Planning Successions

This chapter provides an overview of plan successions, lists prerequisites, and discusses how to:

Create succession plans.
Build succession trees.
Manage succession plans.
Review career summaries.

Understanding Plan Successions

This section discusses:

Plan successions
(USF) Plan successions

Plan Successions

To ensure an organization's continued success, you need to determine who will eventually replace employees currently in key positions. The Plan Successions business process in Human Resources enables you to identify candidates for key positions, anticipate organizational bottlenecks, and develop multiple career paths for individuals who are ready for promotion.

To implement the Plan Successions business process:

Perform the prerequisite tasks.
Create the succession plans.
Build the succession trees.

Once the succession trees are in place, you can review career summaries, monitor the progress of key employees, track changes to key positions, and make adjustments to successions plans as the requirements of the organization change over time.

Integrations

The Plan Successions business process integrates with:

The Manage Profiles business process in Human Resources.

See Managing Profiles.
The Plan Careers business process in Human Resources.

See Setting Up Career Plans.
The Manage Positions business process in Human Resources.

See Defining Key Positions, Identifying Potential Candidates.
PeopleSoft Enterprise Talent Acquisition Manager.

See Identifying Potential Candidates.

(USF) Plan Successions

The Plan Successions business process for U.S. Federal Government users enables you to set up and manage succession plans and succession trees for government workers.

The Succession Planning USF menu contains the same pages as the Succession Planning menu. The Key Positions (POSITION_DATA) component under the Succession Planning, Define Key Positions menu is the same as the Identify Key Positions component (POSITION_DATA) under the Succession Planning (USF) menu.

The Succession Planning USF components are discussed in this chapter as well as PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources 9.0 PeopleBook: Manage Profiles and PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources 9.0 PeopleBook: Manage Positions.

Prerequisites

Perform these tasks before setting up the Plan Successions business process in Human Resources:

Set up HRMS core data.
Set up Human Resources job data.
Define key positions.
(optional) Set up profiles.
(optional) Set up career plans.
Identify potential candidates.

Setting Up HRMS Core Data

The HRMS core data required for the Plan Successions business process is discussed in PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS 9.0 Application Fundamentals PeopleBook.

See Setting Up and Installing PeopleSoft HRMS.

Setting Up Job Data

The Human Resources job data required for the Plan Successions business process is discussed in PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources 9.0 PeopleBook: Administer Workforce.

Note. Employee job data must exist in the Workforce Administration tables before you work with the Plan Successions pages. If you’ve implemented multiple business units and SetIDs, the information that you use and create will be determined by how business unit and setID functionality is set up for your user ID.

See Increasing the Workforce.

Defining Key Positions

Use the Manage Positions business process to identify key positions in the organization and to create position hierarchies (which are required for successions plans). Once the position hierarchy exists, identify the incumbent in each key position. Key positions are discussed in PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources 9.0 PeopleBook: Manage Positions.

See Setting Up Positions.

Note. USF users should access the Key Positions pages using the Organizational Development, Successions Planning USF, Identify Key Positions navigation path.

Setting Up Profiles

Use the Manage Profiles business process to create profiles for key positions and employees. Profiles for positions define specific job-related competencies and accomplishments which can then be ranked and attributed to the key positions. The succession planning process matches the employee competencies with competencies in position profiles to identify and rank potential candidates for key positions using the Search and Compare Profiles component. Profiles are discussed in PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources 9.0 PeopleBook: Manage Profiles.

To enable you to easily view employee profiles, the Person Profiles component is accessible from the Plan Successions business process.

Note. You can only view person profiles for those employees who are part of a succession plan. If you have not created a succession plan, use the Person Profile option from the Manage Profiles business process to view employees' profiles.

See Managing Profiles.

Setting Up Career Plans

Use the Plan Careers business process to prepare potential candidates for key positions. The career plans you develop for high-potential employees will prepare them to move into key positions. Career plans are not a prerequisite for creating succession plans. Using succession plans in conjunction with career plans enables you to plan employee training and development in readiness for planned moves.

See Creating Career Plans.

You can automate the process of identifying candidates for key positions. From the Create Succession Plan (SUCCESSION_PLAN) component, Candidates page, click the Initialize button to generate a list of people who have the selected key position in their career path

See Indicating Candidate Readiness.

Reviewing Career Summaries

To review career summaries, use the Career Assignments (CAREER_SUMMARY), Compensation (COMP_SUMMARY2), and Training (TRN_STUDNT_CRS_SU2) components.

To enable you to easily review candidate career information, certain pages from the Plan Careers, Administer Workforce, and Administer Training business process are duplicated in the Plan Successions business process.

Note. These pages are view-only. If you want to update career, compensation, or training data, use the appropriate pages from the Plan Careers, Administer Workforce, or Administer Training business processes.

