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High-Impact Talent Management
Workforce, Capability & Succession Planning
McLean & Company is a research and advisory firm that provides practical solutions
to human resources challenges with executable research, tools, and advice that will have a
clear and measurable impact on your business. © 1997-2016 McLean & Company.
McLean & Company is a division of Info-Tech Research Group Inc.
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Are you confused? I am!
• Talent Management
◦ People Strategy?
◦ Workforce Planning?
◦ Succession Planning?
◦ Capability Development?
◦ Talent Development?
◦ Leadership Development?
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Moving Target
• Talent Management was mostly for leaders
◦ There was an abundance of skilled candidates
◦ Begged the question: So are only Leaders “Talent”?
◦ Elitism trumped democratic people practices
• Demographics have changed
◦ Talent is now scarce, globally
◦ Employees expect development
◦ Certain skilled roles are as important as leaders
• Talent Management is now an enterprise function
◦ Focused on leader and difficult-to-fill roles
◦ This could mean most, in today’s environment
◦ Increasingly transparent and “latticed”
How do you think about Talent Management in your organization?
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Talent Management by Bersin
Strategy, Workforce Planning and Capability Management
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Dynamics today require a flexible and simple approach…
Step 1: Establish project rationale
Develop a business case for planning.
Step 2: Assess the foundation
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
Align and connect key HR practices to
support the success of your planning.
Step 3: Identify key gaps
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
Select which key gaps will be
incorporated into the plan. Keep the
requirements broad enough for diversity
in potential successors.
Step 4: Identify successors and
talent pools
Assess internal talent and determine
who should go where.
Step 5: Manage succession
Plan for ongoing communication,
tracking, development, and updates.
Step 4
We will call it succession planning
but it is workforce and talent planning
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Step 1: Establish Project Rationale
Section summary and deliverables:
After completing this section you will have:
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
• A business case for flexible workforce and
succession planning.
Deliverables:
• List of your organization’s pain points and
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
flexibility issues from succession planning.
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
Step 4
Workshop activities in the step:
1.1
Identify pain points from your current or non-existent succession plan.
1.2
Assess roadblocks to implementing flexible succession planning.
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Succession Planning was the least effective Talent
Management area in the 2016 Trends and Priorities Survey
Talent Management Area Effectiveness
Effectiveness Score
Succession
Planning was
tied with
Metrics &
Analytics as
the least
effective of
all 30 HR
areas
surveyed. It is
also the top
priority Talent
Management
area.
Low Effectiveness (1-2)
Moderate Effectiveness (3-4)
Note: Results are shown as the percentage of respondents who selected 5 or 6 on a 6-point scale.
High Effectiveness (5-6)
McLean & Company, HR Trends & Priorities
for 2016, N = 555
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Traditional succession plans often fail in high-change
environments because they aren’t agile or integrated
Traditional succession plans are…
1
Too focused on the long term
The business environment is more dynamic and uncertain than ever and
constantly changing.
• Key roles today may not exist tomorrow or may exist in multiples to catch up
with business requirements.
• Changes can occur multiple times within the 5-10 year planning time frame.
2
Too narrow-sighted
The traditional focus on
upper management leaves
organizations unprepared
when critical turnover
happens lower down –
leaving them vulnerable.
People don’t stay in jobs 5-10 years anymore.
• Millennials don’t stay in jobs for as long as previous generations.
o In a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor statistics, 91% of
Millennials expected to stay in a job for less than 3 years.*
• In place of retirement, many Baby Boomers are leaving their full-time jobs for
flexible work arrangements that suit their changing lifestyle.
• Globalization and technology mean employees have more – and easier –
access to job opportunities.
o Example: Pursuing passive candidates through LinkedIn or other social
media sites is now commonplace. That means it is much more likely for
employees who weren’t looking for another opportunity to be lured away.
3
Too disconnected
Succession planning often
isn’t properly integrated with
other talent management
initiatives, leading to
duplication of effort and lost
opportunities.
* Source: Meister, “Job Hopping Is the 'New Normal' for Millennials” (emphasis added)
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Rigid succession planning – or no plan –
leaves the organization vulnerable
Without responsive succession planning, the organization is too slow to respond to
sudden critical vacancies, so there is no ready successor when vacancies occur.
This translates into lost knowledge and, often, high costs.
Knowledge loss
• Succession planning is critical to ensure that the knowledge held by those in key roles is
successfully passed down to successors.
• Knowledge loss also:
o Creates inefficiency as people duplicate effort to solve problems and find solutions.
o Reduces capacity to innovate.
o Negatively impacts competitive advantage.
o Exposes the organization to the risk of not knowing what to expect.
High recruitment costs
Productivity Loss
• If an organization has no prepared successors, it must
• If an organization has no prepared successors, it must
seek outside talent…which can come at a steep cost.
• According to a study conducted by the Saratoga
Institute*, the cost of an external hire can be 1.7
times more than that of an internal successor.
spend time finding an external replacement. In the
meantime, either the critical role’s work isn’t done and there
is a direct vacancy cost; or it is filled by an underqualified
employee on an interim basis. In either case, productivity
costs can be high.
* Source: Business Time, “The Power Within” (emphasis added)
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Activity: Identify pain points from your current
or non-existent workforce succession plan
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1.1
1. If your organization currently does succession
planning, discuss how flexible your process is.
Brainstorm and list components of your succession
planning process that make it difficult to adapt.
2. Discuss pain points that your organization faces
as a result of your succession plan or lack thereof.
Start with pain points on the previous slide. Brainstorm
and list additional pain points and examples.
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Organizations are missing out on the most impactful HR trend
for 2016: Using talent pools for succession planning
Implemented Talent Management Trends
13th
18th**
*
20th
*
Talent pool
succession
planning, a flexible
and change-oriented
approach, scored in
the top half of
emerging trends. It
was identified as the
“Most Impactful”*
trend in 2016 and
2015.
24th
McLean & Company, HR Trends & Priorities for 2016, N = 476
.
**Impact: Denotes a top 10 most impactful trend. Respondents selected which one of the trends they had implemented was the most
impactful. A weighted average was then used to rank them. Refer to McLean & Company’s HR Trends & Priorities for 2016 blueprint.
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Flexible succession planning uses talent pools for a
change-oriented focus and broader application
Traditional
Succession Planning
Flexible Succession
Planning
What it is:
• Process for identifying
and developing
employees to fill key
senior leader positions.
What it is:
• Identification of at-risk
job pools and selection
and development of
employee talent pools to
progress through pools.
Who it plans for:
• Key senior leadership
business positions.
• 1-2 employees.
Who it plans for:
• Key senior leadership
business positions, key
individuals, job pools.
• Larger employee pools.
Time frame is:
• Long term
(3-5 years).
