MHA/543 Week 6
How to handle each of the five rubric criteria — rapid departure mitigation, a recruitment plan, a 30/90/180-day onboarding checklist, a mentorship policy, and healthcare benchmark alignment — without leaving marks on the table.
Your top-performing manager just handed in two weeks’ notice. Your next most experienced person has two years under their belt — not enough to step up. And Piedmont Healthcare keeps scooping up the candidates you were counting on. That is the scenario. The executive team at Wellstar wants a plan. This guide walks through every rubric criterion so you know exactly what each section needs to do — and how to approach it.
What This Guide Covers
Understanding the Rubric Before You Write a Word
Five criteria. Each worth 19%. One APA/mechanics criterion at 5%. That is the whole scoring picture. The distribution matters — nothing is a throwaway section. A student who writes a strong recruitment plan and skips real depth on benchmarks has already handed away nearly a fifth of their grade. Read the rubric language carefully before you start drafting.
1,400 Required word count (body text)
The rubric uses specific language: “thoroughly described,” “thoughtfully proposed,” “fully created,” “comprehensively proposed,” and “clearly aligned.” These are not filler words. They signal that each section needs depth, not surface coverage. A paragraph per criterion will not earn Accomplished marks. Plan to give each criterion enough space to genuinely demonstrate your thinking — roughly 200 to 250 words per section works as a starting allocation.
| Rubric Criterion | Weight | Accomplished Language | What Gets You There |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rapid departure mitigation | 19% | Thoroughly described | Multiple specific strategies, not a general statement about why succession matters |
| Recruitment plan | 19% | Thoughtfully proposed | A plan that accounts for the Piedmont Healthcare competition — specific sourcing, positioning, and timeline thinking |
| Preboarding + onboarding with metrics | 19% | Fully created | An actual formatted checklist and a structured 30/90/180-day plan with measurable performance milestones at each phase |
| Succession plan policy or mentorship plan | 19% | Comprehensively proposed | A policy or programme that addresses the two-year employee and creates a pipeline — not just a vague commitment to developing staff |
| Benchmark and trend alignment | 19% | Clearly aligned | Specific healthcare industry benchmarks and current trends cited from credible sources — not generalised claims |
| APA, grammar, mechanics | 5% | Enhanced content | In-text citations, reference page, professional writing quality throughout |
Section 1: Mitigating the Impact of Rapid Departure (19%)
This is where you set up the whole document. The scenario is blunt: a tenured, high-performing manager is leaving in two weeks. Not two months. Two weeks. That is not enough time to run a full external recruitment process, onboard a replacement, and transfer institutional knowledge. Your job here is to name that reality and describe how Wellstar responds to it in the short term.
What “Thoroughly Described” Looks Like Here
The rubric is grading competency 5.C.1 — personnel processes and procedures including retention, performance monitoring, and mentoring as part of succession planning. For this criterion, you are not just explaining why turnover is bad. You are identifying actionable strategies: knowledge transfer, interim leadership coverage, documentation of the departing manager’s processes, and stabilisation of the 20-person department during the transition gap.
Key angles to cover: (1) Immediate knowledge transfer — what handoff documentation should the departing manager produce before she leaves; (2) Interim coverage — who leads the department during the search, and under what structure; (3) Communication with the department — how you manage morale and continuity when a respected manager departs suddenly; (4) Risk assessment — what operations are most vulnerable in the gap and how you protect them.Do not treat this section as purely reactive. The deeper point — and the one that earns full marks — is that this situation would be less disruptive if Wellstar had an active succession planning framework in place before the resignation. Use this section to argue for proactive identification of high-potential employees and formalised knowledge management as preventive strategies. That framing connects naturally to sections four and five.
Section 2: Proposing a Recruitment Plan (19%)
Here is where the Piedmont Healthcare detail becomes critical. The scenario does not include it by accident. Piedmont is a named competitor for talent in Wellstar’s market. A recruitment plan that ignores that competitive context will not earn Accomplished marks.
Sourcing Strategy
Where are you looking? Healthcare-specific job boards, professional associations like ACHE, internal talent pipelines, and targeted LinkedIn outreach are all options. Specify which channels and why — generic “we’ll post the job” thinking does not score Accomplished.
Competitive Positioning Against Piedmont
How does Wellstar differentiate itself to attract candidates Piedmont also wants? Think: compensation benchmarking, growth pathways, culture, benefits. This is where knowing your scenario pays off.
Timeline and Selection Process
Recruitment phases with approximate timelines: posting, screening, interviewing, offer, and start date. Who is involved in selection? What criteria matter most for this specific department manager role?
What to Say About the Two-Year Employee
The scenario explicitly says your next most tenured employee has only two years of experience and is not ready to assume the position now. That is important phrasing — “at this time.” This person is a development candidate, not a current candidate. Your recruitment plan addresses the immediate need externally while your succession/mentorship section addresses the longer-term development of internal talent. Keep these two threads separate and connected at the same time.
