Succession Planning: Toolkit for Execution

Publication Date	April 2005
Publisher	Cutting Edge Information
Product Type	Report
Pages	135
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	CUT00077

Buy this product or for assistance call +44 20 7060 7474

PDF £600.00$998 | €672

PRINT £600.00$998 | €672

FAX Order above formats by FAX

Summary

Most companies are aware that succession planning is important and that companies that manage succession will have an advantage.

Research Update:

Succession Planning: Toolkit for Execution contains 60+ pages of real succession planning materials, including:

Succession Plan Forms
Leadership Development Plans
Career Path Templates
HR Planning Guidelines
Employee Profile & Evaluation Forms

Many companies also believe that this success is driven by a magic formula of plan-building and corporate culture. Succession Planning: Toolkit for Execution explodes that myth by showing exactly how excellent succession planners design and execute their plans to build real leadership.

Our report goes beyond the basics to show you and your organization how real companies execute their succession plans with precision - striving to develop a pool of leaders rather than a queue for each job. Stories on the negative effects of poor leadership fill the media - our report gives you the chance to avoid these mishaps and, even better, find true leaders to strengthen your organization's reputation and its bottom line.

You will learn the succession plan design and execution secrets of the world's top companies. Learn how one of the best-known companies in the world became the recognized leader in succession planning. Learn how three world-class CEOs ensured smooth transitions after their departures - and adapt their practices to your company. Learn 15 proven arguments you can use to convince your organization to spend more time and resources on succession planning.

Practices

PRACTICE 2 - DESIGN A RANKING SYSTEM TO ALLOCATE DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES

Employee ranking is a controversial concept that has worked well for some companies - most notably General Electric, which uses the technique to weed out its bottom-performing managers - and poorly for others. In fact, ranking systems have been causes for lawsuits at several top companies.

Companies that use ranking successfully, however, find it to be a highly useful process that targets employee development quickly and accurately. The companies profiled below have developed ranking systems that have yielded positive results.

Hewlett-Packard - Design a Thorough Ranking Process

News Articles Featuring This Report

CEO Newswire
Industry Week
Advisor Page
Idaho Business Reviewn

Hewlett-Packard has used ranking systems for more than 30 years. Managers create annual rankings of all employees against predetermined performance criteria as well as general competencies.

Different departments give more weight to certain criteria - for example, the finance group focuses more on cost control.

Each of the company's 90,000 employees is placed into one of HP's five performance bands. The CFO then standardizes the findings and reviews the overall distribution. If managers have ranked their subordinates too high, the CFO asks them to revisit their rankings.

To ensure the process is fair and to prevent lawsuits, HP then reviews the data demographically, ensuring that no group is unfairly ranked higher or lower than other groups. If there is a disparity, the CFO is in charge of identifying why it exists or correcting it. The CFO has found that flexibility is the most important factor in making sure the ranking system works.

HP links its rankings to compensation, promotions and options packages. Excerpted from Chapter I, Section 3: Design the Succession Plan.

PRACTICE 4 - CREATE A BALANCED SUCCESSION PLANNING DESIGN TEAM=

Top executives and HR personnel must be involved in succession planning design to make sure the system is aligned with the company's culture and strategy. It is also useful to have specialists in employee development and performance measurement involved in the design process. These experts standardize processes and help companies avoid errors that have been made in past systems.

McDonald's - Involve Specialists in Succession Planning Design

McDonald's has assigned responsibility for succession planning design to a key group staffed with specialists. The specialists include industrial-organizational psychologists, whose role is to serve as experts in the design process. McDonald's goals are to obtain and retain a quality workforce. The company identified "People" as one of its three global corporate strategies and outlined a new business strategy called McDonald's People Promise.

As part of this promise, McDonald's reorganized its HR department into three areas:

The HR Design Center, a unique group of subject matter experts in charge of developing, testing and implementing HR systems and tools.
The HR Service Center, which focuses on administrative, transactional, and franchisee consulting needs
HR Business Partners, which provides strategic HR consulting to line and staff organizations

The HR Design Center is largely responsible for designing and developing the systems that drive succession planning and employee development. The center is divided into four practice areas:

Measurement and Organizational Effectiveness - Projects include creation and development of the annual Employee Commitment Survey, design of the Human Resources Scorecard and standardizing HR data. The Design Center also partners with other departments to identify best practices that positively affect turnover, productivity, customer satisfaction, sales and profitability.
Leadership Assessment and Development - Projects include executive succession planning and 360-degree feedback and coaching. Specialists in this area assess senior leadership and help set development plans for company leaders.
Competency-Based People Systems and Culture - Specialists address selection, performance development, assessment and planning. They also identify development needs, design curricula, build staff models, define job competencies and create performance appraisal documents.
Recruitment and Retention - Specialists help in designing interviews and selection processes.

These practice areas work with all levels of the organization, from C-level executives to counter staff at individual restaurants.