SUCCESSION

PLANNING
GUIDE

Connecting today’s workforce with tomorrow’s demands.

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INTRODUCTION

In September of 2017, the Secretary of State issued an audit report evaluating Oregon state
government’s succession planning. The report highlights the many challenges our workforce will face in
the coming years. According to the audit, “[t]he lack of a succession planning framework increases
workforce risks, such as not developing or retaining knowledgeable and skilled employees to perform
critical functions.” 1

What will be your legacy at the state? If you or one of your team members moved on today, would
projects reach a satisfactory close or remain incomplete? Succession planning ensures the work we do
remains valuable by capturing and transitioning skills and knowledge. Succession planning is critical to
the state so agencies can ensure business continuity to Oregonians now and in the future.

There are thousands of unique jobs at the state, each with a set of roles and responsibilities that must
be fulfilled to ensure the safety, continuity of business, and general enjoyment of our beautiful state.
Many positions require special skills, and some are specific to the public sector. This means these skills
may not be readily available which, in turn, may make the positions difficult to fill.

Developing a sustainable succession plan is a priority. The following guidelines are intended to provide
general instructions to help agencies assess, identify, develop and evaluate a succession planning
process. The guidelines cover how to identify critical positions, assess your team’s needs, and
determine both position and employee competencies. You are encouraged to work with your HR
Business Partners to answer specific questions related to position descriptions, critical position
evaluations, position management, classifications and any other issues that may come up during this
process.

Visit the DAS CHRO Succession Planning website at:

http://www.oregon.gov/das/HR/Pages/success-plan.aspx

1
See, Secretary of State Audit, Audit Highlights #2, September 2017
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WHAT IS SUCCESSION PLANNING?

Succession planning is the strategy of assessing and forecasting workforce needs by identifying critical
positions and developing competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) to meet those needs. It begins
even before a vacancy exists through agency strategic planning and budget processes. It touches every
aspect of a position’s lifecycle.

Succession planning connects important positions at risk of vacancy with capable position candidates
through recruitment plans and employee development.

Through a careful assessment of your workforce, you will be able to do the following:
 Assess positions critical to the functions of your team, division, or agency by identifying position
competencies
 Meet with employees to discuss goals and development necessary in both the short and long
term for potential succession into critical positions
 Assess gaps in your workforce
 Identify individuals capable of assuming critical positions during a critical position’s vacancy
 Align a succession plan for current and future business needs
 Evaluate your succession plan and adjust competencies, employee goals, and recruitment
strategies, if necessary
 Develop recruitment plans targeting the competencies needed to best fill the position
 Ensure incorporation of affirmative action, diversity and inclusion responsibilities in agency
recruitment plans

Succession planning is the essential groundwork to maintain the day-to-day work and support for
appropriate workforce strategies.

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THE FOUR STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSION PLAN

Succession planning will vary slightly from agency to agency. Different resources, organizational
designs and business focus all mean succession planning should be flexible and adaptable in order to
accommodate varying needs and achieve business continuity. However, the agency can follow the
four-step succession planning process to guide succession planning activities.

ASSESS
Assess and communicate the agency’s or team’s
STEP 1 mission and vision for the current and future
workforce

IDENTIFY
STEP 2 Identify critical and highly critical positions and
competencies

DEVELOP
STEP 3 Create employee plans for competency development

EVALUATE
STEP 4 Adjust competencies, employee goals, and
recruitment strategies, if necessary

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SUCCESSION PLANNING SUPPORTS WORKFORCE PLANNING

Strategic succession planning should not be done in isolation from the broader workforce planning
process. Specifically, a detailed review to discover workforce gaps helps identify key positions and
employees for development. It is also important to understand the difference between succession
planning and workforce planning.

Workforce planning is a set of procedures an agency can implement to maintain the most efficient
employee/management team possible. Workforce planning falls into two broad categories –
operational and strategic.

Operational workforce planning involves streamlining day-to-day operations. Examples include:

 Optimizing work schedules and employee hours
 Identifying functional needs and hiring new employees to meet those needs
 Identifying obsolete functions and reassigning work, as necessary
 Ensuring managers are clearly communicating the vision and expectations

Strategic workforce planning deals with broad-based issues that evolve over months and years and can
influence all areas of the agency. Examples include:
 Establishing or developing a framework for anticipating vacancies (succession plan)
 Looking ahead at what the future workforce needs
 Anticipating budget impacts
 Sharing knowledge with other parts of the agency and providing developmental opportunities
for employees to cross train

Without a succession plan in place, workforce planning becomes a reactive process – hiring someone
who is in the right place at the right time versus proactive process – hiring the right someone, at the
right time, in the right place, in the right position. When both plans work together, you have
established competencies for specific positions along with employee competencies and development
plans to support the work being done both today and in the future.