Time frame is:
• Short and long term
(1-3 years and 3+ years).
Successors come from:
• A level/tier below the
senior leadership
position within the same
function.
• Successors come
from:
Levels/tiers below and at
the level of the role,
across different functions
in the organization.
Flexible succession planning employs
3 of 4 of the values of Agile* ideology:
1. Adaptability: Run on a short-term timeline for
developing successors, which allows flexibility
for changes as they occur in the organization or
in the business environment. Develop a poolbased approach to ensure that there is a broad
supply of ready-to-go successors.
2. Simplicity: Straightforward process that can
be clearly communicated and understood by
leaders required to identify and develop talent,
as well as employees who are part of the plan.
3. Unity: Interconnected with components across
other HR practices, as well as overall strategy
of the business, to meet business goals.
Transparency is the final agile value. The ideal
amount of transparency depends on the culture.
* Source: HR Reporter, “What is Agile Human Resources?”
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Mitigate pains and create opportunity for positive business
impact with a flexible approach to succession planning
Flexibility allows the organization to have the right people, with
the right skills, ready at the right time for key roles.
• Develop successors for the short and long term.
◦
Short-term time frames cover the unexpected vacancies, while long-term time frames
are the well-known and planned departures of individuals from critical roles.
• Incorporate and streamline other HR practices to reduce duplication of effort and
minimize administration required to procure information.
• Account for critical roles across all levels of the organization with minimal extra
planning and prepare the organization for unexpected vacant positions by addressing
roles or jobs from a “pool perspective.”
• Support the creation of better employee development plans which are more focused
on career development – a big employee engagement driver.
A WorldatWork
survey on talent
management and
rewards found that
48% of
respondents used
talent pools for
key organizational
roles as a part of
their succession
planning process.
Source:
WorldatWork,
Leading Through
Uncertain Times
Succession planning, by definition, is a long-term process, but businesses rarely stay the same for
very long. By the time many succession plans have arrived at a solution, successors have already left,
and the organization, positions, and job structures all may have changed in the interim. Therefore,
plan for change; in fact, make change a key part of the succession plan.
Source: Porr, Agile Succession: HR's Toughest Challenge (emphasis added)
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There are barriers that stand in the way of launching a flexible
approach
Disconnected HR practices
• The shorter term, change-focus of
a flexible succession planning
approach requires timely
information from a variety of HR
practices.
• If HR practice areas are not
connected, then more time and
effort will be required to solicit
necessary information.
Limited potential successors
• The use of broad pools requires
that employees be sourced from
different areas of the organization.
• If there is no process in place to
accurately and adequately assess
the competencies required to be
successful in a role, it is difficult for
managers to expand their view on
who can go where.
Tracking successors
• Keeping up-to-date records is vital
to ensure you can accurately
predict who goes where when an
unexpected vacancy occurs.
• Tools and templates should be
simple to encourage timely
updating; if they are cumbersome,
those tasked with updating will
likely put it off – and succession
planning will become stale.
Managing the succession plan
• As a process with both a short and
long-term view, flexible succession
planning needs to be managed
long after planning and initial
implementation; it requires frequent
updates, reviews, and changes.
• Organizations often think their work
is done once the succession plan is
implemented and do not carry out
the activities necessary to maintain
a robust plan.
Inaccurate assessment of talent
• In order to develop the right
employees for succession
planning, you need to first identify
who they are and what makes them
“right” to be included in the plan.
• If a thorough candidate profile isn’t
created, you risk succession
planning decision making based on
incomplete talent assessment or
favoritism/bias.
In the 2016 HR Trends
& Priorities Survey, only
25% of respondents
rated “Internal Talent
Assessment” as very
effective.
McLean & Company,
2016, N=555
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Step 2: Assess the foundation
Section summary and deliverables:
After completing this section you will have:
a) Learned what HR practices directly support
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
succession planning.
b) Reviewed your HR practices for basic
alignment for succession planning.
c) Assembled a succession planning committee.
d) Defined metrics to measure project success.
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
Step 4
Deliverables:
• Flexible Succession Planning Key Foundational
Practices Guide.
•
•
•
•
Talent Management Cycle Framework.
Succession plan committee guidelines.
Flexible Succession Plan Committee Charter.
Project metrics list.
Workshop activities in the step:
2.1
Review key foundational practices.
2.2
Determine which key foundational practices will be built.
2.3
Assemble the succession plan committee.
2.4
Set project metrics to track progress.
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Establish key foundational practices to support succession
goals before, during, and after planning
Talent Management Cycle
The Talent Management Cycle shows key
practices that support succession planning.
3 Develop Talent
Incorporate these key practices into your
succession planning process:
•
•
•
•
1 Evaluate Talent
2 Review Talent
Succession
Planning
Workforce Planning
Internal Talent Assessment
Competencies
Performance Management
◦
◦
Performance Appraisal
Internal Talent
Assessment
Competencies
High Potential
Development
Review
Meeting
Leadership
Development
Calibration
Meeting
Review Meeting and Calibration Meeting
• Career Path Planning
Where is Career Path Planning?
• Career path planning is not included in this
diagram because it operates within the other
key practice activities.
• A career path framework is used to determine
gaps for workforce planning and focus the
development of talent for employees.
Employee
Development
Performance
Appraisal
Workforce Planning
4 Manage Talent
= Talent
Management
Activities
= Performance
Management
Activities
= Learning &
Development
Activities
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Use the Flexible Succession Plan Key Foundational Practices
Guide to identify what practices you have in place
Key practices support the successful development and management of
flexible succession plans.
This template will help you:
•
•
•
•
Understand what key foundational
practices are recommended for flexible
succession planning.
Determine which key foundational
practices you currently have in place.
Decide which practices you will implement.
Record a plan of action for how to put
practices into place.
Complete this tool with members of the HR
team.
Determine what key practices you
have by using the Flexible Succession
Plan Key Foundational Practices Guide
template.
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Key Practice: Workforce Planning
What it is:
Systematic process designed to identify and address gaps in
today’s workforce and the human capital needs of the future. It
is the cornerstone for all strategic HR decisions.
Workforce planning is a high-level planning process which does
not take individual employees into consideration. Succession
planning looks at individuals and will be discussed in the next
section.
Required elements:
• Competencies the organization
needs to meet business goals
• Critical gaps in the organization
If you don’t have the required elements:
• The process of succession planning described
in this project will guide you through how to get
the elements defined above.
Why you need it for flexible succession planning:
Strategic workforce plans give you a narrow basis of gaps to
determine which ones are critical and should be addressed
through succession planning.
See McLean & Company’s Develop a Departmental
Strategic Workforce Plan to meet future talent
requirements by taking action now.
When you need them during the project:
Step 2: Identify key gaps to be planned for.
