Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1511664
40 PalletCentral • November-December 2023 palletcentral.com Adele L. Abrams is an attorney and safety professional who represents companies in litigation with OSHA and also provides safety training and consultation. The Law Office of Adele L. Abrams PC has three offices: Beltsville, MD; Denver, CO; and Charleston, WV. She may be reached at www.safety-law.com or 301-595-3520. consideration can play a role, and for smaller employers there may not be the budget to have two individuals in the same role during the transition period. But this redundancy does allow the new person to benefit from at least a brief mentoring period by the senior officer, a chance to understand company protocols, recordkeeping systems, procedures for program review and improvement, liaison with insurers or other third parties who may contribute to the company's safety culture via audits, consultation or training, and even time to overlap in participating in industry trade organizations or safety associations to reinforce existing relationships of value to the employer. Employers also need to recognize that there may be pushback on such redundancy, especially where a specific transition date is unknown. e incumbent may be reluctant to train the incoming employee, out of fear that they may be pushed out before they are ready to go. Other employees may fear a culture change, and the new officer may have different approaches, or want to modify programs in a way that threatens the status quo. e employer has to ensure that the senior worker who trains the newbie suffers no negative consequences or others will be reluctant to engage in such mentoring in the future. Some organizations that strive for robust succession programs have made promotion of incumbents contingent upon it – you can't move up until you train your replacement. is can mitigate the fear that you are training your replacement and avoid creating a "short timer" mentality in senior workers. Planning allows employers to be choosy about selecting replacements, since it will not happen on an emergency basis when it may be tempting to hire the first person who meets the job requirements. Having the luxury of time to interview and assess multiple candidates helps ensure that the right person is placed in the right position going forward. A Gallup poll found that the replacement cost of an employee can be 150 percent or more of that person's annual salary! Costs can include new hire interviews (and advertising for the candidates or use of a "head hunter" for more senior or highly compensated positions), paperwork, use of temporary workers to fill the gap (if needed), exit interviews with the departing employee and associated costs such as payment of accrued leave or severance, and the onboarding expenses for the new hire, including training, orientation, and even drug testing or medical evaluations. e Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommends succession planning should be on a 12-month or longer timeline, which allows employers to identify the critical job skills and knowledge base desired in a successor, and time to allow for transition of social relationships and organizational practices. Discuss with direct reports their development journey, needs and future plans … but avoid asking senior workers, "Hey aren't you ready to retire yet?" If a person has no plans to retire, and they are older, this may be viewed as a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act – especially if the worker feels that they are set up for replacement with a younger and less experienced candidate. e American Association for Retired Persons (AARP) estimates that 10,000 "baby boomers" are reaching retirement age every day, and it is essential that as they head off into their leisure years, your company's institutional knowledge does not exit with them. Now is the time to identify critical positions, locate and develop future leaders in the OHS arena (both current employees and candidates from external sources within the industry). Now is the time to ensure that current managers do not rely heavily on their memory for what has been done, what needs to be done, and when. If important files cannot be located when a senior employee leaves suddenly or cannot be contacted due to illness or death, the company's operations will be disrupted and noncompliance issues will suddenly emerge. If the company has an established document retention and destruction program, it needs to be shared with multiple individuals for internal redundancy (e.g., when someone is on leave) and to ease transitions if they must occur after the incumbent has departed. Some companies are also using "partial retirement" options, to allow the departing employee to remain on (partial) salary while they explain the job to their successor, ensuring that this shadowing will allow work flow and processes to continue safely and without disruption. Take the time now to engage in succession planning in safety. Don't wait for the retirement party! Planning allows employers to be choosy about selecting replacements, since it will not happen on an emergency basis when it may be tempting to hire the first person who meets the job requirements.