As a component of the overall Talent Planning/Talent Management process within organizations, succession planning is an undertaking that generally aims to strike a balance between the objective and the subjective. When comparing internal versus external talent pools at all levels within a company, insights into global labor market intelligence are paramount to developing a holistic succession planning initiative. Succession planning is an ongoing process that can take months, if not years - depending on the level of the role. The ability to benchmark potential internal talent against data illuminating current market conditions within the external talent market is indispensable when making objective yet people-centric decisions.
Defining Succession Planning
Succession Planning is a term used to describe an organization’s efforts to proactively establish a pipeline of potential talent capable of filling critical positions as vacancies arise.
Relevance to the Organization
Succession planning is a critical component of a comprehensive and successful talent strategy. Firstly, organizations that take the time to build and maintain succession slates for critical positions reduce risk and support business continuity by ensuring that key roles have a predetermined successor in place and prevent operational disruption. When organizations find themselves needing to make critical decisions or are facing challenging circumstances, they want to ensure that they have the right leadership in place to guide them through it. Failing to establish a clear and effective succession planning strategy may leave organizations without the proper leadership during such times, leading to inappropriate decision-making or failure to take action at all.
Establishing succession plans can also benefit the organization in numerous ways. For example, filling internal roles with existing employees can not only support fiscal goals by providing more cost-effective sources of critical talent, but it can also lead to faster productivity when time is of the essence.
Furthermore, succession planning can also improve employee engagement and retention by providing transparent career pathways and supporting employee development plans. Lastly, succession planning is a useful tool for advancing diversity initiatives. When talent partners ensure that succession slates are filled with potential successors representing diverse backgrounds and identities, they increase the likelihood that the ultimate placement will be from a diverse background.
How Horsefly Can Help
Building and maintaining a successful succession strategy is no easy task, and one that is never truly complete. With limited personnel and resources available to conduct such work, most organizations struggle to understand where to prioritize succession planning efforts to provide the greatest return for their organization. In order to identify those roles or functions where succession planning can provide the most value, practitioners should arm themselves with data to understand both the internal and external labor market.
To support the latter, users of the Horsefly Analytics’s Global Labor Market Intelligence platform will find themselves well-equipped with the role- and location-specific labor market intelligence necessary to design and maintain an effective succession planning strategy.
How to Utilize Horsefly
When looking to establish a successful succession planning strategy, Horsefly customers can:
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Leverage the platform’s talent supply and demand data, as well as Keyword functionality to identify those roles or skill sets that may be difficult to fill externally and identify where succession planning may be most valuable.
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Leverage the platform’s Job Title Projections capability to gain insights into the most common market career pathways and inform their organization’s efforts to develop internal employee development programs.
How to Assess Progress:
Organizations looking to measure the impact of their Horsefly-enabled succession planning efforts could start by measuring and monitoring organizational activity in the following ways:
Ratio of Internal-to-External Hires: a measure of the number of internal hires per year versus the number of external hires per year.
Formula:
■ Internal: [(Total # of Positions Filled with Internal Talent per time period) / (Total # of Positions Filled per time period)] x 100
compared to…
■ External: [(Total # of Positions Filled with External Talent per time period) / (Total # of Positions Filled per time period)] x 100
As you seek to identify, assess, and cultivate high-potential prospects within your internal talent ecosystem for future growth and developmental opportunities, Horsefly Analytics can provide you with labor market intelligence at a global scale to provide insights into the external talent marketplace as you begin or continue along your organization’s strategic succession planning journey.
We look forward to partnering with you to help you best leverage Horsefly’s talent analytics and labor market data to make smarter hiring and strategic decisions within your organization. To learn more, sign up for a demo, schedule an appointment with your company’s dedicated Customer Success Manager, or visit horseflyanalytics.com today.
