Workforce and culture · Intermediate

Career Pathways, Succession and Advancement

Make advancement paths visible, share development opportunities fairly, plan succession on job-related criteria and know when to bring in HR and labor relations.

About 48 minutes, plus optional practice · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning

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Course outline

Making pathways visible
Explain how job classification specifications and position descriptions shape advancement in Minnesota state service.
12 minutes
Fair development: assignments, conversations and sponsorship
Describe how individual development plans are meant to work under state administrative procedure.
12 minutes
Succession planning without fit bias
Explain what succession planning is and why it goes beyond replacing one person.
12 minutes
Acting assignments and knowing when to bring in HR
Describe what a work out of class assignment is under state administrative procedure.
12 minutes

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What you’ll be able to do

Explore and practice

Explain how job classification specifications and position descriptions shape advancement in Minnesota state service.
Describe how individual development plans are meant to work under state administrative procedure.
Explain what succession planning is and why it goes beyond replacing one person.
Describe what a work out of class assignment is under state administrative procedure.

What you can take into your work

Explain the distinction tested in each knowledge check.
Compare the responses to each fictional case and the reasons behind them.
Complete the course job aid for a situation you choose.

With your HR partner, find out how work out of class assignments are handled under the labor agreements that cover your team. Write down one practice you will use the next time an interim opportunity arises.

Career Pathways, Succession and Advancement: practice guide

A reusable guide for a situation you choose

Make advancement paths visible, share development opportunities fairly, plan succession on job-related criteria and know when to bring in HR and labor relations.

Use observable details rather than assigning motives.
Invite perspectives without requiring personal disclosure.
Keep learning separate from individual assessment or personnel decisions.

What a supervisor can change now

Write down what advancement in your unit requires and share it with everyone.
Hold a career conversation with every person, not only those who ask.
Rotate visible and acting assignments using a simple list.
Keep position descriptions accurate as duties change.
Sponsor people into rooms where decisions are made.

What needs a partner

Classification questions and reallocation requests go to HR classification staff.
Pay equity questions go to HR.
Anything governed by a labor agreement goes to labor relations.
Formal selection for a vacancy follows state hiring rules with HR.
Bring patterns and describe affected people in general terms.

Succession planning check

Define observable competencies for the role before naming anyone.
Build a pool of several people, not one heir.
Ask people what paths they want instead of assuming.
Include people outside informal networks, including staff with disabilities.
Replace words like fit and presence with the job-related behavior you mean.

Try the guide and revisit it

With your HR partner, find out how work out of class assignments are handled under the labor agreements that cover your team. Write down one practice you will use the next time an interim opportunity arises.
Think of acting or interim roles you have seen filled. How was the person chosen, and did others know the opportunity existed?

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.

Sources and further reading

Minnesota Management and Budget — Position Descriptions
Supports that an accurate position description is an HR requirement used primarily for classification and vacancy filling. Classification decisions rest with HR.
Minnesota Management and Budget — Administrative Procedure 17.1, Work Out of Class Assignments (revised 2024)
Supports the description of work out of class assignments, pay under labor agreements, time limits and approval rules. Specific terms depend on the applicable agreement, so consult HR.
Minnesota Management and Budget — Administrative Procedure 21, Employee Learning and Development
Supports the expectation that individual development plans are jointly prepared and annually updated as part of performance management.
Minnesota Management and Budget — Retention (Executive Order 19-15 resources)
Supports the recommendation that succession planning include a strategy to recruit and retain people with disabilities for the paths they are interested in. Page contents confirmed by direct retrieval.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management — Succession Planning
Supports the description of succession planning as identifying, assessing and developing talent for continuity using workforce analysis, competency modeling and gap analysis. Federal guidance, used here for concepts only.
Rivera, L. A. — Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms, American Sociological Review (2012)
Supports the finding that evaluators weighed cultural similarity in hiring. The study covered elite private firms and may not generalize to public service; used to illustrate a mechanism.

All research and sources across the program

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Course outline

Making pathways visible

Explain how job classification specifications and position descriptions shape advancement in Minnesota state service.

12 minutes

Fair development: assignments, conversations and sponsorship

Describe how individual development plans are meant to work under state administrative procedure.

12 minutes

Succession planning without fit bias

Explain what succession planning is and why it goes beyond replacing one person.

12 minutes

Acting assignments and knowing when to bring in HR

Describe what a work out of class assignment is under state administrative procedure.

12 minutes

Sources and further reading

Minnesota Management and Budget — Position Descriptions

Supports that an accurate position description is an HR requirement used primarily for classification and vacancy filling. Classification decisions rest with HR.

Minnesota Management and Budget — Administrative Procedure 17.1, Work Out of Class Assignments (revised 2024)

Supports the description of work out of class assignments, pay under labor agreements, time limits and approval rules. Specific terms depend on the applicable agreement, so consult HR.

Minnesota Management and Budget — Administrative Procedure 21, Employee Learning and Development

Supports the expectation that individual development plans are jointly prepared and annually updated as part of performance management.

Minnesota Management and Budget — Retention (Executive Order 19-15 resources)

Supports the recommendation that succession planning include a strategy to recruit and retain people with disabilities for the paths they are interested in. Page contents confirmed by direct retrieval.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management — Succession Planning

Supports the description of succession planning as identifying, assessing and developing talent for continuity using workforce analysis, competency modeling and gap analysis. Federal guidance, used here for concepts only.

Rivera, L. A. — Hiring as Cultural Matching: The Case of Elite Professional Service Firms, American Sociological Review (2012)

Supports the finding that evaluators weighed cultural similarity in hiring. The study covered elite private firms and may not generalize to public service; used to illustrate a mechanism.