News | METRANS Research Highlights Holistic Approach to Succession Planning at Caltrans

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METRANS Research Highlights Holistic Approach to Succession Planning at Caltrans

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

by METRANS Staff

The METRANS Transportation Consortium is excited to announce the publication of new a research report authored by Drs. Tom O’Brien and Tyler Reeb. Over the past year, the research team at the Center for International Trade & Transportation (CITT) collaborated with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to evaluate and discuss the progress and setbacks the state DOT has encountered in the implementation of its agency-wide succession plan.

Succession planning is typically thought of as a top-down program that seeks to prepare the next generation of executive leadership. Future leadership is mentored or provided with technical instruction to ensure that the agency’s management and operations proceed fluidly from one generation of executives to the next. Yet, in targeted interviews with Caltrans employees and representatives from other state DOTs, CITT researchers found that succession planning and knowledge management concerns a Caltrans employee at every phase in their career – from entry-level new hires to senior executives. Succession planning should not only ensure that more senior leadership relays important institutional knowledge, but that the next generation of leadership is developed from day one. As a state DOT peer exchange participant described it, the knowledge that employees possess and develop over the length of a career is as important to a DOT as the physical infrastructure in its inventory. This applies to the agency’s workforce as a whole, including department leads, technical specialists, and human resources staff who may never take up a formal executive leadership role.

Succession planning programs are critical for state DOT success and the ability of a state DOT to recruit retain, upskill, and train its workforce, though the implementation of such programs remains a challenge from DOTs across the country. The research concludes with the recommendation of three pilot programs that would promote this more holistic, institutional approach to succession planning. Additionally, CITT researchers recommended the development of measurement and tracking methodologies to make it possible to longitudinally track succession planning outcomes over a five- and ten-year period. Using longitudinal analysis, Caltrans could develop a return-on-investment (ROI) model to help leadership gauge the efficacy of investments in succession planning.

The CITT research team would like to thank the peer exchange participants from Caltrans, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), and Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). The CITT research team would also like to thank CITT Project Manager James Reuter for his many contributions to the research process and the composition of draft materials for the project’s final report.

Click here to read the project report.