Advanced Public Service Employee Performance and Talent Development Training Course

Course Introduction

The Advanced Public Service Employee Performance and Talent Development Training Course is a comprehensive professional development programme designed to strengthen employee performance, workforce capability, career growth, and institutional effectiveness across government organisations. It provides public-sector professionals with practical frameworks for managing performance strategically while developing the talent required to achieve sustainable organisational and service-delivery results.

Modern public institutions are expected to deliver more responsive, efficient, innovative, and citizen-focused services while operating amid changing workforce demographics, technological disruption, skills shortages, fiscal pressures, and evolving employee expectations. Effective performance and talent development systems are therefore essential for ensuring that employees understand their responsibilities, develop relevant capabilities, receive meaningful feedback, and contribute directly to institutional priorities.

The course explores the complete employee performance management cycle, including performance planning, objective setting, competency assessment, key performance indicators, continuous feedback, coaching, performance reviews, recognition, performance improvement, and accountability. Participants will learn how to create performance systems that move beyond annual assessments toward continuous conversations, employee development, evidence-based decisions, and measurable improvements in public-sector performance.

Talent development is treated as an integrated strategic process covering competency development, career planning, learning, mentoring, coaching, leadership development, succession planning, internal mobility, high-potential talent, and knowledge management. Participants will examine how government institutions can identify emerging talent, close capability gaps, develop future leaders, and retain valuable employees through structured professional and career development opportunities.

The programme also addresses emerging issues reshaping public-sector performance and talent development, including artificial intelligence, workforce analytics, digital learning, hybrid work, skills-based workforce management, employee wellbeing, generational diversity, continuous performance management, and changing employee expectations. Participants will explore how technology and workforce data can support performance decisions while preserving fairness, transparency, privacy, human judgement, and public-service values.

By the end of the training, participants will be equipped to develop integrated performance and talent development strategies that improve employee productivity, engagement, capability, leadership readiness, retention, and institutional outcomes. They will gain practical tools for setting meaningful objectives, diagnosing performance gaps, developing talent, strengthening succession pipelines, measuring results, and creating a culture of continuous improvement within public-service institutions.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Senior government human resource directors, managers, and officers responsible for employee performance and talent development.

• Public-sector executives responsible for institutional performance, workforce capability, leadership development, and organisational effectiveness.

• Performance management specialists designing employee objectives, appraisal systems, performance indicators, feedback mechanisms, and improvement processes.

• Talent management professionals responsible for identifying, developing, deploying, engaging, and retaining high-performing government employees.

• Learning and development professionals designing competency development, upskilling, reskilling, coaching, mentoring, and career programmes.

• HR business partners supporting ministries, departments, agencies, commissions, and other public-sector institutions.

• Workforce planning specialists integrating employee performance and capability development into broader government workforce strategies.

• Organisational development professionals working on culture, leadership, performance improvement, organisational capability, and institutional transformation.

• Supervisors and line managers responsible for setting employee expectations, providing feedback, coaching staff, and managing performance outcomes.

• Leadership development specialists building leadership pipelines, high-potential talent programmes, succession systems, and executive capability.

• HR analytics professionals using workforce data to evaluate performance trends, talent outcomes, development needs, and retention risks.

• Employee engagement and wellbeing specialists seeking to connect employee experience, motivation, performance, development, and workforce stability.

• Public administration professionals involved in civil service reform, institutional strengthening, workforce modernisation, and public-sector performance.

• Government planning and strategy officers linking employee objectives and workforce capabilities with departmental and institutional priorities.

• Development-partner and public-sector reform professionals supporting government workforce capability, performance improvement, and talent development initiatives.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Develop strategic employee performance systems that align individual objectives, team responsibilities, institutional priorities, service standards, and government-wide development outcomes.

• Establish meaningful performance objectives and indicators that clearly define expected employee contributions, measurable results, behavioural standards, and service-delivery responsibilities.

• Apply continuous performance management approaches involving regular feedback, coaching, performance conversations, progress reviews, recognition, and timely corrective interventions.

• Conduct objective performance assessments using evidence, competency frameworks, agreed indicators, documented achievements, behavioural expectations, and consistent assessment standards.

• Diagnose performance gaps and develop targeted improvement strategies that address capability deficiencies, unclear expectations, resource constraints, management issues, and workplace barriers.

• Design integrated talent development strategies covering learning, coaching, mentoring, career development, internal mobility, high-potential talent, leadership development, and succession planning.

• Identify high-potential employees and critical capabilities using transparent, competency-based, evidence-informed approaches that support future workforce and leadership requirements.

• Develop individual development plans that connect employee aspirations, competency gaps, learning opportunities, career pathways, performance priorities, and institutional capability needs.

