Feature

How effective is your succession plan?

Succession planning is an essential part of corporate strategy in most IT organisations. While the design of the succession chart looks good on paper, it has often been found that the planning process fails to meet requirements at the time of filling a key position that has just been vacated. It is not an easy task dealing with the ever-changing equations of the leadership pipeline. According to a report by US-based business research firm Cutting Edge, while many companies have succession plans, very few follow through with the rigorous implementation required. In fact, 70 percent of succession plans fail due to bad execution.

Succession planning has to ensure that the right people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time. It can be done in three ways: role-based, individual-based and team-based. The first is about identifying key positions, the second focuses upon key people, and the last involves replacing a section of people or resources.

Reviewing talent

One of the challenges in all organisations is planning for HR needs. It is essential to adopt a disciplined approach to match HR resources with the anticipated needs of an organisation. This includes aligning the succession planning process with business strategy.

“The purpose of the talent review is to figure out the talent required to implement the business strategy and constantly strengthen the talent pool. The talent review and planning process helps us identify talent for emerging roles in the organisation,” says Bijay Sahoo, vice-president (talent engagement and development) and head of HR, Wipro Technologies. Commitment from the top management is another key factor for ensuring the success of succession planning. Sahoo reveals that in Wipro, the chairman (Azim Premji) and vice-chairman and CEO (Vivek Paul) give enormous importance and their personal time for talent review and planning, and personally supervise the development and implementation of the talent plan for key roles.

According to Sahoo, the other essential factors are: (a) accountability, as the succession planning programme requires ownership at all levels in the organisation. Each manager should be responsible for assessing and developing the talent in his or her team. (b) Constant attention, as it can be tempting to overlook the need for succession planning in the face of more immediate needs.

Planning the process

We plan for the succession of existing critical roles, including that of the CEO, and identify employees who are ready to take over the roles immediately and over the next 1-2 or 2-3 years Bijay Sahoo vice-president (talent engagement and development) Wipro Technologies

The bench strength of current and future leaders gives a competitive edge to every organisation. At Wipro, the succession planning programme is called Talent Review and Planning (TRP), and it is the most critical part of the organisation’s leadership building and talent management process. “Once our business strategy for the year is finalised, we identify the critical roles to execute it. We review the talent available for those roles internally as well as externally. We plan for the succession of existing critical roles, including that of the CEO, and identify employees who are ready to take over the roles immediately and over the next 1-2 or 2-3 years,” informs Sahoo. He adds that the company does developmental planning for each identified internal candidate in terms of job rotation, training, coaching and performance counselling. They also keep track of potential external candidates, and establish touch points for attracting them at the appropriate time.

The respective SBU heads and the SBU HR heads do the TRP for the top three levels of their business. This contributes to the TRP at the Wipro Technologies level, where the chairman and vice-chairman, along with the HR head, get involved in talent planning for the top three levels. Next is the implementation of the talent strategies by developing and reviewing the action plan.

At Infinite Computer Solutions (ICS), which has a global headcount of 1,800, employees have also taken up higher roles without a change in designation, with support from functional heads and senior management teams. A skill-gap analysis is done of the candidates, and requisite training provided to make them able successors.

Clear focus

It is a known fact that while most managements are interested in developing a pool of successors for key positions, they find it a difficult task to ensure the success of their efforts. Succession planning can get very complicated. Organisations must therefore have a clear focus.

Wipro has quarterly talent engagement and development (TED) reviews, and action points of each SBU and vertical are tracked. “We also track the number of senior positions that are filled internally, which gives an indication of the success of the programme. At the macro level, the retention figure also reflects the effectiveness of the succession planning programme, since one of the objectives of the programme is to help employees realise their career aspirations and thus retain them in the organisation. Systematic succession planning does generate leadership talent, and an organisation can measure its effectiveness by looking at the leadership talent it has created and provided to the industry. Wipro is one of the top companies when it comes to creating top-class leaders in the IT industry. “Many of our ex-employees are heading successful IT companies,” says Sahoo with apparent pride.

The training difference

Organisations are less vulnerable to leadership crises when there’s a shadow group of successors who are able and available to step into their shoes. Training plays a key role in succession planning. It is imperative to strategise, design and implement programmes to train future leaders.

Wipro has its lifecycle leadership development programmes, which are synchronised with the roles employees play at different stages of their corporate life. These include the New Leaders Programme, Wipro Leaders Programme, Business Leaders Programme and Strategic Leaders Programme for different leadership positions that an employee will assume in the organisation.

“Most organisations do skill-gap analysis of the selected candidates. A schedule is drawn for the prospective individual to acquire the knowledge, skills and competencies within a time-frame,” says Sunder Rajan, general manager, HR & administration, ICS. He adds that the training could be through internal programmes or on-the-job (local as well as global) to gain cross-functional or cross-geographical exposure for better maturity of the expertise that would enhance the confidence level of the person.

Just-in-time succession

Then there’s just-in-time succession, which maps existing competencies of the staff to fill an important position. Succession planning software uses competency analysis which lets companies understand the demand side of the equation with what their staff have to offer. “Succession planning is not an issue of a position; you can plan for two or three years, but by that time the to-be-successor may have already left the organisation; consequently it is not relevant. Instead of looking at a job to fill, organisations should profile it in terms of competencies, go to the data bank, and find whose competency profile matches the job,” advises Stephen Martin, president of ITAP Europe. The key to this is competency development across the organisation; ITAP has done succession planning for many global organisations through competency development.

Whatever be the methodology, measuring the effectiveness of a succession planning programme is critical to every organisation, irrespective of its size. After all, it is more than just the passing of power and responsibility—it is about survival and continuity.

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com