Office of Origin: Human Resources
Responsibility: Executive Director, Human Resources
Original Date Adopted: 5-21-24
Dates Reviewed: 5-21-24
Last Date Board Approved: 5-21-24

Succession planning is a strategy for identifying and developing existing employees to fill potential vacancies in major roles and technical positions at Lake Michigan College (the College). It helps prepare for contingencies and to minimize the disruption to operations when those positions become vacant. It also reinforces the College’s commitment to the growth and professional development of employees.

The Succession Plan includes positions that are key to accomplishing the strategic goals, those requiring substantial organization-specific knowledge to perform successfully, those of a highly technical and/or difficult to recruit nature, and those with a known vacancy coming in the near future.

The Succession Plan requires intentional, ongoing, and collaborative efforts from College leadership, HR, Culture & Talent Success (CTS), and individual employees with a desire for professional development and advancement.

The Succession Planning Committee will consist of Cabinet, the Director of CTS, and the Executive Director of Human Resources (HR) and will meet at least twice a year to review and update the Succession Plan. This committee will also maintain an Emergency Interim Leadership List for positions at the Director level and above based on employee qualifications. HR is responsible for the overall coordination of succession planning and the Emergency Interim Leadership List, as well as for maintaining related documents.

Those employees selected to participate in the Succession Plan are not guaranteed placement into a key leadership or technical position or into a vacancy. In addition, employees selected to participate in the Succession Plan or selected for a vacancy may not follow or have followed a traditional progression of jobs in a department or division.

The College hopes to develop as many employees as possible without the pre-selection of a single internal candidate for a key position – when feasible, multiple potential candidates will be identified and developed to meet the competencies for each key position.

Job vacancies for positions that are part of the Succession Plan will be posted internally and may be posted externally.

Resources: Succession Planning procedure