See Creating Career Paths.

See Updating Person and Job Information.

See Defining Training Courses and Programs.

Identifying Potential Candidates

After you have identified the key positions and defined profiles for these positions, you can search and compare employee profiles to identify potential candidates.

See Searching and Comparing Profiles.

Recruiting External Candidates

When creating candidate lists for key positions, consider candidates outside the organization. Before you can include external candidates in a succession plan, you must add them to the Human Resources system as persons of interest (POIs).

See Increasing the Workforce.

The Plan Successions business process integrates with the Talent Acquisition Manager. You can increase the chances of identifying and recruiting candidates for key positions if the competencies listed in the job requisitions match the competencies required for the position.

Creating Succession Plans

To create succession plans, use the Create Succession Plan (SUCCESSION_PLAN) component.

This section discusses how to:

Enter succession plan data and select succession candidates.
Indicate candidate readiness.
View candidates for specific positions.

Pages Used to Create Succession Plans

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Succession Plan	SUCCESSION_PLAN1	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Create Succession Plan, Succession Plan Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Create Succession Plan, Succession Plan	Enter plan dates and select succession candidates.
Candidates	SUCCESSION_PLAN2	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Create Succession Plan, Candidates Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Create Succession Plan, Candidates	Use career path information to plan successions and indicate candidate readiness to move into a new position.
Slate	SUCCESSION_SLATE	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Create Succession Plan, Slate Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Create Succession Plan, Slate	View the candidates that are slated to replace successors in their current positions.

Entering Succession Plan Data and Selecting Candidates

Access the Succession Plan page.

Position Number

You can create succession plans for each key position.

Projected Vacancy Date

If the incumbent has a career plan in Human Resources, the projected vacancy date is the retirement date indicated in their career plan. Otherwise, enter a date in this field.

To return to the Key Position Data component, open the Node menu and select Define Key Position, Key Positions, Description, Specific Information, or Budgets and Incumbents.

Indicating Candidate Readiness

Access the Succession Plan - Candidates page.

Succession Data

Initialize

To automatically identify succession candidates, click the Initialize button. The system checks employees’ career plans and lists all employees with the job code or position in their career paths.

Note. If an employee's career plan contains multiple positions that have the same job code, the succession plan searches for all career plans for the position and the job code when it initializes. This results in the same employee appearing multiple times in duplicate rows on this page. You can remove the rows that are not required.

If you haven’t created any career plans or you want to add additional candidates, enter new data rows and select the candidate's employee ID.

Succession Candidates

The Succession Candidates scroll area lists potential successors for the selected position. The succession planning process maintains static data and must be updated by creating new succession plans for each position as needed. Creating new succession plans prevents data from becoming outdated.

Rank

Enter a ranking number for each candidate. Assign the number 1 to indicate that a candidate is the first choice in the list. Proceed in descending order. When you save the succession plan, the candidates appear in order of rank.

Note. You rank the candidates and save the information before viewing candidates on the Succession Plan - Slate page, where you view the hierarchy of successors to a position.

Target Date

Enter the date when you expect the candidate to move into the selected position.

Readiness

The system autopopulates the candidate’s readiness status from their career plans, which you can override.

If you change the readiness status, update it in the employee career plan also.

The system displays the candidates’ current position, salary details, and potential from the Career Ranking and Potential page. These fields are information-only.

Viewing Candidates for Specific Positions

Access the Succession Plan - Slate page.

Succession Data

Use the options in the Succession Data dialog box to view plan incumbents for this position.

1st Ranked Candidates Slate

Use the options in the 1st Ranked Candidates Slates dialog box to view the selected candidates from the Candidates page, in the ranking order. The second and third levels show the people who are ranked first to succeed the candidates in their current positions.

The system sorts the succession plan rows in ascending Position Number, descending Effective Date, ascending Rank, ascending Readiness, ascending Target Date and ascending Employee ID.

In the example above, Carol Johnson (employee ID KC0026) is the first candidate for the position 19000210 (Director Human Resources). The first candidate to replace Carol Johnson in her current position 19000600 (Manager Training) is Barry Campbell (employee ID KC0015).

The adjustments to the readiness status for incumbents and successors is probably the last step toward finalizing succession plans.

This page is particularly useful after you’ve created succession plans for several key positions, because you can see successors for positions three layers down. This helps to ensure that no gaps exist in replacements and to identify and prevent any organizational bottlenecks. See which candidates are blocked in their current position so that you can prepare them for other positions or change their rotations, thereby preventing the loss of high- potential employees.

The system checks the employee's readiness. If this is set at 3–5 Yrs (ready in three to five years), Emergency (ready in an emergency) or Retirement (retire in current position), then Blocked is set to N designating that this employee is not ready.

