Preparing for the future
As PEDCO E&A Services Inc. was preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, management considered how the company’s organizational structure would play into its success in the coming decades.
When planning for your company’s future, you can’t forget about leadership turnover.
Vice President Jerry Doerger led the initiative at PEDCO as the management team members analyzed each aspect of the business — leadership, administration, technical teams, project managers and design teams — to identify future gaps and develop a transition plan. They determined top executives and managers could retire in five to 10 years.
Early analysis allows time to plan and implement training, coaching and mentoring to ensure a smooth transition.
“The biggest thing that a company can do is to, No. 1, recognize that there is a generational gap,” Doerger says. “Put a plan in place to start to bridge the gap — and it’s not going to happen overnight. The other piece is as the different generations begin to exit the workplace, put a plan in place to transfer that knowledge, that understanding and that technical expertise that those folks that are exiting the workplace have to the next generation. What you get at the end of the day is a more engaged work force by doing it.”
