Succession

Planning
Types of succession plans
There are two different kinds of succession plans:

RCL CO, The Two Types of Succession Plans and Why Your Company Needs Both, 2019
Where to begin

Ongoing

An honest evaluation of the employees' skillset and

unique strengths should include all hard/technical skills
the employees say they have as well as soft/behavioural
skills that we notice in our workers. Identify potential
skills gaps and competencies for L&D

Bridging the communication gap between the needs of

the individual departments and the hiring needs of JM
will help us find and hire the candidates that are most
suited to each role
Where to begin
Decide which milestones or goals should be created for
each employee. What skills do they need to learn to be
more effective? What tasks or projects can they
accomplish to develop these skills? Does JM have the
proper tools and programs to develop these internal
training programmes? Training and development should
be a highly personalized experience that is directly
related to the career path of each individual employee

Our talent pools should be monitored and our staff

evaluated on a regular basis. Include a review of the
current skills shortages within our sector to ensure our
goals can still be met if a key employee leaves JM.
Gather employees’ feedback to better know what their
motivations and goals are
 70/20/10 Model
On-the-Job Learning (70%) Coaching (20%) Formal Learning (10%)

• Stretch assignments • Providing an executive mentor • Participating in an internal or external

• Critical projects
• Rotation in another role/function
• Projects that involve working with
customers or the value chain
• [Include JM specific development
experiences]
Leadership Development Programmes
• Participating in cross-functional peer
mentoring programmes • Pursuing a masters degree (MBA or other
function specific degree)
• Working with an external executive
coach • [Include JM specific formal learning
experiences here]
• [Include JM specific coaching
experiences here]

Quarterly check-ins

• Facilitate meetings where all heads of functions assess progress against development goals and identify talent’s alignment with strategy.

• Use this as an opportunity to identify development opportunities for successors in other areas of the business.

Mandatory updates to talent profiles

• Track progress against goals by requiring continuous updates to talent profiles throughout the year, rather than only once per year.

Gartner, Introducing a Succession Plan to the Board, 2019

Provide Recognition and Advancement Opportunities

As our employees gain skills and hit their goals, we need to make sure to recognize their
achievements and contribution to the company. Recognition can come in many forms
whether it be a promotion, pay raise, or other perks and benefits. Being transparent about the
rewards available to them will let them see the long-term benefits of staying with the
company and following their succession plan. As we identify our top performers, offer
mentoring and training that help them develop leadership skills and refine existing ones.
Slowly expand their role so that they can gain experience from having more managerial
responsibilities and opportunities. Good leaders not only need technical acumen, but also
strong soft skills including standout verbal/written communication abilities as well as tact
and diplomacy.

Pro Sky, How to develop a succession plan, March 2020

From a focus on positions to a focus on talent pools
Most succession management processes are focused on listing potential successors for individual positions. The trend is to
look more at the composition and strength of the pools with candidates for clusters of strategic capabilities and related
positions. Ex: pools for product management, marketing and sales, leadership in Poland etc. If our pool is strong enough, we
know we will be able to find people with the right profile when we need them.

Talent pools complement succession planning strategies because:

• They provide much needed flexibility in fast moving industries
• They allow companies to develop talent in areas that match critical company competencies and cultural values.

To evaluate the capabilities of our existing talent, we’ll need to define an ideal set of behaviours and traits for our critical roles

– the skills and attributes needed to carry out a job successfully. This can be facilitated through the development of a

competency framework which outlines the skills needed to meet the objectives of each role. Once our talent pool is identified,

the competencies of individuals can be rated based on what JM requires for future positions. Formal training, career pathing

and mentoring programmes are all vital to the development planning of our talent pool and enable motivated employees to

enhance their skill-sets. In this way, JM can improve employee engagement and loyalty and ensure that talent is in place to fill

critical future skills gaps.

Talent Guard, Building An Organizational Talent Pool To Support Your Succession Planning, 2017 | HR Trend Institute, 10 trends in succession management, 2017