SUCCESSION PLANNING
Alabama Department of Labor Approach

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this session, you will be able to:
• Understand what is meant by succession planning
• Recognize why succession planning is critical to an organization
• Identify different methods for succession planning

WORKFORCE TRENDS
• For years, organizations have been preparing for the mass exodus of the
baby boomers.
• As a result of the recent recession, many baby boomers have delayed their
retirement. However as the economy continues to recover, retirements are
on the rise.
• Baby boomers represent a significant portion of the workforce, and the loss
of their collective knowledge and experience could be devastating for
unprepared organizations.

WORKFORCE TRENDS (CONTINUED)
• An American Management Association Enterprise survey in 2011 found that
71% of senior and mid-level leaders in the U.S. and Canada believed that
succession planning is more important than ever before. However, only 14%
of respondents said they were well prepared to deal with a sudden loss of key
positions. Nearly one-quarter (22%) admitted they were not at all prepared to
deal with such a loss.*
*Reported by the Gallup organization.

ALWAYS GIVE 100% AT WORK
12%
Monday
23%
Tuesday
40%
Wednesday
20%
Thursday
5%
Friday

2013 ALABAMA SKILLS GAP STUDY RESULTS
• The sample selected for the study included 6,926 Alabama employers in the
Utilities, Construction and Manufacturing industries.
• Nearly 5,000 employers responded, providing information on recruiting
challenges they face, skill gaps that they have identified, and their future
training needs.

2013 ALABAMA SKILLS GAP STUDY RESULTS
(CONTINUED)
Key Findings: Soft Skills Gaps
• Employers were more likely to identify gaps in soft skills (41%) than in
technical skills (38%).
• Across all industries and areas, ATTENDANCE was the most commonly
selected soft skill (65%).
• FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS (39%) and TIME MANAGEMENT (36%).

2013 ALABAMA SKILLS GAP STUDY RESULTS

SUCCESSION PLANNING
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
GOAL
Identify “KEY STAFF PERSONNEL” to
develop next generation leadership

EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT –
SUCCESSION PLANNING
• Succession planning is one of the most important areas of training and development
on which an organization should focus.
• Succession planning should be given consideration for numerous reasons. One of
the most important of these is that, as managers and leaders in our organization, we
need to be able to rely on our staff to:
• Carry out our department’s mission,
• Ensure the continuous and uninterrupted delivery of services, and
• Meet organizational goals.
• Succession planning is our footpath to ensuring our staff is adequately prepared for
these responsibilities.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SUCCESSION
PLANNING?
• Traditionally, the role of succession planning has fallen to Human Resources
and top leadership in the organization.
• As the idea of succession planning has evolved, the concept of succession
management has become a hot topic among businesses.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SUCCESSION
PLANNING? (CONTINUED)
• Succession management is a different way of thinking about succession planning.
• This is a systematic process of conducting an organizational talent review and
assessing gaps in leadership.
• It involves input from all levels of managers and leaders.
• Even if you are not currently a senior-,mid-, or even junior-level manager, chances
are, one day you will be in a supervisory/leadership position.
• As a supervisor or leader, it is your responsibility to ensure that your staff is
prepared for future vacancies. It can involve many steps, including cross-training,
on-the-job training, off-site training, interactive workshops, etc.
(In other words, YOU are responsible for succession planning!)

SUCCESSION PLANNING – HOW TO BEGIN
• Consider how many people are currently eligible to retire in your
unit/section/division/department and how many people will be eligible to
retire in the next five years.
• Remember, however, that you should not focus solely on those individuals who are
eligible to retire. People leave for a variety of reasons, not simply due to retirement.

SUCCESSION PLANNING – CONTINUED
• Identify all key positions in your unit/section/division/department.
• Consider what will happen to this knowledge when the position is vacated.
• We need to move away from an environment of “Knowledge is power,
sharing is not” and work to create an environment of shared knowledge.
• We need to avoid identifying an “heir apparent” and ensure we are
developing all of our employees.

