Our firm has extensive experience in helping companies create, implement and continue succession plans to ensure a predictable supply of the talent required for key positions and critical to human resource management. General steps involve:

Identification of need through retirements, turnover, growth, etc. Identify success characteristics for postion or category of position, using the steps below:

Traits: Deep-seated characteristics of the individual. (These are best selected rather than developed. Examples are: Drive and initiative; psychological stability and integrity; agile and self-directed learner.) Abilities: Clusters of discrete skills. (Examples are: Leads and participates in teams effectively; organizes self and others.) Skills: Specific, demonstrable result-producing actions. (Can be seen and assessed through observation. An example would be probing for resistance as a sales skill.) Knowledge: Broad, organized and accessible information relative to a topic area. An example would be: knows Federal, State, Local and Company environment laws and policies.)

Categories to use in describing the Traits-Abilities-Skills-Knowledge desired are:

Technical or Professional; product, industry, customer, competitor knowledge. General Business Knowledge; budgeting, project planning, etc. Company Knowledge; policies, procedures, regulatory requirements, systems and politics. People Skills, Work Habits, Relationships and Managing People. Assess internal candidates against established criteria. Create development plans where appropriate. Manage development activities using primarily on-the-job assignments. Be positioned to place the "right" person in the "right" position based on clear knowledge of the candidate's potential and readiness.