advanced succession planning 2006
TRANSCRIPT
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Advanced Succession PlanningNext Generation Practices for Ensuring Your Organization's Future
Copyright 2006, WisdomNet, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
This white paper may be distributed in its entirety, with appropriate copyrights attached.
Any reproduction, reference, republishing or other use without written consent and credit to the authors is strictly prohibited.
WisdomNet White Paper Ser
May, 20
WisdomNe
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The Knowledge To Drive Performance
About the Author
Brian Wilkerson is the co-founder and CEO of WisdomNet. He
serves as a strategist and consultant to a number of large global
companies and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 clients
to help them solve their toughest problems and capitalize on the
greatest opportunities. His previous experience includes leader-
ship roles in global corporations such as Level 3 and Andersen
Consulting (now Accenture) and extensive work in international
development.
He has extensive experience in leading strategy development and
operational improvement efforts across a range of clients in both
domestic and international settings, with a particular emphasison making strategy successful through the combination of
operational excellence and human capital management.
Mr. Wilkerson speaks extensively on a range of topics such as
business strategy and strategic planning, innovation, global
outsourcing, and talent management for organizations such as
The Conference Board. The press also regularly seeks him out
for his insight on a number of topics and he has been quoted
in diverse publications ranging from the New York Times to the
Denver Business Journal. He has also published a number of
articles and book chapters. Mr. Wilkerson is actively involved in
the community, with a particular emphasis on social justice
issues. His educational background includes a Masters Degree
in Environmental Planning from University of Colorado and a
Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Cin-
cinnati, as well as a Certificate in Human Resource Strategy and
Practice from the Human Resource Planning Society.
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Table of Contents
About the Author .................................................................................... 1
Introduction ............................................................................................ 3
Succession Planning Evolution .............................................................. 6
Next Generation Approaches and Tools .................................................. 8
Integrated View ......................................................................... 8
Talent Pools .............................................................................10
Early Warning .......................................................................... 11
Advanced Workforce Planning ..................................................12
Decision Analytics ....................................................................13
Organization Spiderweb ............................................................15
Selection and Transition Focus ................................................16
Knowledge Mapping .................................................................17
Systems Evolution ...................................................................18
Summary ..............................................................................................21
References ............................................................................................22
Company Information ............................................................................24
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Over the past five years, the focus on succession planning in
organizations has dramatically increased. WisdomNet defines
succession planning as "an executive led talent planning process
focused on creating a pool of high performance leaders to meet
the strategic needs of the organization". It has been one of the
fastest growing service areas in the Human Capital consulting
arena and seminars related to the topic have seen record atten-
dance. There are a number of reasons for this increased focus,
all of which relate to the critical link between people and the
performance of the organization.
From a strategic perspective, more organizations are recogniz-ing that there are both leaders and individual contributors that are
critical to their performance. Succession planning is no longer
focused on just the "top jobs" but rather more broadly at who in
the organization is critical to doing what the organization needs
to do. In some organizations, this means front-line individual con-
tributors with critical skills in addition to key leaders. Many organi-
zations have experienced turnover in these types of positions
and the ensuing disruption and some have the potential to see it
before it happens. Most are also recognizing that the skills
required to ensure high performance are not easy to acquire or
develop. The talent market has become increasingly tight, and
while training internal staff can give important foundations, there
is no substitute for experience in the role. Executive roles in
particular have become increasingly complex, and the impact of
bad hires or bad decisions from those hires can have a much
more significant effect on the organization. Consequently, orga-
nizations are increasingly looking at ways they can get ahead of
the curve and avoid disruption through more effective succes-
sion planning.
In addition, many organizations are seeing the tip of the much-
heralded wave of baby boomer retirement. While the economic
challenges of the last 8 to 10 years delayed some of this activity,the pace of retirements has increased in most organizations, and
almost all see the potential for significant departures in the next 3
to 5 years. In fact, a sampling of WisdomNet clients showed that
most anticipated 50-70% retirement among their management
ranks within that timeframe. This is an unprecedented level of
turnover, and even if it is at the far end of that time horizon, it will
Introduction
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have a significant impact on the workforce. Just as important as
the sheer numbers is the level of experience and perspective
that will be lost when this generation leaves the workforce. Many
of these retirees will be in very senior positions and will have a
long tenure within the organization relative to the remaining
workforce. Even if the fundamental skills in these positions can
be replaced, the loss of knowledge, experience, judgment,
relationships, and perspective will have a significant impact on
organization performance.