Avoid: Proposing internal promotion of the two-year employee as your recruitment plan. The scenario says they are not ready. That is a constraint you need to work within, not around.For full marks, your recruitment plan should include what you are screening for. What competencies, credentials, and experience does the manager role require? Linking your selection criteria to the department’s performance needs makes the plan substantive — not just a process description.
Section 3: Preboarding Checklist and 30/90/180-Day Onboarding Plan (19%)
This is the most format-intensive section. The rubric says “fully created” — meaning it needs to exist as a real structured document, not be described in prose. The instructions also say to insert your checklist and any visuals within the plan. That means the checklist goes in the body of the document, not as an appendix.
Preboarding Checklist
Preboarding covers the period between offer acceptance and day one. It is often overlooked in student plans, which is exactly why it is specifically called out in the rubric. Your preboarding checklist should address what happens before the new manager walks in the door.
- System access and credentials set up
- HR paperwork, benefits enrollment, background check
- Welcome communication from department and executive leadership
- Introduction to key stakeholders scheduled for week one
- Department overview materials and org chart provided
- Workspace or remote access prepared
- First-week schedule sent in advance
What Each Phase Needs to Include
Each of the three phases should cover activities and measurable performance metrics. The metrics are explicitly required in the rubric — students who write activities without metrics will be scored lower.
- Day 1–30: Orientation, relationship building, observational learning, initial assessments. Metrics: attendance, completion of required training, department introduction goals met
- Day 31–90: Taking on responsibilities, identifying improvement opportunities, starting to lead processes. Metrics: specific operational targets, team engagement indicators, supervisor feedback milestones
- Day 91–180: Independent leadership, strategy contribution, performance management ownership. Metrics: department-level KPIs, staff performance outcomes, budget and operational benchmarks
Section 4: Succession Plan Policy or Mentorship Plan (19%)
The rubric gives you a choice: a succession plan policy or a mentorship plan. Most strong responses include elements of both — a formal policy framework and a mentorship component that develops the two-year employee toward eventual leadership readiness. Choosing only one when the scenario naturally calls for both is a missed opportunity.
This Section Is About the Long Game, Not the Immediate Hire
You have just proposed an external recruitment plan for the vacant position. Now you need to propose how Wellstar ensures this situation is handled better next time — and how you develop your internal talent so the organisation is not perpetually dependent on external hiring. That is what “continuous organisational support” means in the rubric language.
What to address: (1) A formalised succession planning process — how Wellstar identifies high-potential employees, assesses readiness, and maps them to future leadership roles; (2) The 9 Box Grid as a tool for this assessment (this is the assigned reading — use it); (3) A structured mentorship programme for the two-year employee specifically; (4) Policy language around timelines, responsibilities, and documentation requirements so succession planning is not left to informal relationships.The course preparation reading assigns the WorkDove article on the 9 Box Grid and the Performance-Values Matrix. That is not background reading — it is a tool you are expected to apply. In your succession plan section, explain how Wellstar would use the 9 Box Grid to assess the two-year employee’s current position (performance vs. potential) and map a development trajectory. You do not need to reproduce the full grid in your document, but referencing how it guides identification of succession candidates shows you engaged with the assigned material.
Succession Plan Policy Elements
- Formal identification of critical positions that require succession coverage
- Annual talent review process using performance and potential data
- Documentation of succession pools and readiness levels
- Timeline expectations for developing high-potential employees to readiness
- Executive and HR accountability for programme oversight
- Linkage to performance management and compensation systems
Mentorship Plan Elements
- Formal matching of the two-year employee with a senior leader mentor
- Structured meeting cadence with documented development goals
- Exposure to cross-functional projects and leadership decisions
- Milestone-based assessments of leadership readiness over 12–24 months
- Defined criteria for when the employee is considered ready for promotion consideration
- Connection back to the 9 Box Grid reassessment at regular intervals
Section 5: Aligning to Healthcare Benchmarks and Current Trends (19%)
Students lose marks here more than anywhere else. The common mistake is writing a general section about “the importance of succession planning in healthcare” and calling it benchmark alignment. The rubric asks you to clearly align your proposed plan to specific benchmarks and current trends. That means data, specific industry standards, and named trends — not general statements.
What “Clearly Aligned” Requires
Your plan — the recruitment strategy, the onboarding timelines, the mentorship structure — should be explicitly connected to what the healthcare industry considers best practice. That means referencing specific sources: ACHE succession planning resources, SHRM healthcare talent benchmarks, government workforce data from HRSA, or peer-reviewed research on healthcare leadership development. Generic claims about the talent shortage without cited evidence earn Emerging at best.
Trends worth addressing in 2024–2025: The ongoing healthcare leadership shortage, particularly post-pandemic retirement acceleration among senior managers; the shift toward proactive versus reactive succession planning; the integration of data-driven talent analytics in healthcare HR; growing emphasis on internal mobility over external hiring; the specific competitive dynamics of health system consolidation affecting recruitment (which speaks directly to the Piedmont scenario).ACHE Healthcare Leadership Resources
ACHE publishes succession planning guidance and leadership transition research specific to health system executives and managers. Peer connections and formal education resources from ACHE are directly citable as industry benchmarks.
