Succession Planning
Identifying & Developing Top Talent for Critical Roles
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Read Whitepapers“We hired LSA Global to help our long-term client identify root causes and develop an action plan for improving their leadership bench strength in face of high attrition and a changing marketplace. LSA’s succession planning expertise was a 10-out-of-10.
Their recommendations in the areas of attracting and recruiting the right talent, hiring and promoting the best talent, employee development, performance management, knowledge management and succession planning were right on target. I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take their talent management practices to the next level.”
Director | Risk Advisory Services | Global Audit, Tax and Consulting Firm
Successful organizations make sure that they have the right people in the right positions to propel the business forward. That includes building internal bench strength, filling the talent pipeline, and being prepared for planned and unplanned personnel changes. Done right, succession planning should be the fastest, cheapest and most reliable way to get well-qualified talent into open positions.
Unfortunately, very few companies have an effective or strategic succession planning process.
Succession planning is a critical component of an overall talent management strategy which aims to attract, develop, engage and retain top talent to execute the business strategy in a way that aligns with the organizational culture.
Succession planning focuses on identifying and developing internal talent with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the organization. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees through effective development of the high-potential employees, so that they are prepared to assume leadership roles as they become available. Done right, succession planning helps build the bench strength to ensure the long-term health, growth and stability of an organization.
Effective succession planning typically includes five major steps:
1. Identify Key Metrics to Move: Succession planning projects should start with clearly defined, relevant, meaningful and agreed-to success metrics that align with the overall business and talent strategies. That means fully engaging your stakeholders to get the proper level of buy-in and alignment compared to other business priorities. Typical stakeholders include the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, the Chief People Officer and the Head of Talent, Senior Executives, front-line managers, and employees.
2. Define Critical and Strategic Jobs – Now and in the Future: Once success metrics have been defined, it is time to identify your most critical and strategic roles to ensure success today and in the future based upon your strategic business plan and key assumptions about the future. The goal is to get clear agreement and alignment about the critical few difference-making roles.
3. Define Core Competencies – Now and in the Future: Once you have agreement on your most critical and strategic jobs, the next step is to clearly define the most important current and future competencies, skills, knowledge, behaviors, attitudes and experiences necessary to succeed in those roles. Once again, less is more in this stage. Look for the critical few that matter most for your unique situation, not an exhaustive list.
4. Conduct a Talent Review: Based upon the metrics to move and the desired current and future competencies, the next step is to review your current talent and jobs to understand the performance, potential, aspirations and issues with your current workforce and organizational structure. The objective is to identify talent and structure strengths and weaknesses, spot and groom high potentials early, mitigate retention risks, and establish talent pools by levels based on the strategic strengths of the organization.
5. Create a Succession Plan: After you have mapped your current and future talent gaps, it is time to create and execute a succession plan for consistently identifying and developing targeted internal talent with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the organization. This includes ensuring that you create structured development plans and curated development experiences to truly prepare your talent for the future. Targeted development plays a critical role in succession planning and often gets overlooked or is not fully implemented.
The entire succession planning program should be reviewed and adjusted (typically annually) in concert with the overall business and talent strategic planning processes.
Ask us about Leadership Development Pay-for-Performance options and how to move the leadership metrics that you care most about. Typical metrics that we move include:
- Sales revenue, margin, win rate, portfolio mix, deal size, and sales cycle.
- Customer acquisition, loyalty, growth, and satisfaction.
- Leadership execution effectiveness of key corporate strategies.
- Employee attraction, development, performance, engagement and retention.
- Project cost, quality, and time.
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