Numbers involved in the turnover and the experience levels are
just two factors among many that are driving the interest insuccession planning. Other factors such as the increased
demand for highly skilled workers and leaders bring uncertainty
into the organization and provide the potential for disruption in
performance if someone is suddenly lured away. One need only
look at the legal battles between Google and Microsoft over key
talent in China to understand the stakes and level of focus in this
area. In addition, issues such as global security, immigration
reform, regulatory reform, and a host of others all impact how the
organization looks at talent and the increasing focus on
succession planning. This focus is not confined to the private
sector as public sector organizations face many of the same
dynamics and challenges.
Effective succession planning yields a number of benefits to the
organizations that put the appropriate focus on it. These include:
Ensuring continuity and minimizing disruption - the
organization stays focused on achieving its objectives
Providing the groundwork for achieving future goals and
improving the performance of the organization
Increasing the effectiveness of leadership developmentinvestments
Delivering higher performance now as targeted development
increases the skills of staff for their current positions
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Providing more challenging development opportunities and
career path opportunities
Providing a platform for preparing the organization for the
future and driving the changes in the culture and operations
needed in order to be successful
As more organizations have recognized these potential benefits,
the practice of succession planning has evolved. This white
paper explores that evolution and looks at a number of new
strategies that organizations are employing to ensure effective
succession planning.
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Succession Planning Evolution
Over the past fifteen years, the practice of succession planning
has evolved significantly. Succession planning is no longer a
matter of tapping someone on the shoulder for that C-level
opportunity and creating an "heir apparent". Many organizations
have realized the dangers of such an approach. This is just one
of a number of evolutions in succession planning that are
illustrated in the diagram below.
Today, succession planning is a much more dynamic process
that is focused on securing the future talent of the organization. It
reaches across levels and boundaries, and is focused on
creating a pool of talent that is available to meet the needs of the
organization at multiple levels, regardless of the genesis for that
need. Most organizations have started looking at succession
planning as parallel processes- one focused on addressing
immediate succession needs, with the other focused on
ensuring an adequate pool of talent available to address needs
as they evolve. The diagram below illustrates this parallelapproach.
From: To:
Annual Event
Selection of "Replacements"
Focusing on Senior Levels Only
Stand-alone Program
ROI in the Future
On-going Process
Creation of Leadership Pool
Extending into Mid- and
Lower-level Management
Part of Integrated Strategyfor Managing Talent
ROI Now and in the Future
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As the diagram illustrates, both processes involve understanding
needs and employing strategies to address these needs across
different time horizons. As the diagram also notes, addressing
succession needs is not merely a matter of recruiting or training.
A wide range of strategies can be employed to address
succession challenges. For example, when someone leaves a
position, organizations do not automatically just seek to replace
that position. Some look at the turnover as an opportunity to
reorganize the way work gets done and create a more efficient
organization. Many look at a succession event as an opportunity
to actually increase the skills or redefine the role associated with
that open position to give the organization even more capability.
Since most organizations today "run lean", they look to maximize
every talent decision they make, and not just ensure that the boxes
on the organization chart are filled.
This evolution in succession planning has led to a number of new
techniques and tools focused on improving the effectiveness of
this process. The next section describes tools that we have
either seen our clients successfully deploy or have helped them
develop and use effectively.
Leadership
Profile
Critical NeedsAssessment
Gap Analysis
Long Term
NeedsAssessment
Selection and
Monitoring ofPool
Participants
Identificationof Strategies
to Close Gaps
Career
Developmentand Goal
Setting
Development Activities
- Rotational Assignments
- Leadership Training
- 360 Degree Feedback
Selection and
Transition
Succession Pool Development
Replacement Planning Process
Improved ReadinessImproved Performance
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Next Generation Approaches and Tools
WisdomNet has worked with an extensive list of clients in both
the public and private sector to help them increase the effective-
ness of the succession planning approaches. In addition, we have
done a number of speaking engagements across the US, outlin-
ing innovative approaches to this topic. Through this work, we
have seen a number of innovations and advances in succession
planning, and have been responsible for creating a number of
them ourselves. Some of these are as simple as different ways
of thinking about the succession challenge, while some are
specific tools or techniques that help organizations address
succession planning. An overview of some of the key approaches
and tools follow.
