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ResourceDevelopmentGroup, Inc.

Creating Effective Organizations Through People

CREATING A SUSTAINABLE ORGANIZATION THROUGH WORKFORCEDEVELOPMENT AT COBB COUNTY-MARIETTA WATER AUTHORITY
By

gic plan so that they will remain a sustainable andviable utility.

Glenn Page, General Manager
Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority

The threat of critical workforce related trends is very
real. Consider the following forecasts:

Richard Gerstberger, President
TAP Resource Development Group, Inc.

Serving one of Atlanta’s largest suburbs,

Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA)
has a big job. And with a core purpose “to provide
sustainable and reliable drinking water that supports
public health, public safety and the economic vitality of the region,” CCMWA has established equallylarge expectations of themselves.
As with any organization in today’s changing environment, CCMWA needs to have a view toward thefuture, which can seem overwhelming while running a complex business day-to-day. In creating
their Strategic Plan and 9 Strategic Initiatives,
CCMWA realized that having a well-trained, engaged, and prepared workforce is the most crucialcomponent to upholding their values and vision for
the future.

•Over 30% of the current workforce in the water
utility industry will retire before 2020.

•Directors, managers and supervisors make up thelargest percentage of those departures.

•The competition for qualified employees is increasing, making the organization vulnerable tolosing staff to other government agencies andprivate companies.

•Many water agencies have not documented theirprocesses in ways that capture instructional
knowledge and facilitate fast on-boarding, leaving them vulnerable to ineffective employees
and unexpected separations.

To continue its stewardship as the second largest
supplier of safe drinking water in Georgia, CCMWA
reached out to TAP Resource Development Groupfor a comprehensive workforce development plan.
Over the last 20 years, TAP Resource has worked
with many managers in a number of public works,
utility, and other local government organizations.
With over 250 organizations as customers, theycame to the table with a clear Workforce Development plan that aligned with CCMWA’s needs andStrategic Plan.
CCMWA General Manager Glenn Page stated,“I have been aware of TAP Resource’s work in thewater industry for a couple of decades, and was convinced that their expertise could effectively assist us
in developing and executing a detailed plan to meet
our workforce development goals.”

While always important, Workforce Development(attract, develop and retain top talent), became apriority in the face of a wave of imminent retirements. CCMWA needed to take action to ensure adepth of knowledge and commitment to the strate-

The Workforce Development goal would revolve1

around the initiative of making CCMWA “an employer of choice,” appealing to the best and brightest in the industry, and providing CCMWA’s employees with a rewarding career full of opportunityand professional growth.

gram.
5. Identify and remove barriers to effective succession planning.
6. Implement a management system to ensure
success of the succession planning process.

An effective Succession Plan created the foundation
for CCMWA to identify the positions, skills, andnumbers needed for the organization to accomplish
its Core Purpose, Initiatives and Goals within thecontext of the Values identified in the StrategicPlan.

Succession planning at CCMWA consideredknowledge- and skill-based requirements, as well as
leadership and management needs. In both cases,
succession planning was founded on a risk management approach. CCMWA began with an assessmentof the current workforce situation, as outlined below.

There were three Strategic Goals identified:•Develop a highly competent, committed andsupported workforce•

Improve employee engagement and morale•

Improve workforce diversity

ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENTThe Organizational Assessment phase looked atworkforce outflows (from retirements and other departures) that create the need for new employees,
plus staffing demands created by growth and otherchanges. The successful creation of an effective succession plan is dependent on having a firm understanding of the organization and its purpose, culture
and degree of alignment. For this reason, an organizational assessment is critical to successful succession planning. This type of analysis accomplishedthe following:

CCMWA’s Workforce Development Plan was primarily designed to address the first of the three
Strategic Goals by including: Succession Planning,
Knowledge Management, Leadership Development,and Organizational Change. And because development initiatives within an organization are interrelated, accomplishing the Action Items in the first
Goal have an impact on the subsequent goals.

•Involved a large part of the organization in understanding the organization and its current situation.

•Enabled the leadership team to get below symptoms and identify core issues.

•

Identified strengths and barriers to successful
implementation of the succession planning process.

•Encouraged clarity of strategic focus throughout
the organization.

SUCCESSION MANAGEMENT
Comprehensive succession planning involved aligning leadership with the organization for which theleader is responsible. Leadership and management
positions need to be filled based on talent, fit with
the needs of the position and be based on how theorganization provides for the needs of its customers.
For that reason, a six-step process that involves theentire organization was used for effective succession planning:
1. Understand the organization.

Through the assessment process, the leadership teamgained an understanding of the organization’s focus,culture, leadership, the alignment of culture andleadership with the organization’s purpose, and thelevel of integration among elements of culture andleadership.

