The document discusses the evolving nature and importance of succession planning, questioning its necessity amidst talent management trends and changing job demands. It highlights the continued focus on planning for critical roles and developing talent pipelines, emphasizing proactive development, individual career ownership, and the need for effective communication. Implementation challenges are identified, alongside strategies for aligning succession planning with broader workforce and HR processes.

1. Succession planning:
Purpose, focus and process
trends
Wendy Hirsh
wh@ringmer.demon.co.uk

2. Where the research started
We clearly need succession management, but do we
need succession plans?
• Are succession plans worth the effort?
• Do jobs change too fast?
• Will people hang around?
• Doesn’t ‘talent management’ do the trick?
• Won’t the open job market find you the best person
for the post?
Against business authors’ predictions, succession
planning hasn’t gone away – WHY?

3. Process alone is not enough

4. Business drivers and shifts in focus
• More specific skills and faster response required
• Succession planning still covers most senior, ‘strategic’
roles – increasingly global approach
• Business vulnerability right at the top
• Over half plan for ‘critical’ roles – key to (operational)
performance and hard to fill
• Key professional groups and top experts more essential
to strategy - over 40% plan for these
• Familiar mix of short (1-2 yr) and longer term (3-5 yr)
focus but also interest in ‘ready now’ and ‘emergency’

5. •Managing short term business risk
• Developing longer term pipelines & diagnosing gaps
• Development and career opportunities for best people
Combining ‘talent’ and ‘succession’

6. Communicating talent and succession –
Twinings Ovo
Focus
on key
people
Focus
on key
posts
Our plan
of action
Insights from
our plans
Key actions to develop key people and build
capability within and across the business
Do we need to plan for additional skills/
capabilities critical to future success ?

7. SP process - old trends continue
• Pro-active development of successors, especially
career experiences
• Planning for pools, not just posts
• Mostly devolved
• Functional as well as general management skills
• Aimed at future skills
• Objective assessments of people
• Collective management process
• Increasing transparency for the individual – SP
combines with responsibility for own career
• Emphasis on dialogue
• Line owned, CEO led, active HR support

8. Sustained
performance?
Confusing
potential with
readiness?
Different levels
(eg Charan)
and functions
of jobs/
people?
Where does it
take the
individual?
The HR love affair with the 9 box grid

9. Some crucial links

10. Evolution of succession/talent reviews
eg Talent review roadmap – GSK

11. How are CRF members doing?
Positive views on:
• Extra skill development
offered to high
potentials
• Good information (at
centre) on potential
internal candidates for
senior roles (*)
• SPs do influence senior
appointments
• Alignment with business
needs
Not so confident about:
• Career development and
career conversations
• Training managers to
identify and develop talent
• Monitoring/ tracking
Not complacent about
• Ability to fill senior
positions (*)
• Top level commitment (*)
* = weaker in non-adopters of formal succession planning

12. Group Work
• What is the purpose of succession planning
in your organisation and how does it relate
to talent management?
• Which jobs do you focus on for succession
planning purposes and why?
• What are your tips and challenges in process
design for succession planning?

13. Succession planning:
Practical use, effective
implementation and future
directions
Wendy Hirsh

14. Pragmatic approaches to vacancy filling
Succession plan discussion – Rolls-Royce

15. Tracking and monitoring
Vacancy analysis – Rolls-Royce

16. Varied links with development
• Leadership programmes
• Individualised skill and career development
• Talent pools
• Programmes for successors for specific job
types
Does the delivery actually happen and meet
the real need?
Appropriate mix of general and selective
development interventions?

17. So what does succession planning bring?
• A tougher, more practical question
• Stronger link with shifting demand and
resourcing strategies
• Explicit about readiness and timeframe
• Options to inform career discussions
• Leads to more focused development,
especially career development
• Can accommodate diverse types of job

18. Choosing the appropriate level of detail

19. Implementation issues and challenges
• Balancing simplicity with robustness…
• and local freedom with consistency
• Designing in the links with workforce planning and
other HR processes and frameworks
• Communication and explanation
• Implementing at the right pace
• Information handling
• Adjusting approaches to meet management needs
• The interface with individual development
• More effective deployment
• Sustained HR attention and support – and memory

20. Towards Agile Succession Planning
More flexible and context specific in:
• Which pipelines and career transitions are
prioritised
• Appropriate levels of detail and timeframes
• Really understanding potential external supply
• Methods for knowing about your people
• Balance between organisational and individual
lead in deployment and development action
• Combining succession plans and open job market
in filling jobs

21. Group Work
• How does succession planning influence job
filling and development?
• What are your tips and challenges in
implementing succession planning and
engaging managers and employees?