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Labor and Personnel Benefits of succession planning discussed
Succession planning is a proactive way to deal with the shrinking pool of qualified senior management candidates and to train and motivate mid-level professionals to pursue senior positions, according to Concord Town Manager Chris Whelan.
Speaking during a joint meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association and the Massachusetts Municipal Personnel Association on March 18 in Wrentham, Whelan described the benefits of having a succession plan for key municipal positions.
He said best practices include engagement of others in the planning discussion and conducting an annual assessment of organization’s long-range need for talent. Municipalities with succession plans must also reassess their promotion practices, develop a culture of promoting and grooming talent from within, and identify key positions and weaknesses.
Whelan said his town recently had to fill four management positions left vacant by retirements. Two vacancies were filled before Concord had a succession plan in place, and two were filled after, so the town had an opportunity to compare the two processes.
Without a succession plan, Concord had few internal applicants for the fire chief and library director positions, while succession planning used to fill the police chief and light plant manager positions produced one qualified internal candidate.
Whelan said the outgoing police chief had an opportunity to groom his successor through mentoring and the delegation of special projects and responsibilities. This process yielded a “seamless transition,” he said.
The town is now in the interview phase of the light plant manager process.
Whelan acknowledged that succession planning can be very sensitive and tricky, but valuable. He said he likes to work with a retiring department head one-on-one to discuss the transition and receive input on who the successor might be.
Andover Human Resources Director Candace Hall also spoke of her experience with succession planning and said a town manager must be sensitive to employees who are leaving.
Will Brown of AllOne Health encouraged managers and personnel administrators to face the realities of the impending retirement of key employees over the next few years. He outlined three phases of succession planning: envisioning, preserving the knowledge, and preparing the talent.
The envisioning phase requires the creation of a team that will then perform a needs assessment. This assessment will identify positions that will become vacant within the next six months to three years. Department heads should work with staff to envision what their department will look like by the specified time period and report back their “vision” information. The team uses this information to create an overall vision that is shared with all employees. Goals are then set to achieve the vision.
Preserving the knowledge includes posting employee job descriptions on an intranet and asking all employees to identify the five most important things that someone would need to know in order to do the job that they now do.
Phase three is to develop an internal strategy that creates a culture of learning and inspires employees to develop. This phase includes an application process and mentor program for employees interested in being promoted.
Also at the meeting, former Newton Chief Administrative Officer Sandy Pooler discussed “competency-based selection.” This process involves defining the key competencies that are needed in each job and targeting them during the selection process.
For example, interview questions are focused on specific situations – rather than general job duties – in order to assess how a candidate would react in the situation, Pooler said.
• Succession Planning: A Case Study (392K PDF)
Town of Concord Senior Management Team, March 2010
• Competency-Based Selection (176K PDF)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search (fall 2007), presentation by Sandy Pooler, former chief administrative officer, March 2010
• Competency-Based Interview Questions for a DPW Director (40K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Competencies Definitions (48K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Competency-Based Interview Rating Sheet (48K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Sample Competencies (20K Excel)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Passing the Baton: Municipal Succession Planning (496K PDF)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
• Municipal Succession Planning Framework and Tasks (28K Word)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
• 2020 Vision Template (112K Word)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
Labor and Personnel Benefits of succession planning discussed
Benefits of succession planning discussed
Succession planning is a proactive way to deal with the shrinking pool of qualified senior management candidates and to train and motivate mid-level professionals to pursue senior positions, according to Concord Town Manager Chris Whelan.
Speaking during a joint meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Management Association and the Massachusetts Municipal Personnel Association on March 18 in Wrentham, Whelan described the benefits of having a succession plan for key municipal positions.
He said best practices include engagement of others in the planning discussion and conducting an annual assessment of organization’s long-range need for talent. Municipalities with succession plans must also reassess their promotion practices, develop a culture of promoting and grooming talent from within, and identify key positions and weaknesses.
Whelan said his town recently had to fill four management positions left vacant by retirements. Two vacancies were filled before Concord had a succession plan in place, and two were filled after, so the town had an opportunity to compare the two processes.
Without a succession plan, Concord had few internal applicants for the fire chief and library director positions, while succession planning used to fill the police chief and light plant manager positions produced one qualified internal candidate.
Whelan said the outgoing police chief had an opportunity to groom his successor through mentoring and the delegation of special projects and responsibilities. This process yielded a “seamless transition,” he said.
The town is now in the interview phase of the light plant manager process.
Whelan acknowledged that succession planning can be very sensitive and tricky, but valuable. He said he likes to work with a retiring department head one-on-one to discuss the transition and receive input on who the successor might be.
Andover Human Resources Director Candace Hall also spoke of her experience with succession planning and said a town manager must be sensitive to employees who are leaving.
Will Brown of AllOne Health encouraged managers and personnel administrators to face the realities of the impending retirement of key employees over the next few years. He outlined three phases of succession planning: envisioning, preserving the knowledge, and preparing the talent.
The envisioning phase requires the creation of a team that will then perform a needs assessment. This assessment will identify positions that will become vacant within the next six months to three years. Department heads should work with staff to envision what their department will look like by the specified time period and report back their “vision” information. The team uses this information to create an overall vision that is shared with all employees. Goals are then set to achieve the vision.
Preserving the knowledge includes posting employee job descriptions on an intranet and asking all employees to identify the five most important things that someone would need to know in order to do the job that they now do.
Phase three is to develop an internal strategy that creates a culture of learning and inspires employees to develop. This phase includes an application process and mentor program for employees interested in being promoted.
Also at the meeting, former Newton Chief Administrative Officer Sandy Pooler discussed “competency-based selection.” This process involves defining the key competencies that are needed in each job and targeting them during the selection process.
For example, interview questions are focused on specific situations – rather than general job duties – in order to assess how a candidate would react in the situation, Pooler said.
Meeting handouts
• Succession Planning: A Case Study (392K PDF)
Town of Concord Senior Management Team, March 2010
• Competency-Based Selection (176K PDF)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search (fall 2007), presentation by Sandy Pooler, former chief administrative officer, March 2010
• Competency-Based Interview Questions for a DPW Director (40K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Competencies Definitions (48K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Competency-Based Interview Rating Sheet (48K Word)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Sample Competencies (20K Excel)
Example from city of Newton Public Works commissioner search, fall 2007
• Passing the Baton: Municipal Succession Planning (496K PDF)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
• Municipal Succession Planning Framework and Tasks (28K Word)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
• 2020 Vision Template (112K Word)
Presented by the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s Employee Assistance Program, March 2010
Written by MMA Database & Admin. Coordinator Kristi Williams
