Strategic Employee Development (SED) Program

Abstract

As with many other U.S. agencies, succession planning is becoming a critical need for NASA. The primary drivers include (a) NASAs higher-than-average aged workforce with approximately 50 of employees eligible for retirement within 5 years; and (b) employees who need better developmental conversations to increase morale and retention. This problem is particularly concerning for Safety Mission Assurance (SMA) organizations since they traditionally rely on more experienced engineers and specialists to perform their organizations functions.In response to this challenge, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) SMA organization created the Strategic Employee Development (SED) program. The SED programs goal is to provide a proactive method to counter the primary drivers by creating a deeper bench strength and providing a more comprehensive developmental feedback experience for the employee. The SED is a new succession planning framework that enables customization to any organization, and in this case, specifically for an SMA organization. This is accomplished via the identification of key positions, the corresponding critical competencies, and a process to help managers have relevant and meaningful development conversations with the workforce. As a result of the SED, several tools and products were created that allows management to make better strategic workforce decisions. Although there are opportunities for improvement for the SED program, the most important impact has been on the quality of developmental discussions for employees.