To determine what key roles, individuals, or job pools need
planning and help narrow down the list of jobs that will
ultimately be put into the succession plan.
Workforce planning and succession
planning are closely related. Workforce
planning focuses on changing the size,
distribution, and composition of the
workforce to meet future needs in an
orderly, controlled, and efficient manner. It
focuses on the workforce as a whole.
Succession planning focuses on people,
including the replacement of individuals or
groups of people in the workforce.
Source: State of Delaware Office of Management
& Budget/Human Resources Management,
Workforce and Succession Planning FAQ
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Key Practice: Internal talent assessment or 9-box
What it is:
A process used to identify where employees stand on a talent
spectrum of performance and potential. Ideally, it incorporates
information from a 9-box talent grid assessment.
Why you need it for flexible succession planning:
Results of the talent assessment – alone or coupled with a 9box talent grid – are used to determine which employees should
be placed into the succession plan.
See McLean & Company’s Build & Implement a 9-Box
Talent Grid to Assess Employee Talent for help setting
up your own talent review process.
When you need it during the project:
Step 3: Identify successors and talent pools.
Assign employees to appropriate talent pools. Note: These will
be your organization’s best talent; the 9-box talent grid identifies
them as “Top Talent.”
Step 4: Put the plan into action.
Ensure talent pools always contain top talent by annually
reviewing 9-box talent grid / talent review results.
Required elements:
• 9-box talent grid (recommended)
• Talent Review meetings
• Talent Calibration meetings
If you don’t have the required elements:
• Identify how you will define talent in your
organization.
o Note: The 9-box talent grid uses High,
Medium, and Low levels of Performance
and Potential to define talent.
• Run review meetings for managers to share
where their employees lie on the talent
spectrum and calibrate placements. Use
results to determine suitable candidates for
succession planning.
In a survey done on 43 organizations around
the world, 86% of respondents indicated that
an effective system for assessing talent was
essential for conducting their succession
planning.
Source: Right Management, Managing Succession
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Key Practice: Competencies
What they are:
The critical behaviors for roles within the organization which aid
in a range of HR practices including recruiting, performance
management, development, and succession planning.
Why you need it for flexible succession planning:
To determine what criteria employees need to meet in order to
be a part of the plan, as well as what criteria they will need to
develop in order to eventually become a successor.
See McLean & Company’s Develop a Comprehensive
Competency Framework blueprint to help you identify
competencies that make sense for your organization.
When you need them during the project:
Step 2: Identify key gaps to be planned for.
Determine role requirements for each key gap.
Step 3: Identify successors and talent pools.
Establish required competencies to qualify for a pool.
Step 4: Put the plan into action.
Focus employee development planning around competency
and pool requirements.
Required elements:
• Core Competencies
• Leadership Competencies
• Functional Competencies
If you don’t have the required elements:
• Use our Comprehensive Competency Library
to pick:
o 3-5 core competencies that apply to
everyone in the organization.
o 3-5 leadership competencies that reflect the
top tier in your organization.
o 3-5 functional competencies for each job
function.
• Assign different levels to each competency and
use those as requirements and development
objectives for succession planning.
In many instances [succession] “grooming”
focuses on the technical/professional parts
of the higher-level job with little effort being
made to develop the competencies that are so
critical to successful performance.
Source: CPS HR Services,
Competency-Based Succession Planning
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Key Practice: Performance Management
What it is:
A process of reviewing and managing an employee’s
performance and contributions within the role and the
organization at large.
Why you need it for flexible succession planning:
To determine the strength of an employee’s performance, to set
criteria for who can be placed into the succession plan process,
and to assess if an employee should be placed into or removed
from a talent pool.
See McLean & Company’s Modernize the Performance
Appraisal to develop effective performance management
processes.
When you need it during the project:
Step 3: Identify successors and talent pools.
To select candidates for talent pools based on their
performance level; typically high performer employees.
Step 4: Put the plan into action.
To frequently assess employees in the succession plan, help
them develop required competencies, and manage their
performance accordingly to help them progress.
Required elements:
• Clear performance expectations
• Identification of high performers
• Performance calibration
If you don’t have the required elements:
• Start by getting managers and employees to
meet quarterly to discuss:
o Expectations and goal setting.
o Feedback and coaching.
o Assessment and self-assessment
results.
• Continuously compile employee results and
discuss with managers to calibrate and ensure
that results accurately reflect employee
performance.
You need to have a robust performance
management program and well-trained
managers for succession planning to work. If
you have a large organization, the leadership
team needs to be able to trust those managers’
assessment of employees so that the right
employees make it into the plan.
– Senior HR Leader, Research Industry
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Key Practice: Career Path Planning
What it is:
Framework with consistently defined career tiers,
competencies, and proficiency levels and potential career path
opportunities. The framework should move beyond traditional
career ladders to career lattices that introduce lateral career
moves, or non-promotion moves, into the career path model.
Why you need it for flexible succession planning:
A career framework helps identify transferrable skills for
movement into both horizontal and lateral career moves which
reduces linear thinking of which employees can move into
which roles. It also enables employee development and builds
the talent pipeline – a business necessity in the face of skills
gaps.
See McLean & Company’s Establish an Enterprise-Wide
Career Path Framework for more information on career
path planning.
When you need it during the project:
Step 2: Identify key gaps to be planned for.
Use the competencies for each key gap to create profiles
that will ultimately be used to understand which employees
can be developed to succeed into the gap.
Required elements:
• Competencies identified for
each tier in the organization
If you don’t have the required elements:
• Identify ideal number of tiers (no more than ten)
for your framework using existing organizational
programs and goals.
• Select core and common competencies and
assign proficiency levels of each for each tier.
• Select job family specific competencies for each
tier as they apply to benchmark roles within job
families.
• Use the results to develop profiles for key gaps
and talent pools.
Having a career framework can help
organizations understand where their talent
is concentrated; how prepared or illprepared they are to meet future human
resources challenges…
Source: Belcom & Kegerise, Establishing a
Career Framework to Maximize Employee
Potential and Support Business Needs
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Assemble a steering committee of key organizational
stakeholders to govern and manage the succession plan
HR should not run succession planning alone, because the
plan encompasses critical roles that have an impact across
all functions and levels of the organization; senior leaders
need to take ownership of planning.
Here are the following recommended stakeholders and the
role they should play in the succession planning process:
Stakeholders
Role
Why they are essential players
Human
Resources
Program facilitators who
are the central point of
contact for succession
planning and tracking.
They are responsible for keeping the program on track and
supplementing the planning process with information from HR
practices such as performance management, internal talent
assessment, and others. They are the subject-matter experts and
need to provide other committee members with pointers on the
topic.
Senior
Leadership/
Board of Directors
Program owners who
develop the succession plan
and have a hand in
managing the roll out and
employee development.
