Report 2015-608 All Recommendation Responses

Report 2015-608: High Risk: State Departments Need to Improve Their Workforce and Succession Planning Efforts to Mitigate the Risks of Increasing Retirements (Release Date: May 2015)

Recommendation for Legislative Action

The Legislature should consider amending state law to expressly authorize the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to oversee efforts across state departments for workforce and succession planning, such as by monitoring the development and implementation of plans, and to compel departments to provide it with information concerning such planning. Further, the Legislature should consider requiring that CalHR update it on an annual basis, beginning in fiscal year 2016-17, on the status of the workforce and succession planning at state departments.

Description of Legislative Action

As of May 5, 2020, the Legislature has not taken action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

The Legislature has not taken any action to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

Legislation has not been introduced to address this specific recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

Description of Legislative Action

Legislation has not been introduced to address this recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

Recommendation #2 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To improve the guidance that CalHR provides departments on how to mitigate the challenges of an aging workforce that will result in the retirement of many highly experienced employees, CalHR should develop a process by December 2015 to periodically evaluate and update its workforce and succession planning materials.

1-Year Agency Response

CalHR fully implemented this recommendation on schedule.

As explained in our six month progress report, CalHR partnered with stakeholders from a Civil Service Improvement (CSI) Workforce and Succession Planning Project Team to evaluate and update all statewide workforce and succession planning materials. In addition to this CSI initiative, in December 2015, CalHR implemented new program procedures describing how it will continue to periodically evaluate and update its workforce and succession planning materials. The Standard Operating Procedures for workforce and succession planning tool and resource evaluation will be sent under separate cover as Appendix A. The evaluation procedures include steps to conduct an environmental scan in order to ensure that CalHR is offering state departments the most effective and relevant workforce and succession planning materials.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

CalHR continues to partner with stakeholders participating in the Civil Service Improvement (CSI) workforce and succession planning project team in order to expedite the process of reviewing and updating statewide workforce and succession planning models and associated tools and resources. The CSI team has a project plan to review all workforce and succession planning materials offered by CalHR and they have made significant progress in completing this comprehensive review process. This project plan will be sent under separate cover as Appendix A. This team is also developing processes for CalHR to regularly evaluate and update its statewide workforce and succession planning materials to ensure they adequately support agency and department efforts to create and maintain effective workforce and succession plans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR is on schedule to implement this recommendation by December 2015.

CalHR partnered with a group of stakeholders participating in Civil Service Improvement (CSI) efforts in order to expedite the process of reviewing and updating statewide workforce and succession planning models and associated tools and resources. This same team is also helping to update the processes whereby CalHR regularly evaluates and updates its statewide workforce and succession planning materials. To date, the joint CalHR/CSI team completed its initial review of the newly proposed workforce and succession planning models and recommendations have been made for how to provide guidance on the use of the updated models.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #3 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To ensure that CalHR's reviews of departments' workforce and succession plans are consistent and reflect all best practices it recommends on its website, CalHR should revise its evaluation tool by June 2015 to include all of these best practices and other best practices it subsequently identifies.

6-Month Agency Response

As stated in our 60 day progress report, CalHR has completed this recommendation.

Please see the revised Workforce Plan Evaluation Tool which incorporates additional best practices, including those offered on CalHR's statewide workforce planning webpage. CalHR will continue to assess the effectiveness of this tool, and make additional improvements as necessary, as part of the reoccurring evaluation process described in recommendation number one. The Workforce Plan Evaluation Tool will be sent under separate cover as Appendix B.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR completed this recommendation.

Subsequent to the CSA Audit findings, CalHR collaborated with subject matter experts from various departments to identify additional workforce and succession planning best practices, including those offered on the statewide workforce planning webpage, to add to the workforce plan evaluation tool that is available on CalHR's website. The additional best practices were incorporated into the evaluation tool. CalHR will continue to identify best practices for addition to the workforce plan evaluation tool.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

The department did not provide documentation supporting the actions it identified in its response, but indicated it plans to provide the documentation as part of its six-month response.

