Ban the Binder – Succession Planning Requires Technology

What seems like MANY years ago, while in my first corporate HR job, I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead the company’s succession planning process. In years past, succession planning had been a behind-the-scenes, secretive process but senior leaders were open to building a new process focused upon development.  Wow – I was excited.  What’s more, we created a powerful Microsoft Access tool to store the talent assessment data (albeit, I had to bring in temps to hand enter the assessment data that was collected on expensively printed surveys) and allowed us to search and track leaders across the company.  We were at the fore front!  I thought that I had at last seen the end of the Succession Planning Binder/s.  Oh, how I was wrong.

As a strategic advisor, I have worked with many organizations to create from scratch or completely transform their succession planning process.  Succession planning software gives HR leaders the tools that they need to quickly turn data into results and focus all senior leadership effort on the most critical aspects of the process.  The completion of talent assessments, integration of business metrics, running of reports and creation of organization charts can be done in real-time through the use of succession planning technology. And what’s more, leaders can access the data at any time so binders are not necessary….in fact, they are a waste of valuable resources.

Over the next several months, the team of industrial organizational psychologists will share a series of blog articles on the use of technology in the succession planning process.  We are out to eradicate the binder. 

Look for our posts, share your comments and suggestions, and wish us luck.

Karen N. Caruso, Ph.D.

kcaruso@viapeople.com

@EnjoyJourney