Identify Successors & Assess Readiness
Once an organisation has determined the roles with are deemed critical to the achievement of business objectives, it then needs to gauge whether any possible successors exist within the organisation. The two components of this stage are:
- Assessment of the critical role to identify what competencies, experience and abilities are required for the successful undertaking of the role.
- Search of the organisation to identify if any potential successors exist within the organisation.
Once these aspects have been identified the suitability and readiness of the potential successors to undertake the ole can be assessed.
Guidance
Assessment of the critical role.
To fill a role successfully it is required to identify what it takes to be successful in the role. It is necessary what competencies, experience and abilities the person who undertakes the role should have. This may have been undertaken previously when the job has been recruited for in the past, perhaps the role has changed since then.
Competencies are a key tool in the communication of what is required for the role. Not only will use of competencies fit in with any overreaching framework that exists, but it will also allow the succession planning process be as transparent as possible.
Competencies alone are not enough to define the role as they can be perceived as too mechanistic. Past experience and qualifications should be identified at this point. For example there may be historical feeder roles that past occupiers of the post have come from. However, this can be seen as an opportunity of defining the ‘ideal’ person to fill the role not necessarily an identical copy of the current person in the role.
Search for potential successors
The identification of possible successors can come from a number of sources depending on the nature of the of the role and the organisation.
- There may be a number of well known potential successors obvious in the immediate tier of the organisation.
- The current occupier of the role and other senior managers could be asked to recommend potential successors.
- Existing Talent Management or Career Management frameworks could be used to identify suitable candidates.
There is the possibility that no potential successors will be identified. This may be an acceptable outcome, as their may be a desire to recruit externally of the organisation to bring in ‘New Blood’. This outcome may not be desirable and may point towards weaknesses in other areas such as Talent Management and Career Management strategies.
It is important to note an indication of likely successors is not a pre-judgement of any competition for the role. If the critical role becomes vacant then an open and fair recruitment process must be held. The indication of likely successors should seek to provide management with assurance that potential successors exist.
Readiness to undertake role
The requirements of the critical role and the current experience/skills of the potential successor can then be compared. Although unlikely, the potential successor may be ready to take up the role now. In which case not specific development will be required. Although, care may need to be taken to ensure that the potential successor is not frustrated in their current role.
The potential successor may not be in a position to be able to fill the role now due to a lack of experience or skills. A development plan should then be drawn up an implemented in order to bridge the gaps in required experience/skills.
Tools
DfT Talent Pools - A summary of the talent pools operating within the Department for Transport.
Succession Planning Form – A template that helps to bring together potential ratings, successor readiness and development needs.