Recommendation #4 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To better enable CalHR to provide assistance to departments that is tailored to their needs, CalHR should survey state departments at least biannually to determine how the departments perceive the effectiveness of the resources and tools CalHR makes available to them.

6-Month Agency Response

As stated in our 60 day update, CalHR has adopted this recommendation.

CalHR continues to make progress in its efforts to improve its workforce and succession planning services. Recently CalHR and the CSI project team developed a survey to be distributed to those departments that have completed their workforce plans. Among other things, the survey asks for information about the effectiveness of CalHR tools and services. The team is collecting and evaluating the survey feedback as of the date of this progress report. This survey will be sent under separate cover as Appendix C.

CalHR has also recently hired a temporary resource to reengineer its statewide workforce and succession planning consulting services. This resource will seek to update the labor intensive consulting practices in order to be more efficient and effective. In addition to creating consulting practices that are sustainable with program resources, the temporary resource will also revise the process whereby CalHR collects and evaluates its effectiveness in meeting customer needs through consulting. The consulting evaluation process will collect stakeholder feedback during the engagement and at regular intervals after the engagement as departments work to fully implement CalHR recommendations.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR adopted this recommendation.

As stated in the April 21, 2015 response to the Report, CalHR will seek to collect feedback regarding the effectiveness of tools and resources throughout the process of workforce and succession planning consulting engagements, as well as after the CalHR recommendations have been fully implemented by departments. In addition, CalHR is also collaborating with stakeholders to develop additional methods for evaluating the effectiveness of tools, resources and consultation services.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

The department did not provide documentation supporting the actions it identified in its response, but indicated it plans to provide the documentation as part of its six-month response.

Recommendation #5 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To help ensure that state departments are prepared to address the loss of highly experienced employees, CalHR should obtain annually workforce and succession plans from all departments by June 30, starting in 2016, as well as any updates to and implementation status of the plans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2016

As of June 30, 2016, CalHR completed the process of collecting department workforce and succession plans, as well as updates to the implementation status of their plans. CalHR is using the information collected from departments to formulate new strategies to improve the process of annually collecting information about department workforce and succession planning efforts. More importantly, this information is being used by CalHR to create new tactics to ensure more departments have plans in place when we collect workforce planning information at the end of fiscal year 2016-17.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

CalHR remains on schedule to implement this recommendation by June 30, 2016.

As explained in our six month progress report, prior to fully implementing a new process for annually collecting department workforce plans, CalHR's Statewide Workforce Planning Unit first sought to gain support from, and establish relationships with, all agency secretaries and department directors.

The face-to-face agency and director workforce planning interviews were completed on February 28, 2016. The meetings focused on workforce challenges of greatest concern to department directors, and how CalHR can support department efforts to address those challenges through workforce planning. The information elicited during these interviews will enable CalHR to identify statewide workforce trends, which is critical to creating a statewide workforce plan that identifies and addresses systemic workforce challenges.

CalHR is currently analyzing the results of the interviews and creating a Statewide Workforce Planning Report. Among other things, this report will provide fiscal year 2015/16 data regarding the status of department efforts to create and implement workforce and succession plans. When available, department workforce plans were obtained during the director interview process.

Concurrent with the agency and director interviews, CalHR has continued to work on developing its new process for annually collecting department workforce and succession plans. In addition to annually obtaining available workforce and succession plans, this new process will also collect updates on the status of department efforts to create and implement workforce and succession plans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

CalHR is on schedule to implement this recommendation by June 30, 2016.

As explained in our 60 day progress report, CalHR is partnering with the CSI workforce planning project team to develop a new comprehensive process for regularly collecting, evaluating and reporting on the status of department workforce and succession plans.

Concurrent with creating a new annual process for collecting department workforce and succession plans, CalHR is scheduling face to face meetings with all Agency Secretaries and Department Directors to discuss workforce planning. A copy of the memo that explains this process will be sent under separate cover as Appendix D. These meetings, to be scheduled November through January, will focus on the following two topics:

1. Workforce challenges of greatest concern to department directors.

2. How CalHR can support department efforts to address workforce challenges through workforce planning.

By conducting workforce planning interviews with department directors, CalHR will be able to identify statewide workforce trends. This information is critical to creating a statewide workforce plan that identifies and addresses systemic workforce challenges. These interviews will also help CalHR build relationships with departments as we seek to understand how we can better support their efforts to create and maintain effective workforce and succession plans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR is on schedule to implement this recommendation by June 30, 2016.

