Many federal agencies have yet to adopt succession planning and management initiatives. In 1997, the National Academy of Public Administration reported that of the 27 agencies responding to its survey, 2 agencies had a succession planning program or process in place; 2 agencies were planning to have one in the coming year; and 4 agencies were planning one in the next 2 years. In 1999, a joint OPM and Senior Executive Association survey reported that more than 50 percent of all career members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) said that their agencies did not have a formal succession planning program for the SES, and almost 75 percent said that their agencies did not have such a program for managers. Of those who reported that their agencies did have succession planning programs for either executives or managers, 54 percent of the career senior executives said that they had not participated in the executive-level programs and 65 percent said they had not participated at the manager level. On the basis of this survey and anecdotal evidence, OPM officials told us in 2000 that they found that most agencies would not likely have a formal, comprehensive succession plan. Further, we have reported that a lack of succession planning has contributed to two specific human capital challenges currently facing the federal government. The first challenge is the large percentage of career senior executives who will reach regular retirement eligibility over the next several years. In 2000, we reported that 71 percent of the SES members employed as of October 1998 would reach regular retirement eligibility by the end of fiscal year 2005. More recently, we estimated that more than half of the SES members in federal service as of October 2000 will have left the government by October 2007. We concluded that without careful planning, these separations pose the threat of an eventual loss in institutional knowledge, expertise, and leadership continuity. The second challenge facing federal agencies impacted by a lack of succession planning is the amount of diversity in their executive and managerial ranks. As the demographics of the public served by the federal government change, a diverse executive corps can provide agencies with an increasingly important organizational advantage that can help them to achieve results. We have reported that, as of 2000, minority men and women made up about 14 percent of the career SES. If current promotion and hiring trends continue, the proportions of minority men and women among senior executives will likely remain virtually unchanged over the next 4 years. The literature shows that public and private sector organizations use a range of approaches when planning for, and managing, succession-related challenges. These approaches span a continuum from the “replacement” approach, which focuses on identifying particular individuals as possible successors for specific top ranking positions, to the “integrated” succession planning and management approach. Under the integrated approach, succession planning and management is a strategic, systematic effort that works to ensure a suitable supply of potential successors for a variety of leadership and other key positions. These two approaches essentially reflect a shift in emphasis of succession planning from a risk management tool, focused on the near-term, operational need to ensure backup people are identified in case a top position becomes vacant, to a strategic planning tool, which identifies and develops high-potential individuals with the aim of filling leadership and other key roles in the future. GAO, similar to other federal agencies, faces an array of succession planning challenges. The succession planning and management approach we are using to respond to our internal challenges is consistent with the practices we identified in other countries. To manage the succession of their executives and other key employees, agencies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom are implementing succession planning and management practices that work to protect and enhance organizational capacity. Collectively, these agencies’ succession planning and management initiatives receive active support of top leadership; link to strategic planning; identify talent from multiple organizational levels, early in careers, or with critical skills; emphasize developmental assignments in addition to formal training; address specific human capital challenges, such as diversity, leadership capacity, and retention; and facilitate broader transformation efforts. Effective succession planning and management programs have the support and commitment of their organizations’ top leadership. Our past work has shown that the demonstrated commitment of top leaders is perhaps the single most important element of successful management. In other governments and agencies, to demonstrate its support of succession planning and management, top leadership (1) actively participates in the initiatives, (2) regularly uses these programs to develop, place, and promote individuals, and (3) ensures that these programs receive sufficient financial and staff resources, and are maintained over time. For example, each year, the Secretary of the Cabinet, Ontario Public Service’s (OPS) top civil servant, convenes and actively participates in an annual 2-day succession planning and management retreat with the heads of every government ministry. At this retreat, they discuss the anticipated leadership needs across the government as well as the individual status of about 200 high-potential executives who may be able to meet those needs over the next year or two. Similarly, in New Zealand, the State Services Commissioner—an official whose wide-ranging human capital responsibilities include the appointment and review of public service chief executives—developed, with the assistance of a group of six agency chief executives who met regularly over a period of 2 years, a new governmentwide senior leadership and management development initiative. This effort culminated in the July 2003 roll out of the Executive Leadership Programme and the creation of a new central Leadership Development Centre. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) senior executive committee regularly uses the agency’s succession planning and management programs when making decisions to develop, place, and promote its top 500-600 employees, both officers and civilians. RCMP’s executive committee, consisting of the agency’s chief executive, the chief human capital officer, and six other top officials, meets quarterly to discuss the organization’s succession needs and to make the specific decisions concerning individual staff necessary to address those needs. In 2001-2002, this process resulted in 72 promotions and 220 lateral transfers. Top leaders also demonstrate support by ensuring that their agency’s or government’s succession planning and management initiatives receive sufficient funding and staff resources necessary to operate effectively and are maintained over time. Such commitment is critical since these initiatives can be expensive because of the emphasis they place on participant development. For example, a senior human capital manager told us that the Chief Executive of the Family Court of Australia (FCA) pledged to earmark funds when he established a multiyear succession planning and management program in 2002 despite predictions of possible budget cuts facing FCA. Although human capital training and development programs are sometimes among the first programs to be cut back during periods of retrenchment, FCA’s Chief Executive has repeatedly stated to both internal and external stakeholders that this will not happen. Similarly, at Statistics Canada—the Canadian federal government’s central statistics agency—the Chief Statistician of Canada has set aside a percentage, in this case over 3 percent, of the total agency budget to training and development, thus making resources available for the operation of the agency’s four leadership and management development programs. According to a human capital official, this strong support has enabled the level of funding to remain fairly consistent over the past 10 years. Finally, the government of New Zealand has committed NZ$19.6 million (about U.S.$11.2 million in July 2003) over four years, representing both central government and agency contributions, for the implementation of its new governmentwide senior leadership and management development strategy. Leading organizations use succession planning and management as a strategic planning tool that focuses on current and future needs and develops pools of high-potential staff in order to meet the organization’s mission over the long term. That is, succession planning and management is used to help the organization become what it needs to be, rather than simply to recreate the existing organization. We have previously reported on the importance of linking succession planning and management with the forward-looking process of strategic and program planning.In Canada, succession planning and management initiatives focus on long-term goals, are closely integrated with their strategic plans, and provide a broader perspective. For example, at Statistics Canada, committees composed of line and senior managers and human capital specialists consider the human capital required to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. During the 2001 strategic planning process, the agency’s planning committees received projections showing that a majority of the senior executives then in place would retire by 2010, and the number of qualified assistant directors in the executive development pool was insufficient to replace them. In response, the agency increased the size of the pool and introduced a development program of training, rotation, and mentoring to expedite the development of those already in the pool. According to a Statistics Canada human capital official, these actions, linked with the agency’s strategic planning process, have helped to ensure that an adequate number of assistant directors will be sufficiently prepared to succeed departing senior executives. In Ontario, succession planning and management has been a required component of the government’s human capital planning framework since 1997. OPS requires that the head of each ministry develop a succession plan that (1) anticipates the ministry’s needs over the next couple of years, (2) establishes a process to identify a pool of high-potential senior managers, and (3) links the selection of possible successors to both ministry and governmentwide opportunities and business plans. These plans, which are updated annually at the deputy ministers retreat, form the basis for Ontario’s governmentwide succession planning and management process. While OPS has not conducted a formal evaluation of the impact of this process, a senior human capital official told us that succession planning and management has received a much greater level of attention from top leadership and now plays a critical role in OPS’ broader planning and staffing efforts. For RCMP, succession planning and management is an integral part of the agency’s multiyear human capital plan and directly supports its strategic needs, and it also uses this process to provide top leadership with an agencywide perspective.