Succession Planning and Management

Succession planning often fails quietly. Critical roles are defined by grade rather than by business impact, potential is judged by one manager's opinion, the same few names appear on every plan, and development actions are agreed but never funded or followed up. When a senior leader leaves, retires or moves, the organisation discovers that its "ready now" successor is not ready, or has already left. In public bodies and national companies, localisation targets and the need to transfer knowledge from expatriate specialists add further pressure.

This programme treats succession as a continuous management process, not an annual form. It moves through five stages: identifying critical roles and succession risk, defining what success in those roles requires, assessing performance, potential and readiness with evidence, developing successors through planned experience, and governing the process through talent reviews, metrics and reporting to leadership.

Built on recognised practice. The programme references widely used people management practice, including the ISO 30414 guidelines for human capital reporting, CIPD guidance on succession planning and talent management, competency frameworks, the leadership pipeline concept of transitions between management levels and the 70:20:10 approach to development. Participants learn how to apply these ideas with judgement rather than as templates.

Decisions this programme improves. Which roles genuinely need a succession plan; whether to build successors internally or recruit externally; how to judge potential fairly and reduce bias in talent reviews; how much development investment to direct to which successors; how to handle high performers who are not selected; and what succession information the executive team and board should review.

How it is delivered. Twenty hours across five sessions, built around one running case: an organisation facing several senior retirements and a localisation target within a short period. Participants map critical roles, run a calibrated talent review, build successor development plans and prepare a succession risk report for the executive committee.

In-house option. For organisations, the programme can be tailored to your own competency framework, grading structure, performance system and localisation objectives, and delivered for HR business partners and line leaders together so that talent reviews use a shared language and shared evidence.

Who Should Attend

HR leaders: HR directors, heads of talent management, organisational development and learning

HR business partners who facilitate talent reviews and workforce planning

Senior line managers: heads of department and division responsible for developing their teams

Localisation and workforce planning managers in government entities and national companies

Talent and assessment specialists moving into programme leadership roles

Objectives

Explain how succession management supports strategy, continuity and workforce localisation objectives

Identify critical roles using business impact, scarcity of skills and vacancy risk rather than grade alone

Build success profiles that describe the experience, capabilities and behaviours each critical role requires

Assess performance, potential and readiness using several sources of evidence

Facilitate a calibrated talent review and reduce common rating biases

Produce a succession plan with realistic readiness timings and emergency cover for each critical role

Design individual development plans that combine stretch assignments, mentoring, coaching and formal learning

Plan knowledge transfer from incumbents and specialists to successors

Select metrics such as bench strength, successor coverage and internal fill rate, and report them to leadership

Prepare an action plan to strengthen the succession process in their own organisation

Course Outline

Why Succession Plans Fail: Strategy, Risk and Critical Roles

Succession planning versus succession management: from replacement lists to talent pipelines
Linking succession to strategy, workforce planning and localisation targets
Identifying critical roles: business impact, skills scarcity and vacancy risk
Assessing succession risk: retirement, flight risk and single points of failure
Roles and accountabilities of the board, executives, HR and line managers
Common obstacles: secrecy, sponsorship bias and plans that are never reviewed

Defining What Good Looks Like: Success Profiles and Competencies

Building success profiles for critical roles
Using competency frameworks without making them bureaucratic
Leadership transitions: what changes at each management level
Technical and institutional knowledge that must be preserved
Future capability needs, including digital and data skills

Assessing Potential and Readiness Fairly

Performance versus potential: why they must be assessed separately
Indicators of potential: learning agility, aspiration and ability
Assessment methods: structured interviews, 360-degree feedback, assessment centres and psychometric tools
The nine-box grid: uses, limits and common misuse
Running a calibrated talent review meeting
Recognising and reducing bias, including similarity and recency bias
Readiness categories and emergency cover arrangements

Developing Successors: Experience, Coaching and Knowledge Transfer

Individual development plans that are specific and funded
The 70:20:10 approach: stretch assignments, rotations and acting roles
Mentoring, coaching and sponsorship
Structured knowledge transfer from incumbents and expatriate specialists
Retaining successors: career conversations, recognition and reward
Managing expectations of employees who are not selected

Governing and Measuring Succession Management

Annual talent cycle and integration with performance and learning processes
Succession metrics: bench strength, coverage ratio, readiness and internal fill rate
Human capital reporting principles in ISO 30414
Talent management systems and people analytics: benefits and data quality issues
Reporting succession risk to the executive committee and board
Action plan: improving succession management in your organisation

Competencies

Critical role identification and succession risk assessment

Success profile and competency definition

Assessment of performance, potential and readiness

Talent review facilitation and calibration

Successor development planning

Knowledge transfer and localisation planning

Successor retention and career conversations

Succession metrics and human capital reporting

Succession risk reporting to executives and boards

London

Access Elite Academy’s complete training portfolio in London. As one of the world’s leading centers for business, finance, professional services and executive learning, the city provides a strong setting for organizations and professionals seeking expert-led learning, with upcoming scheduled courses and other programs available on request. London is one of Elite Academy’s international training destinations and gives organizations and professionals access to our complete portfolio of training programs across all disciplines. As one of the world’s leading centers for business, finance, professional services and executive learning, the city offers a professional setting for focused learning. Participants can choose from upcoming scheduled courses in London or request any other program from the Elite Academy portfolio to be arranged in the city, subject to scheduling and delivery requirements. Browse the upcoming schedule below or explore our training areas to identify the program that best matches your organization’s development priorities or your own professional goals.