Talent Retention for Succession Planning in the Defence Forces

Background

Globally, public sectors are faced with the challenge of the unavailability of capable and talented workforces. This is because the capable and talented workers are leaving through retirement, passing on, quitting or opting for greener pastures at private companies (Human Resource, Development Council, 2012). In Namibia, Government, as in other African countries has been hit by global recession resulting in the economic crisis and budget cut allocations. The Office of Prime Minister that is an umbrella of all government ministries has since initiated cost cutting measures. The 2016 directive on human capital development indicated decisions that are to be implemented by all ministries. The directive stipulated that there will be no salary increase, promotions, acting allowances and other working-related benefits. This decision has an influence on the staff turnover in the public sector and has resulted in government ministries experiencing a variety of constraints in effective talent retention practices. Challenges are talent poaching, retention, management, decrease in productivity and service delivery, motivation, high cost in recruitment and replacements (OPM, 2016). According to Thunnissen (2016), talent retention is an organised process of attracting, identifying, developing, engaging, retaining and deploying people who can add value to the organisation. Today, talented employees are scarce, therefore the Human Resources Department is required to have strategies to attract and retain them. An organisation should build a leadership pool for succession planning through acquiring and developing the right talent. In the security sector, the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) is not an exception. Further, instability results from alternative opportunities that lead to increase in turnover. The causes of instability at the workplace are departure of staff through resignations, sicknesses and death. Also lack of talent retention in an establishment may result in the talented employees leaving and ultimately the failure of the goals (Garg & Van Weele, 2012). Talent management and talent retention have become issues of serious concern in the current sphere (Baporikar, 2013a). Organisations should be vigilant not to rush into executing and practicing initiated ideas that are action-related but should focus on effecting well-constructed solutions (Baporikar, 2013b).