Is Your Talent Pipeline Prepared?
Succession planning has never been more important now that the “silver tsunami” is underway. From this year until the end of 2027, more Americans will reach retirement age (65) than at any other point in history. Changes to retirement age are controversial and difficult for the American government to navigate, but regardless of what they do with respect to Social Security, employers need to prepare for what is expected to be an unprecedented talent exodus. Many upcoming retirees have a wealth of technical and leadership expertise that can – and should – be disseminated down through the organizational ladder to ensure business success, but doing so is easier said than done.
Several Connex Community members gathered to discuss these very concerns in a recent panel: Succession & the Talent Bench. While we highly encourage all readers to watch the discussion in its entirety HERE, we also wanted to provide some additional insight into how succession can be best facilitated; how to overcome barriers to success; and what costly pitfalls can and should be preempted.
Catalyzing Employee Growth
The centerpiece of any succession planning strategy is development, making it crucial that HR teams find effective ways to facilitate, incentivize, and promote skills growth. Fostering a culture that prioritizes career development and internal promotions is an important first step, but really preparing an entire pipeline’s worth of HiPos requires a much more active strategy. Leaders must be expected to have constructive, frequent, and ongoing performance conversations; employees need to have visible and attainable access to stretch assignments and lateral openings; and HR teams need an efficient process for operationalizing all the touchpoints therein. Education programs, flexible online learning and microlearning courses, and university partnerships are all useful, as are the market’s many new and emerging technology-backed tools for personally curating skills content and pushing job opening notifications to employees. Many Connex Community members have also reported success with targeted mentorship and rotational assignment programs.
That said, having those resources won’t do much good if the employee doesn’t have an opportunity to engage with them. Protected time for personal development is a powerful tool for helping HiPos step into their own, and the same ethos of respecting employees’ lifestyle and personal needs can and should be pushed further. “I think a lot of times people may not step into a leadership role because the hours aren’t going to work for them, or the demands might not match what they’re looking for at this point in their personal lives,” explained panelist Thomas Spahr. “You need to be flexible,” the VP of Talent Management and Development continues, “because there are plenty of ways to structure a role or schedule to match their needs. […] Especially when it’s somebody who has a lot of runway and growth opportunities.”
Navigating employees’ fears is just as important as helping them navigate their schedule throughout the learning process. Reporting at the end of 2023 indicated that many employees have significant anxiety about the role AI will play in the workplace, and how it could negatively affect them: 72% worry that it will negatively impact salaries, and just over two-thirds are concerned that they’ll fall behind if they do not use it, or that they’ll lose out on growth opportunities for not knowing how to use it well. The adoption of generative AI shows no signs of slowing, making ethical AI usage and related technical skills development important facets of any upskilling program. The less employees worry about becoming obsolete, the more likely they are to engage with succession and feel truly valued.
Leaders: Overcoming Barriers to Succession
Unfortunately, each of those improvements to the succession planning and employee skills development process are not without their roadblocks. One particularly challenging problem can be resistance from current leaders who may be reluctant to plan for succession. This may be out of a desire to maintain control, or sometimes a desire to preserve a specific vision for their legacy. Often, this hesitation stems from a fear of losing relevance or influence within the organization. HR leaders can help address these concerns by centering current leaders in the succession planning process and positioning them as mentors. By highlighting the importance of their role in shaping the next generation of leaders, HR can help alleviate fears and even provide their core leadership team with a newfound sense of purpose that’s better aligned to the needs and trajectory of the business.
In a similar fashion, securing buy-in from key stakeholders and promoting effective communication throughout each layer of the business can also be challenging. The more HR leaders clearly and succinctly articulate the benefits of succession planning, the easier it is to reach that consensus, especially when those benefits are positioned from the perspective of the stakeholders themselves. Rather than only highlighting the shared and organizational benefits of the process, the discussions can be slanted towards how succession planning improves the day-to-day experiences of the stakeholder. This is particularly powerful within mentoring opportunities – helping leaders understand that the process of passing on their knowledge improves their own leadership acumen speaks to the same desire for personal development and advancement that most employees have. As Stephanie Crook, panelist and VP of Org and Talent Capability for Intel, phrased it: “The different generations of employees have more in common than they do differences. […] All generations want to be purpose driven. All generations want development. All generations want choice in the matter and how they’re empowered.”
Preempting Missteps
Sometimes, succeeding is less about overcoming direct objections, and more about preventing mistakes that can snowball in unintended directions. As outlined in a recent SHRM Executive Network report, one of the most catastrophic can be focusing on replacing individuals themselves, rather than the roles they fill. That is to say, rather than thinking of successors as good replacements for a particular individual, their leadership style, and organizational niche, examine them through the lens of what the organization needs them to be to optimize business success. Taking an outcomes-focused approach ensures better alignment with organizational goals, while simultaneously curbing the influence of any underlying and unconscious biases. Similarly, it helps to take a strengths-based approach to evaluating potential successors as opposed to looking for specific career experience. Someone who lacks hands-on expertise but is hungry for development and has all the precursors needed to excel is going to be a better long-term fit than someone experienced but lacking drive, and that shift in perspective away from resume accolades makes it easier to tap a more diverse pool of candidates.
Furthermore, HR teams can severely hamper their progress by failing to make succession planning a dynamic, iterative process. Nothing within the program should be considered truly fixed or static lest it become inflexible during times of change and business growth. Utilizing adaptable frameworks for development, skills transfer, and candidate qualification can help prevent these issues, and make it easier to maintain succession planning steam when candidates themselves grow and change. That isn’t to imply, however, that succession should be freeform. Being intentional is vital, especially when it comes to the interplay between succession and performance management. There should be a set cadence to performance conversations, outlined goals to strive for, and regular readiness assessments to keep all elements aligned.
Lastly, as simple and obvious as it may seem, it’s critical that successors be told about the plans the business has for them. Not only does this make it easier to motivate and engage the successor, but it gives them an opportunity to provide feedback on the process and their trajectory. They may have a very different vision of what their career path will look like and may even desire a dramatic shift in direction towards other business units and functions. Transparency and honesty help turn succession and growth into cultural hallmarks of the organization, while also creating opportunities for successors to share the good news of the future and evangelize the process HR worked so hard to build.
Preempting possible bumps in the road is one of the most valuable aspects of Connex membership. HR leaders gain a chance to learn from peers in closed-door industry think tanks and panels, opportunities to attend networking events across the country, and access to an ever-growing online community that’s always ready to answer one another’s burning questions. For more information on the Connex Community, its library of industry insights, and exclusive calendar of upcoming events. For more information on the Connex Community, its library of industry insights, and exclusive calendar of upcoming events, visit: https://www.connexpartners.com/connex-partners-become-a-member-hr