Integrated View
Organizations are increasingly focused on making talent deci-
sions more objective and based on data. This is in stark contrast
to the informal or instinctive nature of many talent decisions in
the past and is a recognition that talent decisions are no different
than other business decisions they should be based on data
and facts rather than intuition or extraneous factors. For example,
no successful company would decide to build a new facility
simply because the drawings looked nice or they felt like they
needed it. The company would look at costs, potential use,capital funding vehicles, anticipated return on investment, pro-
jected future growth needs, lease market data, and a host of other
factors. More and more organizations are looking at talent through
the same lenses, which requires both increased data and
dramatically improved access to this data.
Increasingly organizations are moving towards some sort ofTalent Profile to aggregate this data and associated decisions.
The talent profile brings all of the information about a person
together into one place where it can be used by the appropriate
decision makers. This often involves pulling data from multiple
sources and systems and has in the past generally ended up assome sort of binder of information. But this was generally a
labor-intensive and time-consuming process for HR and support
staff. Even a simple decision such as the appropriate candidate
to fill an internal opening could involve getting past performance
from one system, the candidate resume from another, basic
employee information from a third, and past training and develop-
ment from a fourth. This doesnt even account for the evaluations
Talent decisions
are no different than
other business
decisions they
should be based on
data and facts ratherthan intuition or
extraneous factors.
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that might reside on a managers PC or worse, are not docu-
mented at all. Today, organizations are leveraging technology to
help aggregate all of this data in one place and give them instant
access to a comprehensive picture of their talent. This talent
profile functionality has become increasingly popular because of
the power of the data and the reduction in administrative burden
(see example below).
One of WisdomNets clients, for example, migrated from paper-
based to electronic talent profiles to improve efficiency and
refocused the efforts previously given to compiling data to
improving analytics. Among a number of efforts in this area, the
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client and WisdomNet created objective scorecards for deter-
mining who qualified as High Potentials that were based on the
various data points collected in the talent profile and eventually
automated the collection and analysis of this information to
create automated initial identification of high potentials from among
their global workforce of more than 10,000.
Talent Pools
The concept of creating a pool of High Potentials in an organiza-
tion is almost as old as the practice of succession planning itself.
A pool is nothing more than a group of individuals with common
characteristics. But WisdomNet has seen many of our clients
dramatically expand their use of pools to better identify, track,
and manage various cohorts of staff. For example, one of our
clients separated their high potentials into pools based on what
level of potential they had. This particular client defined this as
how many levels up in the organization they could potentially move
(and of course staff could move into different pools over time).
Other clients have separated candidates who are candidates for
replacing current managers, but dont necessarily qualify as high
potentials in the organization. Each of these pools has specific
development strategies associated with them and are tracked as
cohorts in terms of progress against development, investmentand return, retention, and a number of other factors.
WisdomNet has helped a number of our clients take this concept
one step further by blurring the lines between internal and exter-
nal pools. We have seen that the right candidate to address a
particular talent challenge could be made up of an internal
resource, an external hire, or even some sort of contingent labor
solution depending on required timing, investment, criteria
weightings, etc. Many of our clients have found that they can make
better succession planning decisions by looking simultaneously
at these various internal and external options and the relative cost,
benefit, and likelihood of success for each option. This of courserequires thinking about a number of Talent Management processes
such as recruiting (applicant management) and contractor
management very differently, but it provides a significantly
increased range of options for addressing talent challenges and
a higher likelihood of successfully addressing them. In many
cases, this type of blending of talent pools is done through Talent
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Management software with both the ability to track information
about internal and external options and powerful search tools to
hone in on the right solution for a particular talent challenge. Like
other areas of the business, advances in decision support are
helping companies sort through more data and make better
decisions about talent.
Early Warning
One of the fastest growing trends in succession planning is the
development of early warning mechanisms around potential tal-
ent issues. This includes significant focus on predictive turnover
modeling. As an example, WisdomNet has built a Turnover
MappingTM tool that takes data from various sources and
aggregates it into a profile of potential turnover in all parts of the
organization. This can include employee and manager percep-
tions, flagging of particular conditions in the talent profile, third
party retention assessment tools, past turnover trends, and
others. The goal is to provide the organization early warning data
about potential turnover issues and give them time to target the
appropriate strategies to address it. This could include ramping
up recruiting, targeted retention initiatives, or any number of
strategies. The key is to be aware of the information early enough
so that the organization can proactively address it.
