Recruiting should play a strategic role in succession management—if not to decrease the risk of losing relevance in the eyes of the business, then to provide much-needed expertise to partners in talent management.
Too often, though, succession management is an unfamiliar topic for many recruiters. With this in mind, we’ve outlined four key opportunities for Recruiting to contribute to the success of succession efforts. To do this, we’ll use a frame created by the Corporate Leadership Council (a sister program of the Recruiting Roundtable), which provides a nice primer for succession management (members only)that we can use to pinpoint opportunities for Recruiting to play a larger role.
According to the Council, effective succession management achieves the following:
Safeguards Business-Critical Capabilities: Not all executives, nor all roles, are created equal. Succession management helps identify those capabilities most critical to business success and most scarce in the labor market, and prioritizes succession risks and interventions accordingly.
- What This Means for Recruiting: You provide a critical input with in-depth knowledge of the executive labor market. Too often, HR teams make faulty assumptions about the external abundance (or scarcity) of particular types of talent. In turn, our organizations under- or over-invest in internal development for these roles. Make sure your expertise and advice is heard.
Accelerates Executive Development: While organizations realize the importance of development, they often fail to act on development needs. Succession management helps identify and act on development areas, and it provides rising executives with diverse experiences to ensure successors are prepared to assume leadership roles.
- What This Means for Recruiting: For external hires, you are often the first to identify specific development needs and preferences. Make sure the information you gathered during the selection phase is carried into the development processes for executive hires. For internal hiring, make sure that you articulate the “developmental value” of placing a person into a specific job. Recruiting is uniquely positioned to ensure that placements are productive for the organization and development-focused for the individual.
Overcomes New Hire Derailers: While externally hired executives often bring new expertise and leadership to the organization, they also face a greater risk of failing. Through succession planning, you can understand new executives’ specific areas for development, provide feedback early and frequently, and ensure accountability for new hires’ success to prevent executive derailment.
- What This Means for Recruiting: This may be the area where your input is most significant. Continue your relationship with external executive hires well into their first few years with your organization. You can play a key role in making sure your hires are successful even after they start. Members, click here for our findings on the most powerful onboarding activities.
Deploys Talent Against Strategic Priorities: Succession management efforts are not discrete events, but rather part of an integrated system for managing talent in an organization. HR organizations should base succession decisions on the evolving needs of the company, and align talent capabilities and executive roles with strategic priorities.
- What This Means for Recruiting: Your recruiting efforts should reflect the evolving needs of the business. Meet with business leaders regularly to ensure your work provides forward-looking value to the succession plan. Challenge business leaders whether their recruitment efforts target the talent profiles needed in the future (rather than “cloning” the profiles of today’s leadership team).
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