Implementing an Effective Succession Planning Program - Webinar (Recorded)

Overview:

Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses alike share a business need - insuring that they have the talent necessary to effectively lead their organizations in the future. One of the most significant contributions a leader can make is insuring his/her business’ continuity and sustainability - by having employees who are willing and capable of filling each key position with a plan for doing so when the need arises.

Succession Planning is a:

• Deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the Necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed in the future
• A strategic approach for avoiding an under supply of talent, enhancing the organization's current talent pool and meeting its future needs.

Not having a Succession Plan can be costly and sometimes disastrous; it's expensive to recruit, interview, select, on-board and train a new leader and significant opportunity costs are incurred when a key job is not being performed.

Why you should Attend:

The primary objectives for and deliverables from a Succession Planning program are to:

• Sustain the business through a deliberate and systematic effort to anticipate and ensure
• leadership continuity in key positions
• Retain and develop the organization's high potentials [HiPos]
• Encourage individual development by:
• Identifying career paths
• Conducting formal performance appraisals
• Providing daily coaching
• Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]

During Succession Planning Programs:

At the macro level the organization is proactively determining:

• The talent needed in the future
• The talent it has now
• Where there are talent gaps
• The initiatives necessary to close those gaps

At the micro level the organization is addressing - for each of its key positions - questions such as:

• What the organization would do if it had to fill the position tomorrow
• Whether there is, at least, one successor who could immediately perform the duties of the position
• If there is no successor ready now, what will need to be done to enable the best internal candidate to be ready and when can he/she be ready
• Can the organization afford to wait or would it be better to recruit a successor, etc

Experience has found the following two processes to be very effective in enabling organizations to have the talent they need, when it’s needed:

#1 Performance Management and/or 360 Feedback Processes - through which the organization is able to:

• Evaluate its employees’ current performance – based on documented, objective performance and achievements
• Assess its employees’ advancement potential
• Determine its employees’ current readiness for advancement
• Obtain from its employees self appraisals identifying their developmental needs and preferred career plans
• Meet its bench strength needs by initiating Individual Development Plans and experiences - at least, for its A Players and/or High Potentials - such as:
• special or stretch projects
• assignments in other depts./job rotations
• ‘try-out/popcorn stand’ slots
• mentors
• formal training and development initiatives
• fast track programs with exposure to other functions intense coaching, etc.
• track their A Players’ and High Potentials’ performance and advancement potential against a Performance-Potential Grid

#2 Talent Review Meetings - during which the executive team in a disciplined fashion:

• asks each leader to report on the status of the Individual Development Plans for each of their A Players and High Potentials
• insure that each A Player and High Potential is receiving regular coaching and is actively involved in opportunities that will help retain them while accelerating their development
• drives the organization past ‘business as usual’ by insuring that its future needs for human capital are identified and will be satisfied when the time arrives - as it will

Succession Planning initiatives also increase the levels of engagement and performance of your A Players and High Potentials - the talent your organization will most need in the future.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Succession Plan Defined
• A deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that
• the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed
• A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization’s
• current talent pool and meeting the organization’s future needs
• Objectives and Benefits of Succession Planning
• Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions
• Attract, retain & develop high potentials [HiPos]
• Encourage HiPos development by:
• Identifying career paths
• Conducting performance appraisals
• Providing daily coaching
• Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]
• Holding Talent Review meetings
• Tools and Processes Commonly Utilized for Developing and Implementing
• Self appraisals and career goals
• Performance appraisals, 360 feedback and ratings
• Assessment instruments
• GE grid
• Individual development plans [IDPs]
• HiPo talent development interventions
• Talent review meetings
• What an Organization, its Leaders and the Program Participants Need to Do To Achieve an Effective Plan
• What an organization needs to do:
• Supply funding/budget
• Establish a clear vision and guidance for the program
• Develop a formal, written program
• Announce the objectives of the program to all employees
• Insure that all leaders and managers support the program
• What the leaders need to do:
• Have job descriptions developed for their teams
• Conduct effective, formal performance appraisals
• Identify employee developmental areas
• Share their knowledge and experience
• Involve employees in more of the leader's responsibilities
• Facilitate the completion of IDPs for all Hi Pos
• What the program participants need to do:
• Conduct self appraisals
• Identify their desired career paths
• Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments
• Perform to their capabilities
• Complete their IDPs
• Develop the employees reporting to them - so they have successors
• Potential Measures of the Program’s Success
• Whether there is, at least, one successor for each key position
• Having developmental goals and IDPs established for each successor
• Determining how much of their manager’s job the successors can perform
• Determining whether successors can perform their manager’s jobs when they are
• unavailable and evaluating their performance during those time