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Other clients have begun to focus on a few critical sets of factors
that tend to be predictors of turnover in their organization. For
example, one global financial services company has begun to
look at what they call Long-Term Hold by examining factors such
as long-term incentive compensation (including vesting
schedules), stock option exercise activity, tenure, level, and a
host of other factors to target particular retention risks among
critical talent, leadership and high potentials. Others have
focused on job satisfaction measures or trends in key talent
going to competitors.
Many of these approaches are dependent on technology and theability to aggregate and correlate significant amounts of data.
Technology has also allowed a number of companies to move
toward more automated detection of potential issues. For
example, WisdomNets I-TMSTM software allows companies to
set up e-mail alerts that notify key HR or leadership when
particular conditions are met. This might be when a particular
staff member is marked as a retention risk in the system and the
system identifies that this person also does not have any
potential backfills associated with them. This type of automated
alert ensures that the organization maximizes the time available
to deal with potential talent issues before they become real
issues.
Advanced Workforce Planning
One of the fastest emerging trends is actually the linkage of
succession planning to workforce planning. Certainly the
discussions that typically take place between HR and business
units around how many people do you need are nothing new.
But this is just a shadow of the potential for workforce planning.
Increasingly organizations are seeking to move to a more disci-
plined approach to workforce planning that is much more
advanced. Some of this is related to the desire to get early
warning data about potential needs, but it is just as much relatedto the desire on the part of organizations to better understand
and better prepare for what they will need to meet their future
goals. Many are starting to look at scenario modeling for the
dependence of business goals on talent acquisition and reten-
tion. For example, one of our clients recently used advanced
workforce planning to model the costs of different strategies for
entering a new business line and the associated feasibility. As
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success in this new area was heavily dependent on the ability to
acquire, develop, and retain the right talent, the company was
able to balance cost considerations with likelihood of success to
determine the right entry strategy.
Workforce planning is evolving from an exercise in headcount
planning to a comprehensive look at how to optimize talent. No
longer is it an exercise in how many people will need to be
recruited in a year, but rather a driver of strategies around
recruiting, training, retention, workplace policies, contingent
labor strategies, facility location, and even outsourcing. As an
example, WisdomNets approach to workforce planning is ground-breaking and unique, and combines the organizations process
architecture, required outputs, goals, systems infrastructure,
headcount, skills, required service levels, costs, and a host of
other factors into an empirical model that tells the organization
exactly what they will need to meet their needs today and
tomorrow. This includes suggestions on optimization (process
automation and improvement, outsourcing options, appropriate
contingent labor mixes, etc.) and the risk and return associated
with each strategy. Already in use by both large corporations and
government agencies, this approach and tool has allowed
organizations to make the concrete link between people and
performance and has given organizations the tools to empirically
analyze what their workforce strategies should be (including
succession planning).
Decision Analytics
As discussed above, advances in technology and decision
support have enabled organizations to bring together more data
and make better talent decisions. But just as important as the
data is the analytics that are applied and more organizations are
focused on improving these tools. Some examples have been
discussed, such as objective criteria for determining high
potentials, but the range of tools that have been developed anddeployed over the past five years is significant.
One element of this focus on decision analytics is an increase in
tools for cost-benefit analysis around talent decisions. Organiza-
tions are increasingly looking at their various talent options using
traditional cost-benefit-risk analysis. For example, a common
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decision in organizations is whether to fill an open position with
an internal or external candidate. More organizations look at the
cost of each option vs. the likelihood of success and the criticality
of the position to the business rather than simply defaulting to
promote from within policies or other non-objective decision
criteria. This is symbolic of the overall trend towards more
objective decision-making around talent.
WisdomNet has helped a number of our clients take this a step
further by developing Decision Trees associated with key talent
decisions. These decision trees help document the factors that
should be considered when examining particular talent decisionsand also help ensure that the decision is based on data. An
example appears below showing a simple decision tree for a
situation where a high potential is being blocked by an
incumbent from moving into a higher-level position. This is a sim-
plified version for illustration purposes.
The decision tree walks the user through a series of criteria and
suggests an appropriate strategy based on a particular situation.
One of the key advantages of these tools is that they give line
managers a process to make better decisions. This helps build
Replace
vs. RetainReplace vs. Retain Decision
Used when incumbent is blocking a HIPO,Future Leader, or Replacement Candidate
who is ready for Succession
HIPO, Future
Leader, or
Replacement
Candidate
Would the anticipatedperformance of the potential
be higher than that of theincumbent?