Their input is required for determining which roles and
corresponding employees will be critical to achieving strategic
objectives and goals. Include the Board of Directors, if you have
one, as the decision makers for CEO and executive/senior
placements.
Senior Managers Program liaisons who
(or one level up
from the succession
candidates being
assessed)
enforce the succession plan
with employees and provide
information for developing
the plan.
They have more direct contact with the managers of employees
and can get information on how they perform, how to develop
them, and what an employee’s overall talent level is. They may
not be included in all committee meetings, but will be required to
source information for the process.
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Establish committee guidelines to engage members in
planning and set governance for the process going forward
Engaging in group brainstorming and coming to a consensus on committee governance will fast track the
group from forming to performing, ready to engage in the succession planning process to come. Have HR
work with the Senior Managers and/or the Board of Directors to finalize governance.
Decide on the following items of information:
•
Purpose
o The high-level reasoning for wanting to do succession planning.
•
Stakeholders involved and their role
o Refer to the stakeholder chart on the previous slide.
•
Responsibilities
o The activities that the committee will carry out in order to achieve the
goals of the purpose, including: selecting roles to plan for, selecting
employees, generating development initiatives to keep employees on
track, and managing the plan once it has been implemented.
•
Frequency of meeting
o How often and when the committee will meet to carry out their
responsibilities. We recommend large amounts of time be set aside
upfront for the first round of planning and that the committee meet on a
biannual basis afterwards.
•
Reporting measures
o The results of the activities that the committee carries out and how they
will be tracked. This includes the succession plan in itself as well as any
metrics used to measure project success.
•
Confidentiality requirements
o Who is privy to which information.
Record this information in a
document that will serve as the
Succession Planning Steering
Committee’s Charter.
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Set project metrics to determine success after implementation
Select metrics based on the outcomes that you want to drive.
Improved Efficiency
Cost Savings
Increased number of internal promotions/movement
Measure from: The number of lateral and horizontal
movements of employees from succession talent pools
before and after the project.
Decreased unnecessary recruitment costs
Measure from: The cost of recruiting for positions that
could be filled internally before and after project
implementation.
Increased readiness of successors
Measure from: The percent of employees in succession
talent pools that are ready to succeed the incumbent.
Consulting costs versus using McLean’s &
Company resources
Compare the cost of an onsite consultant walking you
through the project against the cost of using this
Blueprint to implement your project either on your own,
with Guided Implementations, or with a workshop.
Increased succession pool
Measure from: The number of employees in the pool
before and after the project.
Success rate of employees moving up from the
succession pool
Measure from: The average ratings/scores/talent review
placements of employees who have moved into a role
from succession planning.
Increased pools/positions with ready successors
Measure from: Number of positions with successors
before and after project.
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Step 3: Identify key gaps
Section summary and deliverables:
After completing this section you will have:
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
a) Identified key gaps.
b) Skills profiles for each key gap.
c) Determined which key gaps will be included in
the succession plan.
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Deliverables:
• Flexible Succession Plan Tracking Tool.
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
Step 4
Workshop activities in the step:
3.1
Identify business strategy and initiatives that key gaps will be determined from.
3.2
Identify key gaps from business initiatives.
3.3
Develop profiles for key gaps.
3.4
Assess the risk of departure for each key gap.
3.5
Select key gaps to be placed into succession planning.
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What is a key gap?
Definition: A key gap is a current or future vacancy that, if left open, would negatively impact the organization’s ability to
function towards achieving its main objectives. Key gaps are planned for by using succession planning, talent acquisition,
retention strategies, or general talent development.
Key gaps include:
• Strategic Roles: Roles that give the greatest competitive advantage. Often
these are roles that involve decision-making responsibility.
• Core Roles: Roles that must provide consistent results to achieve business
goals.
Key Roles
• Proprietary Roles: Roles that are tied closely to unique or proprietary internal
processes or knowledge that cannot be procured externally. These are often
highly technical or specialized.
• Required Roles: Roles that support the department and are required to keep it
moving forward day to day.
Key
Individuals
• These individuals are the backbone of the organization and the go-to people
who form the corporate culture.
• It is their skills, knowledge, and experience that makes them critical to your
organization and not necessarily the role that they currently inhabit.
• Groupings of similar key roles that can be filled by employees from varying
backgrounds.
Key Job
Pools
• Roles that have similar skills and competencies.
• May not be comprised of current key roles or roles that currently exist, but
cover expectancies for the creation of future vacancies.
• Job pools make your succession plan more flexible to anticipate needs and
roles not yet created.
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Begin the process of identifying key gaps by reviewing
business strategy and initiatives
1. Identify business strategy
2. Determine initiatives
3. Select key gaps
Work with the committee in the process of identifying key gaps. Identify strategy and initiatives with the support of senior
leadership and the Board of Directors.
2
1
Identify business strategy
Develop desired state:
• Describe the organization you wish
to have by identifying the ideal
Culture, People, Processes, and
Technology (CPPT).
• Develop the ideal state for a shortterm time frame, between 3-5 years.
This is short enough to account for
major changes, but cover a
significant enough amount of time
for them to be achieved.
Assess current state:
• Review where the organization
currently stands in terms of its
Culture, People, Processes, and
Technology (CPPT).
• Brutal honesty when assessing the
current state will result in better
initiatives, as more accuracy can be
placed on what needs to get done to
close the gap.
Determine initiatives
Conduct a gap analysis:
• Initiatives guide how the
organization will get from the
current state to the future state.
• For each factor of CPPT,
determine whether:
o You need to take action.
o What kind of change you
need to make.
o Workforce implications of the
change.
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Map roles, individuals, and job pools that support initiatives to
determine what the organization’s key gaps are
1. Identify business strategy
2. Determine initiatives
3. Select key gaps
Bring in the help of senior managers on the committee to define key gaps. Senior managers will understand the majority of
roles, individuals, and job pools better than the rest of committee. Their input will be vital to selection.
3
Select key gaps
Map key gaps back to your initiatives
• Determine criticality by reviewing which key gaps:
o Generate business results that directly impact an
initiative.
o Are unique to the organization.
o Have a specialized skill set.
o Are needed for meeting compliance requirements.
o Would create process failure if absent from the
organization.
o Have a direct impact on the customer base.
• Work your way through initiatives from most important to
least important.
• Assessing senior leadership roles first will reveal the most
obvious key gaps.
o Start with the top ranks of the organization and work
your way down and across the organization to cover all
possibilities for key gaps.
Key Foundational Practice: A strategic workforce plan
provides you with the information necessary to
understand what your key gaps are.
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Example: Identify key gaps by reviewing strategy, setting
initiatives, mapping key gaps from initiatives
1
2
Identify business strategy
Develop desired state:
Employees who want to continually improve
their skills.
