6 Questions with Doris Sims, Author and Succession Planning Expert
About Doris
Doris M. Sims, SPHR is the Founder and President of Succession Builders, LLC, a talent management and succession planning consulting firm. Her experience in organizational and leadership development spans over 20 years.
Doris has directed succession management and leadership development programs in Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies such as Alcatel, First Horizon Home Loans, and CVS/Caremark. She received her Master’s degree in Human Resource Development from Indiana State University.
In addition to her current book, The 30-Minute Guide to Talent and Succession Management: A Quick Reference Guide for Business Leaders, Doris is the co-author of Building Tomorrow’s Talent: A Practitioner’s Guide to Talent Management and Succession Planning. She is also the author of the McGraw-Hill book Creative New Employee Orientation Programs, and has contributed articles to many other books and multiple periodicals, including Training Magazine, Talent Management Magazine, and The Consultant’s Toolkit.
6 Questions
Q: Let's start with a question that is on the mind of many people. In this down economy, is it more important or less important to focus on succession? And why?
Doris: While it is important for every company to focus on cash flow and profitability right now, it is also important to continue to plan for the future so we are not caught off guard as the stock market becomes healthier and suddenly Baby Boomers decide they can retire after all. Succession Planning is as much about what is happening today as it is preparing for 2-3 years down the road. If we stop identifying talent and preparing emerging leaders and executives for the future, it will be too late to develop leaders in time. We certainly wouldn't stop spending time and money identifying and developing new products, new markets and new customers in this economy...why would we stop identifying and developing our own talent?
Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle companies face in implementing a good succession planning process?
Doris: The biggest obstacle is the level of understanding of what talent management really is(there is a lot of confusion going on) and how it can achieve a return-on-investment for both the company and employees. It is pretty amazing that most companies will spend many thousands of dollars on external recruiting fees, and they may employ several full-time and contract recruiters, but having even one full-time internal Talent Management professional is still pretty rare. Talent Management pertains to the onboarding, assessment, development and career movement of talent within an organization.
Q: What is the biggest benefit of implementing such a process?
Doris: An ROI can be pretty quickly achieved by increasing internal fill of open leadership positions and reducing external recruiting costs and fees. In addition, talent management processes serve to retain talented employees as they see more internal career path opportunities, and talent management decreases the "time-to-fill" time period of leadership position vacancies. Under the Talent Management Umbrella, we find activities such as succession planning, high potential identification and development, Talent Review meetings, performance management and leadership development. Even if you can eliminate the need to pay for just 1-2 senior level external recruiting fees annually, you have saved enough to pay for a full time talent management professional.
Q: In the book, Building Tommorrow's Talent, you talk about whether or not to notify high potentials that have been identified as such. You recommend a notification approach that is the best match for an organization's culture and readiness stage for leadership development. Are there clues that tell you whether your company is mature enough and can handle an open notification process?
Doris: Any company is ready for an open notification process if the communication of high potentials is handled well. The key is to manage expectations right from the start. For example, when you notify high potentials that they have been identified for participation in a leadership development program, they should know what is expected of them, and what they can expect from the company. They should know that they will be in the program for a specific period of time (or that they will need to be re-identified for the program each year), and at some point they will move out of the program and others will move into the program. Being identified as a high potential is not a "stamp on the forehead for life", but it is a point in time identification of employees who are ready and willing to take on additional development and career assignments. Most companies also "brand" their high potential program with a specific leadership program name, rather than using the term "high potential employees". The advantages of notifying high potentials is the retention of these key employees, as well as greatly increasing the ability to develop the high potentials, and to measure the results of the program.
Doris: While it is important for every company to focus on cash flow and profitability right now, it is also important to continue to plan for the future so we are not caught off guard as the stock market becomes healthier and suddenly Baby Boomers decide they can retire after all. Succession Planning is as much about what is happening today as it is preparing for 2-3 years down the road. If we stop identifying talent and preparing emerging leaders and executives for the future, it will be too late to develop leaders in time. We certainly wouldn't stop spending time and money identifying and developing new products, new markets and new customers in this economy...why would we stop identifying and developing our own talent?
Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle companies face in implementing a good succession planning process?
Doris: The biggest obstacle is the level of understanding of what talent management really is(there is a lot of confusion going on) and how it can achieve a return-on-investment for both the company and employees. It is pretty amazing that most companies will spend many thousands of dollars on external recruiting fees, and they may employ several full-time and contract recruiters, but having even one full-time internal Talent Management professional is still pretty rare. Talent Management pertains to the onboarding, assessment, development and career movement of talent within an organization.
