Hiring & Talent Continuity
Succession Planning
Identify risks in critical roles, assess readiness, and plan development so your organization keeps continuity.
Standard version
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This course builds practical capability in continuity planning for critical roles. Participants learn to identify role risks, assess readiness, and plan development, then plan how to use those skills at work.
What you'll learn
- Explore succession planning and its role in organizational continuity and stability
- Apply strategies for developing and retaining talent through succession planning initiatives
- Develop frameworks for creating actionable succession plans tailored to organizational needs
- Use course methods to identify role risks, assess readiness, and plan development in a workplace scenario.
- Develop a succession planning worksheet aligned to a relevant work need.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify a workplace need connected to continuity planning for critical roles.
- Select an appropriate way to identify role risks, assess readiness, and plan development.
- Explain the reasoning behind that choice and identify its limitations.
- Produce a succession planning worksheet that addresses a relevant work need.
- Set review points for a succession planning worksheet and identify one adjustment.
Retirements, turnover, and shifting priorities make continuity planning essential to sustaining an agency's mission. This course gives federal leaders a practical approach to identifying mission-critical roles, assessing readiness, and building development plans for future leaders. It supports OPM's emphasis on workforce and succession planning, with every step grounded in fair, transparent practices.
What you'll learn
- Explain the role of succession planning in mission continuity and workforce stability.
- Identify mission-critical positions and the competencies they require.
- Assess workforce risks, including retirement eligibility, turnover, and skill gaps.
- Apply fair, consistent criteria to development and selection decisions.
- Develop a succession plan with development actions for high-potential employees.
What you'll be able to do
- Map mission-critical roles and current bench strength in their area.
- Identify potential successors using fair, transparent criteria.
- Plan targeted development, such as details, stretch assignments, and coaching.
- Partner effectively with HR on workforce and succession planning.
- Create a 6- to 12-month action plan to strengthen leadership continuity.