The Astron Road Show
Where will Astron Solutions be next? On Wednesday, March 12th, National Director Jennifer Loftus will present to the New York City Cultural Institutions Group on Being Your Best: Ensuring Your Competitive Edge in 2008. The presentation will explore the financial returns of striving for HR excellence, as well the top ten key best practice and compliance areas for the coming year. The meeting will be held in New York City. Can’t make the meeting? Be sure to visit our presentations page after the meeting date to download your copy of the presentation materials!
Astron in the News
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently quoted National Director Jennifer Loftus on current practices in sabbatical leave. Click here to read the article.
Calling All Authors!
Astron Solutions regularly accepts articles from guest authors for Astronology. If you have an article you’d like considered for a future issue of Astronology, please contact National Director Jennifer Loftus for more information. We’d like to feature you!
Succession Planning - What's the Latest?
The Center for Workforce Preparation (CWP), a not-for-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has reported that "by 2010, the labor force will fall short of meeting the demands of an estimated 58 million job openings by more than 4.8 million workers." These numbers include significant percentages of people in leadership roles. It is also clear that there will be fierce competition for highly skilled leaders ready to serve in key roles. AchieveGlobal conducted a survey of 307 United States business and government leaders, 65% of whom were in senior executive roles. The findings reveal a number of important insights into the current trends and practices in succession planning and management, also known as building leadership bench strength. Succession planning and management is used by 71% of the survey respondents. Fifty-five percent have used the process for at least 3 years. Between 70% and 78% of those respondents focus their succession planning and management activities on middle manager and senior executive positions. A majority of the respondent organizations reported the use of six types of succession planning and management activities, as shown in the following data:
1. CEO as strategic owner and champion of succession planning strategy - 50%
1. Possession of global perspective - 43% In addition to these findings, the survey identified the following 13 activities as critical to a successful succession plan: 1. Create a compelling case for the purpose, importance, and expected impact of a succession planning and management process that fits the explicit current and future needs of your own organization. Ground the case with data from thorough business and organizational assessment. 2. Secure a high level of conviction and active involvement in the process by all senior leaders, led by the CEO. Crystallize roles and responsibilities for all players. Confirm the intent to use this process for all openings. 3. Set an overarching strategy for building leadership bench strength: right people, right place, and right time. 4. Define a meticulous, comprehensive, strategically aligned, fair, and equitable succession planning and management process that provides opportunities to everyone. 5. Create a detailed communications plan to accurately portray the full intent of what to expect -and what not to expect. 6. Identify an accurate list of leadership competencies (skills, knowledge, abilities, and motivations) - a talent portfolio - that will produce superior performance in likely future scenarios of the organization. 7. Identify key linchpin positions that can propel or inhibit strategic initiatives or opportunities. 8. Use the competencies to assess the current talent pool. Analyze the results to identify high potential candidates and create pinpointed developmental plans. 9. Align the succession planning and management process with the employee value proposition -why a promising leader will want to grow, develop, and contribute with this organization over the long term. Incorporate appropriate messaging in recruitment strategies. 10. Create a set of training and developmental experiences that are directly connected to building skill in the leadership competencies. 11. Link the process to the organization's performance management, promotion, reward and recognition, and related human resources systems, processes, and policies. 12. Engage in at least annual reviews with the process and all candidates. When there are triggering strategic circumstances, conduct an immediate review. 13. Periodically measure and evaluate the integrity and progress of the process, regulatory compliance, and the movement of high potential candidates, turnover and retention strategies, impact of developmental activities, and other metrics that tie to strategic fulfillment. Communicate and celebrate results. Effective succession planning does not happen overnight. It takes time and effort to build a program that develops talent and receives the appropriate organizational buy in. If your organization doesn’t have a succession plan in place, now is the time to develop one. If you’re concerned about being overwhelmed, start small, focusing on key management positions or difficult, hard to fill roles requiring specialized knowledge. If you have a succession plan already in place, review the program to make sure you’re getting the right results. Make updates as needed. With the upcoming Baby Boomer retirements, low US unemployment, and the high cost of turnover, now is the time to make sure your succession plan is in place. Don’t wait to make a change until something happens and you have to rely on a less helpful replacement plan.
Reader Poll Archive
Wonder what your fellow readers think about critical HR topics? Is your organization unique from or similar to others?Click here to view the results of our past polls!
Coming next time in Astronology
 Astron Mythbusters
Is There Financial Literacy in Your Workplace?
Have a Question?
If you have a topic you would like addressed in Astronology, or some feedback on a past article, don't hesitate to tell us! Simply reply to this e-mail. See your question answered, or comments addressed, in an upcoming issue of Astronology.
Looking for a top-notch presenter for your human resource organization's meeting? Both Jennifer Loftus and Michael Maciekowich present highly-rated sessions on a variety of compensation and employee retention issues. For more information, send an e-mail to info@astronsolutions.com.
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