* Ensuring that top management sets the overall direction and goals of
workforce planning. Top leadership that is clearly and personally
involved in strategic workforce planning provides the organizational
vision that is important in times of change; can help provide stability
as the workforce plan is being developed and implemented; and provides
a cadre of champions within the agency, including both political and
career executives, to ensure that planning strategies are thoroughly
implemented and sustained over time. It can also help integrate
workforce planning efforts with other key management planning efforts,
such as succession planning and information technology or financial
management reforms, to ensure that such initiatives work together to
achieve the agency's goals. For example, we have reported that to be
effective, succession planning needs the support and commitment of an
organization's top leadership.[Footnote 8] In other countries,
government agencies' top leadership (1) actively participates in the
succession planning and management programs; (2) regularly uses these
programs to develop, place, and promote individuals; and (3) ensures
that these programs receive sufficient financial and staff resources
and are maintained over time.