Strategic HR Succession planning
The art of tricky succession
conversations linked to poor CEO performance
last year. But even if a CEO
One of the qualities required for an HRD to be an
effective succession planning facilitator is
courage. This is particularly true when it comes to
necessary but emotive conversations.
“These difficult conversations require the
ultimate blend of assertiveness and confidence in
delivery, with plenty of empathy,” says Jill Tennant,
group HR director at Diploma. In her opinion,
particularly when dealing with an internal
candidate who has aspirations for the CEO role,
honesty is the best policy. Diploma’s culture
favours promoting from within, so Tennant does
her best to support the individual through things
like psychometric tests with detailed feedback.
“It’s about the appropriate balance between
support, and doing everything you can to
enable the individual, but also honesty about
what they are up against,” she says. This honesty
will mean the individual, if unsuccessful, is more
likely to stay.
One of the most tricky conversations for many
HRDs is the one with the CEO about their true
thoughts on how long they want to be in the role
and when/if they are thinking of moving on.
Because of this the succession process is often
not as transparent as it needs to be and often has
a ‘cloak and dagger’ feel to it.
Eugenio Pirri, chief people and culture
officer at the Dorchester Collection, feels
completely comfortable talking to his CEO
frankly on this topic.
“It ’s very important not to shy away from this,”
he says, adding that he sits down at least once a
year to discuss the CEO’s career plans, in addition
to the topic coming up naturally in the course of
business. “Just in the last month we’ve talked
about the entire C-suite and who would replace
any of them if they left.”
His top tip on developing this type of
relationship is to do it from the very start –
when interviewing for the HRD role. For many
HRDs, as in Pirri’s case, the CEO is one of the
reasons they want to work at the company; Pirri
says he felt a great “affinity for him” and liked
what he “stood for ”.
“As a good HR you want to know who you will be
working for,” he says. “I asked in interview about
his career plans, which is a natural place for that
conversation. That sets the tone at the beginning
and it becomes very natural to then have future
conversations about it. It doesn’t always need to
be under the guises of a chat about succession
planning – it can just be about the future, which
can be more natural.”
is deemed to be failing there’s
often the hefty expense of a
‘golden parachute’ exit payout.
Yet another blow to the
bottom line.
Given how much the younger
generation looks to company
figureheads to demonstrate
corporate values, organisations
cannot keep ignoring this
fundamental strategic issue.
Yet, despite knowing how
business-critical these
individuals are, even companies
with robust talent processes in
place often don’t have a clear
succession system for the
top jobs.
“It’s not done well anywhere,”
says Robson, drawing on his
vast experience working in
industries from retail to finance
in many different countries. “It
saddens me that my profession
HR can’t get its arms around
this and drive it forward in a
commercially-astute way that is
going to help businesses. And it
annoys me that the businesses
don’t want to engage in the
dialogue. There’s a lot of
admiring the problem without
doing much about it.”
Corporate catalyst
However, this might all be about
to change. The updated
Corporate Governance Code
published in July 2019 could be
the much-needed catalyst for
overhaul and lend HR a hand
in ‘getting its arms around’
succession planning. As well as
stipulations on culture and
stakeholder engagement, the
Code places much more
emphasis on executive
succession planning than it
has done historically.
It states, for instance, that
annual reports must now
‘describe the nomination
committee’s work in the annual
report, including appointments,
22 HR February 2020 hrmagazine.co.uk
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