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PUBLIC FACILITIES, RECREATION &
SPECIAL EVENTS DEPARTMENT
POLICY NUMBER 1.1
DEPARTMENT SUCCESSION PLAN
3/30/2014
2/12/2021
Section 1 - Administration
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I. PURPOSE
The employees are the most important component of Public Facilities, Recreation & Special Events
departmental functions. Without them, all operations cease and the quality of life will greatly suffer.
Typically, there is unplanned attrition within the organization (resignation, termination) over which
there is little control. Even so, all other attrition is usually known ahead of time, as all employees
are encouraged to work with their immediate supervisors to plan for orderly job transition to ensure
immediate replacement. Proper succession planning is essential to achieving this. It is a process
for identifying and developing internal employees to fill the key leadership roles for the division,
prior to the occurrence of a job transition. By managing ke y employee talent, we will be in a better
position to manage future change from the retirement or vacancy of any key position.
II. PROCEDURE
The Public Facilities, Recreation & Special Events Department’s succession procedure allows for
the immediate replacement of any key individual for either an interim basis that may be caused by
brief periods of absenteeism or for long-term permanent replacement. Utilizing a carefully thought-
out succession plan allows for the division to continue operating efficiently and effectively without
any downtime or extended learning curves when a key position is filled.
Utilizing succession planning allows the department to recruit and retrain superior employees,
develop their skills, knowledge, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement to more
challenging roles and personal growth. In this manner, employees are continually developed to meet
greater responsibilities for the department and in-turn, provide employee commitment and
retention, meet the career expectations of current employees, and minimize the difficulty and
expense of recruiting external employees.
The department’s primary components for succession planning include:
1. Identifying key positions along with those individuals with the potential to assume the
greater responsibility for filling those positions.
2. Providing the needed training and experiences so internal staff will be prepared to fill those
positions when available.
3. Ensuring the support of management to develop these new leaders within the organization.
Utilizing the organization’s chain of command, the key positions are the Director, the Assistant
Director, Deputy Director, division administrators and Park Superintendent. These positions
comprise the leadership that internal staff should develop to potentially assume the next level of
responsibility when one of these top positions is vacated.
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Part of this procedure is to maintain awareness for any individual planning for retirement within the
next five years, especially in one of the key positions. By utilizing the age of the employee and the
years vested in the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS), potential retiring individuals can be
identified and approached:
a. Any key employee that is identified as a potential retiree is asked if they have set a date for their
retirement. All other key individuals shall have a responsibility of letting their direct supervisor
know if they have set plans on leaving permanently or for any duration of t ime.
b. Individuals identified as potentially leaving have a responsibility to train and prepare their next
in command to potentially fill their position.
c. Any individual identified as potentially leaving shall fill out a job analysis questionnaire to help
management determine if any changes or adjustments should be made to the current job
description prior to the replacement of the individual.
Part of the initial determination if the individual can succeed the key person is to ensure all basic
requirements for the key position, such as education and years of experience, are met. If the
minimum requirements can be fulfilled, then the department will take a proactive role in training
the subordinate into becoming the internal candidate to succeed to that key role.
At all times it is the responsibility of management to identify key people that will be leaving and
then working to ensure the next employee that has been identified within the chain of command
structure can be properly trained, taught through shared experience and mentorship, and
professional growth outside of the department to ensure a smooth transition to allow that new
individual to be promoted to the leadership key role currently above them.
This assessment will be accomplished within 30 days start of each fiscal year, as a part of the
annual City of Glendale performance planning process.
It is also the employee seeking promotion to ensure that they maintain proper education, training,
and professional growth to one day enable them to fulfill the next level’s position within the
department should the opportunity due to vacancy present itsel f.
Authorized by: Date: February 23, 2021
James P. Burke, Director