Planning for the future

THE Papua New Guinea public sector needs to focus on recruiting and retaining good people, develop talent through training, offer competitive compensation and have a succession plan for the passing-on of duties to younger workers.
At the same time, it can adjust to the characteristics of a new generation of workers, who are more likely to hop from job to job, even between the private and public sectors.
With the retirement of top public servants in the past 10 years, the country has lost knowledge and experience. However, retirement allows others to open new doors of opportunities.
To deal with the knowledge loss we should have a programme that allows retirees to work for up to 120 days during a 12-month period. This way, the State can recruit high-performing retirees to assist with special projects or train young people to fill their positions. This will allow an agency to benefit from the transfer of institutional knowledge and provides for a smooth transition into full retirement.
Considering that a quarter of current State employees will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, human resources executives should prepare now by finding out for sure who will retire and when and how a transition programme can be put in place to soften the impact of retirement on resources.
Retirees may even be employed as trainers, either in the workplace or at education institutions, so their knowledge and experience can be passed on and not lost.

David Bob Kaul
5-Mile-Pom