Bruce Barge
Principal
Buck Consultants
Excellence in Public Sector
When the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)—the largest pension fund in the U.S. providing retirement, health and benefits to more than 1.6 million public employees—had a concern about the aging of its workforce, it tapped Bruce Barge and Buck Consultants to help. CalPERS had a number of potential future leaders that they feared were too narrow in their experience since they only worked in one part of the CalPERS organization.
"We developed a process called the Leadership Skills Assessment Process, which is sort of a public sector form of succession planning," says Barge, who is a principal and the Los Angeles market leader for Buck Consultants, a human resources firm. "This was a way for [CalPERS' senior leaders to assess] people in the middle management ranks, identify those with the highest potential and then provide leadership opportunities and training that would prepare them for the future."
