Talent management and succession planning

Human Resources departments are confronted daily with recruitment and management difficulties skills : talent management is no longer an option, both in terms of mobility monitoring and succession planning.

Putting the right people skills in the right place at the right time is the definition of HR strategy, and it should encourage you to think about your talent management policies to ensure your organization's long-term success.

Anticipating the needs of skills and succession planning

Succession planning is rarely implemented in companies, yet it is imperative. As a forward-looking tool, it allows you to :

• Guarantee the continuity of your organization by avoiding vacancies in strategic positions;
• Prevent the risks associated with unexpected departures and anticipate planned departures;
• Optimize your talent management policy and set up a pool of identified employees.

This tool is part of the internal mobility culture: it is desirable that it is already present within the company. If not, don't hesitate to think about it: are promotions frequent? Do you favor internal evolution or external recruitment?

Succession planning is one of the activities of Talent Management.

Steps in succession planning

In addition, the prospects for internal development are appreciated by employees who feel valued and will stay with the company: a great loyalty-building tool to be seized in order to optimize talent retention actions. What are the stages of succession planning?

A succession plan consists of 5 steps:

1. Identify key and strategic positions: determine which positions will be most disruptive to the business if they become vacant;
2. The identification of skills necessary to hold these positions: technical and behavioral, build your repository of skills keys;
3. Detecting talent in the field by identifying their interests, motivations and wishes for development. You will build a pool of potential candidates;
4. Matching resources and needs: each identified position must be matched with potential candidates according to their development potential;
5. Monitoring of succession planning and adjustment of action plans by updating key positions and monitoring your talent management policy.

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Talent Management and Strategic Human Resources Planning

Unexpected departure of the Financial Director, unanticipated retirement of the Sales Director... Two examples of failures that have negative consequences in the short term:

• A workload passed on to unprepared employees;
• The absence of activity management, resulting in a lack of motivation among employees;
• A loss of productivity that will lead to a decrease in sales and affect the economic health of the company.

Talent management for succession planning

There are 3 levers that are still too little exploited within companies:

1. Professional interviews: this privileged meeting allows employees to express their wishes for development. This is a great opportunity, which will help you think about how to match needs and resources.
2. Appraisal interviews: these enable us to determine which skills skills the employee has mastered, and which training courses will enable him or her to acquire new ones. Use this data to set up appropriate development plans.
3. An appropriate training policy: build a training plan that will enhance the talent pool and enable them to integrate more quickly into their new position.

Neobrain is one of the most prominent international solution providers, and here is G2's assessment of the main players:

Talent Management and Organizational Agility:

The main improvements made by our HR contacts concern the pace of succession reviews. Once individuals are identified, an HR platform supports the development of each potential successor: knowledge transfer, mentoring, coaching, .... Other reflections can also be carried out in order to directly incorporate the skills emerging linked to key positions:

• How will the position be structured in the future?
• Will new skills be needed?

Ask yourself these questions to evolve your organization and implement agile talent management.

Are you interested in HR agility? We surveyed 152 companies to find out about their practices towards agility and produce the HR Agility White Paper.