Phase 4: Confirm Candidate Interest
Supervisor and Candidate Conversation
This phase focuses on two-way conversations between supervisors and employees. The purpose of this conversation is to determine candidate interest in vertical and/or lateral succession opportunities, both within their existing portfolio and in other portfolios across the organization.
Vertical succession means an interest in moving to the next level of leadership (eg. director to executive director). Lateral succession means an interest in exploring other roles at the current level of leadership.
Example of a conversation starter at the ED/Director level:
- ED: We are creating a succession plan for my role, as well as for the other ED roles in the portfolio, and I’ve identified you as someone on our team with succession potential. Are you interested in pursuing potential leadership opportunities at the executive director level?
It is important to be clear with employees that their succession interest does not guarantee promotion.
Candidate Confirms Interest in Succession
If the employee affirms their interest in succession opportunities, and is a ‘Ready Now’ or ‘Ready Soon’ candidate, supervisors will move on to complete the Interest tab in the Candidate Assessment Tool (CAT).
The Interest tab in the CAT provides supervisors with a space to identify the roles that succession candidates might be interested, both at their current level of leadership and above (eg. confirming a Director’s interest in Executive Director level roles). Candidates can confirm interest in roles both within their existing portfolio and/or in other portfolios.
Supervisors will capture succession interest outside of the candidate’s immediate portfolio in the third section titled, “Interest Outside of Portfolio”, and provide an opportunity to identify both the portfolio of interest, and any specific roles they might have interest in as well.
External Candidates
In some situations, the incumbent leader may not have succession candidates who directly report to them and will therefore need to explore other options to build their succession plan. These options can include considering candidates from other portfolios within the organization, as well as considering external candidates.
In the “Interest” tab in the CAT, incumbent leaders will have an opportunity to identify external candidates for their succession plan. Leaders will list the external candidate’s name, current organization, email address, position they are being considered for, and the reasons to consider this person as an external succession candidate.
This could be someone that the incumbent already knows and/or a name that someone else refers as a potential fit.
Candidate Not Interested in Succession
If a candidate indicates they are not interested in succession opportunities, supervisors should take no further action with that individual as it relates to succession planning.
Supervisors can continue to engage with these employees about ongoing learning and growth opportunities as part of performance leadership, utilizing the APP process.
Supervisors can also keep in mind that, a lack of interest now doesn’t mean a lack of interest forever. Supervisors will need to revisit succession-focused conversations on an annual basis.
After complete the Assessment and Interest tabs the Candidate Assessment Tool is complete. At this point, supervisors will submit their CAT to Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership (OEL) at SHAorgdevelopment@saskhealthauthority.ca. The OEL team will compile the completed CAT’s for each leadership team member and use this information to begin populating the Portfolio Succession Readiness Plan template, which is the centerpiece of the next step in the process.