Succession Planning

Characteristics of a Succession Planning Process

A succession planning process is often very unique to an organization; however, most succession processes include a few similar components. These characteristics are identified and discussed below:

• Cascading reviews. The term cascading reviews refers to the fact that in most organizations, the employee succession reviews start lower in the organization and work up (cascade) to the top level of management. As the succession information is cascaded upward, the names of high-potential employees from all levels of the organization are forwarded, and ultimately a selection of those candidates is reviewed at the highest level of the organization.
• Skill/ability assessment of employees. There is normally an evaluation of the employees that often includes an assessment of employees' skills on the leadership competencies that are relevant to the particular organization. Frequently used leadership competencies include coaching skills, business acumen, communication, flexibility, decision-making ability, strategic thinking, initiative, and risk-taking ability.
• Evaluation of readiness for a potential future position. Using a job description as a reference point, employees being considered as successors are frequently evaluated based on work experiences and other key factors to determine how prepared they are for a future position. Evaluations typically designate the employee as being “ready now” for the position or designate a time frame (normally between one and five years) when it is anticipated that the employee will be ready to assume the future position.
• Creation of a development plan. Depending on the employee's readiness for a future position, a development plan is usually created to clearly map out the actions that the individual needs to take to be ready to assume a promotion in the future. Development plans may include a summary of additional work experience needed, educational requirements, or leadership competencies that need further refinement.
• Information is systematically gathered from employees. During the succession planning process, it is critical to solicit uniform information from all participating employees. This often includes information about the employees' desired future position, career expectations, willingness and desire to pursue a given specific career path, and willingness and ability to possibly relocate.
• Process occurs regularly. Succession reviews should occur approximately every 12 to 18 months, and it is advisable to have a process that is separate and distinct from the annual performance appraisal process.
• Creation of a candidate slate. Most succession planning processes culminate with a draft of a candidate slate that summarizes the key organization positions and lists potential internal candidates for those positions. Each internal candidate's readiness for future positions should be noted on the slate. In other words, people who are ready now to assume a greater role should be identified, as well as those who may be anywhere from one to five years away from assuming a leadership role. This final candidate slate is a document that should only be seen and accessed by the very highest organization officials (such as the CEO) and the human resources support personnel. As positions become available, this candidate slate serves as a good starting point to determine the availability of internal talent versus the need to initiate an external candidate search.

What Happens after Succession Planning?

Identifying viable backup candidates for key leadership positions within the organization is only the first step to ensuring that the organization will have the human resource capability to succeed in the long term. Through systematic and vigorous evaluation of internal employee talent, an organization should have a more solid idea of what positions, if vacated, will require an external job search, versus those for which internal talent can be accessed to succeed the predecessor.

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