William J. Rothwell - Effective Succession Planning (2005)(3-e)(en)

Exhibit 12-3. A Hierarchy of Online and High-Tech Applications for Succession Planning and Management

Interactive

and

Multimedia

Distribution

and Delivery

Policy Formulation

Original Data Collection for

Policy Formulation

Benchmarking/Comparison-Making

with Other Organizations

Document Distribution

Document Storage and Retrieval

Researching Secondary Information

▲How many people exist at each level of the organization and in each important occupational or hierarchical grouping?

▲When are those people expected to retire?

▲What percentage of those people fall into protected labor classes?

▲What is the turnover rate by level?

▲What is the critical turnover rate by level?

▲How well are people performing?

▲How many potential candidates for succession exist at each level, and how many potential candidates may be needed to exist to support the organization’s expected growth?

In each case, these questions involve analysis of existing information. This is the lowest level of the hierarchy of applications, and it is also the easiest to use, provided that the necessary records exist and can be manipulated in ways permitting analysis.

Document storage and retrieval is the second level of the hierarchy. Online methods are often useful for storing and retrieving documents important to SP&M such as job descriptions, competency models, value statements, performance appraisal forms, potential assessments, and replacement charts. As organizations move toward realizing the promise of the paperless office, document storage and retrieval becomes more important. Document imaging permits hard copy to be scanned and kept electronically.

Document distribution is the third level of the hierarchy. This level adds interactivity and permits SP&M coordinators to place documents online. For instance, from company Web sites, users can download documents such as job descriptions, job analysis questionnaires or interview guides, competency models, performance appraisal forms, individual potential assessment forms, individual development plans, and even training for advancement. Additionally, users may even complete the forms online and send them to SP&M coordinators so that the transactions are paperless. Data can then be analyzed directly online. (That also improves data security.)

Benchmarking is the fourth level of the hierarchy. While the third level permits document distribution and analysis within an organization, benchmarking permits information sharing among organizations. For instance, a succession planning coordinator in one organization can send electronic ques- tionnaires—or even sample documents, such as succession planning poli- cies—to consultants, college professors, or SP&M coordinators in other organizations. That permits easy comparisons and discussions of important issues across organizations.

Original data collection for policy formulation is the fifth level of the hierarchy. Using online survey software, for instance, SP&M coordinators can poll managers, workers, and other stakeholders about emerging problems that affect succession planning. For instance, an attitude survey could be conducted periodically online to gather information about employee job satisfaction (which can affect or even help to predict turnover rates), attitudes about existing succession practices, and other relevant issues. This information is valuable in formulating new policies or revising existing policies.

Policy formulation is the sixth level of the hierarchy. Decision-makers can use groupware—software that links individuals virtually for decision making in real time—to formulate new policies on issues affecting SP&M. For instance, during policy formulation, decision-makers can work together on virtual teams to establish a new or revised succession policy, devise a competency model, prepare a job description, plan training to close developmental gaps, carry out potential assessment or performance appraisal, or offer confidential advice on a difficult succession issue.

4Determining Future Work/People Requirements

5Assessing Potential

6Closing Developmental Gaps

7Maintaining Talent Inventories

8Evaluating the Program

9Others (list below)

ping in real time, program sharing, and many other features. In short, Netmeeting provides most of the advantages of a face-to-face meeting and some that cannot be obtained in such a meeting.

Experienced videoconferencing users, however, have learned that it is advisable to test the equipment and software before the scheduled meeting time to make sure that it works. They have also learned that a meeting agenda should be sent out beforehand with short questions intended to keep the meeting focused. Meetings should be kept short, since participants find that watching compressed video can be tedious. The number of callers should be kept to a minimum, since multiple sites can be difficult to manage in videoconferencing.

What are some tips to make these meetings most effective? Here are a few:

▲Make sure the time schedules are clear, especially when callers are located in different time zones.

▲Open all meetings with introductions so that everyone knows who is there, why they are there, and what they can contribute.

▲Keep the structure of the meeting simple. If difficult decisions are to be made, provide material in advance and ask people to review it before the meeting.

▲Send out, by e-mail, sample policies, procedures, and action plans governing succession planning and invite participants to focus their attention on them. Sample documents tend to focus attention faster.

▲Schedule follow-up discussions to resolve differences of opinion rather than trying to iron them out in a videoconference.

▲Make sure everyone has contact information for everyone else, such as e-mail addresses, so that people can discuss important issues of interest among themselves later.

Assessing Present Work Requirements

Assessing present work requirements is a second important component of any effective SP&M program. People cannot prepare for the future if they do not know what is expected of them at present.

