As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age, corporations and public agencies around the nation have acknowledged the need to develop a succession plan strategy to prepare for future leadership needs. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in San Jose, Calif., is proactively getting ahead of the inevitable exodus and has launched the first succession plan pilot program, already in its last month of implementation.
VTA General Manager Michael T. Burns focused on the development of future transportation leaders when an extensive, organization-wide study brought to light the critical needs of the authority. “We were in the foreseeable position that if we did not move from the acknowledgement phase to an implementation phase, VTA would quickly fall behind in developing potential future leaders within our organization. We could not afford to experience this lapse in leadership,” said Burns. He enlisted the support of the executive team members to ensure that the program would remain a high priority despite competing organizational demands.
With the support of Administrative Services Executive Management, the Succession Plan Task Force was created to develop a pilot program that would prepare staff to compete for these upcoming positions by creating a talent pipeline for the organization. Important elements to developing the program ranged from benchmarking other public agencies’ efforts at succession planning, selecting target classifications, developing competencies and designing a leadership curriculum.
Rather than the traditional approach of identifying potential successors and focusing a training plan for those individuals, the Succession Plan Task Force pursued a Leadership Academy model with a focus on development rather than selection. VTA’s Information Technology Department was selected as the target division for the pilot program and a leadership curriculum was designed and developed for the Information Systems Supervisor classification.
A critical aspect of the program was that it was made available to all employees across the agency. The enrollment process was structured to extend leadership development opportunities to all eligible staff, based on a standardized selection process. This lent credibility to and garnered support for the program among VTA’s bargaining units.
The 12-month pilot program was launched in September 2012. One engineering employee and nine IT employees were selected for the voluntary program to be trained on competencies such as: analytical thinking, conflict resolution, customer focus, oral and written communications, project management, and team building.
Participants spent approximately 110 hours in 20 unique courses that were a combination of instructor-led classes, coaching sessions, workshops and a special lecture series. In addition, there were three self-paced leadership reading assignments and a team project spanning two months.
A combination of internal trainers at about 30 percent of total curriculum time and external trainers at 70 percent of total curriculum time were involved in the program. The Task Force Team consisted of three full-time employees that dedicated only a percentage of their time to the program as follows: two project managers (1 FTE at 50 to 70 percent time; 1 FTE at 25 percent time) and one administrative support person (1 FTE at 25 to 50 percent time).
The biggest challenge to implement and maintain the program was limited staff resources. The Task Force Team consisted of three employees that still had to perform their regularly assigned duties and could not dedicate full time to the pilot program. The other challenge was that the pilot department (Information Technology), which is relatively small already, was not operating at full staff since a team of core members were attending courses and training. Participants were expected to keep VTA’s IT network and needs fully supported while juggling the program demands.
Management and the participants heralded the benefits of the program even before completion. Gary Miskell, VTA’s chief information officer, acknowledged one participant’s ability to resolve a conflict between staff. “The participant handled a potentially troublesome situation in a professional and calm manner. I would not have foreseen this individual to be able to approach this conflict with such skill and effectiveness just a few months earlier, prior to starting the program.”
Participant feedback has also been very positive. Those in the program have indicated that the instructors are enthusiastic and knowledgeable, new skills are being learned, and have even recommended the training to other VTA departments. Manjit Chopra, VTA programmer and pilot program participant, said the following about the program’s oral communications workshop: “I feel great after yesterday’s training. It has surely overcome whatever fears I had in giving presentations and interacting with customers. I am sure that if VTA can find the resources to extend this training to other VTA employees, it will help address their fears, as it did mine, and also help them do their jobs more efficiently.”
Once the initial pilot concludes in the fall of 2013, VTA anticipates implementing the Succession Plan Program agency-wide. In terms of adjustments before an agency-wide rollout, the challenge will be increasing capacity without watering down the quality of the program. It will require fully dedicated, full-time, professionals with the right skill set to implement a succession plan program on a larger scale. Also, to the extent that target classifications change, it will be prudent to determine whether the current competencies and the level of proficiency targeted in the development of the pilot curriculum is a good fit to the new classification(s).
Through this program, VTA expects to increase bench strength by developing staff with leadership potential. Not only will this program help build morale by showing employees that the agency is being proactive in developing skills and providing opportunities for advancement, but it will enable the agency to be more nimble in filling positions quickly with qualified candidates.
Joseph de Gier is a recently retired senior human resource analyst for VTA and Maria Luisa Sanchez Ku is the lead on the Succession Plan Pilot Program. Brandi Childress is VTA’s public information officer.
