Succession Management Program
It is critical to the success of College of the Mainland (COM) that important knowledge and skills not be lost as key managers retire. Succession planning is an ongoing strategic planning process through which an organization plans for its future human capital needs to ensure that all employees have the skills and competencies to effectively perform their job in order to prepare students to learn, work and live. COM’s Succession Management Plan (SMP) is aimed at promoting a culture of learning and development throughout the college; to communicate the need for a structured developmental process for upper managers; and to provide practical tools to employees.
Purpose, Goals, and Process
Purpose
The purpose of COM’s SMP is to provide a systematic process for assisting employees in preparing for career progression and to ensure that “position ready” candidates are available to fill critical positions as needed to ensure institutional sustainability.
Goals
- To identify a talent pool of employees who are interested in career progression and are willing to develop skills and traits necessary for future opportunities.
- To serve as a talent management tool for the College by developing existing employees.
- To increase employee effectiveness, workplace efficiency, and institutional productivity.
Philosophy
The College of the Mainland Succession Management Plan (COM-SMP) is a person-based plan, i.e. the focus is on developing a pool of talent to be available to fill positions that might become available within the college. Participants in the plan will be asked to identify desired career goals only for the purpose of tailoring his or her Individual Development Plan (IDP) such that the appropriate experiences can be obtained.
The COM-SMP is intended to be broad and flexible in that there is a recognition that the organization will change over time and it may be counterproductive to only prepare individuals for existing positions and not take into consideration that the College of Mainland, like all organizations, is dynamic and that individuals must prepare for jobs of tomorrow rather than those of today. Therefore, through the leadership development program participants are introduced to practices and trends within the community college sector as well as COM operations.
The SMP is for employee and organizational developmental purposes only. It does not grant or convey any rights or benefits to any individual. Furthermore, the plan in no way is intended to impact the hiring process other than to increase the pool of potential qualified applicants when positions in the same manner they would have competed if they were not a member of the plan.