Identify Critical Roles
Organisations differ in size, scope and type, so it is difficult to stipulate what level of the organisation critical roles should be identified. The aim of succession management in it’s basic form is to minimise the disruption and possible risks to organisational objectives caused by personal changes and periods of time a post may be left vacant during the post filling process.
Guidance
At the basic level critical roles should be identified in the most senior levels of the organisation, as these positions are, as a general rule, likely to cause the greatest disruption if unfilled for a long period of time. Attempts to identify a larger number of critical roles within the organisation may be problematic for organisations with limited resources, as it is much easier to concentrate on a few individuals rather than a greater number.
However, this basic approach may miss posts which cause as much disruption to business objectives but not be situated in the higher tier of an organisation. For example, relatively junior but highly specialised staff in technical roles who provide unique skills that are central to an organisations objectives might be more difficult to replace than a senior finance officer. A method of identifying roles such as this would be by rating all posts in the organisation by two key criteria:
- Importance of the role to business objectives.
- Difficulty in filling post.
By scoring the role against both criteria higher risk posts can be identified and monitored.
This methodology of identifying critical roles could be devolved throughout all levels of the organisation to identify positions critical to the business objectives of individual units. However, this devolution will require additional resources to manage and monitor.
The methodology that an organisation chooses to identify critical roles depends on the size, available resources and nature of the organisation and should be set in conjunction with senior management.
Tools
Example Succession planning database – An example of a database used within The department for Work and Pensions to co-ordinate succession planning.