Defining the Succession Planning ProcessThe following figure extracted from www.successfactors.com 2 , illustrates the key elements in designing a process that is customized to your company.

         

Assessment of Key Positions

The first step in developing a succession planning process is to identify which roles will be planned for. A general recruitment and selection process will necessarily take a holistic view of future employment needs at all levels of the organization. However, succession planning is a targeted process that should be crafted around just the most critical organizational roles.

The easiest way to begin identifying key organizational roles for which to build succession plans is to start at the top. The CEO or Director (i.e. the most senior organizational leader) should always be included in succession planning. From there, cascading down and including other senior leaders may make sense depending on organizational size and structure.

Choosing which roles are critical enough to warrant a succession plan will be dictated by your organizational priorities. Keep this list consolidated to only the most vital roles depending on organizational size – so your organization will have the capacity to execute robust and effective succession plans for each of them.

As you consider which additional roles to include in your succession planning process, it may be helpful to reflect on the following questions:

How critical is this role to organizational success? Does the success or failure of this individual role have a large impact on our ability to

meet organizational goals?

Are the skills needed to succeed in this role common throughout our organization? Or would finding a replacement for this role require extensive training?

Does this role oversee/interact with multiple key stakeholders within the organization? Or does this role operate primarily within an isolated department?

Select the roles that have the most impact on organizational success. Consider the impact this role will have both today and in the projected strategic plans for the organization over the coming years. Choose those that would be most difficult to quickly replace and those whose work directly impacts the largest number of other employees in the organization. Once a definitive list of the key organizational roles for which to plan is compiled, it should remain constant unless significant organizational restructuring occurs.

Identification of Key Talent

This is the second step in the Succession Planning process. This module recommends and discusses in detail the 9 Box - Performance Potential Matrix to identify key talent. This is a simple tool to assess talent in your organization along two parameters – past performance and future potential. By categorizing your company’s talent into each of the boxes in the 9 Box matrix, you will be able to plan different developmental actions for different talent – ‘different strokes for different folks’. This will enable you to further customize your individual development plans to cater to a defined classification of talent.

The goal of this tool is to move employees from wherever they currently are in the 9-Box grid to the upper right box. As you move to the upper right of the Nine-Box, actions become more strategic and far-reaching as your succession plan begins to have a more direct impact on the

goals and success of your organization. This section will cover the description and recommendations to deal with employees in each category of the 9-Box grid.

For a printer-friendly version of this graph, click here.

Categorizing Performance

By Performance we mean – sustained business results demonstrated over time. The organization's performance management process is used to classify the talent pool into three categories: outstanding performance, good performance, and poor performance (refer to the Performance Planning and Management module for detailed information on planning, managing and rating employee performance). Managers and HR professionals in most organizations are able to accomplish this process with a great deal of accuracy and precision depending on the current performance management process.

Categorizing Potential

By Potential we mean – readiness, willingness, and the ability to grow into a future job as determined by functional expertise, aspiration, required competencies and learning agility. Assessing potential and predicting future performance is far more challenging than categorizing current performance. As with performance, organizational decision makers are tasked with classifying their talent pool along three dimensions: high potential (known as Hi-Po’s), medium potential, and low potential.

To identify potential conduct some form of employee assessment on each member in the talent pool. In the absence of management tools, make use of subjective judgments by leaders, peers, customers, etc., where evaluations are used to predict potential.

Note:Refer to the Performance Planning and Management module for detailed information on measuring competencies

Place Talent Pool into Your Nine-Box.

Armed with the categories mentioned above, organizational decision makers now place each member of the talent pool into the nine box matrix according to their performance and potential categories as illustrated in the grid above.

Gathering a pool of top performers and evaluating them against the essential criteria for organizational leaders will set the stage for building out an explicit succession plan for each key role. In doing so, the organization should plan for the institution’s short and long term needs.

Short-Term Needs

Planning for the short term involves identifying individuals who would be ready to step into key roles with minimal additional development necessary (typically 6 months to 1 year). These

individuals possess most, if not all the identified competencies needed to succeed in a given role.  Even if the organization does not foresee a need for short-term transitions, it is valuable to identify these potential replacements for key roles. It is hard to predict when a replacement might be needed, and being prepared is better than being caught off guard.

