{"id":1941,"date":"2016-07-10T12:55:47","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T19:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/?page_id=1941"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T16:15:13","slug":"succession-planning","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/developing-staff-teams\/succession-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Succession planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Succession planning is the process of identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions. Taking a holistic view of current and future goals, this type of preparation ensures that you have the right people in the right jobs today and in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>In the long term, succession planning strengthens the overall capability of the organization by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identifying critical positions and highlighting potential vacancies;<\/li>\n<li>Selecting key competencies and skills necessary for business continuity;<\/li>\n<li>Focusing development of individuals to meet future business needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A succession plan identifies future staffing needs and the people with the skills and potential to perform in these future roles. Professional &amp; Organizational Development\u2019s Succession Planning Toolkit will help guide you, though we strongly suggest you involve your assigned HR consultant and\/or HR administrator in this process as well.<\/p>\n<h2>Toolkit<\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019ve broken succession planning down into three phases with clear steps, and the <a class=\"uwhr-form  \" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/podscan\/succession-planning\/successionplanningbooklet-dec2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Succession Planning Toolkit (PDF)<\/a>\u00a0 comprises a series of worksheets that move you through the succession planning process. Within this document, you\u2019ll find templates and tips for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensuring succession planning is closely tied to business strategy and goals;<\/li>\n<li>Understanding the importance of engaging executive and senior leaders in the process;<\/li>\n<li>Clearly defining the development of key talent; and<\/li>\n<li>Ensuring staff understand their role in the process and know what is expected of them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Assessment phase<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Step 1:<\/strong> Identify significant business challenges in the next 1\u20135 years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 2:<\/strong> Identify critical positions that will be needed to support business continuity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 3:<\/strong> Identify competencies, skills, and institutional knowledge that are critical success factors.<\/p>\n<h3>Evaluation phase<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Step 4:<\/strong> Consider high potential employees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 5:<\/strong> Select the competencies individuals will need to be successful in positions and to meet identified business challenges.<\/p>\n<h3>Development phase<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Step 6:<\/strong> Capture the knowledge that individuals possess before departing the organization.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step 7:<\/strong> Develop a pool of talent to step into critical positions through targeted career development strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Access and print the entire <a class=\"uwhr-form  \" href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/podscan\/succession-planning\/successionplanningbooklet-dec2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Succession Planning Toolkit (PDF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Succession planning is the process of identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":7504,"menu_order":30,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-1941","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7912,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1941\/revisions\/7912"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr.uw.edu\/pod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}