Does anyone have any benchmarks on what good looks like in relation to readiness for next role and pipeline succession? Similarly, are there any benchmarks on what good looks like for diversity (women and underrepresented groups) in the succession pool?
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Director of HR4 months ago
I'm not sure I fully grasp the question however, instinctively I want to say benchmarking would be based on the needs of a role i.e. what are the required skills and competencies for success. We have used a variety of methods to ascertain this including profiling success of a current or previous incumbent and exploring what the needs are for the future strategy and incorporating requirements into the profile. Head Talent Development in Software4 months ago
Not sure I understood the question well, for succession planning we define the positions as Ready Now, Ready Soon (2-5 years), Ready in Future. As I manage Succession planning, we can connect if you have questionsCHRO3 months ago
It's quite common to look at a succession bench and feel confident you have cover because there are at least 2, "ready in 2 years" successors for 70% of the roles.Since succession planning should primarily be a risk management strategy, it's useful to go one step further and determine how ready a successor should be based on the likelihood of the current incumbent leaving.
So if you add a few filters (assuming you are not using powerpoint to show a succession bench) it can identify real risks and relevant timeframes.
Here are some examples of additional data points to add:
1. Career trajectory of the current incumbent: This is an indicator of how quickly the person in the job got there. If someone is advancing at about one promotion every 2 years, their expectation is that they will continue at about that pace. If you can't accommodate them, they will look elsewhere.
2. Career stage of the current incumbent: How close is the current incumbent to transitioning out of the workforce. This is not only an age issue, it can also be related to personal goals (which change as we age), financial means, family pressures, mobility preferences etc.
3. Flight risk of the current incumbent: It's a good idea during a talent review to estimate how likely the current incumbent is to leave based on how engaged they appear to be (the old adage that people leave managers more than they leave companies is very true) and that relies on understanding how satisfied they are with various talent practices in your company.
4. Impact of loss of the current incumbent: Impact of loss usually increases when it is difficult to replace the individual or find similar talent in the market. If it's going to be difficult to "buy" the talent you need in the market, it will take time and money.
So in answer to your first question:
If you have a current incumbent that is on an accelerated career trajectory, not getting on with their manager and has skills the industry is desperately looking for, you better have a "ready now" successor. If none of these conditions are true, 1 "Ready in 2 years" successor will do.
In answer to your second question:
The World Economic Forum "Global Gender Gap Report" (you can google the latest one) has some interesting statistics about representation by function and geography, e.g. "people professions" like HR have about 65% female representation, where "Cloud computing" only has 12%, so function and geography impact supply of talent which will impact representation.