A Quick Review of Succession and Development

For most organizations, the succession and development process is implemented to help the organization meet its future needs for executive and management talent. Some of these companies also include key technical or functional positions in the succession and development process. Some implement the process for a small number of key positions; others apply it at virtually every management level.

In nearly every case, the succession and development process includes some version of each of these key steps:

• Identify those critical positions that are to be included in the process. These could be executive-level, management, or key technical/functional jobs.
  
  
• Define the capabilities that each of those positions will require in the future. Usually, these required capabilities are selected from some kind of competency model.
  
  
• Identify and assess possible candidates for these positions, using the required capabilities as a guide. Usually, each candidate is evaluated to identify development needs (e.g., capabilities not yet mastered) and assessed in terms of readiness for the position (e.g., ready now, ready in one to three years, ready in three to five years).
  
  
• Provide these individuals with focused development that will prepare them so that, if desired, they could assume these positions in the future. An action-oriented development plan that describes what will be done to address the most critical development needs is prepared for each candidate.
  
  
• Review the results with a group of senior managers. Once candidates have been identified and assessed and development plans have been prepared, a review of the candidate pool(s) is conducted. At this session, executives review and approve (whether formally or tacitly) candidate slates and development plan appropriateness.
  
  

Once these steps are taken, the implementation of development plans begins. Needless to say, there is no single “best” way of conducting a succession and development analysis. There are many variations on the succession and development process that organizations have found to be effective. However, one general assumption is true about most of these processes: The succession planning and development process is based largely (if not solely) on contingency planning. That is, the results of the process (at least the part addressing staffing) describe what an organization “could do,” “might do,” or “should do” if certain circumstances arise. Contrast that to the output of a strategic staffing/workforce planning process, which typically describes what an organization will do to address critical staffing needs. Succession and development planning is often primarily subjective in nature (e.g., focusing on skills and capabilities gaps); on the other hand, workforce planning is largely objective in nature (e.g., dealing with quantitative differences in required staffing levels). Is there a way in which the typical succession and development process implemented by most organizations could be strengthened by incorporating some of the objective, action-oriented aspects of strategic workforce planning?