What are the criteria for identifying critical roles in succession planning?
- A five (5) step approach to succession planning
Posted by: Mansour Baker
Purpose
The purpose of this is to determine the criticality level of the business-critical roles that are identified by the company prior to the annual talent committee. The level of criticality is determined by several criteria that have been defined below, i.e., Management Role, Business Impact, Depth/Uniqueness of Expertise, and Scarcity of Talent for the Role.
Scarcity of talent for a role in succession planning toolkit
Criteria for Identifying Critical Roles:
1.) Management Role
A role is defined as a management role if it is a Division/Department Head and above role and has people management responsibilities. In this column the 'Role Criticality' tab indicates 'Yes' if it is a management role and 'No' if it is not a management role.
2.) Business Impact
In this column the 'Role Criticality' tab indicates if the role has a 'High', 'Medium' or 'Low' impact on the business. 'High Impact' - if absence of the role reduces operational efficiency within one (1) month. 'Medium Impact' - if absence of the role reduces operational efficiency within three (3) months. 'Low Impact' - if absence of the role reduces operational efficiency within six (6) months. 'None' if no reduction in operational efficiency occurs.
3.) Depth / Uniqueness of Expertise
A role has depth/uniqueness of expertise or experience if it requires specialized technical skills and/or qualifications to perform the duties associated with the role. In this column the 'Role Criticality' tab, indicate 'Yes' if the role requires depth/ uniqueness of expertise and 'No' if the role does not require depth/ uniqueness of expertise.
4.) Scarcity of Talent for the Role
A role is scarce if it is difficult to fill with candidates from the labor market. The knowledge, skills, experience, and/or qualifications required for this role may be scarce in relevant Country, Region or Globally, making it difficult to recruit and/or in high demand in the market making it difficult to retain incumbents in this role. In this column the 'Role Criticality' tab indicates if there is a scarcity of candidates to fill the given role in 'the relevant Country', 'Region', or 'Globally', and 'No' if there is no scarcity of candidates for the given role.
The relevant Country is the company location (country), or state, or city. The Region is but not limited to the country, or continent, or part of a continent e.g., Europe, United States, Australia, Asia Pacific, Canada, GCC, Central Africa, MENA, etc. Global is worldwide.
5.) Level of Criticality
In this column the 'Role Criticality' tab, the level of criticality for each role is automatically calculated based on the user's responses to criteria in the columns. Each criterion has a weighting assigned to it and contributes to the final criticality level for the role. This calculation will result in one of two results:
- Critical Role
- Not Critical
Succession Plans should be developed for all roles identified as 'Critical Role'. Roles identified as 'Not Critical' are important to the company but should NOT be included in the succession planning process.