• Planning & Financial
  • Financial Forecasting
  • Strategic Planning
• Human Resources
  • Staff Planning
  • Cross Training
  • Shared Administrators
  • Sick Leave Management
  • Succession Planning
• Fleet
  • Consolidated Operations & Fleet Maintenance Partnerships
  • Centralized Fleet Management
  • Fuel Management & Oversight
  • Fuel Conservation Policies
• Facility
  • Energy Management
  • Facility Use Management
• Operations
  • Snow & Ice Control
  • Communications Center Accreditation
  • Dispatch Consolidation
  • Police Shifts
• Technology
  • Server Consolidation
  • Process Automation

Human Resource Management

Succession Planning

Succession planning and management is the processes related to ensuring that organizations have the human capital capacity necessary to achieve their goals and effectively deliver results now and in the future. Planning for future human capital needs through succession planning is often linked to strategic planning and staff planning.

Succession planning is more important than ever. With an aging workforce and the approaching mass retirement of the “baby boomers,” one part of succession planning includes the need to capture and pass on the expertise, judgment, and insight of senior leaders before they retire. The second aspect of succession planning relates to the identification of employees within the organization who have the potential to move into leadership positions.

The recent economic turmoil has slowed retirements, but when the economy does recover, retirements, coupled with already lean staff, will result in the increased demands placed on organizations.

According to the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR), some of the positive results that stem from succession planning include the ability to develop a strong pool of internal candidates, knowledge transfer, higher retention, and the ability to fill management positions without a significant gap.

According to Succession Planning: Career Development (American Society for Training & Development, 2000), succession planning entails identification of employees who possess the skills to meet future organizational challenges. Some components of planning include:

• Replacement Planning
  this is the primary component of succession planning and, at its simplest, is an identification of employees who may potentially be able to fill positions as they become vacant.
• Identifying High-Potential Employee
  focuses on identification of employees who have the ability to move into key positions within the organization. In identifying these employees, management must look at critical competencies and characteristics of potential candidates.
• Employee Input: focuses on linking employee career development goals and desires with organizational succession planning needs.
• Development Programs
  includes providing a means for employee development and training. An effective employee development program would involve assessing the skills and development needs of high potential employees, and making provisions for training and development to build specific competency requirements.

Ohio Examples

Partnership Develops Statewide Workforce Planning Policy
State of Ohio

The Department of Administrative Services’ (DAS), Human Resources Division, engaged in workforce planning through a partnership with the Pew Center on the States to assist in developing a statewide workforce planning policy. The goal is to enhance the human resource role as a strategic business partner across state government and manage the workforce more effectively.

Workforce planning is the framework management relies on for making staffing and resource decisions that are linked to the agency’s mission, strategic plan and budgetary resources. Through this project workforce planning in Ohio will become an essential planning process by which the state can achieve the intended philosophy of controlling the size and cost of government."Brenda Gerhardstein
Department of Administrative Service
Human Resources Division Deputy Director

National Examples

City Seeks to Build “Leadership Pipeline”
Dallas, Texas

The City of Dallas has focused on the task of succession planning and has sought to build a “leadership pipeline” that works to foster growth among employees to prepare them for future leadership needs. This knowledge base is achieved through mentoring, professional development, and other opportunities. This effort has worked to boost retention, stimulate innovation, and enhance organizational effectiveness.

Web Resources

• International Public Management Association for Human Resources Benchmarking
  Report on Workforce and Succession Planning
• City of Virginia Beach’s Workforce Planning and Development Overview
• Succession Planning: The Essentials (Alliance for Innovation)