SUCCESSION PLANNING – CONTINUED
• Consider diversity issues: We should avoid “like-me” approaches when handling
succession planning. The most successful organizations are those that rely on
diverse workforces and leadership.
• Ask important questions to assess what the business may look like in the future.
• Do you expect positions or roles to be consolidated?
• How will these changes impact the needed knowledge, skills, and abilities of our
staff?

SUCCESSION PLANNING – CONTINUED
• Partner with Human Resources – Take advantage of the knowledge your HR staff has
available. Talk to them to discuss training opportunities for your employees. Use
their expertise to identify competency and skill requirements for key positions.
• Learn the interests and abilities of your staff members.
• What motivates them?
• In what areas do they excel?
• What are their desires/expectations for the future?
• Develop and encourage mentoring programs that allow more experienced staff to
team up and work with other staff members.

CHALLENGES TO EFFECTIVE SUCCESSION
PLANNING
• Financial considerations – Faced with ever-increasing
budget cuts, many organizations feel they simply do
not have the resources available to allocate to training
and development.

CHALLENGES TO EFFECTIVE SUCCESSION
PLANNING (CONTINUED)
• Time Constraints – The process of succession management requires a
significant commitment of time from management.
• Faced with shrinking budgets and reduced staff sizes, many agencies feel that this
simply isn’t a high enough priority to which they can dedicate precious man hours.
• This is why it is critical to have top-down buy-in from management.

CHALLENGES TO EFFECTIVE SUCCESSION
PLANNING (CONTINUED)
• Legal Considerations – Succession planning must be done in a way that does
not discriminate against unlawful factors such as age, race, gender, national
origin, religion, and disability.
• For example, when evaluating available talent pools, do not exclude an
employee who is the same age as the individual preparing to retire simply
because you assume the potential successor is also near retirement.

SUCCESSION PLANNING:
ALABAMA DEPARTMENT
OF LABOR’S
APPROACH

KNOWING YOUR PEOPLE

ADOL’S APPROACH…
• The Alabama Department of Labor’s “Performance Improvement Training” (PIT) Team
• In January 2015, the PIT Team was created in ADOL. The PIT Team’s mission is to
ensure continued excellence in customer service, equal job and career development
opportunities for all levels of employees, and enhanced succession planning through
formal, systematic training.
• The PIT Team is composed of supervisors and leaders from all divisions in the department.
• Meetings are held on a quarterly basis to identify training needs in the department, discuss
options for meeting these needs, and monitor developmental progress after training plans
are implemented.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES OF THE PIT TEAM
• Determine appropriate training needs
• Identify target audience
• Identify training gaps within trainer’s assigned areas
• Identify existing training that is available to employees
• Identify the trainers for technical training

THE PIT TEAM’S ROLE IN TRAINING
• Each member of the PIT Team is responsible for:
• Communicating types of training available to the employees in
his/her division.
• Determining the target audience for each type of training.
• Identifying gaps in training
• Tracking attendance

BENEFITS OF THE PIT TEAM
• Boosts the skill level of our employees, supervisors and managers
• Develops productive employees
• Tailors training to each area’s specific needs
• Enables employees to keep pace with changes within the division

BENEFITS OF THE PIT TEAM (CONTINUED)
• Prepares employees for possible job advancements
• Prepares the department for succession planning
• Mitigates risk by protecting department, management and supervision
from the threat of a lawsuit

BENEFITS OF THE PIT TEAM (CONTINUED)
• ENGAGES EMPLOYEES
• Engages workers and gives them organizational buy-in
• An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and
enthusiastic about, his or her work
• Highly engaged workers are, on average, three times more productive
than disengaged workers

FINAL THOUGHTS…
• Employee training and development takes time, effort and commitment
from organizations.
• Training and development also offers a significant return on investment for
organizations.
• Succession planning is a critical component of employee training and
development.

“We put good people in big jobs before they are
ready.”
Pepsico

ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Alabama Department of Labor
Commissioner Fitzgerald Washington
Thank you for your time.