From the outside, looking in.....
Luminos Insight’s Director Natalie Douglass shares her latest thoughts on succession planning and why it should never be a once a year HR exercise…..
I often think to myself, if I was working in house, what would I be thinking about for 2026 and how would I best prepare myself and my business. For me, succession planning would be a key point on my agenda.
Succession planning is no longer a once a year HR exercise, in my opinion, it is a business critical strategy for future proofing leadership, mitigating risk in critical roles within the organisation, and a key tool in driving continuity.
But succession planning isn’t a simple task, and many organisations rely on internal guesswork or outdated assumptions when identifying future leaders and key talent.
Importantly, I believe that succession planning shouldn’t just apply to leadership roles; there are key roles within each organisation that are vital to the success of the business, but are not leaders or managers. It isn’t always obvious what those roles are, or what they will be going forwards, but I believe this is really important and much more achievable to identify with the right methodology and tools.
That’s where talent research comes in.
Why Talent Research?
Talent research provides deep, data driven insight into the external talent landscape, providing bespoke insight to answer questions like:
- Who are the high performing leaders and key talent in your sector?
- What skills and experiences are emerging as critical?
- How does your brand compare to competitors?
- What motivates top talent and what turns them away?
- What are the critical roles in competitors and how are they structured?
How Talent Research Supports Succession Planning:
- Benchmarking Talent – Understand how your current leaders stack up against external peers in terms of skills, experience, and leadership style.
- Identifying Gaps Early – Spot capability gaps before they become business risks. Talent research helps you anticipate future needs by providing market comparisons. This is proactive, rather than reactive.
- Expanding the Pipeline – Build a proactive pipeline of external candidates for business critical roles, even if you’re not hiring today.
- Enhancing DEI – External talent mapping can uncover overlooked pools of diverse talent, helping you build more inclusive succession plans. It can also help gain an understanding of the context in which you are working and what changes you can make to attract more diverse talent.
- Strengthening Employer Brand – Understand how your organisation is perceived by top talent and use that insight to attract future talent.
Candidate Focus:
Succession planning is also a helpful exercise for candidates. Career conversations allow individuals to think about what they want from their future employer and future roles. These conversations can lead to identification of training needs, gaps in experience and highlighting potential areas of exposure. Carried out in a positive way, candidates can benefit from conversations, both in their current roles and in identifying potential future pathways.
In Summary
Succession planning is a positive and insightful process, both for employers and for prospective candidates. It leads to wider conversations about career development and it’s one of the most powerful tools a business has to future proof not only leadership level roles, but critical roles within the business, which has a big impact in reducing risk.
