1. Royal Mail Group Succession planning – A practical approach
Helena Platt
Talent & Succession Manager

2. Agenda
Business drivers for succession and its place in people strategy
Simple guidance for managers in identifying successors
Using succession diagnostically
Case Study – Safety Development Programme
Identifying Opportunities
Current activity and things still to address

3. Why Now? Strategic Drivers for Royal Mail include:
Delivery of Ops Modernisation and World Class Mail
Cost & Cash
Prepare for Privatisation
Pensions
Regulation
POL
Maximise market value and improve industrial relations
Generate Profitable New Revenue Streams
This is enough about the business

4. Times Top 100 Eight Key Factors
My Manager
The working relationship with your manager is probably the most important of all
Leadership
Great leadership brings
good management and
good management makes
a happy team
Fair Deal
How well employees are treated in terms of pay and benefits
Wellbeing
The balance between work and home life, stress, pressure and their impact on health and performance
Personal Growth
Do employees feel challenged
By their job, are they using their current skills, do they have opportunity to advance
Giving Something Back
More and more companies now realise the value of investing in people, the local community and wider society
My Company
How much people value their company, how proud they are to work there
Making the link with employee engagement etc. – positions succession as part of wider people strategy
My Team
Support from your work buddies. Good employers realise that good team spirit increases productivity
© 2011 Best Companies Limited

5. What do we want to achieve?
The aim is to…
Identify appropriate skills and ensure there is a continuous supply of successors that are ready and able to step into key positions as needed.
Align the future needs of the company with the availability of appropriate resources within the company promoting cross movement of talent within regions and business units
Develop leadership success criteria to generate the talent required to meet business goals
Drive the retention and motivation of key talent, generating savings in cost and time as a result of reduced attrition and retraining
Encourage a “culture of progression” by defining individual career pathways and facilitating work opportunities across the business, aligning to the needs of the individual and matching the organisation with qualified talent

6. Potential V Performance
POTENTIAL (for future growth)
PERFORMANCE (against current role)
Measures
specific behavioural
attributes
About
measureable
achievements
Individual
For succession planning purposes remember that an individual with potential may be suited to a number of roles in the future
Evidence-based judgement
on future progression
Assessment
against
current role
Performance is about measurable achievements. Potential is about measuring specific behavioural attributes.
There will be many colleagues who are good or exceptional performers but may not be high potential, this may be because their level of potential is matched to their current role or they are at a level which they can deliver outstanding performance
You are making a judgement now about expectations of them in the future.
For potential, you are assessing whether they have the capability to work in the organisation at a higher level or larger role than their current one, not assessing against their current role.
Nearly all those identified as having potential are current high performers, but not all current high performers have potential
When considering people for succession planning purposes, performance will be a factor for those roles which require a more immediate successor or emergency cover. However for longer terms successors then someone’s potential for future growth will be a key factor.
Aptitude for
rapid learning
Against current
capability
Nearly all those identified as having
potential are current high performers
But not all current high performers
have potential 17

7. Energising & Mobilising our People Moving the Business Forward
The following slides outline the potential model. When carrying out succession planning be mindful that someone with potential may be capable of filling a number of roles
Energising & Mobilising our People
Moving the Business Forward
Rapid Learning to Meet New Challenges
Energises team
Mobilises support across the business
Positive Impact
Sets the agenda and adds value
Operational Management & Control
Focussed Attention
Self-Directed Learner
Intellectual Capacity
Strategic & Business Awareness
Defining potential in quite a straightforward way
You will be familiar with the current model for potential around the three agilities:
Energising & mobilising our people
Moving the Business Forward
Rapid Learning to Meet New Challenges
People who display these agilities may have potential for future progression and growth – the degree to which these traits are required will be dependent upon the level of the role.

8. When identifying successors question…
Are we being consistent in our approach?
Are we just limiting our perspective to a handful of people?
Are we holding this person back?
Are there opportunities for this employee beyond our function?
Are we considering talent outside of our business function?
Are we considering the career aspirations of the individual?
Would others agree with us? If not, why not?
Are we considering individuals with high potential whose skills and knowledge can be developed for these roles?
Useful guidelines for managers on the process – this slide a nice illustration

9. Getting the process right
It must be owned by the line, especially at the top
HR’s role is to guide, facilitate and monitor
It is evidence based and must be validated
With our frequently changing business we have to ensure
that succession plans keep pace and up-to-date
Communication is key: everything we say or don’t say
sends a message