2. Analyze risk with a focus on mission criticalpositions.
3. Develop competency models for the affectedpositions.

At CCMWA, action plans were then developed andimplemented based on the needs identified. The result is the development and implementation of a

4. Create an integrated and individualized leadership and supervisory development pro2

comprehensive training plan covering bothknowledge and leadership aspects of the organization. This two-pronged approach will provide a sustainable workforce into the future.

2. Leadership Training. A training program wasestablished to train members of the leadership teamon the important elements of leadership in a utility
type organization. The program covered the following topics:

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
A consistent concern for CCMWA was the loss ofknowledge from retiring staff members with extensive system knowledge. Concerns identified included the difficulty in capturing employee knowledge,
especially for hands-on positions such as pump
maintenance technicians, electricians, operators,etc. This tacit knowledge (also viewed as experience, wisdom, and even art) is developed over alifetime of service. For example, only experiencecan provide the ability to tell by the sound of apump that it needs service, or that changing a setting will impact numerous other processes. Tacit
knowledge is the most challenging to capture.
There are a range of approaches to capturing tacitknowledge. One method used at CCMWA is todocument information in tools such as Standard Operating Procedures, Geographical Information Systems, and computerized asset management programs. Capture of tacit knowledge, however, often
depends on person-to-person exchange, with anability to hear, observe and experience theknowledge—and a willingness of the experienced
employee to share the knowledge.

•Leadership fundamentals and characteristics in autility organization.

•The Organization’s strategic focus and why it isimportant.

•

The four core leadership practices and their relationship to culture and strategy.

•

The importance of balanced leadership.

•

Basics of organizational performance and key
results areas.

•Integration of leadership and performance management.

•

The importance of individual leadership development.

3. Leader Assessment. A 360-degree nonjudgmental assessment system was used to provide
comprehensive information about a manager’s viewof his or her leadership attributes, along with theviews of their peers, direct reports, and supervisor.
This information, along with CCMWA’s strategicplan and the competency maps, established the foundation for the creation of individual leadership development plans for each manager.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND
SUPERVISOR TRAINING
Training in leadership and supervision should bepart of an organization’s workforce development
program and cover the essential skills andknowledge for employees to understand the important aspects of leadership and supervision.

4. Create Individual Leadership Development
Plans. Each leadership team manager created a leadership development plan that focused on his or her
particular training needs as identified in the 360 assessment process described above. Each plan wasreviewed by the manager’s supervisor and integrated
into the organization’s performance management
system to track plan completion.
oTAP Resource provided a comprehensive leadership development program including the following
steps:
1. Leadership Competency Mapping. An assessment instrument and job descriptions were used todetermine the various attributes (behaviors) of leadership that are important to the organization, including the appropriate ranges for each of 22 attributes
for each position. With this information a Competency Map was created for each leadership position.

TAP Resource also recommended follow-up sessions to CCMWA’s current supervisor training program to introduce more advanced concepts andthemes and to provide participants with the opportunity to share success stories, and bring issues forward for discussion.
3

supervisor training programs were developed andimplemented.

Topics discussed during this highly interactive fourday session include:
•••••
•
•

The overall plan should be updated at least every
couple of years. CCMWA can effectively accomplish this by including succession planning within anoverall Organizational Performance Management
System of measurable goal setting and planned follow-up.

Role and responsibilities of supervisors
Practices used by effective supervisors
Knowledge of self
Creating a high-performing team
Situational leadership
Leadership styles
Understanding organizational culture

Call us at (303) 561-3788
email us at info@tapresource.com orvisit us online at tapresource.com
to make your organization more effective.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENTCCMWA has created a very comprehensive workforce development plan. To be effective, this typeof program must be a living document; not one thatis created and then sits on a self in someone’s office. In this case, implementation or development
plans were created for each activity, including succession planning, knowledge management, leadership development and supervisor training. They include specific, measurable timeframes and are being monitored on a frequent basis, either monthly orquarterly. Implementation plans include goals, action items and metric or timeframes. CCMWA established an organization-wide tracking, monitoring
and celebration system to ensure that goals are accomplished in an effective and timely manner.
SUMMARY
The foundation of workforce development is an effective Succession Plan: a systematic process that
supports organizational stability and sustainability
by minimizing disruptions to an organization’s dayto-day operations. In addition to a succession plan,
effective workforce development includes several
organizational action items. TAP Resource workedwith CCMWA to recognize their vulnerabilities,
develop a customized plan, and create a sustainableimplementation and management process.
CCMWA’s overall workforce development program has provided the organization with a comprehensive knowledge management and SOP program.
In addition, the succession planning program identified 8 ‘critical to mission’ and 5 “important to mission” skill-based positions that need immediate attention. As a result, a succession planning format
was developed and implemented for three sample
positions. In addition, leadership development and4