Strategically preparing for the future
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) relies on PowerTrain’s online Leadership Succession Planning (LSP) portal to support its agency’s career management and succession planning initiatives. Fully customized to TSA’s unique agency needs, the LSP portal serves as a one-stop shop for leadership development, knowledge transfer, and workforce planning.
2016
Customer Since
Award-Winning
Brandon Hall Group Talent Management
8,000+
Users
Succession planning for security operations continuity
To ensure seamless continuity of security operations that may be critically impacted by changes in the workforce, the TSA needed a web-based succession planning portal designed to provide leadership development resources and succession planning tools, templates, and resources to aid in cultivating a robust leadership pipeline.
PowerTrain developed a customized LSP portal that consists of two separate components targeting different audiences. The Future Leaders component provides career management and leadership development resources for senior employees. The Path Finder component contains various succession and workforce planning resources for TSA administrators and management.
Tracking job rotations
The TSA currently offers job rotations for the mission-critical positions covered under its Leadership Succession Planning and Development Program (LSPDP). These job rotations are often referred to as Tours of Duty. Most recently, PowerTrain developed and integrated an online job rotation tracking tool to help LSPDP program administrators track ongoing job rotations. Some of the information they can track includes:
- Names
- Job Series
- Geographic Location
- Tour Dates
- Administrator Notes
Critically, this job rotation tracking tool enables LSPDP administrators to track return dates so that they can effectively perform their career management responsibilities, such as determining return placement and interests.
Positive impacts on career management initiatives
Improved retention rates and employee feedback indicate that the LSP portal is having a measurable positive impact on career management and succession planning within TSA. Already, TSA and PowerTrain’s partnership has produced the following changes within TSA:
- Knowledge Transfer – Established methods for ensuring institutional knowledge is transferred and maintained when senior-level employees leave the agency.
- Leadership Development – Availability of resources designed to assess and develop leadership styles, competencies, and skills.
- Communication – Established methods for identifying and assessing critical positions and high-potential employees, resulting in heightened communication across the agency.
- Performance Management – LSP resources aid in performance management functions such as completing executive development plans and conducting talent reviews.
- Workforce Planning – Established methods and guidelines for identifying critical positions, assessing risk of vacancies, and identifying and developing high-potential employees for the leadership pipeline.
Maximizing workforce potential
In an effort to enhance a sense of ownership in performance management for employees, TSA asked PowerTrain to integrate an interactive matrix for users to self-assess their performance and potential factors. This matrix allows employees to self-assess these factors and identify areas of improvement and/or goals to help generate their annual executive development plans.
Successful collaboration drives continued workforce planning
PowerTrain’s successful partnership and collaboration with TSA has resulted in a comprehensive, online succession planning portal that prepares TSA for planned and/or unplanned workforce changes that can cause significant interruptions in the critical security operations that protect our Nation’s transportation system. PowerTrain is committed to helping TSA continue to provide robust succession planning and career management resources to its workforce.
