Posthearing Questions Related to Succession Planning and	 
Management (14-NOV-03, GAO-04-270R).				 
                                                                 
The Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency	 
Organization, House Committee on Government Reform, requested	 
that GAO respond to follow-up questions subsequent to a hearing  
on "Human Capital Succession Planning." 			 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-04-270R					        
    ACCNO:   A08891						        
  TITLE:     Posthearing Questions Related to Succession Planning and 
Management							 
     DATE:   11/14/2003 
  SUBJECT:   Employee incentives				 
	     Federal employees					 
	     Foreign governments				 
	     Personnel management				 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Labor force					 
	     Hiring policies					 
	     Employee retention 				 
	     Human capital					 
	     Canada						 
	     United Kingdom					 

******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a  **
** GAO Product.                                                 **
**                                                              **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced.  Tables are included, but    **
** may not resemble those in the printed version.               **
**                                                              **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when     **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed     **
** document's contents.                                         **
**                                                              **
******************************************************************
GAO-04-270R

United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548

November 14, 2003

The Honorable Jo Ann Davis
Chairwoman
Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization
Committee on Government Reform
House of Representatives

Subject: Posthearing Questions Related to Succession Planning and
Management

Dear Madam Chairwoman:

On October 1, I testified before your Subcommittee at a hearing entitled
"Human Capital Succession Planning: How the Federal Government Can Get a
Workforce to Achieve Results."1 This letter responds to your request that
I provide answers to follow-up questions from the hearing. Your questions,
along with my responses, follow.

1. The GAO report discusses how agencies in other countries have used
succession planning to address specific human capital challenges. What are
some of these challenges and how have agencies abroad used their
succession planning and management initiatives to meet them?

We reported that government agencies around the world are using succession
planning and management to achieve a more diverse workforce, maintain
their leadership capacity as senior executives retire, and increase the
retention of highpotential staff.2 Leading organizations recognize that
diversity can be an organizational strength that contributes to achieving
results. For example, the United Kingdom's Cabinet Office created
Pathways, a 2-year program that identifies and develops senior managers
from ethnic minorities who have the potential to reach the Senior Civil
Service within 3 to 5 years. In addition, Canada uses its Accelerated
Executive Development Program as a tool to help achieve a governmentwide
diversity target. Specifically, the government has set a goal that by
2003, certain minorities will represent 20 percent of participants in all
management development programs.

Succession planning and management can help agencies maintain leadership
capacity. Both at home and abroad, a large percentage of senior executives
will be

1 U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Succession Planning and
Management Is Critical Driver of Organizational Transformation,
GAO-04-127T (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 1, 2003). 2 U.S. General Accounting
Office, Human Capital: Insights for U.S. Agencies from Other Countries'
Succession Planning and Management Initiatives, GAO-03-914 (Washington,
D.C.: Sept. 15, 2003).

                 GAO-04-270R Succession Planning and Management

eligible to retire over the next several years. In the United States, we
reported that the federal government faces an estimated loss of more than
half of the career Senior Executive Service by October 2007.3 Canada is
also using its Accelerated Executive Development Program to address
impending retirements of assistant deputy ministers-one of the most senior
executive-level positions in its civil service. For example, 76 percent of
this group is over 50 and approximately 75 percent are eligible to retire
between now and 2008.

To increase retention of high-potential staff, Canada's Office of the
Auditor General uses succession planning and management. According to a
senior human capital official, to provide an incentive for high-potential
employees to stay with the organization, the office provided them
comprehensive developmental opportunities in order to raise the "exit
price" that competing employers would need to offer to lure them away.

2. Can you highlight some of the ways in which other countries have used
succession planning and management to facilitate broader agency and
government transformation efforts?

Effective succession planning and management initiatives provide a
potentially powerful tool for fostering broader governmentwide or
agencywide transformation by selecting and developing leaders and managers
who support and champion change. For example, in 1999, the United Kingdom
launched a wide-ranging reform program known as Modernising Government to
improve government services, and subsequently started restructuring the
content of its leadership and management development programs to reflect
this new emphasis on service delivery. Similarly, the Family Court of
Australia's Leadership, Excellence, Achievement, Progression program is
preparing future leaders who could help the organization successfully
adapt to recent changes in how it delivers services. Specifically, the
court considers this increased emphasis on the needs of external
stakeholders when selecting and developing program participants.

3. Succession planning is sometimes thought of as simply a human capital
issue, yet I noted in your report that some organizations have used it as
a way to work past organizational boundaries and other barriers. Could you
describe in greater detail some of the examples you have found in this
regard?

Succession planning and management can help the organization become what
it needs to be, rather than simply recreating the existing organization.
In Canada, succession planning and management initiatives provide this
broader perspective. Since 1997, as the basis for Ontario's governmentwide
succession planning and management process, the head of each ministry is
to develop a succession plan that (1) anticipates the ministry's needs
over the next couple of years, (2) establishes a process to identify a
pool of high-potential senior managers, and (3) links the selection of
possible successors to both ministry and governmentwide opportunities and
business plans. Similarly, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's succession
planning and management system provides it with an organizationwide
picture of

3 U.S. General Accounting Office, Senior Executive Service: Enhanced
Agency Efforts Needed to Improve Diversity as the Senior Corps Turns Over,
GAO-03-34 (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 17, 2003).

Page 2

GAO-04-270R Succession Planning and Management

current and developing leadership capacity across the organization's many
functional and geographic lines. It is responsible for a wide range of
police functions on the federal, provincial, and local levels and provides
services in 10 provinces and three territories.

4. We often hear about the importance of top leadership commitment to
implementing management improvement initiatives. Can you describe some of
the specific ways agency leaders demonstrated their commitment to
succession planning and management initiatives in the agencies you
studied?

In other governments and agencies, top leadership demonstrates its support
of succession planning and management when it actively participates in
these initiatives. For example, each year the Secretary of the Cabinet,
Ontario's top civil servant, convenes and actively participates in a 2-day
succession planning and management retreat with the heads of every
government ministry to discuss the anticipated leadership needs across the
government as well as the individual status of about 200 high-potential
executives who may be able to meet those needs.

Top leadership also demonstrates its support of succession planning and
management when it regularly uses these programs to develop, place, and
promote individuals. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police's senior executive
committee regularly uses the agency's succession planning and management
programs when making such decisions of its top 500-600 officer and
civilian employees.

Lastly, top leaders demonstrate support by ensuring that their agencies'
succession planning and management initiatives receive sufficient funding
and staff resources necessary to operate effectively and are maintained
over time. For example, at Statistics Canada-the Canadian federal
government's central statistics agency-the Chief Statistician of Canada
has set aside a percentage, in this case over 3 percent, of the total
agency budget for training and development, thus making resources
available for the operation of the agency's four leadership and management
development programs.

                                  _ _ _ _ _ _

For additional information on our work on federal agency transformation
efforts and strategic human capital management, please contact me on (202)
512-6806 or at [email protected].

Sincerely yours,

J. Christopher Mihm Director, Strategic Issues

(450282)

Page 3

GAO-04-270R Succession Planning and Management
*** End of document. ***