Traditionally, present work requirements have been assessed in several ways. One way is for the supervisor to write a job description. Another way is for a specialist in the human resources department to interview one or more job incumbents and their supervisors, draft a job description, and then ask for a review by those interviewed. Online and high-tech approaches have added new dimensions to this process. It is now possible to send worksheets or questionnaires for preparing job descriptions as attached documents from one location. Supervisors or HR specialists can then draft job descriptions and send them around electronically for supervisors or HR specialists and job incum-

bents to review and modify, make corrections, and reach agreement virtually. Alternatively, audioconferences or videoconferences can be substituted for face-to-face meetings.

Additionally, many resources now exist to help the harried HR specialist or supervisor write job descriptions. For instance, supervisors or HR specialists can invest in software such as Descriptions Now! (see www.gneil.com/item

.html?s-5040&i-21&pos-2&sessionid-S9nac7q435), which provides draft language for job descriptions and helps the user draft newspaper advertisements to recruit applicants. As an alternative, supervisors or HR specialists can find thousands of free job descriptions on the Web as a starting point for discussion and for ideas in preparing them. As just one example, visit www.stepfour.com/ jobs/ to find 12,741 job descriptions from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles arranged in alphabetical order. Also visit ONet, which is the electronic system that is replacing The Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Real-time training on the Web is also available to help supervisors or workers learn how to write job descriptions. (See www.siu.edu/ humres/doitright/descrip.html.)

The important point to remember is that no online substitute exists for reaching agreement among supervisors, incumbents, and HR specialists on what are the current work requirements, why they are necessary for success in the job, and how they can be met. In other words, online and high-tech approaches should be used as supplements, not as substitutes, for traditional job analysis, competency identification, and other approaches to assessing present work requirements.

Evaluating Current Employee Performance

A third important component of any effective succession planning program is some means of evaluating current employee performance. As noted earlier in the book, people are rarely considered for promotion—or any other advancement opportunity, for that matter—if they are not performing well in their current jobs. Of course, a good performance appraisal system should measure individual performance as it relates to work requirements, standards, performance targets or expectations, or behavioral indicators tied to job competencies.

Traditionally, the process of evaluating current employee performance has been handled with paper forms that are completed and then followed up on by means of face-to-face interviews between workers and their immediate supervisors. Often, the human resources department is responsible for establishing the process by which individual performance is appraised. The information gathered in this process is, in turn, used in making wage or salary determinations, identifying training or individual development needs, and planning for future improvement.

Online and high-tech approaches have added new dimensions to this process. It is now possible to solicit, through e-mail or Web sites, opinions of other people about an individual’s performance. For instance, a performance appraisal form may be sent for input to (among others) an individual’s orga-

nizational superiors, peers, subordinates, customers, company suppliers, and company distributors.

Additionally, software resources now exist that can help supervisors write performance appraisals. For instance, supervisors or HR specialists can invest in software such as Performance Now! (available at the time this book goes to press at www.gneil.com/item.html?s-5040&i-20&pos-8&sessionid-S9nac7q- 435) that supplies draft language for employee performance appraisals and can offer legal advice about what is and is not advisable to put in writing on appraisal forms. Free resources can also be found on the Web to support the formulation of policies on employee performance appraisal (such as, for instance, sample policies available at the time this book goes to press at http:// ukcc.uky.edu/ hrinfo/hrp/hrp061.txt, www.tempe.gov/hradmin/docs/Perf--Appr-- Inst.htm, and www.infosys.ilstu.edu/ohr/PAexempt.html); complete appraisal systems for a fee (available when this book goes to press at www.performanceappraisal.com/manual/download.htm); and sample forms (available when this book goes to press at http://fcn.state.fl.us/dms/hrm/forms/forms.html and http:// ohioline.ag.ohio-state.edu/hrm-fact/0007.html).

Using online and high-tech methods with employee performance appraisal can be beneficial. However, SP&M coordinators should always remember that every useful performance appraisal system comes at a price. This means that, while online aids can be helpful and can offer valuable support, no substitute exists for the laborious process of establishing and measuring the unique performance requirements of people in one organization.

Determining Future Work Requirements

Forecasting or planning for future work requirements is a fourth important component of any effective SP&M program. After all, it is no more likely that work requirements will remain static than it is that the organization itself will remain static. Organizational needs change, and so do work requirements. It is therefore important to engage stakeholders and decision-makers in planning for the expected changes that may occur in the organization and in its work requirements. That is essential if individuals are to be prepared to meet those requirements in the future. Few organizations regularly and systematically forecast future work or competency requirements. However, the need to do that is growing. It is simply not possible to prepare people if future work requirements remain unknown.

