10 Steps to Succession Planning.

• Position: 10 STEPS

Succession planning has gotten even more challenging in recent years, given a changing job market, shorter employee tenure, and COVID-19job turnover--which means that governments should make it an even higher priority. GFOA's 10 steps to succession planning will help your organization retain key talent and find skilled employees to replace staff members who move on.

1 Develop an integrated approach. Organizations that don't rely on a "just-in-time" approach have higher retention rates, better employee morale, and an environment that stimulates innovation and organizational change.

2 Continually assess potential employee turnover. Making career planning discussions a part of a regular and ongoing performance review process helps in assessing potential turnover.

3 Provide a formal, written succession plan as a framework. Without a formal plan, workforce and succession planning tends to be haphazard.

4 Develop written policies and procedures to encourage knowledge transfer. Have written procedures that formalize the knowledge transfer, including a meeting with departing staff to document job responsibilities.

5 Develop leadership skills as a key component. The organization benefits from developing a leadership pool for other positions.

6 Encourage personal professional development activities. The organization will benefit over the long term by...