Building A Strong Succession Plan For Aging Water Professionals
Water and wastewater agencies are entering a period of significant workforce change. Experienced operators, engineers, mechanics, laboratory specialists, and supervisors are reaching retirement age, taking decades of institutional knowledge with them. At the same time, utilities must maintain reliable service, meet stricter environmental standards, and adopt increasingly complex digital systems.
A workforce succession plan helps agencies prepare for these transitions before vacancies become emergencies. It connects retirement forecasting, knowledge transfer, recruitment, employee development, and leadership continuity into one practical process. For water professionals in the greater Los Angeles area, this work is especially important as agencies manage aging infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and competition for skilled technical talent.
Succession planning is not limited to replacing executive leaders. It should cover every role that affects treatment performance, collection systems, compliance, maintenance, safety, and public trust. A well-designed plan gives current employees a pathway to grow while creating a dependable pipeline for future hires.
Start With A Workforce Risk Assessment
The first step is to understand where the organization is vulnerable. Create a position inventory that includes job titles, required certifications, years of service, retirement eligibility, specialized responsibilities, and the number of employees capable of covering each role. This information can reveal risks that an organizational chart may hide.
A senior operator may be the only person who understands a particular process upset, control system, pump station, or seasonal operating pattern. A laboratory manager may hold critical knowledge about sampling protocols and data validation. A maintenance supervisor may know the history of equipment failures that is absent from formal records. These single points of failure deserve immediate attention.
Agencies should assess positions according to operational impact, replacement difficulty, and training time. A role that takes several years to master requires a different response from a position that can be filled and trained within a few months. Reviewing this assessment annually keeps the plan aligned with retirements, promotions, technology changes, and evolving permit obligations.
Capture Institutional Knowledge Before It Walks Out
Knowledge transfer works best when it is treated as a scheduled operational activity rather than an informal favor. Pair experienced employees with developing staff for shift overlap, field inspections, troubleshooting exercises, and process reviews. Ask the subject-matter expert to explain not only what they do, but why they make particular decisions under pressure.
Useful knowledge-capture tools include standard operating procedure updates, annotated drawings, video demonstrations, equipment histories, decision logs, and after-action reviews. A structured interview can document recurring alarms, vendor contacts, seasonal patterns, regulatory deadlines, and lessons from unusual incidents. Materials should be stored in an accessible system with clear ownership and review dates.
Retirement timelines should guide the pace of transfer. When possible, establish a phased transition that allows the departing employee to coach a successor while continuing normal duties. Cross-training should include practical evaluation, so supervisors can verify that the developing employee can perform essential tasks independently and safely.
Build An Internal Talent Pipeline
Recruitment is important, yet succession becomes more reliable when agencies actively develop people already familiar with their operations. Individual development plans can connect employee goals with business needs through certification preparation, acting assignments, mentoring, technical workshops, and leadership training.
Internships and apprenticeships are valuable parts of that pipeline. A thoughtfully designed placement introduces students and early-career workers to treatment processes, laboratory work, safety expectations, and public service. Agencies creating or refining these programs can use guidance on a successful internship program to establish meaningful rotations, supervision, learning objectives, and evaluation practices.
Career pathways should be visible to employees. A maintenance worker may need specific coursework and equipment experience to qualify for a lead role. An operator may need progressive certification levels, mentoring, and exposure to compliance reporting before becoming a supervisor. Publishing these pathways makes advancement feel attainable and helps managers target development resources where they will have the greatest effect.
| Workforce Need | Practical Action | Evidence Of Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Critical role coverage | Identify at least one trained backup for each high-risk position | Coverage matrix and skills verification |
| Technical knowledge retention | Conduct interviews, job shadowing, and procedure reviews | Updated procedures and recorded demonstrations |
| Leadership continuity | Assign acting roles and cross-functional projects | Performance feedback and completed assignments |
| Early-career recruitment | Create internships, apprenticeships, and school partnerships | Qualified applicants and conversion into permanent roles |
| Certification readiness | Fund courses, study groups, and supervised practice | Increased certification completion |
| Plan accountability | Review workforce data with department leaders | Annual action report and revised priorities |
Align Training With Future Operations
Succession planning should reflect the skills utilities will need five or ten years from now, not only those required today. Automation, cybersecurity, asset management, data analytics, advanced treatment, energy efficiency, and climate resilience are changing water sector jobs. Employees who understand both field operations and digital systems will become increasingly valuable.