Assess current state:
Highly intelligent, committed people who care
about the organization and its mission and want
to learn more.
Determine initiatives
Conduct a gap analysis:
HR will also have to develop and standardize a
learning & development program for
employees at different levels.
3
Select key gaps
Map key gaps back to your initiatives
Key roles
•Director of Learning: Critical to setting the strategy for and overseeing the L&D function.
•Systems Administrator: Directly manages the learning management system.
Key individuals
Ally A. is the Instructional Designer for learning programs, and has a rare knowledge of all functions
across the organization for developing programs.
Job pools
The training delivery job pool, made up of training managers that train and interact with participants.
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Case Study: This organization failed to realize they had a key
gap with an important individual
Low-level roles can become critical to business
continuation if they’re occupied by only one person,
creating a “single point of failure” if they become vacant.
Source: Large Provincial Hospital
Situation
• The Payroll Manager of
a large Provincial
hospital, with a 20-year
tenure, announced her
retirement.
• Throughout her tenure,
this employee took on
many tasks outside the
scope of her role,
including pension
calculations/filings and
other finance-related
tasks that required a
high level of specialized
knowledge of internal
systems.
Action
• Little time or effort was
placed on fully
understanding what she
did day to day.
• Furthermore, the search
for a replacement was
left far too late, which
meant that she vacated
the role without training
a replacement.
Key Gap: Payroll Manager
Results
• It wasn’t until after she
left that it became
obvious how much extra
work she was doing,
which made it nearly
impossible to find a
replacement.
• Her manager found a
replacement to take the
payroll duties, but had to
distribute the other
duties to colleagues
(who were very unhappy
about the extra tasks).
Lessons learned
• At first glance, this role
may not seem like a “key
role,” but the incumbent
turned it into one.
• Do not forget to include
those individuals that
carry a unique skillset or
experience within the
organization so that you
can start building up
employees in talent
pools to develop similar
traits.
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Create profiles for each key gap to document requirements
Work with senior managers to compile requirements for each
key gap. In most cases they will have the most knowledge on the key
gap and will be most familiar with the sources that they can draw the
requirements from.
Document key gap profiles in McLean &
Company’s Flexible Succession Tracking
Tool.
Start with the incumbents:
Interview them and those who work closely with them.
• Determine what competencies they use on the job and what levels.
• Identify specific credentials employees uses on the job.
Profiles for each key gap will:
Then assess the key gap that the fill objectively:
Use job descriptions, observations, and/or focus groups to determine
what it takes to be successful in the key role. Ensure that you can
answer to the following questions:
• Determine what development is necessary
•
•
•
•
•
What competencies are required to do the job?
What proficiency level of the competencies are required?
• Outline what competencies and knowledge
are required to be successful in the key
gap.
to build up required competencies and
knowledge.
• Clarify what next steps should be taken to
address the key gap; whether it should be
in the succession plan or not.
What credentials, designations, or education are required?
What special or unique experiences are required?
Are there any new competencies that may be required in the future
to increase the effectiveness of the job?
Key Foundational Practice: Use your organization’s core, leadership,
and functional competencies to build requirements.
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Assess risk of departure for each key gap in succession plan
Understanding the risk of departure of the
current incumbent in a key gap will help:
• Identify timelines for selecting a successor.
o
A high risk of departure means you should
start the process now, whereas a lower risk
means that you still have time to build and
train up candidates.
• Determine the type and pace of development
that should be provided for potential
successors.
• Finalize which key gaps should be included in
the succession plan and which ones can wait.
o
The risk of their departure will help you
prioritize which ones should be included in
succession planning, especially if you have
capacity constraints on the number of key
gaps in the plan.
Work with senior managers to gather incumbent
information and get an idea for their risk of departure
with the following guidelines.
There is a high risk of departure if:
The employee is nearing retirement,
actively job searching, disengaged, or
faces dismissal.
There is a medium risk of departure if:
The employee is sending mixed
messages about happiness at work or
sending no messages; it may be difficult
to guess.
There is a low risk of departure if:
The employee is new to the role, highly
engaged, a high potential, in their mid to
late 50s.
• Senior managers can gather this info from the incumbents profile. Seek out: performance
appraisal results, engagement with the organization, next steps in their career path, and tenure.
• Contrast this information against demographic trends of the key gap including historical turnover
and retirement rates.
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Use results from key gap profiles and risk assessment to
determine which ones should be put into your succession plan
Not all key gaps belong in succession plans.
• Some gaps may already have individuals ready.
• Others require different HR processes and approaches.
Don’t forget to plan for key gaps that don’t make
it into the succession plan. Ensure that they are
included in talent acquisition plans, retention
initiatives, and knowledge transfer programs.
Involve all committee members, senior leaders, senior managers, and the Board for final input into which
key gaps should be in the succession plan. Have senior leader(s) make the final decisions.
Place key gaps into the succession plan that:
• Require learning & development opportunities and
resources that your organization can provide.
o If they require development beyond what your
organization can offer, then it may be more cost
effective to recruit externally for the position.
• Have a medium to high risk of departure.
o These are red flags for the organization and
should start having successors developed for
them immediately.
• Can be filled more cost effectively internally than
externally.
Do not place key gaps into the succession plan that:
• Have many employees in the job market that can be
easily and quickly hired for it.
o In this situation, a cost-benefit analysis can
determine that it is more profitable to recruit
externally than develop internally.
• Are so high risk that there is no time at all to develop the
skills required for the key gap in an employee in the
organization.
• May have a need for a unique perspective and fresh
approach that can only be brought in externally from an
individual with diversity of thought.
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Step 4: Identify successors and talent pools
Section summary and deliverables:
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
After completing this section you will have:
a) Well-defined succession talent pools.
b) Employee placements in succession talent
pools.
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
c) Development initiatives for each talent pool.
Deliverables:
• Flexible Succession Plan Tracking Tool
Step 4
Workshop activities in the step:
4.1
Create talent pools and define requirements for membership in the pool.
4.2
Create high-level development objectives for succession talent pools.
4.3
Populate talent pools and assess employee readiness.
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What is a talent pool?
Definition: Talent pools consist of employees that are chosen and developed based on specific key gap(s). When the key
gap(s) becomes vacant, the successor will be selected from the talent pool.
Talent pools should map back to the key gaps they are
developed for.
This ensures that those included in the pool and the
development that they receive reflects the key gaps for a
successful transition.
Talent pools may address more than one key gap.
Key roles, and individuals that were not previously grouped
together in the previous section as job pools, may finally be
lumped together as one talent pool develops employees for
several positions throughout the organization.
Talent pools should have their own requirements.
Criteria for who can be placed into the talent pool reduces the
pre-screening required on candidates who eventually are
selected to succeed into key gaps.