SHRM Healthcare HR Data
The Society for Human Resource Management publishes healthcare-specific workforce data including turnover rates, time-to-fill benchmarks for leadership roles, and onboarding effectiveness research. These numbers anchor your timelines and metrics to industry standards.
HRSA Workforce Reports
The Health Resources and Services Administration publishes national healthcare workforce projections. Referencing HRSA data on projected leadership shortages connects your plan to documented supply-demand dynamics in the healthcare talent market.
WorkDove 9 Box Grid Article
The assigned course preparation reading on the 9 Box Grid and Performance-Values Matrix is a directly applicable benchmark for how organisations assess succession candidates. Use it in both section four and section five.
Peer-Reviewed Healthcare Management Journals
The Journal of Healthcare Management, Health Care Management Review, and Health Services Management Research publish peer-reviewed research on succession planning and leadership development in health systems. These are the scholarly works the rubric refers to.
Health System Consolidation & Talent Competition
The ongoing consolidation of regional health systems — directly relevant to the Piedmont vs. Wellstar dynamic — is a documented trend affecting healthcare recruitment strategy. Citing research on this positions your plan in a real market context.
Choosing Your Sources and APA Formatting (5%)
Three reputable sources minimum. The rubric also specifies what counts: trade or industry publications, government websites, scholarly works, or sources of similar quality. That means no Wikipedia, no general blogs, no sources without identifiable authorship and dates.
The WorkDove article on the 9 Box Grid is specifically assigned as preparation reading. Citing it in your plan — particularly in sections four and five — is appropriate and shows direct engagement with the course material. APA format for a web article: Author Last, First. (Year). Title of article. Website Name. URL
University of Phoenix courses use APA 7th edition. Title page, running head (institutional level), in-text citations with author-year, and a reference page. For healthcare administration papers at graduate level, every factual claim — statistics, benchmarks, policy frameworks, onboarding timelines drawn from the literature — needs an in-text citation. Your checklist and tables should cite any methodology or framework they are based on.
The rubric says “scholarly works” among its accepted source types. Include at least one peer-reviewed journal article. The Journal of Healthcare Management is the most directly relevant and is freely searchable through most university library databases. Search terms: succession planning, healthcare leadership development, health system talent management.
A reference page with five sources where only two appear in the body text is padding — and markers notice. Every source in your reference list should have a corresponding in-text citation. Every in-text citation should have a reference list entry. For guidance on citation rules and APA formatting, see our APA citation guide and the section on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism.
Document Structure and Word Count
The assessment asks for 1,050 to 1,400 words. The checklist, tables, visuals, reference page, and title page do not count toward that total — but confirm this interpretation with your instructor if you are borderline. What does count is the prose content of each section.
How Students Under-Deliver on This Assessment
Spending 600 words on the recruitment plan and two paragraphs on benchmarks. Describing the checklist rather than creating it. Writing a generic mentorship paragraph rather than a proposed policy. Citing three sources but only using them in one section. These are the patterns that push grades from Accomplished to Emerging or Beginning.
How to Distribute Your Words Effectively
Allocate roughly 200–250 words per content section — that distributes your 1,050–1,400 words evenly across the five equally-weighted criteria. If your checklist is thorough and well-structured, the onboarding section itself may run shorter in prose. Use that space in the benchmark or mentorship sections. The checklist is a deliverable, not a word-count substitute.
APA title page → Introduction (brief, 1–2 paragraphs orienting the reader to the Wellstar scenario) → Rapid Departure Mitigation → Recruitment Plan → Preboarding Checklist [insert formatted checklist here] → 30/90/180-Day Onboarding Plan [insert formatted table here] → Succession Plan and Mentorship Plan → Benchmark and Trend Alignment → Conclusion (brief) → References. Running headers throughout in APA format.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Help With Your MHA/543 Succession Plan Before the Deadline?
Our healthcare administration specialists can draft, review, or strengthen your Week 6 assessment — rubric-aligned, APA-formatted, and built around the Wellstar scenario your programme specifies.
Healthcare Assignment Help Get StartedThe Bottom Line
Five sections. Each worth 19%. None of them optional. The students who score Accomplished on this assessment are the ones who treat each criterion as a standalone deliverable — not as a paragraph in a general paper about succession planning.
Start with the rubric language. “Thoroughly described.” “Thoughtfully proposed.” “Fully created.” “Comprehensively proposed.” “Clearly aligned.” These are your targets. Work backward from those standards to decide how detailed each section needs to be. Then build your checklist as a real formatted table, anchor your benchmarks to cited data, and connect your mentorship plan directly to the two-year employee the scenario puts in front of you.
For support with this assessment, related MHA coursework, APA formatting, and healthcare administration writing — see our public health assignment help, proofreading and editing, and APA citation guide.
Continue building your MHA writing skills: public health assignment help · APA citation guide · citing sources and avoiding plagiarism · report writing services · literature review writing · case study writing · proofreading and editing · understanding rubrics · academic writing services