Succession planning should include development of entry-level talent: Interview with Kelly Renz

Succession planning often focuses on executive roles only, but as Kelly Renz of The Novo Group says, “that’s missing the boat.” I caught up with Renz, who is CEO of The Novo Group, where they believe better people means better business. She claims to be a non-conformist when it comes to business practices and she’ll be a speaker at SHRM 2018, presenting “Demystifying Succession Planning: It's Easier Than You Think!” She insists that succession planning is not rocket science and has great insight into the importance of developing your entry-level talent. Managers should look for individuals who initiate additional responsibility, for people who are “looking to fill gaps. They have ideas, they share insights, observations of ways to make things better. That’s a good indication that somebody is engaged and they care, and they want to see something done better.” Their ideas don’t always have to be good—they should not be seen as rocking the boat. Managers should welcome that and talk about it. For quieter employees who don’t vocalize their ideas, managers should look for ways to invite their ideas in a comfortable environment—they will step forward. “You’re looking for an employee who has a continuous improvement mindset.” Managers should also look for employees who want to go above and beyond—people who watch for customer satisfaction and team feedback. “Sometimes the quietest minds are the best minds for opportunity.” Succession planning often becomes an executive only program, but “that’s missing the boat of what succession planning should be achieving.” Profile your organization and you don’t need expensive tools. Inventory the positions in your organization to identify key roles. “Key roles should fuel the focus for succession planning. They can be executive roles, but we define them as when vacated, could cause a significant business disruption or pain. It could be something that hampers a client relationship.” It could be a key account salesperson who owns the relationship to your organization’s largest client. It could be your data scientist who owns the methodology and mindset for a formula. Renz says that there really isn’t a set percentage of roles across organizations that should be defined as key roles. “Key roles are unique for each company.” Change your language from “high potential” to “early promise” because high potential implies that others have low potential and can negatively impact your team. Create profiles of individuals with early promise. Make a map of key roles, and start your succession planning form there. “What are the gaps in skill set, knowledge and ability that we need to fill?” That’s where good leadership development comes in. Integrate your map of key roles with your profiles of early promise. Companies that have affinity programs and champion their differences are those that succeed in filling their pipeline with diversity. “Diversity and inclusion does not happen by accident.” Don’t make recruiters entirely accountable for it. Make diversity part of executive goals and accountability, including compensation. If it’s treated as a business initiative like any other, and given extra purposeful attention with strategic alignment, companies will be more likely to succeed in reaching their D & I goals. The average tenure of an employees has fallen and most don't feel a deep loyalty anymore. Does this invalidate an organization's efforts in succession planning, and if not, why not? Statistics show that employees change jobs more often, but “if you keep somebody challenged and you keep somebody moving through their career, and they’re enjoying where they are and are tied to your purpose, they still won’t leave.” It’s too easy to shrug and attribute turnover to a change in generational attitudes. “Most people don’t leave for no reason.” Big reasons include bad managers, not feeling connected to the organization. You still need to inspect why you have turnover. If they believe in your mission, that is more likely to retain employees than ever before. “It can be done.” Succession planning is still worth it, says Renz. “If you identify talent early in their career and you put them on a development plan, and they can see on the horizon what they’re working toward,” they will continue to commit. The number one reasons people leave is that they don’t see a career path forward. Create the cultural expectation that you will invest in your people. Succession planning, to be worth has to be progressive and ongoing. Read full blog post at https://www.collegerecruiter.com/blog...