If the employee's readiness is Ready Now or 1–2 Yrs (ready in one to two years), the system checks the incumbent's readiness. If there is an incumbent but the incumbent has no row on the succession plan table for this or any other position, Blocked is set to Y.

If the incumbent has one or more rows on the succession plan table (any position) then the system checks the lowest readiness in all positions.

If the incumbent's minimum readiness is set to Ready Now or 1–2 Yrs, Blocked is set to N; otherwise, if readiness is set to 3–5 Yrs, Emergency or Retirement, Blocked is set to Y.

Building Succession Trees

To build succession trees, use the Tree Manager (PSTREEMGR), Tree Structure (PSTREESTRCT), Tree Auditor (RUN_TREE_AUDITS) , and Tree Viewer (PSTREEVIEWER) components.

Succession trees provide a graphical view of an organization's succession plan. Succession trees show which workers currently hold key positions and which candidates are slated to move into this position.

Note. You must create successions plans and identify succession candidates before creating the succession tree.

Use the PeopleSoft Tree Manager to build, view, modify, and control access to succession trees. To represent positions as a hierarchy, identify the reporting relationships among the key positions and then build the succession tree.

Succession trees are effective-dated; you can build multiple trees to maintain a history of the organization's succession planning and to track planned and actual changes. You can also build alternative scenarios using the Save As feature to clone a tree and then changing hierarchy properties to create different scenarios.

See Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Tree Manager

See Setting Up and Building Organization Charts.

Determining Security Access

You can determine the type of access that users have to succession trees. Many levels of access exist: to the tree itself, to key position and succession plans, and to career plans.

For example, you might allow many users to update key position, succession plan, and career plan data from within succession trees yet permit only a few users to make changes to the succession trees themselves. You might want other users to view key position, succession plan, and career plan data as display-only. You can delegate the maintenance of different levels in trees by specifying the level of access or update authority that a user or a set of users has.

Use object security to specify which users can access trees and to control whether the trees that users access are display-only. User security determines whether users can access pages from nodes and details and controls whether they are display-only pages. Use employee data security to specify whether users can access the data in pages tied to specific nodes and details.

See Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: Security Administration

Managing Succession Plans

Once you’ve created succession plans with candidate lists, you can view career plans and related employee data for succession candidates. Use this information to make decisions about particular candidates, to re-rank candidates in succession plans, or to remove candidates from the candidate list.

See Enterprise PeopleTools PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Tree Manager

Viewing Details in Succession Trees

Use the Detail feature of Tree Manager to view and update career plans for succession candidates and to view and update several other pages containing pertinent employee data, such as compensation history, skills, languages, and prior work experience.

This diagram illustrates a succession tree:

Adding Details in Succession Trees

To add details to the succession tree, click the Insert Detail button. When you double-click the button, a list of candidates in the succession plan for that position appears. Select the candidate for whom to view career plans or related employee data.

Note. Before you can view career plans and other employee data, create succession plans for key positions and include succession candidates in them. These pages are available in Tree Manager only for succession candidates.

To add a detail to succession tree:

In Tree Manager, open the succession tree and select the key position for which you want to add a detail.
Click Insert Detail.
Select the Dynamic Flag check box on the Detail Value Range page and click Add.

The detail is placed on the tree in what appears to be a lower level in the plan. For example, a detail for Position 1 in the CEO level appears under the EVP level.

To hide the details in a succession tree:

Click Display Options.
Clear the Display Node Description check box on the Configure User Options page.

When you highlight a detail and click Edit Data, the system displays a list of candidates in the succession plan for the key position. The candidates are sorted first by succession plan date, then by ranking, and then by readiness. If a candidate is in more than one succession plan, they appear in this list only for the most current succession plan. Click the Update button on the line for the candidate for which you want to view additional information. The first page in the group, Career Plan, appears. If you prefer to access other pages from within Tree Manager, you can change the link between Tree Manager and the pages.

Note. You can specify which page you'll see when you select to see details on a tree object, by selecting a page on the Details menu.

Reviewing Career Summaries

This section lists the pages used to review career summaries.

Pages Used to Review Career Summaries

Page Name	Object Name	Navigation	Usage
Career Assignment Summary	CAREER_SUMMARY	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Review Career Summaries, Career Assignments Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Review Career Summary Info, Career Assignments	Review employee job status and job history.
Compensation Summary	COMP_SUMMARY	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Review Career Summaries, Compensation Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Review Career Summary Info, Compensation	Review employee compensation history.
Training Summary	TRN_STUDNT_CRS_SUM	Organizational Development, Succession Planning, Review Career Summaries, Training Organizational Development, Succession Planning USF, Review Career Summary Info, Training	Review employee training history.

Position Number	You can create succession plans for each key position.
Projected Vacancy Date	If the incumbent has a career plan in Human Resources, the projected vacancy date is the retirement date indicated in their career plan. Otherwise, enter a date in this field.