Long-Term Needs

Planning for the long-term needs of the organization involves Identifying pools of talent that could potentially fill key roles with additional development. These individuals are strong performers who show great potential. They are the individuals the organization must cultivate and train in order to establish a reliable and growing base of talent from which to recruit for important roles within the organization as will be needed in the future.

Though succession planning is a targeted process crafted around the most crucial organizational positions, when planning for the long-term it is important to evaluate talent at all levels of the organizational hierarchy. Identifying high potentials early and working to support their development as soon as they begin to stand out as top performers will help build their loyalty to the organization (increasing the likelihood of retention) and will strengthen the overall capacity of the organization along the way. A dedicated Branch Manager, with a supportive development plan, could someday be the next Director of Operations or even CEO.

Tracking the top potential employees (for both short and long-term organizational needs) builds accountability and allows for consistent evaluation of the talent pool as well as reflection on their development progress.

Example: Hassan is considered a high-potential employee at a large MFI in Jordan.  His company can count on him for achieving goals and he is in the run for being the next Regional Credit Manager. Hassan joined the company 10 years ago as a Data Entry Operator—it was his first job then. He had a Diploma and was willing to take any job that came his way 10 years ago. On joining the MFI, he immediately took a liking to the work and the company. He dedicated himself to learning the concepts of microfinance and how the industry works. His manager quickly recognized this. As the company grew, Hassan was promoted to become a Teller and in a few years thereafter he was promoted again to be a Loan Officer. During this time, Hassan also focused on his education and he completed his Bachelor’s degree with the support of the organization. He was also being trained on other management skills. He attended training programs both in house and externally on communicating effectively, change management and leadership. These classroom training sessions coupled with in-the-field practical work experience allowed Hassan to gain the knowledge and skills he needed. His personal zeal and willingness to go beyond the call of duty put him in the spotlight. His performance and potential were being tracked on the 9-Box matrix. He moved boxes: from trusted professional to core employee to high-impact performance and now to future leader. He shadows the current Credit Manager when an opportunity arises and is being coached to be the next Regional Credit Manager. Hassan is a good example for other employees in the organization. New hires are motivated on hearing his background with the company. The organization is happy to promote from within. And Hassan, he is a happy man!

Assessment of Key Talent - 9-Box Performance Potential Matrix

In addition to data and feedback on an individual’s performance and potential, you can leverage this 9-Box Definition & Assessment Guide for a more detailed description of each category in the grid. Below are some specific recommendations on how to deal with each type of employee as defined by the 9-box:

Under Performer

Poor performance Spotty track record of delivering results

Doing just enough to get by

Not considered ready, willing, or able for future roles

Employees in this dark corner of the performance-potential matrix are often said to be “icebergs,” not because you can only see the tip of their potential, but because they are capable of sinking your organization. An often overlooked component of succession planning is the ability to recognize a failure of the system - people with no potential and below average performance who need to be moved rather quickly to another box, or be moved out of the organization. Regrettably, there is often an investment of more training resources rather than fewer in dealing with this category of employees.

Recommendations to Deal with the Under Performer Category

Find a more appropriate assignment for them. You may be able to facilitate placement of the person into more appropriate roles with more suitable direction, purpose, or opportunities. If you want to retain the person, consider taking a performance management approach instead of a developmental approach; an improvement action plan rather than a tailored developmental plan. Coaching and feedback should be remedial.

Sometimes employees in this category may be "stuck" due to issues they perceive to be beyond their control. Anything ranging from personal (e.g., family crisis, life change) to professional (conflict with a co-worker, discomfort with a work practice). As such, you should counsel, build trust and try to understand the issues. Clear roadblocks and set them on the path toward improved performance and (perhaps) improved potential.

In a few cases, your inquiry may reveal hidden potential toward a path different from the one prescribed by their current role. Uncovering these disconnects often leads to a new understanding of what role the employee should be in. The Under Performer in this case is a mismatch and needs to be reassigned.

An often unforeseen consequence of not dealing with Under Performers is that they can form a sort of roadblock in your organization, keeping others from realizing their full potential. Because

of this, it is important to identify and remove the blockers, poor performers with a limited future who stand in the way of potential stars.

Effective

Have a valued, but narrow and non-transferable skill set Limited to current role

Solid performance

Comfortable with where they are

The ideal path for Effective employees is to move up/out. The Effective category refers to those performing acceptably and possesses limited potential for future growth. Depending on short term and long term business priorities and organization goals, sometimes you may want to leave this category alone, they may not exceed expectations but they are steadily reliable. It is recommended though to push to formulate action plans for this group to improve performance and/or enhance the limited potential they display.