CalHR has been in contact and requested workforce and succession plans from all departments, most of which have already provided plans and/or the status of their plans. CalHR is also partnering with a CSI project team to develop a new comprehensive process for regularly collecting, evaluating and reporting on the status of department workforce and succession plans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #6 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To ensure that CalHR can complete its workforce and succession planning workload on a timely basis and address other priorities that may arise, CalHR should develop an annual plan for the workforce planning unit by July 2015, and annually thereafter, that identifies the activities it plans to accomplish in the following fiscal year and the necessary resources. The plan should include, but not be limited to, activities such as evaluating the effectiveness of its guidance to departments, offering training sessions, conducting reviews of department workforce and succession plans, and addressing strategic initiatives.

6-Month Agency Response

Please see 2015/16 fiscal year business plan for the Workforce Development Programs and Special Projects Division that will be sent under separate cover as Appendix E. The new division business plan identifies the program objectives to be completed in the current fiscal year. Each objective has been aligned with CalHR's refreshed strategic plan goals. The division management team monitors the progress being made on business plan objectives on a monthly basis.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR is on schedule to implement this recommendation by July 2015.

CalHR is in the process of creating a mission statement and strategic goals for the new Workforce Development Programs and Special Projects Division. Facilitated sessions to create a 2015-16 business plan for the division recently concluded and the strategic and business plans are being finalized. This planning process will specifically address the strategic and operational concerns of the Statewide Workforce Planning and Recruitment Unit.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

The department did not provide documentation supporting the actions it identified in its response, but indicated it plans to provide the documentation as part of its six-month response.

Recommendation #7 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To more adequately promote succession planning, CalHR should develop additional resources for departments to follow in developing succession plans by December 2015 and post the information on its website.

1-Year Agency Response

CalHR fully implemented this recommendation on schedule.

As explained in our six month progress report, CalHR revised its statewide workforce and succession planning model, specifically calling out the three separate but integrated succession planning parts. The updated model, with new succession planning tools and resources, was posted on the CalHR website in December 2015. On January 22, 2016, CalHR marketed its new statewide workforce and succession planning model to the workforce planning and training community through our email list-serves. A copy of the email messages will be sent under separate cover as Appendix B. CalHR further marketed the new model and associated tools at the Quarterly Workforce Planning Forum on April 5, 2016. The minutes from the quarterly forum will be sent under separate cover as Appendix C. Finally, during the director interviews, departments were notified that CalHR was updating its workforce and succession planning tools and resources.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

CalHR remains on schedule to implement this recommendation by December 2015.

The newly updated statewide workforce and succession planning model is currently in the final review process with the CSI Governance Operations Committee. One of the most notable changes to the model is that succession planning is called out as a separate but integrated step in the workforce planning process. The updated model will be sent under separate cover as Appendix F. By specifically calling out succession planning as a standalone three step process, departments will more easily find and use succession planning tools and resources on the CalHR website.

Along with the new standalone succession planning three step model, CalHR has worked with the CSI project team to create additional supporting succession planning tools and resources. As explained in the response to recommendation number one, CalHR and CSI resources are continuing to evaluate all workforce and succession planning tools. CalHR will update and/or create new workforce and succession planning tools as necessary, based upon the finding of the CSI evaluation of all our materials.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR is on schedule to implement this recommendation by December 2015.

The new statewide succession planning model and associated guidance is currently in draft and has been circulated to department and CalHR subject matter experts for final edits. In addition, CalHR hosted a session on succession planning at the CalHR conference held on June 9, 2015. Over 160 conference participants attended the succession planning session to hear from a panel of experts and to learn about CalHR's new succession planning model.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #8 To: Human Resources, California Department of

To improve state departments' knowledge of CalHR's resources and tools, CalHR should expand the content of its outreach emails to promote all its resources and tools.

