Have you Future Proofed your Company?

Sharlyn Lauby
HR Bartender



According to Gartner Research, succession planning in the C-Suite is a significant concern. I’d argue it’s a concern at every level in an organization. When 61% of employed workers are open to or looking for a new job, companies need to allocate resources toward attracting and retaining their future talent.

But the question is…what does our future talent look like?

That was the focus of Cale Hammer’s session during Ultimate Software’s Connections 2012: Future Proofing Your Business. While we all realize succession planning is important for business success, nearly one-third of companies don’t have succession plans and over 50% of individuals in VP-Level positions have no successors.

It made me wonder if one of the reasons so few organizations have succession plans in place, is because the process is perceived as down-right painful. As HR pros, we know the keys to success with any program implementation are:

1. Aligns with business needs
2. Has top leadership support
3. Receives regular attention
4. Gets dedicated resources
5. Is both manageable and effective

And in the case of succession planning, #6 – Provides a commitment to talent development. Cale shared a client quote during the session that really struck me about the significant need for companies to spend resources on their current talent.

“We lack investment in training and development and do not provide enough opportunities for employees to learn beyond their own roles.”

If organizations plan to remain competitive and grow or even just retain market share, they have to figure out how today’s employees fit tomorrow’s business needs. Cale provided an overview of Ultimate Software’s Succession Planning solution for companies that are trying to figure this out. 

There were a couple of things that really stood out for me.

The flexible Talent Assessment Box. With the Ultimate Software Succession Planning solution, you can create a 4-box, 9-box or larger with custom axis to monitor employee status. Imagine one axis as current performance rating and the other as potential for promotability. Each employee is noted on the report. It’s a clean, easy way to monitor and present to leadership where individuals are in relation to your succession planning efforts.

A Succession Readiness Report. This report allows an organization to view the percentage of candidates by division or region and their readiness level in terms of months. So if senior leadership wants to know the number of people who will be ready in the next two years, it’s just a report away. And the report can provide details on who those individuals are.

Those are just highlights, the solution does so much more. If you haven’t already seen a demo of the succession planning module and how it can help future-proof your business, click here to sign up. Succession planning does not have to be long, drawn-out and painful. But it does need to be done for the success of the business.