Recommendations to Deal with the Effective Category

Put the ball in their court rather than invest development dollars in people with limited potential. If, after working their action plan, the employee can move up, then you've achieved success with a minimal outlay of resources.

Perhaps other roles exist in the organization where they can continue to perform, but do so with more potential for the future.

Sometimes employees in this category may come to the realization that being "OK" in a role is not enough for them and will seek more promising opportunities elsewhere.

Dilemma

Low or no demonstrated track record Future potential is unclear

May be trying hard but struggling to achieve results

Match between the role and their skills is questionable

The other category that should move up/out is Dilemma. These are employees who have some potential to be great, yet are not high performers. These Dilemmas pose unique challenges for your succession plan. If they are new to the organization, consider reviewing their on-boarding experience. Was something poorly communicated during orientation? Is there a misunderstanding about job expectations? Are there disconnects between recruitment expectations and the realities of the role? New members to an organization often find themselves in this particular box because something has gone wrong. Alternatively, you may have a

Dilemma who is rudderless in your organization. Seek out root causes for the performance issues and encourage the employee to develop and own an action plan for remedying deficits.

Recommendations to Deal with the Dilemma Category

Dilemmas benefit greatly from a peer mentor who can guide them through the predicament they are facing.

Assessing the role match is key. If addressing performance barriers and action planning do not work to move them up in the Nine-Box, then moving them out to a different role is another option.

The Up or Outs in your organization form the heavily tactical portions of your Nine-Box; the impact and scope of these decisions tend to be smaller. Actions taken in the lower left three boxes should be focused on employee efforts to change and move up (or out). 

Trusted Professional

Recognized for a valued, unique, and expert skill set Strong performance, can exceed expectations

Can serve as seasoned advisors

Thought leaders who typically enjoy their area of expertise and do not typically desire upward mobility

These individuals are exceeding expectations along Performance but failing along Potential. They are high-performing Backbones in your organization who possess limited potential.

Help your Trusted Professionals reach their potential. These are the high-value experts that are the go-to people when there are problems. They are, currently, performing extremely well in their current role and the classic mistake in management practice has been to promote these individuals, thereby achieving the oft-maligned "Peter Principle" - promoting a person into a role where they perform incompetently. Instead of risking this blunder by investing developmental dollars on an individual that you have already identified as limited in potential, consider taking the following actions:

Recommendations to Deal with the Trusted Professional Category

Encourage their retention as a key asset in their present role. Watch for signs of boredom, lack of challenge and other retention risks. Provide recognition and rewards for their accomplishments (Click here to learn more about Total Rewards).

Look for ways to publicly acknowledge their efforts. Have them take the lead on presenting information or explaining processes to others (corporate presentations, participation at external conferences, etc.).

Provide them with opportunities to develop in places where they can grow a deeper and broader skill set and knowledge base. Utilize their assets toward teaching or coaching others. Look for the hidden high potential in the talent base of your Backbones.3

Enigma

Highly driven Ambitiously aspire to move swiftly upward in the organization

Junior to the organization or new to the industry

Do not have a fully demonstrated track record of performance

These individuals are exceeding expectations along Potential but failing along Performance. They are the Problem Children who are high potentials ("hi-pos") that aren't performing up to standard. These Enigmas are much harder to crack—they are employees who have all the potential for greatness, yet fail to meet expectations. They are the rookie sensation that flops in the big leagues; the brilliant young minds that can't make it; the disappointing Olympian that comes home with no medals. Several action steps should be taken to address these cases.

Recommendations to Deal with the Enigmas Category

Find the root cause of the failures in performance and collaborate on a development plan to address identified deficiencies. If the issue is more about poor fit than role failure, consider moving them to different roles in the organization. After you have taken actions to address any issues, review the assessment you did on their potential. Are these employees truly "hi-pos" in your organization?

Make their developmental plan contingent on performance improvement.

Include efforts to give them the technical skills they need to perform at the required level.

Ensure that any investment in development only occurs after measurable improvements are made. If these employees do not respond, consider moving them to another role or out of the organization.

One another action for the above two categories that you can take is asking a trusted professional to mentor and coach an Enigma. Explore the possibility of attaching these employees to higher performing members of your organization, and more the better if those mentors are also "hi-pos." Both these categories offer tremendous opportunities for your organization if they can be directed back toward the stream of your succession plan. When that happens, you can really start to focus your development dollars on the creation of the gifted talent that will move your organization to greatness.

