baby boomer workforce exodus hits hardest.
Photo:John Pollack/For the Telegraph-Journal
Erin Fullerton, a learning and development advisor for Service New Brunswick, says the
organization is trying to identify potential leaders and develop their skills with its
rowing leaders program.
For years many economic observers, such as the Conference Board of Canada, have been warning of a severe labour crunch once the largest generation of workers retires, and the 2008-09 recession will have barely delayed it, they say.
Since 2006 the provincial government's service organization has been looking at how it can address this issue. After an employee survey showed many of the organizations more than 700 workers are interested in development opportunities, Service New Brunswick launched its growing leaders program in 2007.
"It enables the people to improve their leadership skills and managerial skills," says Erin Fullerton, a learning and development advisor for Service New Brunswick's.
From an organizational planning perspective the four-year program allows SNB to "identify leaders within our organization and help them reach their potential leadership skills," she says. "It's looking in house and developing (potential leaders) instead of hoping we might find someone out there some day."
The program is a big commitment for both employees and their managers, Fullerton says.
In the first year participants take a public service management course at the University of New Brunswick, which takes them away from the office for 20 days of the year.
Throughout the program Service New Brunswick aims to enhance employees' abilities in influencing and developing others, effective interactive communication, strategic thinking and team leadership, to name a few.
While SNB tries to create time and ways for participants to advance in the program during work hours, employees are expected to invest some personal time.
Towards the end of the program participants lead a project within the organization.
"It gets them outside of their box," Fullerton says. "It's developmental, but it's still at work and they're still producing something and being productive."
David Veale, a leadership coach with Vision Coaching Inc., which delivers a leadership component of the program, says SNB is one of a few organizations that are being progressive by investing in their emerging leaders.
Though he says the looming Baby Boomer retirement shortage heightens the succession planning concern, it should always be paramount to organizations.
"If you're really reliant on a small group of leaders and someone retires or leaves for whatever reason, as an organization you're at a real loss," he says.
So far about 30 employees have enrolled in SNB's program.
While not all will move into leadership roles, and there is no guarantee they will, they can still benefit from the program, Fullerton says.
"A lot of the components are self-discovery," she says.
It gives employees a glimpse of what a leadership role is like so they can decide if it's something they would want to take on. But it could also help them excel at their current jobs.
Should they want to move up within Service New Brunswick the program gives employees a competitive edge.
"In house they've been identified over the course of the four years and as they apply this learning to their jobs or as they do really great practicum and get noticed, they get identified as top performers," she says.
Even if employees don't move up the management ladder, Veale says having them go through a program like this one will benefit an organization.
"It supports innovative thinking," he says. "When you're developing people it tells them, 'We as an organization value you.' "
He says this creates loyalty and leaders in a team, which is better than always relying on the boss to lead a group.
"They're making a huge commitment to their emerging leaders to support retention of leaders," Veale says. "And also to attract, I would expect, other leaders to their organization."
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