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STEP 1 – ASSESS: YOUR MISSION AND VISION

Grounding your succession plan in your agency’s mission positions the agency to better endure future
challenges and take advantage of future opportunities. Once the mission is clear, make sure to
communicate the direction, so everyone is able to follow. Please use the following questions to start
the assessment process. For additional tools, please see the CHRO’s Succession Planning website.

 What is your mission? And how and what does your team do to support it? (e.g., maintain the
flow of transportation on major roadways for the safety, efficiency and sustainability of our
customers.)

 What functions or positions are at the core of how your team accomplishes its mission? (e.g.,
collects, researches, analyzes and converts new and unique tabular and spatial water resource
information; Water Resource Data Technician 2)

 What fundamental competencies are necessary to fulfill your team’s mission? (e.g., accuracy,
efficiency, planning and organization, compliance, equipment operation and safety -
competencies can be found on the CHRO’s Succession Planning website and in Workday)

 How does succession planning (the strategy of maintaining these competencies and positions)
fit into your team’s mission and goals? (e.g., the team has required training and a
mentorship/peership-based approach to ensure team members discuss and share knowledge,
experience and workload transition.)

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ASSESS: AGENCY’S FUTURE WORKFORCE 2

Instructions: Think broadly about the agency’s future needs and challenges. The constant evolution of
technology and innovation will change the way we conduct future business. A competent new hire for
a critical position today may not fit the position in ten years, five years, or even one year.

Effective succession planning anticipates changes and ensures a ready bench of capable candidates for
every critical position. Please use the following questions to start the assessment process. For
additional tools, please see the CHRO’s Succession Planning website.

 What potential challenges will the agency face in the next five years? In the next ten years?
(e.g., implementation of new programs for Oregonians that requires specialized knowledge not
currently utilized.)

 What potential challenges will your team/division/agency face?

 What competencies, skills or resources will your team, division and agency need to effectively
deal with these challenges?

 As of today, to what extent are these competencies available within your team? What about
within the agency as a whole?

 Did you identify any gaps in future need and current availability? How would you prioritize
resolving these gaps in competencies, skills and/or resources?

2 The State of Alaska, Division of Personnel originally developed the concept of “defining the future” as an initial step in workforce planning. The questions
included in the workforce planning report inspired these questions.

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STEP 2 – IDENTIFY: CRITICAL POSITIONS AND COMPETENCIES

Identifying critical positions and competencies is crucial to an effective succession plan. It provides the
agency with a full-scale look at how it conducts business, identifies workplace gaps and allows for
managers to understand the risks of vacancies in certain areas.

A critical position, if vacant, creates a significant impact within the team, public or agency. The vacancy
would impact things like safety, fiscal responsibility, project implementation, responding to customer
demands, equipment maintenance, etc. A review of all positions to determine vacancy impact allows
the agency to be better prepared when vacancies, both anticipated and unanticipated, occur.

When doing the critical position analysis, make sure you focus on the duties and competencies of the
position, not the person filling the position. If you are clear on the position’s purpose, the
competencies come naturally. To help agencies determine a position’s critical measure, the chart
below and tools on the CHRO’s Succession Planning website will help narrow in and focus on the
specifics.

• Vacancy would cause limited impact

• Limited specialized knowledge or skills required
NOT A CRITICAL
• Strong recruitment potential
POSITION
• Competitive compensation package
• Limited direct promotional opportunities

• Vacancy would cause an impact

• Some specialized knowledge or skills required
• Challenging recruitment
• Moderately competitive compensation package
CRITICAL POSITION
• Skill set in demand
• Promotional opportunities
• Anticipate vacancy within the next 1 to 5 years

• Vacancy would cause a significant impact

• Specialized knowledge or skills required
• Very challenging recruitment
HIGHLY CRITICAL • No competitive compensation package/compression issues
POSITION • Skill set in high demand
• Promotional opportunities
• Anticipate vacancy within the next year

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Competencies sometimes go beyond the minimum qualifications (a set of knowledge, skills and
abilities expected to fill the position) or position description. Competencies are skills necessary to
successfully complete the duties of a position. There are two types of competencies: non-technical and
technical.
• Technical competencies are practical skills or licenses necessary to fulfill the required job
duties, such as a commercial driver’s license or typing a certain number of words per minute.
• Non-technical competencies are fundamental professional and leadership skills.

While you may have a good idea about the position’s competencies, you should also talk with the
incumbent to consider the incumbent’s observations. Those observations may identify other
competencies not currently reflected in the job description. If other competencies are identified, make
sure to check in with other employees in the same position, if possible, doing the same body of work to
ensure consistency in competencies. If obvious differences arise, you are encouraged to talk with your
assigned HR Business Partner to ensure the position’s proper classification.

Please see the tools and resources on the CHRO’s Succession Planning website to help get a better
understanding of how to determine both technical and non-technical competencies.

