Succession Planning in Homeland Security - How Can We Ensure the Effective Transfer of Knowledge to a New Generation of Employees

摘要

In the past five years, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has seen the mass retirements of tenured, experienced personnel and the hiring of new generations. Because a large percentage of the department is currently eligible for retirement, this trend will continue over the next five to seven years. The drain of experience and knowledge will directly affect the operational capabilities of the department, as well as our nation's homeland security. Through the use of case studies, the research will examine how the LAFD can maximize institutional memory, and transfer this knowledge to a new generation of employees. The practical significance of this project is to: (1) identify the challenges of current succession planning of the LAFD; (2) identify solutions to these challenges through evaluating precedent cases; and (3) develop a conceptual and tailored succession planning guide based on identified solutions. In today's world, the workforce is an organization's most important asset, often differentiating highly successful agencies from that struggle. By developing a succession planning guide that focuses on assessment, development, identification and selection, organizations can align its goals with its human capital needs and ensure it can keep pace with the complexities in homeland security.