Metric Two: Vulnerability Action Plan

Value. Succession management is an exercise in forecasting future events. The Vulnerability Scan is a tool that can be used both to measure the succession situation and also to offer management direction on each succession issue. This analysis should embed context into the report; managers can’t make a decision on succession management in a department without having perspective into the business impacts, financials, and future anticipated need for the company.

Audience. Senior executives and impacted hiring managers.

Data Elements. For each job title that you suspect has a succession risk to it, gather the following types of information:

• Job Title/Job Group. Group your at-risk jobs into competencies or use single roles where appropriate.

• Red flag determination. Is this job/job group considered imminent or important enough to warrant a red flag to executives?

• Business Impact. What is the business impact of this position? Does it contribute disproportionately to revenue? To profits?

• Talent depth (A,B,C). Gather information about potential successors to this job. How many A players are possible? B or C players? The goal is to get a basic assessment of bench strength for the position, which may help determine the overall exposure on the position.

• Time to Contribute. Once an A/B player took this position, how long would it take to contribute productively to the job?

• Action Plan. If there is exposure on the position, recommend actions to be taken by different teams including learning and development, Human Resources, hiring managers, mentors, and executive management.

Presentation. The presentation of this document should be easily read by all stakeholders and it should be clear who owns what follow-up items from the succession plan. The grid presented in Table 10.5 illustrates the type of metric/action plan format that is designed to bring all parties together on key vulnerabilities.