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Succession Secrets: How TA Can Future-Proof Roles and People · Edan Haddock - Total Talent

• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome back to Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Eden Haddock, Head of Talent and People Experience at Movember.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're diving deep into succession planning.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to frame this conversation in a way that's useful for talent acquisition teams.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because too often, succession planning is seen purely as a HR or leadership exercise.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: If talent acquisition doesn't understand succession planning, we stay reactive.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we do understand it and apply it to our roles, we become true strategic partners.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we all want.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're all crying out for.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We all want a seat at the table.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: We all want to be talent advisors.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And here's how I'm going to break it down for you today.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: In one part, we'll talk about the person in the role, and we will use a six-box talent grid.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: In another part, we'll flip it and we'll talk about the role itself.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be using a role criticality versus vacancy risk matrix.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: These two together, they give us the blueprint to align internal succession with our external hiring strategy.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the big picture.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why should telene acquisition even care about succession planning?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the reality.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Every resignation, every retirement, hashtag IWish.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I joke, I love my job, every sudden departure, it lands on Telanacquisition's desk.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're the ones being asked.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Who's out there?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: How quickly can we fill it?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's the cost?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: If we're plugged into succession planning, we already know which positions have internal successes ready, which roles have long readiness gaps, and where external market mapping is urgent.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Succession planning means we're not scrambling when change happens.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're already running ahead of the curve.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the person, the individual sitting in the role.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, the tool I want to use here is the six box talent grid.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: You might be more familiar with the nine box grid.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's the one most organizations use.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: But six box is streamlined and super practical, and it's what I use.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how it works: two axes, performance, meaning how well they are doing today, and potential.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: How much can they grow tomorrow?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: This then will give us six categories in the grid.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have high performance plus high potential.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Those are our future leaders.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: You have high performance and lower potential.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: These are your specialists, your rock stars, and your anchors.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: We then have solid contributors.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: They are steady, reliable, consistent.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have your lower performance categories.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where coaching, support, or unfortunately, even exit conversations are needed.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why does talent acquisition care?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's because this tells us what the bench looks like internally.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: For example, let's say in marketing, we've got two mid-level managers who are both high performance and high potential.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: This then tells us that the role above, let's say the marketing director, that role is covered internally.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Talent acquisition doesn't need to pipeline heavily.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But let's say finance.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe all of the mid managers are set are steady, solid contributors, but none with that leadership spark.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's a flag for talent acquisition.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you start mapping the external market.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: The six box grid is about understanding the person.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Who's strong today?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who's ready tomorrow?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And who might not get there.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And talent acquisition needs that insight before making external hiring moves.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's flip it because that part was about the person, and this part is about the role itself.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the tool here is what I call the role criticality versus vacancy risk matrix.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a different lens.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're not judging the person in the seat, we're judging the chair itself.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when I when I run these, and when I've run these over the years, leaders find it really hard to remove the person from the role.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that opens up broader conversation.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Once you get into the detail of the role, you can even have conversations around has that role been designed effectively?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or could that role be designed differently in the future?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much more this brings and so much more conversation this opens, right?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So on one axis, you have role criticality, and that's around how mission critical this role is to the organization's success.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: If it disappears tomorrow, how much damage does it do?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And on the other axis, we have vacancy risk.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the flight risk of the person, right?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is how hard, how hard is this role to leave unfilled?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: How costly?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: How time sensitive?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: How complex to cover.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then you plot these roles.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So high criticality, high vacancy risk.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: These are your red alert positions.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: If this role is vacant, the business takes a big hit.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Talent acquisition must proactively pipeline externally here.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have high criticality, low vacancy risk.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: The role is critical, but it's easier to backfill or cover.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there are similar, multiple positions within the business.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have low criticality, high vacancy risk.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really interesting quadrant.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not business critical, but if it goes empty, it's still painful because it's hard to hire.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Talent acquisition needs to plan selectively here.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we be strategic in ourselves, right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: We make those decisions and we decide what to do.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: You then have low criticality, low vacancy risk, lower priority.