Q: What is the biggest benefit of implementing such a process?
Doris: An ROI can be pretty quickly achieved by increasing internal fill of open leadership positions and reducing external recruiting costs and fees. In addition, talent management processes serve to retain talented employees as they see more internal career path opportunities, and talent management decreases the "time-to-fill" time period of leadership position vacancies. Under the Talent Management Umbrella, we find activities such as succession planning, high potential identification and development, Talent Review meetings, performance management and leadership development. Even if you can eliminate the need to pay for just 1-2 senior level external recruiting fees annually, you have saved enough to pay for a full time talent management professional.
Q: In the book, Building Tommorrow's Talent, you talk about whether or not to notify high potentials that have been identified as such. You recommend a notification approach that is the best match for an organization's culture and readiness stage for leadership development. Are there clues that tell you whether your company is mature enough and can handle an open notification process?
Doris: Any company is ready for an open notification process if the communication of high potentials is handled well. The key is to manage expectations right from the start. For example, when you notify high potentials that they have been identified for participation in a leadership development program, they should know what is expected of them, and what they can expect from the company. They should know that they will be in the program for a specific period of time (or that they will need to be re-identified for the program each year), and at some point they will move out of the program and others will move into the program. Being identified as a high potential is not a "stamp on the forehead for life", but it is a point in time identification of employees who are ready and willing to take on additional development and career assignments. Most companies also "brand" their high potential program with a specific leadership program name, rather than using the term "high potential employees". The advantages of notifying high potentials is the retention of these key employees, as well as greatly increasing the ability to develop the high potentials, and to measure the results of the program.
Q: How important is executive support, and can you be successful without it?
Doris: Having executive and board support of your Talent Review and Succession Management processes greatly increases accountability, cross-functional career movement of high potentials, funding and resources of these strategies. There is no doubt that executive support is very important to the success of your talent management strategy. However, if you don't have this level of support from the start, you can initiate a somewhat "grass roots" effort by partnering with one or a few business leader champions in the company, implementing talent management processes in their functional areas, showing a return-on-investment, and then growing the programs once others see the business value of these processes.
Q: Finally, what's on the horizon for succession planning and talent management?
Doris: A great question - it is actually very interesting watching talent and succession management expanding and evolving as a human resource function, and it will be especially interesting watching how this historic economic time period will affect succession planning. It may cause the Baby Boomers to leave the workforce in a more concentrated manner, once their 401(k) and stock options expand again to the point that they can suddenly retire, and it will be important to be prepared for this exodus. More companies will continue to implement talent management processes and systems for the first time, and I believe that talent management will expand to become a "standard" human resource function in all mid to large sized organizations.
You can contact Doris at:
doris@successionbuilders.com
Links to Books by Doris Sims
The 30-Minute Guide to Talent and Succession Management: A Quick Reference Guide for Business Leaders
Building Tomorrow’s Talent: A Practitioner’s Guide to Talent Management and Succession Planning
Creative New Employee Orientation Programs
Doris: Having executive and board support of your Talent Review and Succession Management processes greatly increases accountability, cross-functional career movement of high potentials, funding and resources of these strategies. There is no doubt that executive support is very important to the success of your talent management strategy. However, if you don't have this level of support from the start, you can initiate a somewhat "grass roots" effort by partnering with one or a few business leader champions in the company, implementing talent management processes in their functional areas, showing a return-on-investment, and then growing the programs once others see the business value of these processes.
Q: Finally, what's on the horizon for succession planning and talent management?
Doris: A great question - it is actually very interesting watching talent and succession management expanding and evolving as a human resource function, and it will be especially interesting watching how this historic economic time period will affect succession planning. It may cause the Baby Boomers to leave the workforce in a more concentrated manner, once their 401(k) and stock options expand again to the point that they can suddenly retire, and it will be important to be prepared for this exodus. More companies will continue to implement talent management processes and systems for the first time, and I believe that talent management will expand to become a "standard" human resource function in all mid to large sized organizations.
You can contact Doris at:
doris@successionbuilders.com
Links to Books by Doris Sims
The 30-Minute Guide to Talent and Succession Management: A Quick Reference Guide for Business Leaders
Building Tomorrow’s Talent: A Practitioner’s Guide to Talent Management and Succession Planning
Creative New Employee Orientation Programs
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