In-between watching episodes of The Crown, baking loaves of sourdough bread, and making fancy whipped coffee; we've been hard at work expanding our Learning & Development Platform, Cognition.
We've added on to our Talent Management suite and are happy to introduce Succession Planning to our platform. Check out the new feature list here or read on to learn more about our take on Succession Planning.
Succession planning. It sounds daunting, doesn’t it? Identifying and developing new organizational leaders, who can replace current leaders at they move forward or retire. That has to require a tremendous amount of time and effort. And how do you begin this process? We’ve heard clients talk about it for upwards of 5 years. They’re stuck, knowing they need it but not knowing how to get started.
Lacking an internal succession plan, companies will often resort to hiring external. Don’t get me wrong, hiring external IS part of healthy succession planning, when it’s actually part of the plan. Hiring external requires ramp up time and places someone in a position of leadership who may know very little about company culture and process and thus can be a costly decision. On the flip side, identifying internal talent with the necessary experience and capabilities, can be more efficient and effective because this person can hit the ground running. That’s good for the company, boosting employee morale and retention by rewarding achievements and development.
It Can Be Easy
We get it. What you’re after is reduced effort with full results. When you boil it down, succession planning is just Aggregating Data, (which is also a great band name), to find your high potentials. Education level. Experience. Aspirations. Goals along the 2 and 5 year timeline.
With our special “behind the curtain” look at companies over the years, we’ve learned a little something about data. Basically, we’ve found the best way to tackle Succession Planning is to break it down into a simple 3-step process:
- Talent Profile – Each associate fills in their own profile, creating easily searchable criteria points, like those above, enabling you to find who can and wants to do the job.
- Talent Assessment – supervisors rate associate performance, potential and retention risk. What roles could this person fill? Who would replace them if they move positions or leave the company?
- Talent Review – HRBP reviews, approves and supports supervisors within their region or department.
With the process completed, data becomes searchable criteria. If you are looking for a loyal go-getter with at least 3 years experience and a degree in marketing and communications, select your chosen criteria points to view side-by-side profiles for all applicable candidates within your associate pool.
Clean On-Demand Data Makes the Difference
Our main goal was up-to-date data, all in one place to save both time and administration costs. No manual Excel sheets. No loss of version control. End users capture data and assessments, with little to no training, giving you on-demand meaningful views into crucial data. Its perpetual organizational growth made easy!
We think it’s pretty useful stuff. And we’d be happy to show you a demonstration to get you started in thinking about your path forward!
