Why Identifying and Nurturing Talent Within the Ranks is More Important than Ever
Author: Alliant
The concept of succession planning has long been an important risk management topic in the private sector. Over the past few years, succession planning has also become more important to the public sector and government agencies, primarily due to the departure of its rapidly aging workforce.
Historically, the public sector at all levels, has relied on decent pay, generous benefits and stable employment to attract qualified candidates. Today, due to several economic and cultural factors, these attractions have been significantly diminished, forcing public sector leaders to rethink their organization’s future personnel needs. Younger generations are entering into the workforce at great capacity and the ability to attract the next generation of fresh talent with new and innovative ideas is crucial to the growth of public sector organizations.
Beyond simply replacing positions that become vacant, effective succession planning is an ongoing process of identifying, assessing and developing talent to ensure leadership, management and supervisory continuity throughout an organization and moreover, to sustain its performance.
A Proactive Process
A succession plan is essentially an in-depth roadmap, explaining how and when leadership responsibilities will be transferred once leadership or other key staff members transition out of their role. It is a proactive process that begins developing successors years in advance of when they’ll be needed and accounts for the fact that eventually there will be changes in leadership in an organization. By planning for such change, the organization is able to continue with their objectives and performance virtually uninterrupted. Many plans focus on the most senior roles, but key positions crucial for the operation of an organization and may be hard to replace need to be included in a succession plan.
A Roadmap for Success
Succession plans, while primarily focused on who will succeed the current position’s holder, should also include information about the organization’s mission and vision statement, future goals, preferred exit options and an overall organization evaluation.
Arguably the most difficult step in succession planning is getting started. For public entities in particular, there are very few resources that focus on succession planning specifically for the public sector, which makes it seem even more daunting to begin. Getting started on a succession plan can be simplified by following the four critical pre-drafting steps below.
Step One: Assess your current situation.
Identify critical and vulnerable positions. The first step in succession planning is to choose positions most in need of successors. Two factors to consider when prioritizing are the positions vulnerability and criticality:
- Determine which positions have no identifiable successor, these positions are most vulnerable to knowledge loss.
- Consider the impact each position has on the organization’s mission; if a vacancy in a position would impact the organization’s ability to accomplish their mission it can be classified as critical. Critical positions often extend beyond senior leadership roles to include technical and scientific positions.
Step Two: Assemble your advisory team.
It’s important to remember that building a succession plan does not need to happen alone. A number of professionals can help ensure that an organization is making the right decisions and developing sound strategies. These individuals will likely have experience helping other public sector organizations develop succession plans. While one can develop succession plan without help, this is not recommended, as the legal red tape can be difficult to navigate and key considerations that could prove costly later on might be overlooked.
The following are just a few candidates that could help bolster an advisory team, making the succession plan more efficient and less stressful:
- Accountants
- Lawyers
- Current leadership
- Leadership at other organizations or agencies that you work closely with
- Brokers
Step Three: Develop eligibility requirements
Once you’ve identified positions in need of a succession plan, the next step is to develop a profile of the position and the performance expectations. This will help your organization determine who has the experience to take on the role.
Questions to consider as you develop eligibility requirements:
- What selection criteria would be used to fill this position if it were vacant?
- What knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies are needed in this position to achieve success?
Before drafting a succession plan, ensure that future plans for the organization have been considered. One way to do this is to ensure that you have key dates in place for specific milestones, including the following:
- When senior leaders plan to retire
- How and when to transfer voting control
Step Four: Create an action plan to prepare successor(s)
Creating a developmental plan for potential successors helps to identify meaningful opportunities for growth. The following list of learning and development opportunities may help you create a succession development plan, but it is also important to ask the incumbent to identify opportunities for the successor as well. Successor development opportunities include:
- Creating a succession development plan with training and learning opportunities that are aligned with the successor position. Leadership development programs are often a part of this process.
- Participating in the functional areas of the incumbent’s role, especially areas outside of the potential successor’s current experience
- Mentoring from the incumbent
- Providing coaching opportunities
- Acting for the incumbent while they are away from work
- Working on special projects or opportunities to stretch skills into aligned areas
- Dual incumbency opportunities when the incumbent transitions out of their role
Once you have taken the time to complete these pre-drafting steps, it will allow the organization to get started on building a formal succession plan. A transition can be a vulnerable time and creating this important plan will help protect the organization and ensure its longevity.