Training can be delivered through several formats. Technical presentations and facility tours expose staff to different approaches, while workshops offer hands-on practice. Automation courses can help operators and maintenance teams understand instrumentation, control logic, alarm management, and safe troubleshooting. MOC certification courses and other professional development opportunities also support compliance and career progression.
The plan should distinguish between knowledge, skill, and authority. An employee may understand a treatment process but lack the practical experience to manage an upset. Another may perform the technical work but need coaching in communication, documentation, or incident leadership. Competency checklists and supervisor observations can identify these gaps more accurately than course attendance alone.
Create A Culture That Retains Experience
Retention is a core part of workforce continuity. Experienced employees are more likely to remain engaged when they have opportunities to teach, participate in improvement projects, and influence decisions affecting their work. Recognizing technical expertise as a career achievement can reduce the pressure to leave operations for management solely to gain status or compensation.
Flexible schedules, phased retirement, part-time advisory roles, and project-based assignments may allow agencies to retain critical expertise longer. These arrangements must be planned carefully around safety, labor agreements, pension rules, and accountability. Even a limited number of transition hours each week can provide meaningful coaching during a new employee’s first year.
Recognition also matters. Awards, peer acknowledgments, professional presentations, and invitations to mentor can reinforce the value of public service. Organizations such as LABS of CWEA create connections among engineers, operators, consultants, and agency staff, giving professionals opportunities to exchange knowledge beyond their own utility.
Measure Progress And Refresh The Plan
A succession plan needs measurable indicators. Useful metrics include the percentage of critical positions with qualified backups, average time to fill vacancies, retirement exposure by department, certification completion, internal promotion rates, cross-training hours, and retention of early-career employees. Tracking these measures helps leadership see whether development activities are reducing operational risk.
Reviews should occur at least annually and after major events such as reorganizations, new treatment processes, significant retirements, or changes in regulatory requirements. Compliance knowledge deserves particular attention. For example, staff responsible for coastal discharge programs can review coastal permit requirements as part of technical cross-training and succession preparation.
The plan should also be tested through realistic scenarios. Ask a developing employee to lead a tabletop exercise involving a process failure, staffing shortage, cybersecurity incident, or reporting deadline. Debrief the exercise afterward and document where additional practice, authority, or procedural clarity is needed. This turns succession planning from a binder into an operational capability.
Actions That Move The Plan Forward
- Identify critical positions and assign a risk level based on service impact, retirement exposure, and replacement difficulty.
- Pair experienced employees with successors for scheduled mentoring, field practice, and documented knowledge transfer.
- Build clear certification and career pathways for operators, maintenance staff, laboratory employees, engineers, and supervisors.
- Expand internships, apprenticeships, facility tours, and technical workshops to strengthen the entry-level talent pipeline.
- Review succession metrics annually and update the plan whenever operations, technology, staffing, or regulations change.
A strong succession strategy protects institutional knowledge while giving the next generation a clear role in the future of water management. It helps agencies prepare for retirements without losing reliability, safety, or regulatory discipline. By combining workforce data, structured mentoring, relevant training, and professional connection, water organizations can turn demographic change into a deliberate transition rather than a sudden disruption.
Engage your team, identify the roles that matter most, and begin the first knowledge-transfer conversations now. Connect with LABS of CWEA for professional development, technical learning, and water sector relationships that strengthen the workforce serving the Los Angeles Basin.