Is there
another role
available for the
incumbent?
Is incumbent
interested in that
role?
Replace
Incumbent
Keep
Incumbent in
Role
Create Strategic
Development Assignment
for Potential
Is strategic value ofincumbent higher than
that of potential?
Create job share or
Strategic Development
Assigment for Incumbent
Move Potential
into Role
NO
YES YES YES
NO NO
NO
YES
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the effectiveness of the managers and also helps ensure that
key talent decisions in the organization are being made consis-
tently and with the right factors, even when HR is not involved.
Moreover, WisdomNet is also helping our clients automate these
tools to provide suggested strategies to decision makers based
on available data, these strategies can then be customized to fit
the situation.
Organization Spiderweb
In the past, succession planning decisions have generally been
targeted on finding the best candidate for the position that is in
focus. For example, if a leader will soon be retiring, there is a
significant effort put on evaluating the credentials of potential
internal and external candidates to determine the best skills and
fit. In most cases, however, minimal attention is paid to the ripple
effects of a given decision. For example, if internal Candidate A
is determined to be the best from a standpoint of skills,
experience, and interest, what happens to the business unit that
Candidate A will come from? Is there a ready replacement for
Candidate A in their current role? Will critical business priorities
suffer if Candidate A leaves their current role? If it were an
external candidate, what would be the potential impact on
internal candidates who were passed over? All of these consid-erations are getting greater attention in organizations.
WisdomNet has helped a number of clients establish analytical
approaches to manage this Organization Spiderweb. These
approaches include how to analyze the downstream impacts of
various succession options at not just the next level, but through
multiple layers of the organization with the goal of choosing the
option that optimizes overall organization impact. The diagram
below illustrates a simple version of the type of criteria matrix that
would be used in this type of decision.
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Areas of Business Impact
Qualific
ations/
Readine
ss
Project
edUnit
Perform
ance
KeyCus
tomerR
elation
ships
ReplacementCandidate
A
Replacement
CandidateB
ReplacementCandidate
C
Replacement
CandidateD
2
1
3
4
1
4
2
3
2
3
1
4
Critical Position
While technology certainly makes this type of analysis easier, it
is not a prerequisite for this strategy. To manage this decision
process, we have seen a number of clients use spreadsheets or
simply just document the appropriate criteria and discuss the
decisions and potential impacts as a group. The key is that more
and more organizations are looking at the far-reaching implica-tions of a particular succession decision and guiding their
strategies with this knowledge. Consequently, they are seeing
much smoother transitions, higher success rates, and less
organization disruption.
Selection and Transition Focus
Another shifting emphasis in succession planning is around
selection and transition. As discussed above, organizations are
focusing on more disciplined and objective criteria for
determining how to address a particular succession need. They
are also beginning to increase their focus on how they managethe actual transition in the organization. In many cases, so much
effort was put into the selection process, that the transition
activities were almost non-existent. The assumption was that if
the right candidate was chosen, their success in their new role
would be assured. Many organizations are realizing that this
doesnt always reflect reality, and some have the scars from failed
executives to prove it. Consequently, WisdomNet has seen a
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number of clients put in robust and structured transition experi-
ences for internal and external successors. These experiences
generally include combinations of training, mentoring and
coaching, job experiences, relationship building, assessments,
and a host of other factors related to ensuring job success. In all
cases, the progress of the successor is closely monitored to
ensure that they are both achieving the goals of the position as
well as developing themselves appropriately. This process is being
mirrored with both internal promotions and external hires, and
generally includes both common experiences across all
executives and specific development based on each executives
unique needs. In our experience, these types of programs havedramatically improved the success rate of successors.
Knowledge Mapping
At a more tactical level, organizations are increasingly focused
on minimizing the knowledge loss that often occurs when there
is turnover in a position. The goal of these efforts is generally to
translate knowledge in a staff persons head into organization
knowledge through a process called Knowledge Mapping. This
process helps organizations identify, prioritize, document, and
disseminate knowledge that is critical to the operations of the
organization. As can be imagined, the scope of this can be in-credibly broad, and it is important that organizations focus their
efforts on the components of each job that are critical and that
cannot be intuitively figured out when someone steps in to a
new role. For example, someone who comes from within an
organization may already understand the budgeting process
associated with that organization. However, they may not
understand the regulatory filings that a particular department is
responsible for if they did not come from that department. More
importantly, they may be able to get the regulatory forms from a
web site, but will they understand how to fill them out
appropriately, or know the right person to get answers from at the
regulatory agency? All of these are potential targets forknowledge mapping.