The next three categories in the 9-Box matrix can be called your stars. They make a difference right now and, with the right developmental support, they can transform your organization's future.

Core Employee

Backbone to success of business and team Well placed with opportunity to grow within current role

Strong performance and may exceed expectations at times

Developing your Core talent in the center square of your 9-Box is proceeding directly along the path of your succession plan. Assess where members of this Core group stand in their career-development pathway. Some may not be ready or interested in advancement yet. Recognize that your Core talent does not need to be pushed at this time. It's acceptable for them to stay where they are. Until they're ready for that next step, here are some actions you can take:

Recommendations to Deal with the Core Employee Category

Provide coaching and training that builds both technical expertise and leadership skill (click here to learn about Grameen Foundation’s Leadership Program)

Give them short-term assignments or projects that expose them to the types of challenges they'll face at the next level; gauge their reaction to the experience

Praise their accomplishments in the present role and build trust with them so they'll let you know when they're ready to make the next move

Ensure that they know they are valued, listen to their ideas and monitor their behavior for signs of complacence or dissatisfaction

High Impact Performer

Outpace others Very high performance and consistent results

Worry-free candidate for future growth and development

Potential may be limited by their global mobility or own aspiration

The High Impact Performer group shows some potential for having a greater impact. Often, it's a matter of readiness that prevents them from moving into those larger roles. Accordingly, the focus should be on development and preparation for longer term opportunities.

Recommendations to deal with the High Impact Performer

Look to provide them with "stretch" assignments - projects that may require them to do things they don't already know how to do or necessitate skills and abilities that are beyond their current role

Challenge them to be high performers in a higher profile role

Find a mentor for them that is at least one level up on your organization chart

Promote relationship building among other high performing talent in your 9-Box

Make short-term job rotations or job swaps readily available to them; give them a chance to operate in a completely new role - and assess reactions to those experiences

Growth Employee

High growth employees High capacity and ambition to expand role, scope, and complexity

Solid performance most of time and at times exceed goals

High global mobility and willingness to go where the opportunity is

The last category of your stars is the Growth Employee. These are employees of your talent pool who may not have achieved in performance what they reveal in potential. This is particularly true for the more junior participants in your Succession Plan. The key is to focus on competency gaps and remove performance barriers in an effort to shift this group from "good to great."

Recommendations to Deal with the Growth Employee Category

Challenge them with a start-up assignment where they have responsibility for creating a new process or opening a new market; make it a high-profile activity that no one else has done

Consider matching them to a higher performing mentor who can help them along the path

For more junior members, provide assignments where they have a chance to step in and resolve conflicts or inefficiencies in a problem area, or task them to do a "clean up" in an area of disrepair

Make short-term job rotations or job swaps readily available to them; give them a chance to operate in a completely new role - and assess reactions to those experiences

Your stars represent what's going right in your Succession Plan. Celebrate their successes with others and make sure that stumbles are revealing to them, and to you, on how to get it right the next time.

Future Leaders

Best of the best Exceptional performance

Deliver consistent and sustainable results

Possess enormous drive for achievement and ambition

Stellar role models for both ‘what’ and ‘how’ results are achieved

These are people in your organization who are realizing their full potential while at the same time performing at their peak. This is the dream team of organizational players. They are well-equipped to take on any assignment and poised to transform your organization into a better version of itself. But caution must be taken with this group; for they can easily become bored and to your dismay, may be lured elsewhere. There are some actions you can take to retain them.

Recommendations to deal with the Future Leaders Category

Find ways to make them shine. Give them challenging, stretch assignments doing things nobody else has done.

These employees should be tasked with high stakes, high-profile assignments.

Earmark them for start-ups or spin-offs where they will add even more tools to their arsenal while helping to take your organization in new directions.

Identify parts of your organization that may need financial or operational turnaround and assign a Future Leader to transform performance. 

Grant them access to exclusive training opportunities, send them to national or international conferences, and appoint them to high-profile committees in the organization.

Consider the formation of a cross-functional association among Future Leaders that serves to build relationships and provide support to all of your key organizational players.

Allow them elite access and exposure to the CEO, senior leaders and the governance structures in your organization.

Provide them with shadowing opportunities where they can unhook from their present role and walk with another in a role they may hold in the future.

