Savvy Organizations Beginning to Rely on Technology to Unleash Succession Planning’s Full Potential
HRchitect featured Workscape in our May 2008 release of The Suite Life of Integrated Talent Management.
In response to growing market trends, Workscape, Inc., a leading provider of outsourced benefits and talent management solutions, last week previewed its succession planning functionality at the HR Technology Conference and Exposition in Chicago. Designed to help companies retain top performers by identifying qualified successors as high potentials to move up within their respective organization, Workscape’s inclusion of this capability is a natural addition to its rapidly expanding talent management suite.
Succession planning has historically been reserved for an organization’s highest levels. By utilizing emerging applications that allow better assessment of employee skills, performance, and experiences required for critical positions in the company and other relevant data, succession planning now can be used for a much wider, comprehensive role within the organization. Rather than only deciding who’s primed to move up in the executive suite, smart HR organizations are using these new technology-based tools to ensure that succession planning is taking place for valuable employees throughout the organization, not just at the top level. As a result, organizations are ensuring that a strong, talent-laden bench is ready to move into new roles across the enterprise.
Based on the recent survey conducted by Workscape and Human Resource Executive magazine, many employers are just starting to take advantage of these technologies across the enterprise. The survey, which included 456 employers, found that of companies with formal succession planning strategies in place, most (60 percent or higher) have them for C-level, VP level and director level, but the number drops quickly for managers (44 percent) and the general workforce (12 percent). More than half (55 percent) report that they have no succession plan at all.
Workscape’s solution will enable managers to define talent pools for positions and identify successors for individual employees. Sharing the same proven Web-based SaaS platform, the company’s talent management suite provides intuitive tools for establishing the competencies and experiences required to be effective in a critical job and flexible search tools for finding those employees who meet necessary job criteria and experience levels. Employees are also empowered to better manage their careers through easy-to-use, self-service tools that allow them to create, view and update career path objectives, search for new positions within the company and provide gap analyses to identify professional development needs.
For more information about Workscape, visit www.workscape.com
Matt Lafata, HRchitect