6-Month Agency Response

As stated in our 60 day update, CalHR has adopted this recommendation.

In addition to now marketing our statewide workforce planning tools and resources in all our correspondence with departments (See samples of our communication that will be sent under separate cover as Appendix G), CalHR has partnered with the CSI project team to develop a new communication plan template for workforce and succession planning. This communication plan will be sent under separate cover as Appendix H. CalHR will use this new communication planning tool as a means to ensure we are proactively identifying where and when we need to market our program resources and services. This communication plan will be particularly important when rolling out new statewide workforce and succession planning tools and services.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalHR adopted this recommendation.

CalHR will be promoting its workforce and succession planning tools, resources and services in its correspondence with departments. CalHR is also developing marketing and education and outreach strategies to help promote and raise awareness to the many new tools and resources it intends to implement in the coming year as described above.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

The department did not provide documentation supporting the actions it identified in its response, but indicated it plans to provide the documentation as part of its six-month response.

Recommendation #9 To: Emergency Services, Office of

Cal OES should develop a process by December 2015 to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities at least annually, and update its plans as necessary, to ensure that its activities are effective. This process should include evaluating the trends in retirements for leadership and technical positions.

60-Day Agency Response

Cal OES has developed a process to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities. This process will include quarterly monitoring and progress updates for each initiative and will measure the department-wide effectiveness of our workforce and succession planning practices. A spreadsheet showing the initiatives, responsibilities, performance indicators and status updates is provided for your review.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

Recommendation #10 To: Transportation, Department of

Caltrans should develop a process by December 2015 to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities at least annually, and update its plans as necessary, to ensure that its activities are effective. This process should include evaluating the trends in retirements for leadership and technical positions.

1-Year Agency Response

Caltrans One-Year Status Update:

In December 2015, Caltrans requested employee data from the State Controller's Office in order to analyze demographics and attrition rates for its twelve major occupational groups. OERM plans to continue to analyze this data twice a year. The data received allows Caltrans to establish an enterprise-wide employee population baseline. The goal is to ensure that Caltrans has the right number of employees, at the right time, in the right positions, and is preparing its employees to transition into leadership positions.

To date, OERM has met with or has scheduled engagement meetings with eight of the twelve occupational groups to discuss areas of risk and possible solutions. By the end of summer 2016, OERM will have met with all occupational groups, reviewed data, identified gaps in the workforce, and brainstormed solutions to those gaps. Occupational groups will work with various divisions and teams to complete solutions to increase recruitment, retention, employee development, knowledge transfer, and succession planning.

As it continues to engage the occupational groups and analyze the data, OERM will be able to identify trends and determine if the solutions are working.This information will be published in its Annual Caltrans Workforce Plan at the beginning of each year. The next report summarizing the 2016 efforts will be released in January 2017.

OERM will continue to use the CalHR workforce and succession planning model to engage with the occupational groups and facilitate ad hoc requests. The commitment from Caltrans' Executive Board to workforce and succession planning will help drive efforts and ensure completion of the workforce planning strategic objective listed in the 2015-2020 Caltrans Strategic Management plan.

Corrective action complete; no further action necessary.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

Caltrans continues to develop its processes to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities to ensure that they are effective. The processes include assessments of leadership, technical, and other positions and how they will be affected by retirements. Districts and divisions have selected champions to meet for bi-monthly workforce planning forums, and serve as focal points/liaisons in all matters of workforce and succession planning. In addition, Caltrans' Office of Enterprise Risk Management (OERM) developed a form for the champions to fill out regarding their workforce activities and submit quarterly. The first submission will be for the third quarter of the calendar year and is due on November 30, 2015. Further, OERM is currently analyzing the information collected from the organizational excellence survey to create tools and presentations to inform employees about workforce planning and OERM efforts.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

