1. Create Flexible Succession Plans to Prepare for Both Planned and Unexpected Gaps
Use talent pools and agile elements in succession planning to keep your organization responsive in today’s dynamic world of work.
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2. Our Understanding of the Problem
Heads of HR tasked with designing a succession plan in a high change environment.
Business representatives that need to ensure roles, individuals, and job pools within the organization have potential successors groomed and ready.
Create a solid foundation for succession planning success.
Identify key gaps to be planned for.
Identify successors and talent pools.
Effectively manage succession.
Senior Managers and other stakeholders that support and provide information to put the plan together.
Understand the purpose of flexible succession planning.
Manage employees identified in talent pools.
Provide development opportunities relevant to the key gaps they are being groomed to close.
Give updates to business representatives about potential successors.
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3. Executive Summary SAMPLE
According to the 2016 HR Trends & Priorities Survey, using talent pools for succession planning was rated in the top half of emerging trends for the year, and was the most impactful implemented trend year over year.
Succession planning is key to addressing looming skill gaps, developing employees, and building organizational bench strength.
Flexible succession planning is an agile process; it covers adaptability, unity, and simplicity which are three out of the four agile elements.
Ensure that you have internal talent assessment, competencies, and performance management in place to support succession planning.
Keep the requirements for employees in talent pools broad, to ensure that you have a diverse bench strength of employees as potential successors for key gaps.
Succession planning was tied as the least effective HR area out of 30 areas surveyed in the 2016 HR Trends & Priorities Survey.
Traditional succession planning is no longer an option for organizations that operate in a high-change environment.
The alternative of flexible succession planning using talent pools can be difficult to implement, with a number of barriers to success.
In order to implement flexible succession planning, ensure that you have the proper HR key practices in place and that you have the support of a committee to conduct planning with.
Identify key gaps to plan for by tying them to your business strategy and initiatives.
Develop talent pools to close key gaps by mapping them back to the gaps, setting minimum requirements, populating them with employees, and managing the progression of employees as they develop in the pool.
Manage the plan by ensuring you communicate to the proper audience and frequently assess both employees and the plan to ensure you have the most up-to-date information to select a final successor.
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4. Guided Implementation
McLean & Company offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”
DIY Toolkit
“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”
Workshop
“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”
Consulting
“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options
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5. Identify successors and talent pools Establish project rationale
This McLean & Company Blueprint will help you establish a flexible succession plan in 5 steps
Assess the foundation
Identify key gaps
Identify successors and talent pools
Manage succession
Establish project rationale
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 5
Step 4
Step 1: Establish project rationale
Develop a business case for responsive succession planning.
Step 2: Assess the foundation
Align and connect key HR practices to support the success of your planning.
Step 3: Identify key gaps
Select which key gaps will be incorporated into the succession plan. Keep the requirements broad enough for diversity in potential successors.
Step 4: Identify successors and talent pools
Assess internal talent and determine who should go where.
Step 5: Manage succession
Plan for ongoing communication, tracking, development, and updates.
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6. Sample Slides
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7. McLean & Company, HR Trends & Priorities for 2016, N = 476
Organizations are missing out on the most impactful HR trend for 2016: Using talent pools for succession planning
Implemented Talent Management Trends
Implementation ranking of all 32 trends. Due to ties, rankings range from 1-25.
13th
Talent pool succession planning, a flexible and change-oriented approach, scored in the top half of emerging trends. It was identified as the “Most Impactful”* trend in both and 2015. *
18th** *
20th
24th
McLean & Company, HR Trends & Priorities for 2016, N = 476
*Indicates a tie.
**Impact: Denotes a top 10 most impactful trend. Respondents selected which one of the trends they had implemented was the most impactful. A weighted average was then used to rank them. Refer to McLean & Company’s HR Trends & Priorities for 2016 blueprint for more detail.
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8. Traditional succession plans often fail in high-change environments because they aren’t agile or integrated
Traditional succession plans are… 1 2
Too narrow-sighted
Too focused on the long term
The business environment is more dynamic and uncertain than ever and constantly changing.
Key roles today may not exist tomorrow or may exist in multiples to catch up with business requirements.
Changes can occur multiples times within the 5-10 year planning time frame.
People don’t stay in jobs 5-10 years anymore.
Millennials don’t stay in jobs for as long as previous generations.
In a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor statistics, 91% of Millennials expected to stay in a job for less than 3 years.*
In place of retirement, many Baby Boomers are leaving their full-time jobs for flexible work arrangements that suit their changing lifestyle.
Globalization and technology mean employees have more – and easier – access to job opportunities.
Example: Pursuing passive candidates through LinkedIn or other social media sites is now commonplace. That means it is much more likely for employees who weren’t looking for another opportunity to be lured away.
The traditional focus on upper management leaves organizations unprepared when critical turnover happens lower down – leaving them vulnerable. 3
Too disconnected
Succession planning often isn’t properly integrated with other talent management initiatives, leading to duplication of effort and lost opportunities.
* Source: Meister, “Job Hopping Is the 'New Normal' for Millennials” (emphasis added)
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9. McLean & Company Helps HR Professionals To:
Empower management to apply HR best practices
Develop effective talent acquisition & retention strategies
Build a high performance culture
Maintain a progressive set of HR policies & procedures
Demonstrate the business impact of HR
Stay abreast of HR trends & technologies 
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