Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing future leaders and key employees in your organization. The goal is to protect business continuity. It reduces the disruption caused when key people leave, whether the departure is planned or unplanned.

Succession planning overview

Succession planning does two things for your organization. It reduces the risk that comes with leadership change, and it builds a talent pipeline for critical roles.

Risk mitigation

• Operational continuity. The business keeps running during a leadership transition.
• Plan persistence. Plans are tied to roles and positions, not to the person who currently holds the job. The planning data stays usable after an incumbent leaves.
• Risk alerts. The Stats Bar on the Succession Planning Dashboard shows specific risks to HR Business Partners (HRBPs), such as low gender diversity or a lack of ready now successors.

Building a talent pipeline

• Identify future leaders based on critical positions.
• Sort candidates into configurable readiness levels to see how mature the pipeline is.
• Check pipeline strength for any critical role from the stats bar.

Recommended successors and match score

The system suggests Recommended Successors so you don't have to source every candidate manually. These suggestions come from the Eightfold match score, which measures how closely an employee's profile fits the target role or position.

• Match scores. The match score is a numerical measure of suitability, shown on a 5-point scale. It gives a composite view of how well a candidate fits the target role. The system can also use the score to suggest a readiness state, such as Ready Now, based on the thresholds configured for your organization.
• Recommendation factors. The engine weighs the relevance of skills and competencies, role-specific experience, seniority level, and geographic alignment. It also considers performance data and potential indicators, such as participation in a leadership program.
• Data exclusions. The engine does not use Career Interests, Skill Assessments, or Development Plans to calculate recommendations.

Position and role plans

Succession Planning supports two plan types, and both can exist in the same organization.

• Position plans cover a specific seat, such as VP of Supply Chain. They require a unique Position ID (External Job ID) on the profile. HRBPs manage position plans. Managers can also manage them if your organization configures manager access.
• Role plans cover a generic job profile, such as Software Engineer. They require Role IDs and JIE (Job Intelligence Engine) integration. HRBPs manage role plans. Managers do not have access to role-based succession planning.

You can create either plan type from Talent Hub for a specific profile. A position plan covers that person's position and uses their profile as the initial incumbent. A role plan covers that person's role and includes all employees with the matching role.

For a full comparison of the two plan types, read Understanding position vs. role succession plans.

Create a succession plan

1. Initiation and permissions

You start a plan from the Talent Hub view. Search for an employee, then create a plan from the action buttons on that employee's row.

• HRBPs need the View Succession Plan and Edit Succession Plan permissions in the Admin Console.
• Managers can be configured to view or create plans for their direct reports. Manager access is an Early Access feature.

2. Populate the pipeline

Add successors to the plan and assign each one to a readiness category. You have two ways to add them:

• Recommended successors. Add a candidate the system surfaces based on match score.
• Manual addition. Search for an employee by name and add them.

Your configuration decides the scope here. HRBPs either see recommendations from across the organization or only from within their permitted scope.

3. Calibrate the recommendations

You can change how the system identifies potential successors.

• Automation. The system estimates readiness from match score thresholds. A score above 4.0 might default to Ready Soon.
• Fine-tuning. Select Fine Tune Recommendations to calibrate the criteria the system uses to suggest future candidates. Use this to align the recommendation engine with what the role actually requires.

The plan caretaker

A caretaker is the employee who performs an incumbent's role on a temporary basis. Use this designation when the incumbent is on extended leave, out of office, or has recently left the organization.

A caretaker designation applies to the role itself. It does not give that person any extra visibility or permission to view or edit the succession plan.

Succession readiness states

The succession readiness indicator shows when a successor will be ready to take over a role. Every successor in a pipeline carries a readiness state, so you can track how mature the bench is.

Readiness levels

Readiness states are configurable. You can match them to your organization's own terminology and timeframes. A common tiered model looks like this:

• Ready Now. The successor can step into the role immediately, typically within 0–3 months.
• Ready Soon. The successor needs more development, typically 6–24 months.
• Ready Later. For long-term talent identification.

Readiness state health

Color-coded icons show the health of a successor pipeline, based on the number of viable successors identified.

• Green (Healthy). The pipeline has met or exceeded the threshold for successors.
• Yellow (At Risk). The pipeline is approaching a critical threshold and needs attention.
• Red (Critical). The pipeline has fallen below the minimum threshold for viable successors.

Plan permissions

The existing administrative access levels of HRBPs govern access to succession plans.

• For a position plan, access depends on whether the HRBP can view the incumbent's profile.
• For a role plan, access depends on the HRBP's access to the associated job role.

Once an HRBP has access to a plan, every HRBP with that same access sees the same plan data and can perform the same planning actions.

Successor scope and visibility

A succession plan often includes successors who fall outside an HRBP's standard permission scope. The system separates plan management from profile management:

• Plan-level actions. An HRBP sees a successor who is outside their usual scope and can change that successor's readiness state within the plan.
• Profile-level actions. Sensitive profile data stays restricted to successors inside the HRBP's standard scope. This includes profile notes and the successor's participation in other succession plans.

Criticality tags

Succession Planning provides three criticality tagging systems. Each one helps you identify and prioritize critical roles, positions, and talent, and each serves a distinct purpose in workforce planning.

Role criticality

Role criticality tags mark how strategically important a role is across the organization. The tag appears in Talent Hub on employees associated with that role, and on succession plans associated with that role.

• Example. You tag the VP of Engineering role Extremely Critical, because a leadership vacuum in that role affects business operations no matter which position or person holds it.
• Levels. Configured levels typically include Moderate, Critical, and Highly Critical. Your organization defines its own.
• Access. Only HRBPs with succession planning edit permissions can update role criticality. By default, every user who can view succession planning can see it.
• Use case. Prioritize succession planning at the organizational level, based on which types of roles matter most to business continuity.

Position criticality

Position criticality tags mark the business impact if a specific position becomes vacant. Unlike role criticality, this tag applies to one seat, and only on position plans.

• Example. You tag the succession plan for VP of Engineering - West Coast as Highly Critical, because that position oversees 200 engineers and manages critical product launches.
• Levels. Your organization defines the levels. Common examples are Critical and Highly Critical.
• Access. Only users with succession planning edit permissions can update position criticality.
• Use case. Prioritize the plans that need immediate attention, filter searches to high-priority plans, and direct resources to the most business-critical positions.

Profile criticality

Profile criticality tags mark an individual employee as critical talent who needs a retention focus. These tags follow the employee through role changes and team transfers.

• Example. You tag a Senior Data Scientist as Key Talent, because they hold machine learning expertise the product depends on.
• Levels. Your organization defines the levels. Key Talent is a common one.
• Access. Managers can update profile criticality for their reports, and HRBPs can update it within their scope. A profile can carry more than one tag.
• Use case. Identify retention priorities, support targeted development programs, and see how talent is distributed. Unlike position and role criticality, this tag is about the person.

How the three tags work together

The three criticality systems complement each other and give you a full view of risk:

1. The role. VP of Engineering is tagged Extremely Critical, for its organization-wide strategic importance.
2. The position. VP of Engineering - West Coast is tagged Highly Critical, for the business impact of that specific seat.
3. The person. The current incumbent is tagged Key Talent, as an individual retention priority.

Together, these signals mark the maximum priority for succession planning and leadership attention. Each tag also serves its own reporting need.