10. Closing the gap WCM RLT Safety Plant Mgrs
Focused external with cultural fit for short term
Balance between internal & external longer term
Supported by internal development focus now for ready 1-2 years successors
Plant Mgrs
Internal development focus
Cross business/regional integrated plans
Focused external with cultural fit
WCM
Better alignment with internal pipelines (e.g. graduates & Escalator)
Creation of 300 roles - Internal & external recruitment
Secondments & development moves
RLT
Internal succession & development focus (e.g. Autumn Talent Review, Senior Talent Pool)
Focused external approach
Gap
Address the gap through both internal & external pipeline
Internal: targeted talent pools for specific roles e.g. MCMs and DSM. Link with succession gaps to identify critical roles. Provide progression opportunity for internal candidates.
External: targeted talent programme to align with internal talent pools for specific operational roles (e.g. MCM & DSM). Need to ensure cultural fit with our operating environment. Not necessarily MBAs but with operational fit (e.g. may be from manufacturing industry or operational culture). 15

11. Case Study - Safety Programme
The goal of the Safety Development Programme is to…
…Provide a platform to help members progress to the Regional Safety Director role
…Active management of the pool to build capability through a variety of activities linked to safety and leadership skills
…Create opportunities to build networks and relationships across the business
…For approximately 15 individuals across the Regions

12. What to expect at the end of it all?
Some of this will be determined as we go along but some things we would expect you to benefit from along the journey:
Reflection
Formal qualifications gained
Knowledge of safety good practice,
Processes and strategy
Building relations, useful networks
Increased knowledge and closure of gaps
Opportunities to attend learning interventions
Confidence to apply for role
Raised visibility as potential successors

13. Identifying Opportunities
Filling
internal vacancies
Moving
talent
cross
functionally
Raising
visibility at
board level
Identifying opportunities whether that be vacancies or choreographed moves 13

14. Level of Integration Operations + Professional Functions + Commercial
Within the Region
Within the Function
Within the Commercial
Area
Across regional
Boundaries + Logistics
Across related
functions
Across related
Commercial Areas
Across Operations &
Modernisation
Across professional
functions
Across Commercial
Moving on to integrating the plans, the aim here is to ensure that, not only have we got a continuous supply of talent to critical roles, but to get to a point where we’re balancing career aspirations of the individual with organisational goals. By doing this we’ll widen the pool of people ready to take on further responsibility whilst driving an internal culture of “progression and opportunity”.
In order to get to the point where there’s freer movement of talent across the business it means that our role with succession planning now is to open up the dialogue and discussions especially within the workshops. Consequently it’s having enough robust data in preparation to these sessions to probe business leaders and encourage them to explore further afield in terms of potential successors and to facilitate these chess moves (of which there is material).
How?
It’s about building a national picture from the plans, analysing the succession data to identify gaps and opportunities and for us to initiate workshops which will view and discuss talent cross functions. For example location (especially in operations) will be key in driving some of these sessions.
Also it’ll be about looking at pools of successors for job clusters rather than successors for every individual role. Again I’ll be working with Juliette Wright on the work she’s doing around WCM competencies and how we link that in to integrating the plan
However whilst widening the pool may be relatively straightforward, in practise having access to talent and the transference will no doubt be challenging.
There are different tiers of integration and potential scenarios for the movement of talent across the business, the question is how deep do we want to integrate for November 4th? What’s the success criteria?
Operations
Within the region: integration at this level would include movement between Process, Delivery, HR, Finance, Safety. Quality, Logistics. A potential scenario would be a MCM on a succession plan for the Talent & Learning manager in HR
Across regional boundaries + logistics this endeavours to widen the pool on regional boundaries and include individuals within logistics in regional plans taking into account their location.
Across Operations & Modernisation this is looking at talent and integration across Field Ops, Logistics, Process, Delivery
Professional Functions
Within the function: this would include Finance, HR, Co-Sec, Communications, Regulation & Gov Affairs, Bus Dev & Technology, Wholesale, Internal Audit, Legal
Across related Functions: this may include integration between HR & Communications or bus Dev & technology and Finance dependent on the similarities of roles
Across professional functions: integration of the functions as a whole
Commercial
Within the commercial area: this would include integration within each area such as customer experience, Door to door, international, PFW, Sales and channels, specialist services, CEP, Media, PPM.
Across related commercial areas: dependent on the proximity of the job families this may include integration between door to door, specialist services and PFW & then media, CEP, PPM.
Across commercial: integration of commercial regulated and non regulated as a whole
Operations + Professional Functions + Commercial: workshops to identify possible movement of talent and potential successors across the business. This would occur after smaller sessions with each of the areas has taken place and amalgamate the pieces to a holistic business view.
Operations + Professional Functions + Commercial

15. Next steps
Line managers to be up-skilled in having potential and succession discussions with their team
Communication of succession planning at ‘employee level’
Alignment of individual and business aspirations
More integration of talent programmes and succession planning