St. Petersburg, Fla. — March 8
According to a recent survey conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp – formerly HRI), two-thirds of organizations with formal succession planning programs intend to change them in the coming years.
Nine percent of respondents say they have no plans to make changes, and 25 percent are not sure what they are going to do.
Most of the planned changes in succession planning boil down to three factors: integration, technology and objectivity.
The survey found that among the organizations that intend to change their programs, 75 percent cite the need to “integrate succession management with other talent management processes.”
More than half (55 percent) plan to use new technologies, and 52 percent want to make evaluations more objective.
“The results of this survey indicate a very serious concern regarding the shortage of talent,” said Jay Jamrog, i4cp senior vice president of research. “The majority of respondents with succession plans in place said that they suffered from a lack of qualified candidates.
“Moving forward, it is going to be critical that organizations more effectively integrate succession planning with development programs in order to increase the number of skilled candidates in the succession pipeline.”
About half of the survey respondents also pointed to a lack of effective ways to track high-potential leaders and to share, sort and update data.
According to i4cp, the survey findings indicate there is a deep need for technologies that can integrate succession planning with performance management and leadership development, allowing organizations to better track high-potential employees.
“As the former evecuitve vice president of people for Wal-Mart Stores, it is good to see that HR is realizing the important correlation between their organization’s sustainability and succession management,” said Coleman Peterson, Hollis Enterprises CEO and a strategic adviser to i4cp. “Today, I’m a member of three public company boards and am chair of the compensation committee for each. I am encouraged to see that more and more boards are placing succession management high on their agendas.”
The Succession Management Survey 2006 was conducted by i4cp in conjunction with HR.com and includes responses from 799 organizations.
