As the pool of qualified administrators, finance directors and other key government leadership positions continues to shrink and the pool of current leaders who are eligible to retire continues to grow, many local government entities may find themselves in a tsumani of sorts with the potential of years of institutional knowledge washing away.
Just as governmental entities have disaster preparedness plans for weather-related events, you also need to have a succession plan in place to ensure that the institutional knowledge is preserved so operations will continue to run smoothly.
Larger government entities typically have enough depth in staff – or internal bench strength – that successors can often be identified within current ranks and transition plans can be developed over a period of time. However, for smaller, more rural governments, many times one city administrator can wear many hats making it very difficult to find a replacement.
One potential solution these smaller entities should consider is bringing in a business consultant to help during a transition. A business consultant can bring in the expertise you need and you pay only for the services you need. Here are some ways a business consultant can help you:
- Develop the succession plan now. A business consultant can come in and assess the situation and assist with the development of the succession plan to avoid any unexpected downtime for the department.
- Interim Chief Financial Officer. A business consultant can fill in as the interim during the transition time while the organization prepares and gets ready for the next leader.
- Outsourced financial department. A business consultant can develop a plan to outsource the needs of the organization to a team of specialists, who working together can provide more to the organization than the talent they might be able to find themselves.
- Training and education of new staff members. A business consultant can train and work with recently hired graduates and young team members willing to grow in their governmental accounting knowledge.
At BerganKDV, we have a team who can help you assess your current situation and offer potential solutions to ensure you are ready to “weather the storm” when key administrators are ready to retire. Start here.