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: If these roles go empty, the impact and difficulty are both low.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not important.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is such an important shift because it makes us talk about the position, not the person.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: For example, a payroll officer role.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The person may be stable and happy.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the role itself, it's high vacancy risk because specialist payroll talent is scarce.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fairly critical to operations.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: We all need to get paid.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So talent acquisition needs to pipeline, even if the incumbent here is rock solid.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: This way, talent acquisition prioritizes not by gossip or gut feel, but by role importance and business risk.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, integrating both models, here's where the magic really happens.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you combine the person view from the six box grid with the role view from the role criticality versus vacancy risk matrix.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The magic.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What does talent acquisition do in this scenario?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: We build external slates, we run a market map, we stay close to talent pools.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or another random case, let's say an IT manager role.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Moderate criticality, low vacancy risk.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Person in the role, a strong performer, but we also have a bench of high potential successes.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: What does talent acquisition do?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Low external priority, maybe a light touch market check, but there's no need to pipeline heavily in that scenario.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So overlaying these two frameworks, it lets talent acquisition bring evidence to leaders.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where the internal bench strength is enough.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And here's where external hiring must be prioritized.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't just an opinion.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's structured, it's credible, it's data-driven.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's where we do have that seat at the table, and we are opening deeper conversations with the business, and we are seen as strategic.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do we act on all of this?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: On the internal side, succession planning means development programs, mentoring, stretch assignments, shadowing leaders.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It means actively preparing people in the six box grid to move up when needed.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: On the external side, it's about talent pooling and market mapping for the red alert roles.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those high criticality, high vacancy risk positions.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when talent acquisition sits between these, we create the bridge.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: We can walk into leadership meetings and say, this is where our people are strong internally.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is where our roles are risky externally.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the dual strategy that we're running to cover both.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's talent acquisition as a strategic partner, not just an order taker.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let me make this real with some some random case studies or some stories.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go case study one.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: A tech company CTO resigns.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: The person in the role had no ready successor in the six box.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the role itself has been classified high criticality, high vacancy risk.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, in this case study, talent acquisition had external slates prepared.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the gap was closed fast.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Case study two: a non-profit scaling internationally.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: The roles, country director positions.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Identified all as high criticality, high vacancy risk.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Internally, the six box showed great leaders in the home market, but not internationally ready.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So talent acquisition pipelined global candidates, balancing role risk with person readiness.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Case study three, a payroll officer.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: On paper, perhaps low prestige.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the role itself was high vacancy risk.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Only a few people in the market with special ass systems knowledge.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: When the incumbent resigned, Talon Acquisition had a warm candidate lined up because the role had been flagged in the risk matrix.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what does this mean practically for talent acquisition leaders?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: My advice: run quarterly syncs with your HR business partners to update the six box and role risk assessments.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Build a simple dashboard, a list of critical roles, their vacancy risk, and external pipeline status.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an L and D team, partner with LD to track to track readiness timelines for high potentials.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening there?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: How are we developing these people?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have an LD team, that will be covered by your HR manager, by your business partners, right?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But track that readiness timeline.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then feed external market intel back in.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Compensation trends, skill shortages, market conditions, candidate supply.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: The key really here is consistency.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of organizations run talent days, and succession planning is an annual cycle.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Succession planning shouldn't be once a year.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: It should live and breathe.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a living process, and that data needs to be updated regularly.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is where those quarterly syncs are important.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd argue having those syncs more often.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're someone that is actually leading this, a total talent team, update that regularly.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Continue these conversations in all your one-on-ones.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It is really important that this doesn't become stagnant because you'll be doing these activities annually and nothing will ever happen and nothing will ever change.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't become strategic because it's a box tick.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So to wrap up, succession planning has two sides: the person and the role.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: The six box talent grid helps us understand the people, their performance, their potential, their readiness.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: The role criticality versus vacancy risk matrix helps us understand the positions, how important they are, and how damaging they be if vacant.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: When talent acquisition teams use both, we can anticipate, not just react.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: We give the business options.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: We become part of the strategy.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's the future of talent acquisition.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not just filling seats, but building the organization's ability to thrive.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Eden Haddock, Head of Talent and People Experience at Movember.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Folk, stay strategic, stay human, and keep building total talent ecosystems.