The state of talent management in Canada's public sector

For more than a decade, senior officials from across Canada's public sector have identified the capacity to recruit and retain highly-trained, qualified staff as central to public service renewal and success in the 21st century. And yet, despite the consensus behind this priority, students of Canadian public administration know little about the strategies and programs that are in place to attract, recruit, retain and transition key public servants in this country. This article tries to address this gap by describing talent management, one approach to getting the right people in the right place at the right time currently in use in British Columbia, Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. The article concludes with some observations about the present and future of talent management in Canada's public sector.