Succession & Talent Mobility (NextGen)

Contents

• Overview
• Configuration
  • Enabling Succession Planning
  • Setting Readiness Levels
  • Setting Positions Categories
• Preparation
  • Order of Operations
  • Data Management Resources
  • Directories
• Succession Management
  • Creating a Succession Plan
  • Managing Plan Details
• Talent Search & Assignment
  • Finding & Assigning Successors
• FAQs

Overview

Succession planning is a critical business strategy that ensures leadership continuity and secures a high-performing internal talent pipeline for key roles. By moving from static spreadsheets to a continuous readiness model, organizations can identify talent gaps early and begin developing future leaders before roles become vacant.

Succession in Betterworks provides a structured, evidence-informed foundation for talent mobility. It connects performance data, skills intelligence, and calibration results to provide a holistic view of organizational readiness. This module allows HR leaders and executives to move from reactive replacement planning to proactive talent pipeline building.

Key Benefit:

• For Super Admins & HR Admins: Enterprise-wide visibility into talent gaps, readiness levels, and succession risks.

Configuration

Before using the Succession module, administrators must enable the feature and configure organizational attributes such as Readiness Levels and Position Categories.

Enabling Succession Planning

1. Go to Admin → Program Management → Succession Planning.
2. Toggle on Enable Succession Planning for your organization.

Note:

When department or group-based enablement is configured, only employees within the selected departments or groups will have access to the Succession module. Users outside the configured population will not see the Succession navigation option and cannot access the module directly.

Setting Readiness Levels

Readiness levels indicate how soon a successor can step into a target role. Organizations must define at least two levels and can include up to seven.

1. In the Succession Planning admin page, locate the Readiness Level section.
2. Click Configure Fields.
3. Enter the Field Label (e.g., Ready Now, Ready Soon, Ready Later) and select an associated color.

4. Click Update to save the configuration.

   

Note: Changes to these labels will affect all readiness levels currently set across the organization.

Setting Position Categories

Position categories help prioritize planning for critical or high-impact roles. Organizations must define at least one category and can include up to five.

1. Locate the Position Category section in the admin settings.
2. Click Configure Fields.
3. Define categories such as Critical, Key, or Standard and assign colors.

4. Click Update to save.

   

Preparation

To populate the Succession module, organizations must import position and talent profile data via SFTP. This ensures Betterworks has a record of all roles and the relevant performance/potential data for employees.

Order of Operations

To ensure data integrity, files must be loaded in the following order:

1. User File: Loaded first to ensure all employees and emails exist in Betterworks.
2. Talent Profiles File: Creates the talent profiles that position data will map to.
3. Positions File: Contains job-specific data. An email is not required for this file, so that vacant positions can be planned.

Data Management Resources

• Field guide - Talent Profile fields
• Field guide - Position fields
• Template - Talent Profile fields
• Template - Position fields

Directories

Administrators should use an SFTP client (such as FileZilla) to upload files to the following directories:

• Profiles: /talent/profiles
• Positions: /talent/positions

Note: Spelling and case are critical. Files uploaded to misspelled or capitalized folders will not be processed by the application.

Succession Management

The Succession menu in the left navigation provides a centralized list of all active plans. From here, users can view the department, incumbent, pipeline depth, and position category for every plan.

Creating a Succession Plan

1. Go to Succession in the left navigation.
2. Click the Create Plan button.
3. In the side panel, search for a position by name or ID.
4. The Incumbent and Position Category will automatically populate if the data exists.
5. Review or update the Position Category (this field is required).
6. Click Create. You will be redirected to the Plan Details page.

Managing Plan Details

The Plan Details page provides summary cards for Pipeline Depth (total successors) and Ready to Step In (successors with the highest readiness level). Use the following tools to manage the plan:

• Position Details: Click the card to view or edit the global position description and category.

• Incumbent Details: View a snapshot of the current role holder or click to navigate to their Employee Talent Profile. 

  

• Plan Notes: Click the Notes card to add rich text descriptions, links, or emojis to the plan.

  

• Inline Editing: Update Risk of Loss, Impact of Loss, and Readiness Level directly within the successor table.

Talent Search & Assignment

The Talent Search section allows HR Admins to discover employees across the organization and assign them to specific plans.

Finding & Assigning Successors

1. Select Talent Search from the Succession menu.
2. Use the Filters button to narrow your search by criteria such as Department, Performance Rating, Risk of Loss, or Willingness to Relocate.
3. Select one or more employees using the checkboxes in the list.
4. Click Assign to Plan.
5. Search for the target Position in the drawer. If a plan does not exist for that position, it will be created automatically.

6. Click Assign to confirm.

   

FAQs

Who can see Succession Plans?

Access is restricted to Super Admins and HR Admins. Organizations can configure the Succession module for all employees or restrict availability to specific departments or groups. Users who are not included in the configured population will not see the Succession module or be able to access it directly.

Can I manually reorder the list of successors? 

Yes. Within the Successors list on the Plan Details page, you can use the six-dot icon to drag and drop successors into your preferred order.

What happens if I try to create a plan for a position that already has one? 

Betterworks will mark those positions as Already exists in the search results and prevent selection. However, if the existing plan is Archived, you may select it to create a new active plan.

If I select a parent department, are child departments included automatically?

No. Selecting a parent department does not automatically include its child departments. If child departments should have access to the Succession module, they must also be selected individually.

Does enabling department or group access affect existing Succession plans?

No. This feature only changes who can access the Succession module. Existing Succession configurations remain unchanged. Organizations that want to move from organization-wide access to department/group-based access must manually configure the desired departments or groups.

Why is my data not appearing after a successful import? 

If the file imported successfully, but data is missing from Betterworks, there is likely a formatting error within the CSV file (such as a field key mismatch). Ensure you have configured Talent Fields in the Admin module before uploading the profiles file.

Can I update an employee's Risk of Loss from within the Succession module? 

Yes. Using inline editing in the successor table, updates to Risk of Loss or Impact of Loss are saved globally to the employee's Talent Profile. Updates to Readiness Level are specific to that individual succession plan.