Workitect
0 items in your cart   View Cart   |   Account   |   Log In
Contact Us Home
Loading

Competency-Based Succession Planning

Identifying and Preparing Replacements for Key Jobs

Consulting, Systems Design & Training
The objective of succession planning is to provide senior management with a system for providing and identifying a pool of ready replacements for key jobs, and to provide professionals with a clearly defined career path and a process to optimize their advancement. We help organizations develop and implement these systems.

Succession planning is an ongoing system of selecting competent employees ready to move into key jobs in the organization, should these become vacant. Job-person matches are made between existing employees and future jobs they might assume. These future jobs are usually higher level positions. But, succession planning may be for key jobs above, at the same level, or even below the job an employee now holds. Increasingly, succession planning is for lateral job moves (e.g., to a different function, project team, or geography).

The usual criteria for a successful succession planning system include:
  • One, preferably two, well-qualified internal candidates are identified as ready to assume any key job should it become vacant.
  • A record of successful promotions (or other job placements).
  • Few superior performers leave the organization because of "lack of opportunity."'
Competency-based succession planning systems identify the competency re-quirements for critical jobs, assess candidate competencies, and evaluate possible job-person matches. Career path "progression maps" identify key "feeder" jobs for lateral or higher level "target" positions within a job family or across job families.

A competency-based succession planning system assesses how many em-ployees in which feeder jobs have (or have the potential to develop) the competencies to perform well in key target jobs. There are two ways of doing this.

The first is to compare the competencies of people in the feeder job with the competency requirements of the target job.

The second is to compare the competency requirements of the feeder job and the target job.
Competency-Based Succession Planning: What, Why, and How
What a competency-based approach is and does, its impact on individual and organizational results, organizational issues addressed, situations best served by a competency-based approach, and steps to implementing...More
Resources:

Workshops
FOCUS Coaching is a two-day training program that enhances employees and managers the essential skills of Reflective Listening, Strategic Questioning, Stretch Challenging, Performance Challenging, Encouraging and Focus Coaching.

Enhancing Employee Value is a one-day workshop that helps every employee and manager to add value to their organization. Early in the process of development, a person must be aware of the need to develop and be motivated to develop, which requires a fairly accurate self assessment of a person's strengths and development needs. Mastery of a competency requires Awareness, Attention and Application.

Helping Others Develop is a one-day seminar that helps managers and coaches to more effectively apply the development tools used in Enhancing Employee Value.

Video Assisted Programs
Managing Performance & Developing Competencies is a video-based program featuring a 24-minute video (tape or DVD), along with a Participant Workbook and Leader's Guide, that helps managers and subordinates improve their ability to carry out steps essential to the coaching and performance management process. Managers learn how to be better coaches, and employees at all levels learn how be constructive and proactive in their own development.
Manuals
Resource Guide for Developing Competencies is our original workbook used in helping organizations implement competency systems. It has also been published as the Value-Added Employee. Also known as the Competency Planner, this 225-page workbook provides background on competencies and instruction on setting competency development goals, along with specific suggestions for developing each of 34 different generic competencies.
On-Line Development Guides:
eDeveloper™ is a web-based, on-line guide containing comprehensive employee development and coaching tools with direct links to developmental resources. It provides an efficient and cost-effective way for people to self-develop and acquire new competencies needed to achieve personal or career goals.
Articles
Competency-Based Succession Planning: What, Why, and How [169kb PDF] What a competency-based approach is and does, its impact on individual and organizational results, organizational issues addressed, situations best served by a competency-based approach, and steps to implementing... more