Talent pools should have their own development.
This will guide what activities, programs, and initiatives
employees in that group should be working towards.
Development should be based on the competencies that were
identified for the key gaps that the pool is designed to source.
Talent
pool
Final
successor
Key gap they
are ready to
fill
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Example: Identify successors and talent pools by mapping to
key gaps, setting requirements, and building development
Key Gap: Director of Learning
Talent Pool: Director Pool
• The talent pool also covers other key gaps,
including the Director of Planning and the Director
of Marketing.
• Requirements to be in the pool include leadershiplevel competencies and core competencies.
• Development for the pool includes attending
leadership coaching sessions, support from a
director-level mentor, and formal training.
• Employees who met the requirements come from
different silos and levels within the organization.
McLean & Co. Insight
Keep your talent pools diverse. If you find that after
placing employees in talent pools the profile for each
employee is very similar, you should investigate to see
if there is bias in your evaluation or selection process.
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Set the minimum requirements for each talent pool to
determine which employees are suitable for placement in them
The minimum competency level
The competencies required should be derived from
the profiles created for the key gaps that the talent
pool is being designed to address.
• The minimum level for each competency
required should be below the actual level
required for success.
• Development opportunities provided should be
able to improve the competency level from the
minimum to the desired state.
The minimum talent level
This should be whatever your talent assessment
process calls the organization’s best talent.
• If you use a 9-box Talent Grid, the minimum level
will be those in the Top Talent grouping:
o Medium Performance/High Potential
employees.
o High Performance/Medium Potential
employees.
o High Performance/High Potential employees.
The minimum job tier or level
• Refer to your career path framework or
organization chart to determine how may tiers
below the key gap that the pool is planning to
address is suitable for employees in the pool.
• In some cases this may be up to two tiers below
the intended gaps, as employees who are rising
stars can make the progression rapidly within a
shorter time frame when given the right
development opportunities.
O
P
T
I
O
N
A
L
The baseline credentials
• Include these if it is absolutely critical for the key
gaps that the talent pool is being designed for
AND if it is unlikely for employees to gain these
credentials within the recommended short-term
time frame.
Membership in a specific job function
• Some situations may require specific
experiences within a job function or family if the
key gap is highly specialized and unique.
Key Foundational Practices: Competencies, internal talent
assessment, and a career path framework help determine talent pool
criteria.
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Create high-level objectives for what development should be
provided to move employees from their pool into the key gap
Development covers a variety of
approaches:
Use a 70-20-10 model to determine
how much of each type of
development should be planned for.
Formal Training
Learning from planned training materials.
• Lecture, seminar, workshops.
• Group discussions.
• Role playing.
• Live webinars and video
conferences.
• E-learning.
Relational Learning
Learning from other people.
• Coaching.
• Mentoring.
• Peer mentoring.
Experiential Learning
Learning from on-the-job experiences.
• On-the-job short-term assignments.
• Major line assignments.
• Special projects.
10%
Formal
Training
Relational
Learning
20%
Experiential
Learning
70%
Relational Learning
supports knowledge
transfer between those
employees in key gaps and
those in talent pools who
may one day replace them,
a crucial aspect of
managing the departure of
retiring employees.
Experiential Learning
Development for
succession plan employees
should include a
component in which the
employees are presented
with real life business
issues and have to deliver
on them, proving their
abilities.
Source: Senior HR Leader,
Research Industry
McLean & Co. Insight
Setting high-level development objectives beforehand ensures that the employee will receive the
development that they need and that the development is relevant to the organization’s needs as well.
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Populate your talent pools by gathering and analyzing
employee information
Gather information on potential talent pool
candidates.
1. Review talent in your organization.
• Use review tools, such as performance
appraisals, competencies, and internal
talent assessment.
2. Evaluate talent.
• Get managers to evaluate their employees’
talent and calibrate amongst themselves.
This will help to minimize bias.
• If you use the 9-box talent grid, employee
talent levels are defined by grid placement.
3. Develop talent.
• Employees with the highest “talent
level” are candidates for the talent pool.
• In the case of the 9-box talent grid, you
use employees identified as “Top Talent.”
McLean & Co. Insight
Don’t duplicate your efforts; the review of talent for
succession planning should align with your
standard annual talent review process.
Create talent profiles for each candidate to compile
information.
After you compile a list of employees for each desired talent level,
create a detailed profile for each qualifying employee. Be sure to
include:
• Current position.
• Tenure with the company.
• Competencies and associated proficiency levels.
• Qualifications and credentials.
*Note: If employee records are not up to date, update them
by interviewing the employee and their manager.
Select employees to be placed in talent pools.
• Placements in the pools should be based primarily on how
well their profile aligns with minimum talent pool
requirements.
• Placements should be reviewed by a committee to calibrate and
discuss suitability.
• You may also want to conduct further assessments including:
job simulations (on the job); competency-based aptitude tests
(objective data); HR-led interviews (objectivity and
confirmation); and stretch assignments (challenge comfort
zones).
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Assess the readiness of employees placed in the pool to
understand who the most prepared successors are
Readiness not only helps define development needs, but also assesses any risks around the
organization’s ability to fill a key gap, i.e. will a successor be ready to take on a key gap prior to it being
vacated or will there be a shortfall.
Collect information from managers on how
effectively the potential successor would
serve in the gap today. Have managers:
• Review the competencies for the key gap based on
the profile created for it.
• Determine what competencies the succession
candidate currently has based on their talent pool
profile and what must be learned.
• Determine how difficult it will be for the successor
to acquire missing skills or knowledge, whether the
resources are available to provide the required
development, and how long it will take to provide it.
Don’t assume that all employees want a
career change today or in the future:
• Career conversations with managers will
determine their career aspirations. HR needs to
provide supervisors with guidelines on how to do
this effectively and set appropriate expectations.
• If the potential successor isn’t interested in the
key gap you have in mind, remove them from your
list of potential successors.
• Be very cautious about making promises. The
fact is that a key gap may not become available
immediately or it could be offered to a more
qualified successor. See this upcoming slide for
more information on how to handle this situation.
McLean & Co. Insight
In a situation where nobody in the talent pool is ready now, identify an emergency successor plan just in case something
happens before an employee is ready. This successor can be an employee that would be able to carry out the basic
functionality for the role on a short-term basis until a member from the talent pool can be developed or an external hire is
brought in as a solution. They can also be a contractor or consultant hired on a temporary basis.
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Step 5: Manage succession
Section summary and deliverables:
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
After completing this section you will have:
a) Well-defined succession talent pools.
b) Employee placements in succession talent
pools.
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
c) Development initiatives for each talent pool.
Deliverables:
• Flexible Succession Plan Tracking Tool.
Step 4
Workshop activities in the step:
5.1
Document your succession plan.