The fundamental process for knowledge mapping includes:
Map knowledge required to execute a particular task / role /
job (focus on critical jobs or those with high time to
proficiency or high turnover)
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Determine how knowledge will be captured and
disseminated (people, systems, procedures, etc.) focus on
application of the knowledge and not just documentation
Determine how knowledge will be transferred in the event of
succession
Ensure that the knowledge transfer process is both
documented and practiced to ensure minimal disruption in
the event of a transition
Again, these efforts should focus on components that are difficult
to learn, require time to attain proficiency, or critical to starting
successfully in a job. Most organizations do not have the time for
people to stop doing their jobs for weeks in order to document
what they do. Our clients have found that setting realistic
objectives for incremental progress around knowledge mapping,
for example documenting one key aspect of the job per quarter,
is the right approach for ensuring that they are prepared for a
transition.
In our experience, organizations must also look broadly atknowledge mapping, beyond just the formal, to ensure that they
are capturing both the informal knowledge and important
relationships critical to ensuring smooth transitions. For example,
how do you ensure that a successor can get the same kind of
response from IT around a critical job component when that re-
sponse for the incumbent was based on a 15-year relationship
between the incumbent and a key person in IT? If this is a critical
component to ensuring continuity and minimizing disruption, it
must be managed as part of this process. The same could apply
to key customer relationships, relationships with government
officials, key vendor relationships, and a host of others. The
important thing to remember is to focus on the elements of a job
that are critical to its performance.
Not all of these techniques are appropriate for every organiza-
tion. Each organization must look at where they are in terms of
their needs, current level of data, systems support, management
skills, and HR capability to determine what the right mix of
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advanced strategies would be. It is clear, however, that nearly
every organization will need to consider some number of these
approaches and techniques as the complexity of succession and
talent challenges grow.
Systems Evolution
One enabler of more effective succession planning has been the
evolution in HR systems. Succession planning software has
existed for many years, but Integrated Talent Management
Application Suites such as WisdomNets I-TMS TM software has
allowed organizations to really take succession planning to thenext level. In the past, tools in this area have primarily been
focused on moving boxes around on organization charts. But the
current generation of Talent Management applications goes far
beyond this. Talent Management applications allow organizations
to have a complete view of their talent, as well as a comprehen-
sive picture of the organizations talent needs and challenges.
This includes the ability to automatically aggregate the full picture
of talent from the individual to the organization level. Now
organizations can quickly tell who they have, what they can do,
what they are doing today, and what their gaps might be. In
addition, organizations now have powerful tools to look at trends,
gaps, needs, and strategies for addressing succession planningchallenges. All of this is possible from the integration of disparate
data from disparate sources into a comprehensive picture of
talent and the availability of tools to analyze this data at various
levels. Increasingly, systems have become a foundation for
effective succession planning and are a critical component of
strategy in this area.
WisdomNet has been a leader and innovator in this field, and our
I-TMSTM application was the first fully-integrated Talent Manage-
ment Suite on the market. We believe that organizations must
manage Human Capital with the same clarity, discipline, andobjectivity with which they manage other business assets. This
requires the processes, systems, and most importantly,
measures that clearly show the return on Human Capital. This
was the genesis of our I-TMSTM tool, and it has helped a number
of organizations increase the effectiveness of their Human Capital
Management. Because we are consultants and solution delivery
experts first, our technology aligns with proven practices in
We believe that
organizations must
manage Human
Capital with the same
clarity, discipline, and
objectivity with which
they manage other
business assets.
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The Knowledge To Drive Performance
succession planning and has the flexibility to accommodate the
diversity of needs and approaches in this area. A number of the
innovations discussed above have been built into our software
as tools, and I-TMSTM is one of the most powerful tools in the
market in this area. This includes integration to all the related
Talent Management processes and linkages to our ground-break-
ing Workforce Planning tools.
