Succession Planning with SAP SuccessFactors

Succession Planning is a key process within Talent Management which ensures that critical positions within your company are always filled with the best possible candidates. Beyond merely ensuring that positions and roles are filled with qualified candidates, effective succession planning and management is a key process which provides positive feedback loops for the overall talent development process.

The succession planning and management solution provided for this process by SAP SuccessFactors is second to none. A comprehensive set of tools and analytics, whose functionality is designed to support the whole process, is effectively integrated into the rest of the talent management system (on both a business process level and the technical product). Following succession Best Practice from process initiation to finalization, SuccessFactors Succession provides streamlined tools for every step of the process, and provides the users (succession planners themselves) with the key data they require during each step of candidate discovery and evaluation.

Quick breakdown of the process:

Key position or key role identification

• Focus on the critical jobs and positions/roles, both strategic and operational.
• Top management and the HR team determine which positions are key, with optional nomination input from department and team managers.

Risks and impact evaluations

• Determination of risks, such as losing key talent from key positions and assessing the impact, is vital in determining which positions should have a strong succession plan.
• High risk and impact of loss for a person in a key position provide an immediate flag for maintaining a succession plan with strong bench strength for that position.

Succession Pool creation

• The purpose of succession pools is to help planners narrow the search for candidates to be slated to individual succession plans.
• People are assigned to the pool based on a broader job requirement than the individual succession plans for each position, but should still meet specifically defined criteria.

Succession Plan creation and assignment

• An individual succession plan is the list of potential successors for a given position or role, and can include both nominated and approved candidates.
• Multiple determining factors come into play for deciding who should be included in which succession plans and why. These include subjective discussions and objective reviews of the information from other processes:
  - Career and Development Planning
  - Employee Mobility preference input
  - Job and Position competency level requirements
  - Individual Performance review and Potential appraisal
  - Risk and Impact of Loss evaluation
  - Leadership capability and Promotability
  - Tenure and Seniority
  - Internal and External work experience
  - Education and Certifications
  - Nominations by direct or indirect Managers
  - And any other criteria deemed significant for your succession planning needs
• Readiness and ranking evaluations of the candidates can be made during assignment.

Overall plan effectiveness evaluation

• The “Succession Plan” is the overall collection of individual succession plans once the entire process of nominations and approvals is completed.
• Upon both completion of individual plans and completion of the overall succession plan, HR and top management evaluate and analyze the results.
• Subjective and objective determination of the bench strength of individual plans and evaluation of the overall plan is achieved through focused reports and analytics.

Summary of SuccessFactors Succession:

Like much of Talent Management, Succession Planning is a process full of subjective decisions and evaluations. The system is designed not to replace the established business process with completely objective decision making and click-through wizards, but is provided to supplement the decisions of talent planners with more objectivity and efficiently integrated tools. Here is a breakdown of the key features supporting the succession planning process:

Talent Profile (Live Profile)

• The talent profile is a one-stop-shop for all talent review information. It provides relevant data about an individual to evaluate their eligibility for a succession plan.
• It includes fields such as risk and impact of loss, reason for leaving, new to company and future leader flags, and some master data from the core HR system.
• Background information “portlets” include internal and external work experience, competencies and qualifications, education and certifications, and more.

Talent Search

• The Talent Search feature is a comprehensive search and filter tool which helps succession planners find the best possible candidates for succession plans.
• It is designed to give the end user the ability to create search criteria based on all data within the Talent Profile, and filter based on complex criteria.
• Example: Meeting weighted competency proficiency requirements, and simultaneously meeting specific background and talent review criteria.

Performance-Potential Matrix

• The Performance-Potential Matrix is a report which provides succession planners the ability to simultaneously identify high performing and high potential individuals.
• Based on either a traditional 9-box formation, or catered to custom rating scales, it plots people on the grid according to the latest performance review and potential appraisal.
• Including retirement eligibility and risk of loss status icons by default, it is also extensible to include other key information for your succession planners.

How vs. What Matrix

• Similar in design and functionality to the Performance-Potential Matrix, but plots people in the grid based on goal/objective expectations versus competency expectations.
• Simultaneously identify people who consistently meet or exceed their goals, and meet or exceed the competency requirements of their current role.

Succession Org Chart

• The Succession Org Chart is the main tool used by planners to create, maintain, and evaluate individual succession plans.
• It provides a view of the team or department that a planner is working with and gives a snapshot of all of the succession plans within that team or department.
• Each position node in the chart contains information which helps planners evaluate the need to build the succession plan, such as key position indication, incumbent data, slated successor(s) readiness, and succession pool (if linked to the job code).
• The “Find Successors” menu provides the ability to immediately assign candidates by name, use the integrated Talent Search, or discover external (Recruitment) candidates.
• During assignment, the planner can identify the readiness of the successor, and this is immediately reflected in the chart for evaluation of the bench strength.

Lineage Chart

• The Lineage Chart is a report designed to help planners evaluate the effectiveness of both individual succession plans and the overall Succession Plan.
• It is a cascading chart of succession assignments (as opposed to reporting assignments) which provides a simple view into the bench strength of a succession plan.
• Viewing the lineage chart from the top level of the company can provide valuable insight into the strength of the overall Succession Plan, and a what-if view.

Conclusion

Utilizing valuable inputs from other review and assessment processes such as career and development planning, and performance and talent reviews, succession planning is a process that delivers a strong foundation for both future daily operation and strategic growth of your company. The results of the succession planning process are also used beyond the overall succession plan itself. Feedback into the career and development plans of the candidates slated in succession plans provides focused and relevant goals for individuals to efficiently and effectively follow their career path of choice, increasing employee engagement and retention. HR business partners and managers also benefit from the competency evaluations of their team or area of responsibility, and can use these evaluations to close existing skills and qualification gaps. SAP SuccessFactors Succession is a leading solution which provides the tools and analytics to gain all the benefits from this key talent management process.