Bersin’s Been Busy!

Our friends at Bersin & Associates have been really busy with new research reports – and surveys!

Of particular interest is their recently published High-Impact Succession Management: Best Practices, Models and Case Studies in Organizational Talent Mobility, a study that finds a majority of companies implement succession management practices at only the most senior executive levels. Fewer than 40% of respondents said their companies included mid-level managers and skilled professionals in succession planning initiatives and only 11% included first-line supervisors.

This underscores the strategic value in what I’ve suggested here before: A best practices approach to talent management means that succession plans aren’t just for executives. Clearly, executives are the most obvious and high profile talent pools to ensure are covered. But a forward-thinking organization realizes that most talent in the organization is critical and the cost of finding and training a replacement from outside the organizations is so much greater than effective talent-pool based succession planning.

Check out the full report if you’re interested in learning more – it includes ten best practices to achieve “transparent talent mobility” – the highest level of succession management maturity.

Another action item related to Bersin: if you’re involved with leadership development, Bersin is looking for participants in a new study that will examine corporate leadership development programs and gather key spending and staffing metrics. For more information, please contact karen@bersin.com.