Your Future Leaders are also ideally suited to serve in a leadership capacity on civic boards and committees. They represent the best of your organization to the community while they learn about leadership from an external and public perspective.

Generation of Development Plans

Now that you can identify your key talent (Future Leaders), customize a plan for their ascension as executives.

Form a clear and mutually agreed upon developmental plan that tracks each employee in the Future Leaders box into a rank of executive leadership

Pair them with a mentor in senior leadership who can guide them along the path and watch for potential threats to retention

Consider providing them with an external coach to help them enhance their potential and expand their skills further

The greatest investment of developmental dollars in your succession plan should go into retaining, engaging, and advancing your organization's Future Leaders. This is where your business gets the greatest return on investment. These employees promote all that you have done right in growing talent from within. You should broadcast this to all your employees, to others in the community and to the industry at large. Remember, your human capital is the only truly flexible asset and the only one that can vastly exceed your expectations.

Pitfall

A strong succession planning process can increase the retention of an organization’s top employees, as they will recognize that time, attention, and skill development are being invested in them for the purpose of career development. However, beware of false hope. Development goals must be realistic and followed through upon to truly impact retention and performance. Development plans should not promise that individuals will be promoted into specific positions or will receive a promotion within a specific timeline. In addition, when it comes time to hire for senior leadership positions, the organization should utilize the identified key competencies as a guide for hiring, rather than defaulting to personal preferences or hiring based on personality or connections.

Example: Jane was a dedicated and talented Regional Manager for a social enterprise in Kenya. She had served as a Regional Manager for six years and was eager to continue to advance her career. Her ability to work with the Branch Managers under her supervision to help grow the outreach of the organization helped identify her as one of the top performers. Jane’s supervisor always gave Jane glowing reviews during her performance review and when working with her on her development plan explained to Jane that the organization saw her as top potential for advancement into one of the senior leadership positions at the social enterprise’s headquarters. He told her that within the year she would be seeing a promotion.

Jane was excited about this opportunity. She took on new stretch assignments with zeal and worked hard to continue to exceed the expectations and goals set in her performance plan. Eight months after the conversation with her manager, the Director of Health Services at the organization took a new position elsewhere. Jane thought she was very prepared to take on this role’s responsibilities, particularly after having worked on a successful special project just three months prior under the Director’s supervision. But, to Jane’s dismay, the organization decided to hire externally for the role. Jane was discouraged, but continued to work hard to prove her potential. She knew that in another six months, her own manager was to retire. However, when time came around to find his replacement, Jane was not even given the opportunity to apply. Instead, the Managing Director’s cousin was hired for the role. Jane was extremely disappointed and immediately began applying for positions at other organizations.

In addition to developing and retaining your future leaders / key talent, it is also important that you have a stream of employees moving upward – right on the 9-Box. For additional ideas on developmental initiatives you can take for each of the categories of the 9-Box, click here.

Development Monitoring & Review 

With the knowledge of key roles within your organization, classifying talent and the best practices for developing them, you can consider immediately utilizing the process on an informal basis. When you assemble the team of individuals responsible for developing organizational talent, talk to them about talent development within the 9-Box framework. The process can be an invaluable way to focus people on the important rather than the urgent. All too often, leaders have the tendency to let performance problems dominate their time and effort while those who are excelling in the organization are "left alone." Consider listing your talent pool, categorizing on performance using your latest evaluations, and then classifying them by potential. Going through the exercise often leads to the identification of process improvements in how your talent development model works. 

More formally, you may wish to assemble your succession plan around this framework. How is performance evaluated and quantified in your organization? Moreover, how do you assess potential?

The next most critical step is discipline. While succession planning can effectively guide identification, development and retention, the process breaks down if the data is not analyzed, evaluated and updated continuously. One way to reinforce a consistent succession planning process is to tie a talent review process to performance planning and management process.

This allows you to simultaneously measure current performance against a talent assessment and helps validate decisions and planning for those employees you feel will be of most value to the organization. In fact, you are not receiving the full benefit of a performance review process if you do not take action to address gaps surfaced during the review and to develop the skills employees need to succeed in their current or future roles.

Create Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for employees who are identified as key talent. (For further detailed understanding of IDP refer to the Performance Planning and Management module. )

At a company level make sure to create and maintain an on-going succession plan template. This will be your ready-reckon when considering short term replacement plan or longer term succession plan. Click here to download a copy of the succession plan template.