• Apply workforce analytics and performance data to identify trends, evaluate talent interventions, monitor capability development, and strengthen evidence-based workforce decisions.

• Strengthen employee engagement, motivation, recognition, wellbeing, career satisfaction, and retention by connecting performance management with meaningful talent development.

• Apply emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, digital learning, and HR analytics responsibly to support performance management and talent development while maintaining human oversight.

• Develop comprehensive performance and talent development action plans with measurable objectives, implementation responsibilities, timelines, resources, indicators, governance arrangements, and continuous-improvement mechanisms.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Public Service Performance and Talent Development

• Principles of strategic employee performance management and talent development within modern government institutions and public-service environments.

• Relationships between employee capability, performance, organisational strategy, institutional effectiveness, service delivery, and citizen outcomes.

• Evolution from traditional annual appraisal systems toward continuous performance management, talent development, coaching, and strategic workforce capability.

• Characteristics of high-performing public-service talent systems, including accountability, fairness, learning, engagement, capability, inclusion, and results orientation.

Module 2: Strategic Performance Management and Institutional Alignment

• Aligning employee performance management with government priorities, institutional strategies, departmental plans, service-delivery objectives, and organisational results.

• Translating strategic objectives into departmental, team, and individual performance responsibilities that employees can understand and influence.

• Designing performance management frameworks that establish clear roles, responsibilities, governance arrangements, review cycles, and accountability mechanisms.

• Identifying alignment gaps between individual performance, team activities, organisational priorities, resource availability, and expected public-sector outcomes.

Module 3: Performance Planning, Objectives, and Key Performance Indicators

• Developing SMART and results-oriented performance objectives that clearly define expected employee contributions, outputs, quality standards, and timelines.

• Designing meaningful key performance indicators that measure productivity, service quality, efficiency, effectiveness, behavioural standards, and institutional contribution.

• Establishing performance agreements that clarify responsibilities, priorities, expected behaviours, resources, development needs, and review arrangements.

• Managing changing priorities by ensuring performance objectives remain relevant, realistic, measurable, and aligned with evolving government requirements.

Module 4: Competency-Based Performance Assessment

• Developing competency frameworks that define technical, behavioural, leadership, digital, analytical, and public-service capabilities required for effective performance.

• Applying competency-based assessment approaches to evaluate employee behaviours, technical capabilities, professional judgement, collaboration, leadership, and service orientation.

• Establishing objective assessment criteria that improve consistency, transparency, fairness, evidence quality, and defensibility in employee performance decisions.

• Identifying competency gaps through assessment results and translating findings into targeted learning, coaching, development, and workforce interventions.

Module 5: Continuous Feedback, Coaching, and Performance Conversations

• Building continuous feedback cultures where managers and employees regularly discuss progress, priorities, challenges, achievements, development, and performance expectations.

• Applying effective coaching techniques to help employees analyse challenges, strengthen capabilities, improve performance, and take greater ownership of development.

• Conducting constructive performance conversations that address achievements, gaps, behavioural concerns, career aspirations, and development opportunities.

• Managing difficult performance discussions with professionalism, empathy, evidence, consistency, procedural fairness, clear expectations, and appropriate documentation.

Module 6: Performance Reviews, Recognition, and Accountability

• Designing effective performance review processes that combine objective evidence, competency assessment, achievements, challenges, feedback, and development priorities.

• Strengthening recognition systems that acknowledge exceptional performance, innovation, teamwork, service quality, leadership, and contributions to organisational objectives.

• Establishing fair accountability mechanisms that address performance concerns while maintaining employee dignity, procedural consistency, transparency, and organisational standards.

• Connecting performance review outcomes with learning opportunities, career decisions, recognition, succession planning, workforce deployment, and organisational improvement.

Module 7: Performance Improvement and Managing Underperformance

• Identifying underlying causes of underperformance, including capability gaps, unclear expectations, insufficient resources, workload, management practices, motivation, and workplace conditions.

• Developing structured performance improvement plans containing clear expectations, measurable objectives, support mechanisms, timelines, review points, and accountability arrangements.

• Applying coaching, mentoring, learning interventions, job redesign, workload adjustments, and management support to address performance challenges constructively.

• Managing persistent underperformance through fair procedures, appropriate documentation, consistent application of policies, and proportionate corrective action.

Module 8: Strategic Talent Identification and High-Potential Development

• Establishing transparent approaches for identifying high-potential employees, critical talent, scarce capabilities, emerging leaders, and strategically important workforce groups.

• Designing high-potential development programmes combining mentoring, coaching, leadership assignments, cross-functional projects, learning, and strategic exposure.

• Avoiding bias and favouritism in talent identification through competency-based criteria, evidence, transparent processes, calibration, and appropriate governance.