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The Knowledge To Drive Performance
Summary
Succession planning is no longer the purview of large progres-
sive companies. It has become a critical component of ensuring
the success of both public and private sector organizations and
a significant focus of organizations around the globe. In that vein,
succession planning has evolved significantly from the back-room
conversations about the next CEO. It has become an important
part of how the organization does business and is both broader
and deeper in its scope. Succession planning is often integrated
into how leaders manage their teams, and has become an
explicit consideration in many talent decisions. It has also
become more complex as talent challenges increase and the
criticality of talent to organization performance has also increased.
This has led to a number of new approaches and tools for
succession planning. These are focused on making the process
more effective and accounting for the increased complexity of
today's organizations. They include both new ways of analyzing
risks and needs, as well as new strategies for addressing them.
Increasingly, organizations are seeking ways to manage their
talent assets in the same way they manage other organization
assets and are coming up with more advanced ways to identify
and address talent needs and challenges. Some of this has been
made possible through the evolution of HR technology, but much
of it comes from more advanced understanding of talent dynam-
ics and how to approach these challenges. WisdomNet has been
at the forefront of this evolution, and we have worked with our
clients to develop a number of the tools and techniques described
in this white paper.
This is certainly not the end to the succession planning evolution.
As technology advances and more organizations address
impending retirements and talent shortages, there will be a need
to continue to evolve the practice of succession planning. Many
of the gaps that will be coming in the workforce will not be able to
be solved by traditional strategies. Some estimates place the sizeof the coming generation in the workforce at half that of the cur-
rent generation. This dynamic alone will force a fundamental
revolution in how organizations acquire, manage, and develop
talent, and many organizations will find their success or failure
linked to their abilities in this area. WisdomNet will continue to be
a leader and innovator in this field and to push the practice of both
succession planning and Talent Management as a whole.
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References
Abraham. Integrating Technology to Meet Challenges of Public Sector
Human Resources. www.ipma-hr.org.
Charan, Drotter, and Noel. The Leadership Pipeline: How to build the
leadership powered. Wiley, John & Sons, 2000.
Ciampa and Watkins. Right from the start: Taking Charge in a New
Leadership Role. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2005.
Corporate Leadership Council. Assessment Methods for Promoting and
Developing Managers. November, 2002.
Corporate Leadership Council. Models for Strategic Staffing Processes.
March, 2003.
Corporate Leadership Council. Succession Planning Practices. May,
2003.
Farley. HRs Role in Talent Management and Driving Business Results.
Employment Relations Today 2005.
Gygi and Wilkerson. A Compelling Model for Workforce Planning: Making
Organizations More Agile. WisdomNet White Paper, 2005,
www.wisdomnet.net.
Leibman, Bruer, and Maki. Succession Management: The Next Generation
of Succession Planning. HRPS Journal. http://www.hrps.org/
publications_journal.html.
Metz. Designing Succession Systems for New Competitive Realities.
HRPS Journal. http://www.hrps.org/publications_journal.html.
Orellano and Miller. Succession Planning: Lessons From Kermit the
Frog.. SHRM white paper. www.shrm.org.
Robb. Succeeding with succession: tools for succession management
get more sophisticated. HR Magazine January 2006.
Rothwell. Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity
and Building Talent from Within (3rd Ed.). New York: AMACOM, 2005.
Schall. Public Sector Succession: A Strategic Approach to Sustaining
Innovation, Public Administration Review. 57(1).
Watkins. The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at
All Levels. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2003.
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WisdomNetTM
The Knowledge To Drive Performance
Wilkerson. Effective Succession Planning in Public and Non-Profit
Organizations. WisdomNet White Paper, 2002, www.wisdomnet.net.
Wilkerson. Effective Talent Management: Improving Business Results
through People. WisdomNet White Paper, 2002, www.wisdomnet.net.
Wilkerson. Technology for Strategic Partnering. HR.com March 2004.
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WisdomNetTM
The Knowledge To Drive Performance
WisdomNet creates innovative consulting and product solutions
for the worlds best companies with a matchless level of exper-
tise and service. WisdomNets extensive experience in strategy,
operations, and human capital, coupled with our technology
expertise allows us to generate real results for our clients. In
addition, products such as the leading-edge Integrated Talent
Management System (ITMSTM) help our clients maximize the per-
formance of their strategic assets. WisdomNet can help you solve
your toughest problems and capitalize on your greatest opportu-
nities.
For additional information, please contact us at:
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Company Information
www.wisdomnet.net
303.316.0381
WisdomNet, Incorporated
1600 Stout Street, Suite 1800
Denver, Colorado 80202