Planning for the Future
of Your Organization

As regional councils take on more programs and offer more services throughout their areas, they will be faced with the challenges of an evolving work force. The changing dynamics include an aging workforce ready to retire, colliding with a younger talent pool seeking large salaries and benefits. As a result, councils will be forced to creatively meet the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff in order to assure that program goals and objectives are met.

Building Your Team
Many regional councils in rural areas experience obstacles to recruiting new staff that are unknown to their urban counterparts. These include lower salaries in rural areas, fewer housing options, distance and isolation from cultural or social service sources, and fewer opportunities for advancement.

Time honored recruitment tactics abound. Paying for moving costs, up to a certain amount for new employees, in return for a commitment to work a specified time frame or else pay back the moving incentive in full, works for some. Lanier Boatwright, Executive Director of McIntosh Trail RDC, an EDA funded district in Georgia, finds this to be an effective strategy. “When we found a planner that we wanted to hire, we offered to pay for his moving expenses in return for a three year commitment. It turned out to be a bargain for us because he is still with us after several years.”

As competition for stellar employees in rural areas increases, innovative ways to recruit staff are becoming very critical. Through Employee-Assisted Housing (EAH) programs, new employees are offered low interest loans for mortgage down payments. While a 2000 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that only six percent of employers offered mortgage assistance and three percent provided down payment help, it appears this tactic is catching on as employers across the country embrace it as a recruitment tool.

21 percent of public administration employers offered phased-retirement according to a study by Watson Wyatt

Marketing open positions solely on the Web and only on sites of interest to a particular profession, such as posting a planning director job on websites such as the American Planning Association and the National Association of Development Organizations, has also proven to be successful.

Keeping Your Team
People who are good at what they do, especially those working in rural areas, are often the target of a major recruiting campaign from similar organizations. As the recruitment game becomes even more competitive, it will be increasingly important for employers to create ways to keep employees.

EAH programs were originally designed for existing staff as opposed to being a tool to recruit new employees. Low interest loans within a specified time frame – typically up to five years – are useful in retaining staff. Phased retirement programs are starting around the country – they are aimed at soon-to-be or current retirees who want to work but in a flexible setting. The Society for Human Resource Managers reports that the leading options for phased retirement plans are: part-time hours, projects or special assignments, temporary or consultant basis, telecommuting or job sharing.

Passing the Torch: Transitioning Executive Leadership
Succession planning is another piece of the organizational management puzzle, as leaders seek to identify and mentor future leaders of their organizations who can maintain the organization’s goals and realize its vision. Succession planning focuses on the long term, strategic needs of the organization. Future leaders need to be cultivated based upon the organization’s future oriented direction.

Ideally, an organization will create and follow a plan for executive succession that is tied to the strategic plan. The plan will be unique to the organization as there is no “cookie cutter” approach to succession planning. As with any strategic planning effort, the plan must be accepted, supported and driven by top management and the board, and all involved must be held accountable to ensure ultimate success.

A 2000 NADO survey of 260 regional councils found that almost 50 percent of the 179 respondents reported their executive directors planned to retire within 10 years. Many will be faced with planning the transition from their leadership to their successors.

Basic Steps to Create a Succession Plan
Establish a transition team responsible for recruiting and selecting the new executive director. A transition team might include the chair of the board, a few representatives of partner organizations, and sometimes an outside consultant – typically someone from an executive search firm.

Determine the roles of the transition team and clearly share those with the departing executive director. Decide the level of involvement expected from the departing executive.

Assess the organization and its leadership to determine what skills set the succeeding executive director should possess to help realize the organization’s mission and goals. Prepare (or revise an existing one) a position description for the executive director that reflects these values and objectives.

Establish a search strategy and consider various scenarios: Will the new director be from inside or outside the organization? Will the departing director mentor or train the replacement over a specified time frame? When should the new director be hired? When is the departing director planning to leave? How much is the organization willing to spend to recruit the new director?

Decide on the compensation package, including relocation reimbursement and benefits.

Establish a communications plan for staff, board and other key players to keep them apprised as decisions are made and the transition process continues.

Assess the staff to determine their concerns and solicit their suggestions. Open lines of communication will help achieve their support throughout the transitional phase.

Embrace change as positive for the organization. Plan an appropriate farewell for the departing executive, and allow time for the new director to learn the organization and begin to shape his or her legacy.

Succession planning should be: Customized to the organization; driven by top management; focused on the organization’s future strategies; considerate of the organization’s culture; focused on building a leadership team.

For More Information Contact: Lanier Boatwright, McIntosh Trail RDC, 777/227-6300; lboatwright@griffinpower.org

Editor’s Note: The EDA Philadelphia Regional Office and the NADO Research Foundation are offering a workshop on Managing Change at the Top: Planning for Transition in Executive Leadership, February 26-28 in Providence, Rhode Island and March 12-14 in Baltimore, Maryland. Regional development organizations in the region and throughout the US are invited. See the calendar on the back page for hotel information. Contact Laurie Thompson at 202/624-5948 or email lthompson@nado.org for more information.

Resources: Society for Human Resource Managers, 1800 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314; 703/548- 3440; www.shrm.org HR hub.com - The HR Hub.com Newsletter is a FREE e-mail newsletter written by the editors and staff of HR Hub.com to bring you the latest news, product information, and special announcements to keep you up to date with your professional community. humanresources.about.com - Human resources link to HR resources for companies of any size. Find federal regulations, tips, how-to guides, and trends. successionplanning.com - Check out 6 key lessons learned from the succession planning process. Provides links to tools such as a succession planning flowchart.

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