HR Planning and Succession Management

HR Planning and Succession Management 

Welcome to the website for HR (workforce) Planning and Succession Management.

This site is designed to serve as an information resource for managers and HR professionals. Here you will find reference guides, tools, forms, resources, etc., that you can access as you participate in, or lead, various HR (workforce) planning and/or succession management initiatives.

HR (workforce) planning and succession management programs are integral in enabling us to achieve our mission of contributing to a prosperous, healthy and self-sufficient Nova Scotia.

As our workforce ages and the competition for skilled employees becomes even tighter, we need to be proactive in HR planning and succession management if we want to continue to build a high performance, high involvement, and inclusive workplace.

The following model is to provide you with an overview of the processes involved in HR planning and succession management and also to illustrate how succession management (with all of its tools, processes and programs) flows from the HR planning process and aligns with the departmental and government business plans.

As the diagram illustrates, the government’s overall plan along with the Corporate HR and Affirmative Action plans determine the departmental strategies and business plans, and in turn, determines what is needed in the way of roles, skills and competencies. Working through an HR planning process allows you to analyze your demand and supply of human resources and develop the appropriate strategies aimed at filling projected gaps.

The HR planning process is illustrated in the following diagram. 


To help you through the process, click here to access: HR (workforce) Planning Guide (under development) Departmental Demographic Reports (under development)

Succession management is a key strategy that you will probably want to implement (please note that other strategies, such as recruitment, valuing diversity, organizational redesign, implementation of new technologies, outsourcing, etc., may also be required) as a result of your HR planning process. It addresses many of the issues the government is currently facing, such as:

    * an aging workforce
    * increasing retirement rates
    * tight labour market
    * limited competitiveness, and
    * fast-paced changes in work.

By implementing a succession management program that is transparent and equitable you will be creating an environment for people to develop their skills in preparation for a range of future possibilities. This results in a workplace that will be well positioned to face whatever lies ahead.

The following is the corporate succession management model. Please refer to the Guide to Succession Management to provide you with details, tips and tools to use as you work through the steps in your department or division.