5.2
Plan your communication strategy.
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Finalize your succession planning process with documentation
and timelines
Include the following items of information in your written record to outline what your succession plan entails.
Purpose:
• The organization’s reasoning for doing
succession planning.
Scope:
• Whom the plan applies to.
Committee:
• Whom is currently involved in the plan
process of the plan, including committee
members.
Definitions:
• Any terminology within the project or
coined by your committee for the project.
Frequency of review:
• How often the record will be reviewed for
updates and the date of the last update.
Process:
• Development of the plan from the
identification of key gaps to the
identification of talent pools, to the
management of the plan.
Tracking:
• How the plan will be tracked and where
to find the most up-to-date information.
Selection process:
• How employees will be selected from the
talent pool into a key gap when a
vacancy opens.
See the next slides for more
information on tracking and
the selection process.
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Identify technology to track the flexible succession plan
The flexible succession planning process developed
in this blueprint has been designed to be tracked with
the Flexible Succession Plan Tracking Tool.
However, if you feel that you need a system with a
larger capacity, consider an integrative software
system.
Vendor sampling:
There are a number of vendors in the succession
planning space. Here are a few of the most widely
known:
• PeopleFluent
• Oracle
• Halogen Software
• Workday
• SuccessFactors
• ADP
• Cornerstone OnDemand
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Set the process for selecting a final successor from the talent
pools to move into a key gap
First, identify top contenders within your talent pool by frequently reviewing and
updating employee profiles. Top contenders are candidates who:
• Fit the talent pool target profile the best.
• Have the highest readiness level.
• If possible, have a replacement ready to fill their role once they move into a key gap.
Frequently updating
employees’ successionfocused development on a
quarterly basis makes this
information more readily
available for when the need
arises to use it, enhancing
flexibility.
Then, once you have your top contenders, determine:
When to start the
process of selecting a
successor.
When:
• The risk of departure
of a key gap reaches
an extreme level.
• An employee gives
sudden notice of
retirement,
resignation, or is
terminated from the
organization.
How these
employees will be
made aware of the
vacancy.
Communicated via:
• Posting created for
the key gap.
• One-on-one
discussions with the
most ready
successors within
the relevant talent
pool.
What application
process will be used.
Options can include:
• Resume application.
• Committee-led
interview.
• Psychometric testing
currently used by the
organization.
• Direct selection of
the only candidate
that is ready if no
others are.
Who will make the
final decision on the
successor.
Decision making can
come from:
• The vote of
committee members.
• The final decision
from the direct
supervisor for the
key gap OR from
senior leaders/Board
of Directors.
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Determine the degree of transparency you will have with
sharing components of your flexible succession plan
Most organizations fall somewhere between
the extremes of secrecy and transparency
when it comes to discussing succession
planning outside of the committee.
Secrecy
Succession plan
process, key gaps,
and employees in
talent pools are not y
shared with
employees outside of
steering committee.
T
r
a
n
s
p
a
r
e
n
c
y
All components of
flexible succession
planning are widely
known and shared
with all employees.
The amount of secrecy or transparency you have with your
communication will reflect your organizational culture.
Determine the level of transparency for these components:
Process overview
• Letting employees know whether or not the organization is
engaging in succession planning.
What key gaps are being planned for
• Disclosing the key gaps that a succession plan is being
developed for.
Which employees are in talent pools
• Informing employees on whether they are in the succession
plan, what talent pool they are a part of, and what key gap the
talent pool is being developed to close.
Communicating succession planning halfway
can create questions, awkwardness, and an
air of mistrust.
– Senior HR Leader, Formerly in the
Hospitality Industry
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Present an inclusive communication if you want transparency
Process overview
• Share the process with all employees so that everyone
is aware that succession planning is occurring.
• Explain why succession planning is done:
o The benefits to different groups in the organization
as well as how it aligns with objectives.
• Provide a high-level overview of what the process is:
o High-level summary of activities that the committee
carried out to get to the final plan.
o Dates and timelines for when planning, selection,
and development will occur.
• Keep the identified audience informed as major updates
or changes are made to the succession plan.
Key gaps to be planned for
• Let incumbents of key gaps know that talent pools are being
developed.
• Ensure that these incumbents know you still value them in their
role (if applicable) and that the succession plan is a backup
measure just in case they decide to leave.
Pros:
• Incumbents can be actively involved in the development of pools
and in the provision of information for succession planning.
Cons:
• Incumbents may become paranoid about their standing in the
organization if the message isn't communicated well.
Employees in talent pools
•
Let employees know they are part of
the succession plan.
•
Clarify that their placement in the
pool does not necessarily
guarantee their succession into a
new role now or in the future.
o Stress that the talent pool
development will make them
stronger performers regardless.
Pros:
• Everyone is aware of the process and
can focus their performance accordingly
to stay or be placed in plans.
• Employees identified as successors will
be more inclined to stay at the
organization, boosting retention rates.
• Employees who decide they aren't
interested can back out of the pool
immediately so time is not wasted.
Cons:
• Employees who don’t eventually fill key
gaps may feel left out.
• An ego problem may arise from
employees who are told.
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Deliver a more guarded communication if you opt for secrecy
Process overview
• Share the process with senior leaders, senior managers,
and other senior stakeholders outside of the committee.
• Have your senior leaders present the program to the
intended audience to enhance buy-in and demonstrate
support from the top for the program.
• Explain why succession planning is done:
o The benefits to different groups in the organization
as well as how it aligns with objectives.
• Provide a high-level overview of what the process is:
o High-level summary of activities that the committee
carried out to get to the final plan.
• Keep the identified audience informed as major updates
or changes are made to the succession plan.
Key gaps to be planned for
• Do not inform incumbents of key gaps that their roles are key
gaps.
Pros:
• Incumbents will not feel insecure about their status if they
don’t know that you are developing successors.
Cons:
• Can be more difficult to get incumbents to help develop
employees in talent pools if they don't have a defined
purpose for doing so.
Employees in talent pools
• Do not share with employees that they
are in the succession plan.
• Make it very apparent to employees that
they are valued and demonstrate this
through communicating that they will
receive special development as a
reward.
• Ensure that senior managers are aware
that their own employees are in talent
pools so that they can guide their
development accordingly.
Pros:
• Employees who are not specifically a
part of the plan won’t have a basis to
feel disengaged.
• Employees who no longer fit pool
requirements can be removed with little
fuss.
Cons:
• Employees that don’t specifically know
they are a part of the succession plan
may leave.
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Managers work with employees in pools to plan development
Managers and employees should integrate the
development required for each talent pool into each
employee’s personal development plan.
1
For more information on employee development planning
see Implement Effective Employee Development
Planning.
Have the employee develop drafts of their development
goals prior to their development meeting.
