Succession Planning in Public Health: Addressing Continuity, Costs, and Compliance

Addressing continuity, costs, and compliance offers a proactive approach to the long-term benefits of succession planning. An organization's success and sustainability are dependent on leadership continuity. Continuity affects costs related to turnover, as well as accreditation compliance. The voluntary or involuntary separation of a key leader may leave an organization without the ability to capture and transfer critical knowledge to a successor. Mitigating risk associated with the departure of key leaders may be done by developing a formal plan for succession. The identification of key leaders and key leader competencies, development of a leadership pipeline, capture and transfer of key knowledge, and measuring, monitoring, and evaluating metrics are necessary in order to develop an effective succession plan and maintain operational stability.