Online and high-tech approaches have, however, provided new approaches to job forecasting, scenario planning, and future-oriented competency modeling. Job forecasting estimates future job requirements. It may address such questions as these:

▲What will be the future purpose of the job? How will that be different from the job’s present purpose?

▲What are the expected work duties or responsibilities of the job in the future, and how are they expected to change?

▲What knowledge, skills, or attitudes are needed by individuals in the future to qualify for those jobs?

▲How important will be the various duties or responsibilities of those jobs, and which ones will be considered most critical to success in the future?

Answering such questions is the process of job forecasting.

Scenario planning identifies possible alternative futures. Instead of assuming that jobs or work will change in one way, as job forecasting does, scenario planning offers probabilities. Scenarios resemble written stories about the future. They help people plan by giving them clear descriptions of what the future may look like, or different pictures of various futures. Groupware, described in an earlier section, can be useful as an online approach to conducting job scenario planning. It is thus possible to prepare different versions of job descriptions for the future and then use those to stimulate planning among job incumbents and their immediate organizational supervisors.

Another way to carry out scenario planning is to rely on software or Web sites that make it relatively easier than it might otherwise be. One resource for conducting scenario planning is the Web site of the Global Business Network (found at the time this book goes to press at www.gbn.org/public/help/ map.htm). This Web site offers member services for conducting scenario planning. While the key emphasis in most scenario planning is business planning and financial analysis, it is possible to find help in doing job scenario planning.

Future-oriented competency modeling projects the future competencies required by departments or job groups. Its focus, unlike traditional competency modeling, is on what will set exemplary performers apart from fully successful performers in the future. It is therefore future-oriented and is sometimes based on trends.

Many resources exist to help SP&M coordinators conduct future-oriented competency modeling. For instance, you can find a list of competencies needed in businesses in the future by consulting http://cithr.cit.cornell.edu/ FutComp.html, or a compelling article about organizational core competencies of the future at www.bah.de/viewpoints/insights/cmt_core_comp.html. You can also purchase software for competency modeling, such as The Competence Expert (described at the time this book goes to press at www.kravetz

.com/compexpert.html) or the Competency Coach for Windows (described at www.coopercomm.com/ccchfact.htm) One other source is Kenneth Carlton Cooper’s Effective Competency Modeling & Reporting (AMACOM, 2000), which includes a working model on CD-ROM of Competency Coach for Windows.

Assessing Potential

A fifth important component of any effective succession planning program is some means by which to assess individual potential for the future. What is the individual’s potential for advancement to higher levels of responsibility, or to higher levels of technical expertise in his or her specialization? That is the question answered by this component.

One approach that is increasingly used for potential assessment is fullcircle, multirater feedback. Described in an earlier chapter, this involves assessing an individual’s potential based on the perceptions of those surrounding him or her in the organization. It is important to remember, however, that potential assessment should be conducted in the context of work requirements. In other words, an individual should not just be appraised for his or her current abilities. Instead, he or she should be assessed for meeting future job requirements or future competencies.

Both PC-usable software and Web-based full-circle, multirater assessment instruments are widely available. To find many of them, it is only necessary to type ‘‘360 assessment’’ into a search engine on the Web. But a word of caution is again in order: most full-circle, multirater assessment instruments have been based on competency models from other organizations. That means they are not necessarily useful, applicable, or even appropriate in all corporate cultures. To be most effective, a company-specific competency model must be prepared for every department or every job category (such as supervisor, manager, and executive). Potential assessment is useful only when done in this way. Indeed, rating individual potential on competencies that are not com- pany-specific can lead to major mistakes and miscalculations. Hence, while online and high-tech approaches can be useful, they should be used appropriately to measure individual potential within a unique corporate culture.

Closing Developmental Gaps

Closing developmental gaps is a sixth important component of any effective SP&M program. This component leads to an action plan to help individuals narrow the gap between what they can do now and what they need to do to advance. Individual development planning is the process by which this is accomplished.

Although few software packages exist to support the individual development planning process—in fact, I could find none after an extensive search on the Web—many resources can be found on the Web to assist with the process. For instance, sample forms can be found at the time this book goes to press at www.johnco.cc.ks.us/acad/sd/sdidp.htm, http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/OHR/ next6.htm, and www.hr.lanl.gov/CareerDevelopment/IDPs.htm. Sample policies guiding the use of an individual development planning (IDP) form can also be found at the time this book goes to press at www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/