Caltrans continues to develop its process to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities to ensure that they are effective. A survey was sent to all employees to determine the current state of Caltrans' workforce and succession planning efforts and the results will be assessed by August 2015. Caltrans also established a cross-disciplinary group as part of the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan requiring all occupational groups to adopt at least one workforce planning strategy by 2020. Districts and Divisions are also being surveyed to identify workforce planning "champions" to serve as focal points/liaisons in all matters of workforce and succession planning. The champions will report quarterly on issues relating to workforce planning, solution strategy development, and implementation efforts. They will also participate in monthly workforce planning forums and brown bag sessions which have been initiated to bolster communication channels and enhance workforce and succession planning efforts within Caltrans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #11 To: Social Services, Department of

Social Services should develop a process by December 2015 to measure and evaluate its workforce and succession planning activities at least annually, and update its plans as necessary, to ensure that its activities are effective. This process should include evaluating the trends in retirements for leadership and technical positions.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2016

CDSS has completed the requested actions. As with any process, the Department will continually analyze vacancies and retirements for mission critical priorities. The Department will view trends and evaluate strategies of its workforce and succession planning activities annually, with updates as necessary to ensure that the activities are effective.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

CDSS received a completed succession plan from Cooperative Personnel Services (CPS) Human Resources (HR) Consulting, a public sector consulting firm, in December 2015. This document will undergo revision to reflect current data. The Department will be partnering with the State Controller's Office and its own internal Human Resources office to generate current data on retirement trends for key positions in the Department. The development and training activities which support succession plan findings will be updated as necessary. The estimated completion date for the revised succession plan is June 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

Although CDSS indicates that it is in the process of revising its succession plan, its response does not indicate if it has developed a process to measure and evaluate the workforce and succession planning activities it is has been conducting.

6-Month Agency Response

By December 2015, CDSS plans to develop measurement and evaluation strategies for inclusion in a comprehensive master plan for workforce and succession planning.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The California Department of Social Services is on track to develop measurement and evaluation strategies of its workforce and succession planning activities annually, with updates as necessary to ensure that its activities are effective. The estimated completion date remains December 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #12 To: Transportation, Department of

Caltrans should identify a key resource, such as a unit, by June 30, 2015, to track the results of workforce and succession planning activities across the department to ensure that the workforce and succession planning activities it implements are monitored on a departmentwide level.

6-Month Agency Response

Caltrans has established the OERM as the key resource to track the workforce and succession planning program results and monitor department-wide process. OERM submitted a copy of the Workforce Planning communication and outreach plan to the CSA in July 2015.

On August 13, 2015, OERM held its first workforce planning brown bag meeting to educate champions selected by districts and divisions on workforce planning. In addition, OERM presented the Workforce and Succession Plan to Caltrans' Executive Board on September 16, 2015, and on October 12, 2015, conducted its third quarterly Workforce Planning Forum.

Corrective action fully implemented.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

Caltrans has established the OERM as the key resource to track the workforce and succession planning program results and monitor department-wide process. To ensure that it is empowered and able to track workforce planning activities at the departmental level and by individual groups, the OERM will have direct access to Caltrans' Executive Board and will report quarterly on current efforts, challenges, and progress relating to workforce planning. Additionally, as indicated in the update to the first recommendation, OERM will work with a cross-disciplinary group of Caltrans' management, and plans to use "champions," monthly forums, and brown bag sessions to enhance workforce and succession planning.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

Recommendation #13 To: Social Services, Department of

Social Services should identify a key resource, such as a unit, by June 30, 2015, to track the results of workforce and succession planning activities across the department to ensure that the workforce and succession planning activities it implements are monitored on a departmentwide level.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2016

CDSS has completed the requested action and it has been fully implemented. The Department designated the Workforce Development Branch (WDB) to serve as the key departmentwide resource for workforce succession and planning. WDB has designated an Organizational Development Analyst that will continually partner with two other units to analyze vacancies and retirements for mission critical priorities. In partnership with Research Services and Special Projects, they will view trends and evaluate strategies of our workforce and succession planning activities annually, via multiple methodologies. The Department will update and evaluate as necessary to ensure that strategies are effective.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

