2. CONTENTS
3-4 Introduction to Toronto Training and HR Inc.
5-6 Definitions
7-9 Workforce planning
10-11 Key themes in succession planning
12-14 Steps to adopt
15-16 What stage is your organization at?
17-19 Performance and potential
20-21 Four critical dialogues
22-25 Strategies for succession planning
26-27 Drill
28-29 Best practice in succession planning
30-32 Succession planning in the water industry
33-34 The nine-box grid
35-38 Common mistakes
39-40 Seven sins of succession planning
41-45 Criticisms of succession planning
46-47 Technology
48 Case studies
49-50 Conclusion and questions
Page 2
4. Page 4
Introduction to Toronto Training
and HR
Toronto Training and HR is a specialist training and
human resources consultancy headed by Timothy Holden
10 years in banking
10 years in training and human resources
Freelance practitioner since 2006
The core services provided by Toronto Training and HR
are:
Training event design
Training event delivery
Reducing costs, saving time plus improving
employee engagement and morale
Services for job seekers
8. Workforce planning 1 of 2
• Why is it necessary?
• How does it address recruiting
needs?
Page 8
9. Workforce planning 2 of 2
THE FIVE STEP MODEL
• Set the strategic direction
• Analyze the workforce
• Develop the action plan
• Implement the action plan
• Monitor, evaluate and revise
Page 9
11. Key themes in succession planning
• Open or closed process?
• Job modelling
• Broad or narrow audience?
• Making room for succession
• An annual or a continuous
activity?
• Integrating succession
planning and development
• Diversity
• Burnout
• Who owns the talent?
Page 11
13. Steps to adopt 1 of 2
• Establish strategic alignment
• Identify succession targets and
analyze the talent pool
• Develop the succession
management plan
• Implement the succession
management plan
• Evaluate succession strategies
Page 13
14. Steps to adopt 2 of 2
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
• Ongoing senior leader
commitment
• Ongoing employee
commitment to development
• Ongoing alignment of program
goals to strategic plan
• Ongoing communication and
change management
Page 14
18. Performance and potential 1 of 2
• Performance dimensions
• Standards for judging
performance
• Types of potential and
standards for judging potential
• “High” professionals
Page 18
19. U N O F F I C I A L
DEPTH CHART
As of July 1 2013
Chief Executive Officer
President
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Operations Officer
Chief Human Resource Officer
Chief Information Officer
Chief R & D Officer
Vice President of . . .
Vice President of . . .
Manager of . . .
Manager of . . .
Supervisor of . . .
Key Technical Contributor
First Team Back - Up Back - Up
Anywhere Company
21. Four critical dialogues
• The internal dialogue
• The employee’s dialogue with
their stakeholders
• Dialogue between the
organization and employees
generally
• Dialogue between employees’
social networks and those of
the organization
Page 21
23. Strategies for succession planning
1 of 3
• Identify leadership skill sets
required for the future-not the
past or present
• Cultivate leaders from far-flung
corners of the organization
• Seek significant diversity when
comprising a leadership team
• Develop comprehensive
learning systems
• Create “stretch” work
experiences
Page 23
24. Strategies for succession planning
2 of 3
LEADERSHIP
• Extensive use of recruitment and
retention flexibilities for non-
supervisory, mission-critical
occupations in order to
identify/hire/retain high-potential
candidates who are in the talent
pipeline for leadership positions
Page 24
25. Strategies for succession planning
3 of 3
LEADERSHIP(CONTINUED)
• Use of a full range of structured
Leadership Development Programs
to ensure that current and future
leaders have the necessary skills
to manage the workforce
effectively, exercise leadership
continuity, and sustain a learning
environment that drives
continuous performance
improvement
Page 25
29. Best practice in succession planning
• Deploy a succession
management process
• Identify future leaders and
successors
• Develop future leaders and
typical activities
• Measure results
• Keep it simple
• Align succession with the
organization’s overall strategy
• Support the process
Page 29
31. Succession planning in the water
industry 1 of 2
• Problem
• Purpose
• Barriers to meeting needs
• Issues
• Education and succession
planning
• Certification
• Training
• Leadership
• Compensation
Page 31
32. Succession planning in the water
industry 2 of 2
• Outreach
• Recruitment and retention
• Recommendations
Page 32
36. Common mistakes 1 of 3
• Only allowing planners to
select successors from the
chain of command under a
position
• Heralding super-flat
organizations as a nirvana of
efficiency
Page 36
37. Common mistakes 2 of 3
• Allowing performance review
scores to be weighted as high
as 80% of criteria for
placement as successor
• Only doing succession planning
for the top three layers of an
organization
• Producing future workforce
strategies without reviewing
the data of historic workforce
trends and external market
conditions
Page 37
38. Common mistakes 3 of 3
• Avoiding line managers and
business unit leaders when it
comes to making employee
policies, because they “don’t
understand HR”
• Accepting that hard-to-use
software is better because it’s
more complex and will do more
for you…or that cheaper
software is merely simpler and
will give you a faster, yet
lesser return
Page 38
40. Seven sins of succession planning
• I’ll be here forever
• What mattered then…
• Assume the plan is the plan
• Assume you need the whole
plan figured out
• Believing everyone wants to
rise through the ranks
• Developing only your high
potential people
• Thinking you need a formal
position
Page 40
42. Criticisms of succession planning
1 of 4
• Overly reliant on line
manager’s perceptions of their
direct report’s performance
• Embedded in inflexible
competency frameworks
• Expect the individual to adapt
to the job description
• Assume the job is relatively
stable but jobs evolve rapidly
• Inadequate definitions of talent
• Do not take enough account of
gender differences
Page 42
43. Criticisms of succession planning
2 of 4
• Ignore work-life balance as a
factor in people’s decision to go
for more senior positions
• Fail to ensure employees gain
experience of both functional
specialists and generalist roles at
an early stage
• Assume employees will stay for
the long-term despite evidence
to the contrary
• Impose a uniform talent
development process
Page 43
44. Criticisms of succession planning
3 of 4
• Place people in boxes
• Focus succession on specific
roles with a small number of
candidates rather than
developing large clusters of jobs
which may be filled from a larger
pool
• Do not take sufficient notice of
the difference in attitudes
between different generations
Page 44
45. Criticisms of succession planning
4 of 4
• Fail to appreciate how people
make the transition from one
level of the organization to
another
• Takes inadequate account of how
“adult” people are
• Fail to take a sufficiently systemic
perspective
Page 45