• Aligning high-potential development with future organisational requirements, leadership pipelines, critical roles, succession needs, and long-term workforce strategy.

Module 9: Learning, Upskilling, Reskilling, and Career Development

• Conducting individual and organisational learning needs assessments to identify competency gaps, emerging skills, performance needs, and future capability requirements.

• Designing development pathways that combine formal training, digital learning, mentoring, coaching, job rotation, workplace assignments, and experiential learning.

• Developing career development frameworks that connect employee aspirations, competencies, performance, mobility opportunities, professional growth, and organisational workforce needs.

• Measuring learning and development impact through knowledge application, behavioural change, improved performance, capability growth, and contribution to organisational outcomes.

Module 10: Leadership Development, Succession, and Knowledge Transfer

• Developing leadership competency frameworks covering strategic thinking, ethical leadership, accountability, innovation, collaboration, communication, and change leadership.

• Establishing leadership pipelines that prepare promising employees for supervisory, managerial, technical leadership, and executive responsibilities.

• Designing succession planning systems that identify critical positions, potential successors, readiness levels, development requirements, and continuity risks.

• Strengthening knowledge transfer through mentoring, documentation, communities of practice, job shadowing, structured handovers, and institutional knowledge repositories.

Module 11: Employee Engagement, Wellbeing, and Talent Retention

• Understanding how leadership quality, recognition, career opportunities, organisational culture, workload, wellbeing, development, and meaningful work influence employee engagement.

• Designing engagement initiatives that strengthen trust, communication, participation, recognition, collaboration, employee voice, purpose, and commitment to public service.

• Integrating employee wellbeing into performance and talent strategies through workload management, psychological safety, supportive leadership, flexibility, and healthy workplace practices.

• Identifying retention risks among critical talent and designing targeted interventions that address career development, management quality, recognition, engagement, and workforce experience.

Module 12: Performance and Talent Analytics for Evidence-Based Decisions

• Applying workforce analytics to examine performance trends, talent distribution, capability gaps, development outcomes, turnover, engagement, and workforce productivity.

• Developing HR dashboards that provide leaders with reliable information about performance results, talent pipelines, skills, succession, learning, and employee risks.

• Using predictive and descriptive analytics to identify emerging performance issues, future capability needs, retention risks, and opportunities for targeted intervention.

• Strengthening data governance through privacy, security, data quality, ethical use, transparency, appropriate access, and responsible workforce analytics practices.

Module 13: Digital Performance Management, AI, and Future Skills

• Assessing how artificial intelligence, automation, digital platforms, and emerging technologies are changing employee roles, performance expectations, and workforce capabilities.

• Applying responsible AI principles to performance and talent decisions, including human oversight, transparency, privacy, bias management, explainability, and accountability.

• Designing digital learning and development ecosystems that provide flexible access to knowledge, skills development, performance support, and continuous professional growth.

• Preparing employees for future skills requirements through digital literacy, analytical capability, adaptability, innovation, collaboration, cybersecurity awareness, and continuous learning.

Module 14: Diversity, Inclusion, Ethics, and Fair Performance Management

• Integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and equal-opportunity principles into employee performance and talent development systems.

• Identifying unconscious bias, inconsistent assessment practices, exclusion risks, and structural barriers that may affect performance ratings, development, recognition, or career progression.

• Strengthening ethical standards, confidentiality, impartiality, professionalism, accountability, and public-service values within performance and talent management processes.

• Establishing fair governance arrangements that promote transparency, consistency, employee trust, procedural fairness, appropriate documentation, and responsible managerial judgement.

Module 15: Emerging Talent Development Issues and Workforce Transformation

• Addressing demographic change, generational diversity, changing employee expectations, hybrid work, workforce mobility, and evolving career preferences.

• Preparing performance and talent systems for automation, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, new occupations, skills shortages, and changing public-service delivery models.

• Managing workforce transformation through reskilling, job redesign, internal mobility, change communication, employee participation, and organisational capability development.

• Strengthening resilience against talent shortages, leadership gaps, institutional knowledge loss, disengagement, technological disruption, and changing workforce conditions.

Module 16: Integrated Performance and Talent Development Strategy Capstone

• Conducting a comprehensive diagnosis of employee performance, competency gaps, talent pipelines, leadership capacity, engagement, learning, succession, and retention challenges.

• Developing an integrated performance and talent development strategy aligned with institutional priorities, workforce plans, service-delivery objectives, and future capability requirements.

• Establishing implementation roadmaps with measurable objectives, responsibilities, timelines, resources, performance indicators, governance arrangements, and workforce risk controls.

• Presenting and defending a strategic performance and talent development plan before a simulated executive panel while demonstrating feasibility, impact, sustainability, and organisational value.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.