The Workforce Development Bureau (WDB) remains the ideal unit to track results and findings of the workforce and succession planning efforts. Processes to achieve these goals are being revised and evaluated to be implemented by June 2016. The Bureau will be utilizing this opportunity to further refine its monitoring processes, in addition to increasing qualified staff available to manage the project.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

The Workforce Development Bureau is the entity within the Department tracking the results of workforce and succession planning activities. The Department expects to complete the deliverables by December 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

In its initial response, CDSS identified the Training and Development Unit to perform the previously mentioned function; however, the Workforce Development Bureau is the more appropriate entity within the Department to track the results of workforce and succession planning activities. Additionally, the Department expects to complete the deliverables by December 2015; rather than the previously stated 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

Recommendation #14 To: Transportation, Department of

Caltrans should develop a comprehensive workforce and succession master plan by December 2015 to ensure that it is adequately prepared for the retirement of a significant number of its highly experienced employees. The plan should include current best practices that meet its organizational needs.

6-Month Agency Response

Caltrans released the Annual Caltrans Workforce Plan on September 14, 2015, which contained elements (such as an itemized summary of "best practices") requested by the CSA after their review of the draft April 2015 plan. The Annual Workforce Plan also provided a statewide summary of all the workforce/succession plans for Caltrans' major occupational groups, including demographic data, workforce solutions, and activities.

On October 16, 2015, Caltrans conducted a succession planning reengagement meeting for its career executives (CEA) which included a cross-section of executive management participants in headquarters and the districts. Caltrans is in the process of implementing best practices such as a formal mentorship program pilot, an executive leadership interview series, and brown bag sessions to bolster communication and outreach efforts regarding workforce planning.

A presentation to the Caltrans Executive Board is planned for the first quarter of calendar year 2016.

Corrective action fully implemented.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

Caltrans will release the first 2015 Annual Caltrans Workforce Plan in July 2015 instead of April as previously indicated, and an update by December 31, 2015. The July 2015 Annual Caltrans Workforce Plan will contain elements (such as an itemized summary of "best practices") requested by the CSA after their review of the draft April 2015 plan. The Annual Caltrans Workforce Plans will provide a statewide summary of all of the workforce/succession plans for Caltrans occupational groups, including demographic data, workforce solutions, and activities.

A presentation to the Caltrans Executive Board is planned for the first quarter of calendar year 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #15 To: Social Services, Department of

Social Services should update its existing workforce and succession plan by December 2015 to ensure that the department is adequately prepared for the retirement of a significant number of its highly experienced employees. The plan should include current best practices that meet its organizational needs.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2016

The plan has been completed to ensure that the Department is adequately prepared for the retirement of a significant number of our highly experienced employees. The plan includes current best practices that meet our organizational needs.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

CDSS has reviewed the completed succession plan from CPS HR Consulting, as stated in the response to Recommendation 11. Due to multiple internal changes, the plan will be revised to reflect current data and shifting needs. CDSS anticipates that this process will require until June 2016 to complete all updates and release a new, revised plan. Improved tracking, training and implementation practices will be created in tandem with plan revisions, resulting in a superior product, more efficient monitoring and targeted staff development.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

Although the department is revising its succession plan, the department's response does not identify the status of its effort to update its workforce plan.

6-Month Agency Response

CDSS continues development of a workforce and succession plan and has updated the estimated completion date to December 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

CDSS continues development of a workforce and succession plan, and has updated the estimated completion date to December 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Recommendation #16 To: Emergency Services, Office of

Cal OES should develop a process by June 30, 2015, to ensure that the executive membership of its Idea Ambassador Corps remains stable to help ensure that Cal OES can perform consistent monitoring of the results of the workforce and succession planning activities across the department.

60-Day Agency Response

Cal OES has updated the duty statements for the Human Resources (HR) Chief, HR Analyst and Performance Management team to include the responsibility for workforce planning activities. We will ensure when any of these positions are vacated, these duties will remain with the position and new incumbents will be responsible for fulfilling these duties. These positions and the revised duties, along with the executive membership, will ensure the stability of the Idea Ambassador Corps.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2015-608

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.