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STEP 3 – DEVELOP: IDENTIFYING AND ASSESSING POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

The key purpose of identifying and assessing core job competencies is to help develop the workforce
for future roles.

This step of the succession planning process helps interested candidates develop the requisite skills
prior to a vacancy so our workforce has the skills and abilities to help maintain the body of work
during the recruitment process. Agencies are strongly encouraged to consult with their respective HR
Business Partners to ensure the steps used for identifying potential candidates support decisions
based on merit, equity and respect. Understand, this process is about preparation not pre-selection.

Some critical questions that may help prepare for this step include:
 Have there been one-on-one discussions with employees regarding their career goals and
interests?
 Do you communicate developmental opportunities to all employees?
 Do employees understand the purpose and process of succession planning? Specifically, do
they understand they are not guaranteed a promotion as a result of this process?
 Are employees who were not considered for a current opportunity encouraged to ask for
developmental opportunities for future consideration?
 Are an appropriate number of candidates being developed for critical positions?
 How will the candidate pool demonstrate the agency’s plan for employment equity and
diversity?

Some key points to remember as you work on learning and development plans are:
 Plans should focus on decreasing or removing the gap between expected competencies and
the current knowledge, skills and abilities of candidates.
 Manage expectations – successful succession and workforce plans are based on learning and
development rather than merely filling a vacancy. Remember, be proactive, not reactive.
 There are a wide range of learning and development opportunities to consider, which can
include:
• Job assignments that develop and/or improve a candidate’s competencies;
• Job rotations; and
• Formal training.

Ensure appropriate strategies are in place to support the transfer of knowledge to candidates for key
jobs, which can include:
 Mentoring, coaching or job-shadowing;
 Documenting critical knowledge;
 Maintaining an Employee Desk Manual for key positions;
 Exit interviews/surveys; and
 Establishing communities of practice.

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STEP 4 – EVALUATE

Evaluate your succession planning progress using strategic performance measures. Identify limitations
to meeting your workforce needs. Ensure you are prepared for a successful recruitment and transition
when a critical position vacancy occurs.

Evaluating succession planning efforts will help to ensure the effectiveness of the process by providing
information regarding:

1. How the process operates – the relationship between inputs, activities, outputs and
outcomes.
2. Impact of the process relative to stated goals and objectives.
3. Functional strengths and weaknesses.
4. Potential gaps in planning and assumptions.
5. Cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit.

Planning to collect and assess these types of information will ensure the agency monitors its succession
planning activities, appropriately measures success, and adjusts the process accordingly given
sufficient evidence. Some evaluative questions to consider might include:
 Have all critical positions been identified and do they have succession plans?
 Has the succession plan improved business continuity in critical positions?
 Are successful candidates performing well in their new roles?
 What is the impact of learning and development efforts? Are employees ready to compete for a
vacant critical position?
 Is the candidate pool diverse and reflective of employment equity values?
 What are the areas for improvement in the succession planning process?

Once a succession plan has been established, monitoring its efficiency and effectiveness will be
essential. Thus, each succession plan should be developed within an evaluation framework in order to
measure progress and success, as well as provide any evidence to support changes to the succession
planning process.

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 DO’s & DON’Ts
SUCCESSION AND WORKFORCE PLANNING

Succession and workforce planning are the cornerstones to consistently fulfill the agency’s mission.
Both provide managers with the ability to hone in on the specific competencies necessary to fill any
position. It also provides an opportunity for managers to have meaningful conversations with
employees on their goals, competencies and valuable work they provide every day.

Here are some do’s and don’ts on utilizing the succession and workforce planning information in an
effort to maximize your efforts.

DO: take the opportunity in one-on-one discussions to talk about an employee’s goals -- both
present and future -- and how you can help with their development. If those discussions lead to the
employee’s retirement plans, that is the appropriate time to learn more.
DO NOT: go around asking employees when they plan to retire.

DO: ensure employees of all ages and years of service are considered in the succession plan.
DO NOT: presume an employee’s retirement plans based on age or years of service.

DO: treat all applicants and employees the same and fill positions with the best person for the
position based on the established competencies and the applicant’s or employee’s skills and
attributes.
DO NOT: pass over an employee for development or promotional opportunities based on an
employee’s age or eligibility to retire.

DO: review the list to understand where the workforce competencies are to ensure the appropriate
development opportunities or recruitment strategies align.
DO NOT: review the list of employees and compare or discuss
status with other employees.

DO: ensure the competencies necessary for the position match

the position description and classification so you find the best fit
for the position.
DO NOT: plan your future workforce by assuming you are
going to hire someone just like the person in the position.

DO: take every opportunity to open the lines of communication

with your employees. This helps drive the work, purpose and
common goals of the team.
DO NOT: make your decisions based solely on data.