1
• Employees who know what pools they’re in are
able to draft relevant development goals
beforehand.
4
2
Get managers and employees to meet together to
discuss development goals.
3
• Managers should review employee goals and
align them with the high-level development
activities designated for the employee’s
respective talent pool.
3
2
Have managers provide feedback and coaching.
• Managers should provide employees with
constructive feedback on their progress
throughout development initiatives.
• Committee members involved in the development
of talent pools should also provide employees
with feedback to reinforce the support of the
business towards their development.
4
Managers should check-in and review goals with
employees on a regularly scheduled basis to update,
adjust, and provide feedback.
• Results from check-ins on employees in talent
pools should be relayed back to the committee to
update employee profiles and readiness level for
key gaps.
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Frequently assess and update employee profiles in the
succession plan to determine readiness to succeed into gaps
As employees progress through their talent pool development ensure that
their profiles are up to date.
Frequent updates enhance the responsiveness of your plan
to change as the information is always as up to date as possible
within the time and resource limitations of your organization.
Frequency: Because the majority of information used to assess
readiness will come from managers, try to align the frequency of
updating to your organization’s regular review cycles.
Readiness can be determined by assessing an employee’s:
•
Competencies, talent level, and other credentials as they relate to the talent pool target.
•
Desire to progress into a new role.
This information should be collected from managers by collecting:
•
Employee progress in their development plan.
•
Results of career discussions.
•
Updated performance appraisal ratings.
•
Results from employee talent reviews or employee placements in the 9-box talent grid.
Key Foundational Practices: Competencies, performance
management, and internal talent assessment will help you assess
employee readiness and update their profiles.
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Be prepared to update employees accordingly as results from
frequent assessment require the succession plan to change
Take the appropriate actions when different situations occur to mitigate
negative impact or use the situation to bolster success of planning.
Situation: Employees need to be
removed from the talent pool and
succession plan.
Situation: Employees are not
selected for a key gap when one
arises.
Situation: Employees need to be
added to a talent pool and the
succession plan.
Occurs because:
• Assessments reveal that
employees no longer meet the
requirements of the pool; the pool
may cease to exist as key gaps
change or the employee voluntary
withdraws.
Action to take:
• Proceed with a delicate approach
if they have been told they are in a
pool to reduce the potential for
hurt feelings.
• Ensure that employees
understand the reasoning.
• Clarify what will happen with the
development opportunities that the
employee was provided with.
• Let employees know how they can
return back into the pool.
Occurs because:
• Several ready candidates are
viable for the gap, but only one
can be selected.
Action to take:
• Employees who applied for the
gap need to be informed that they
were not selected.
• Engage them with development
and the concept of the pool itself
by informing them that you still
value their talent.
• Consider job enrichment, job
enlargement, or a rotation into the
successor’s role to provide other
mobility options.
Occurs because:
• After initial planning has been set
up, subsequent talent reviews
reveal newly designated Top
Talent that can be placed into
pools.
Action to take:
• Proceed with informing the relative
audience that you communicated
to for the initial communication.
See the next slide for actions to take when an employee is selected
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Manage the movement of identified successors into key gaps
Use the selection methods identified earlier in the section and recorded in
your written documentation of the succession plan.
Manage the transition of successors for a smooth
changeover:
• Ensure that there is enough time for them to
close loose ends in their role.
◦
◦
Avoid a sudden departure that leaves their
previous responsibilities and duties in limbo due
to a ripple effect.
Work with them to determine who will take over
what duties until there is a replacement.
• Ramp them up into the key gap for a smooth
transition.
◦
◦
If they haven’t yet been mentored by the
departing employee in the key gap, work in some
time for the two to meet.
Have the employee start to take on some of the
departing employee’s duties if appropriate.
• Communicate the new successor to employees.
◦
Ensure that the relevant employees understand
the transition is already in place so no doubt is
left as to what happens when the employee in the
key gap leaves.
Plan to manage the ripples.
A ripple effect is the gaps created by an employee when
they leave their current role for another. When a successor
moves into a key gap, they leave behind their role, which
requires another employee to leave their role to fill it and so
on and so forth.
• In certain cases where the succession talent pool
employee is leaving a less critical role, basic replacement
planning is enough to backfill their vacant position.
• Consider using the gap as a development tool for other
employees in the talent pool to take on, either temporarily
or on a more permanent basis.
• This may be the time to use the emergency successor
identified beforehand to temporarily plug the gap until a
replacement is found.
Filling one position typically creates a cascading
effect that involves a number of employee moves. The
company must be ready to act in order to keep
positions filled and employees moving properly on
their development path.
Source: PwC, Succession planning: What is the cost of doing it poorly…or
not at all?
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Measure the success of your planning and update accordingly
to continuously enhance the results
Review metrics
Metrics should be reviewed and updated as necessary as frequently
as the succession plan is reviewed and updated. Refer back to the
metrics that you selected at the beginning of the project
Collect feedback
Collect feedback from all groups involved in the succession planning.
Focus on soliciting info on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The key foundational practices.
The key gaps that have been identified.
The talent pools that have been developed.
The employee placements in talent pools.
Employee development.
Success of final successors.
Update the process
Make changes to the plan based on feedback and metrics to ensure
that it adapts to better suit organizational needs.
• Communicate changes to stakeholders involved.
• Assign responsibilities for changes.
• Update documentation.
Succession planning does
not stop with nominating
successors: it should be
continuously realigned
with market trends,
business strategy, and
talent developments.
Source: HReonline
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Summary
Establish
project
rationale
Assess
the
foundation
Manage
succession
Identify
key
gaps
Identify
successors
and talent
pools
Key takeaways:
• Flexible succession planning makes
the organization more agile and
adaptable to providing successors in
a high-change environment.
• Key gaps, the roles, individuals, and
job pools that are planned for should
be identified based on how well they
support organizational objectives.
• Talent pools should map back to the
key gaps they were created to close
and be comprised of employees that
meet the minimum competency,
talent, and job tier required.
• Manage the plan by frequently
assessing employees in the talent
pool to ensure readiness for
expected and unexpected vacancies.
Step 4
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Actionable Business Strategy
People Strategy
Culture
Capabilities
Learning
Organization
Programs
Leadership and
Management
Key Business
Skills
Technical and
Process Skills
Sales and
Service
Compliance
and Safety
Teams and
Communities
PM and Comp
(PDPs)
Application and Support
Pre and Post
Discussions
Coaching and
Recognition
Online
Support
Measurements and Impact
Commitment to
Key Behaviors
Behavioral
Measures
Employee
Surveys
Customer
Satisfaction
Business
Impacts
For Additional Talent Information,
contact:
Ed Holinski
American Society of Employers
Talent Development Director
[email protected]
313.737.8305