City of Ottawa

Greater openness in talent and succession planning discussions

The introduction of the Predictive Index Behavioural Assessment, from Predictive Success has made me more effective as a leader and gives me a great deal of confidence that the people who I recommend are strong candidates and have the competencies to be successful in the role.

Ottawa, Canada’s capital and fourth largest city, is home to more than 1 million people and houses some of Canada’s most famous tourist attractions. It is the role of the City of Ottawa to “provide day-to-day services that enhance citizen’s quality of life”. The City of Ottawa as an employer is committed to its employees. This commitment is demonstrated by the recognition of the City of Ottawa as a National Capital Region's Top Employer 10 times. City Manager, Steve Kanellakos states, “It is the people who work here who make the lives of our residents better, safer and healthier. We strive to meet the needs of our residents through a commitment to a diverse workforce that is reflective of the population we serve."

Six years ago, the City of Ottawa began to experience significant turnover. They faced the challenge of replacing a significant number of upper level managers without an objective approach to their succession planning. They found themselves in the situation where internal and external candidates were not proving to be the right fit for the role.

City Manager, Steve Kanellakos identifies the cost of having poor succession planning as damaging to their reputation. “When a person is the wrong fit for a job, there is often a negative impact on their colleagues, the people they lead and most importantly the residents they serve.” One of Mr. Kanellakos’ key mandates upon taking his position as City Manager was to ensure that a robust succession plan was in place. In order to do so he enlisted the assistance of Predictive Success and workforce analytics.

Since the implementation of the Predictive Index Behavioural Assessment™ by Certified Elite Partner Predictive Success, the City of Ottawa is “seeing a much greater openness to talk about talent, we are discussing succession planning and development in a non-threatening, analytical way. People are able to express their views and use the data to support their reasoning.

We are also seeing a decrease in the amount of self-promotion and sponsoring of others, who were not necessarily the best candidate for a promotion.” Mr. Kanellakos states “I believe that the introduction of the assessment to our succession planning and development process has made us one hundred percent more effective. It has also made me more effective as a leader and gives me a great deal of confidence that the people who I recommend are strong candidates and have the competencies to be successful in the role.”