Measure Progress
The Final Step in the Succession Planning Process
Quantifying and Communicating Your Success
Achieving long-term success requires a commitment to continuous improvement and strategic oversight. This means that the final step of succession planning, measurement, is crucial to your organization’s sustainability and growth. Our Measure Progress service is thoughtfully designed to ensure this critical phase is seamlessly integrated into your succession planning process. With the support of our senior consultants, your succession plan will:
- Align strategically with your organizational goals.
- Maintain momentum through regular monitoring and adjustment of key success metrics.
- Retain leadership support through ongoing communication during the implementation process.
SIGMA’s Approach to Measuring Progress
At SIGMA, we believe that true progress can only be measured against clearly defined goals. Our approach involves setting specific, measurable objectives at the outset of your succession planning process and systematically tracking these with our Talent Progress Scorecard. This method ensures that every step taken contributes directly towards the overarching goals of your organization.
How it Works
Step 1: Setting Strategic Goals
We collaborate with you and your stakeholders to define clear and measurable objectives, such as improved talent retention.
Step 2: Identifying Success Metrics
Together, we determine which metrics will effectively track these goals, integrating existing data sources for efficiency.
Step 3: Ongoing Assessment
We train your team to regularly monitor your metrics, deliver updates, and refine your succession planning strategy as needed.
Step 4: Leveraging Data
We explain how to use insights from the Talent Progress Scorecard to provide leaders and candidates with progress updates, and to guide next steps in succession planning efforts.
Why Work With Us?
Navigating the complexities of measuring succession planning effectiveness can be daunting. Despite being one of the most critical stages, it is often the most neglected. However, research clearly demonstrates its importance in ensuring the success of your succession planning efforts:
- McKinsey reports that 61% of corporate strategists point to poor implementation as the top reason new strategic initiatives fail, largely due to insufficient monitoring systems and unclear responsibilities.1
- A 2018 report by the Association for Talent Development found that organizations that measured their succession planning efforts had markedly higher effectiveness scores. Key metrics included the number of positions filled by succession candidates, the size of the succession pipeline, and retention rates of succession candidates. Organizations using these methods demonstrated superior succession planning outcomes compared to those that did not utilize these measurements.2
SIGMA offers expert guidance in selecting appropriate metrics, interpreting data, and making informed decisions supported by that data. Our service helps ensure that your investment in succession planning is validated through tangible, positive outcomes in talent development.
Key Benefits of Working With SIGMA
- Comprehensive data utilization: What gets measured gets managed.3 Yet, one of the primary challenges organizations encounter is integrating and making sense of existing data. SIGMA uses advanced analytics to transform your raw data into actionable insights, ensuring that every piece of information contributes to a clear understanding of your progress.
- Tailored metrics and benchmarks: Organizations often struggle with identifying which metrics should be measured to accurately reflect their unique goals. SIGMA collaborates with you to select metrics that align with your strategic objectives, ensuring that the measurement is not just comprehensive, but also customized to your needs.
- Ongoing evaluation and support: Regularly measuring progress requires continual effort and expertise, which can strain internal resources. SIGMA provides ongoing support, from establishing initial measurements to regular check-ins to assess progress, helping you maintain focus on achieving long-term goals without overwhelming your team.
- Expert interpretation and reporting: Interpreting succession planning data can be challenging. SIGMA offers expert analysis and creates detailed reports that not only highlight successes and opportunities for improvement, but also help in communicating these findings effectively to stakeholders, enhancing transparency within your process.
- Strategic adjustment guidance: The dynamic nature of business and talent development means strategies must evolve. SIGMA aids in the periodic review and recalibration of your succession planning strategies based on measured outcomes, ensuring your efforts are always aligned with current organizational needs and future goals.
The SIGMA Advantage
With SIGMA, you gain access to practical measurement tools and a refined measurement process. Our team of expert consultants leverages data-driven methodologies, decades of industry experience, and a personalized approach to meet your organization’s unique needs with precision and insight.
Data-Driven Methodology
Our tools, templates, and exercises don’t just standardize the process; they bring precision and clarity, underpinned by data.
Expertise and Experience
Utilize our team’s deep expertise in succession planning, honed by years of working across diverse industries and organizational structures.
Customized Approach
No two organizations are the same. Our solutions are tailored to fit the unique needs, culture, and strategic objectives of each client.
Ready to Measure Progress?
Begin the journey towards a more accountable and effective succession planning process. Contact SIGMA today to see how our Measure Progress service can help you refine your strategy and achieve your organizational goals.
What’s Next?
After measuring the progress of your succession planning efforts, it’s important to turn those insights into action. The insights gained from the Measure Progress phase may indicate areas within earlier stages — such as talent assessment or development — that could benefit from being revisited. If the insights indicate that the plan is optimized, you are ready to expand your succession plan to include more roles across the organization. This next step is crucial, because it ensures that your talent development program remains consistent across all departments and teams. Implement your succession plan organization-wide, leveraging the cyclical nature of the succession planning process to progressively build new leadership pipelines. By continually growing and refining this process, your organization can enhance its readiness for future transitions, ensuring that each succession is more effective than the last.
Resources
To support your ongoing efforts, we offer a range of tools, including:
Ready to Get Started?
Complete the form below to tell us a little more about your needs and our consultants will contact you shortly.
1 Project Management Institute. Why good strategies fail: Lessons for C-suite. The Economist Intelligence Unit. https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/why-good-strategies-fail-report.pdf
2 Robinson, S. (2020, November 5). Succession planning: Is your organization prepared?: Association for Talent Development. https://www.td.org/insights/succession-planning-is-your-organization-prepared.
3 Prusak, L. (2010, October 7). What can’t be measured. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/10/what-cant-be-measured.