How to Create a Succession Plan: Steps, Template, and the Recruiter's Angle

Here's how to create a succession plan: pick the roles a business can't leave empty, then name and prepare the people who could step in. When a client has no plan, a sudden exit turns into an urgent req (an open job requisition) with no warning. If you know which of your clients' roles lack a ready successor, you can start mapping candidates before the search opens.

What is a succession plan?

A succession plan is a written list of a company's key roles and the internal people who could fill each one. It also records how ready each person is and what they need to get there. In an SHRM survey of HR professionals, only 21% reported a formal plan and 24% an informal one. In the same survey, 56% said their organization had no succession plan in place.

Those numbers come from in-house HR teams, not agencies. They still tell you something useful, regardless of where your role sits: Don't assume a client has a plan just because they're big enough to need one.

Succession plan vs. talent map

• A succession plan covers a company's own employees moving into future roles.
• A talent map (a list of people outside the company who could fill a role) covers everyone else.

If you are agency-side, your work sits on the talent map side, and the client's plan tells you where to aim it.

How to create a succession plan step by step

The succession planning process runs in six steps, from choosing key roles to reviewing the plan on a schedule. Each step below covers what the client does and what you can ask.

Standard guides assume one company doing this for itself. With several clients, you'll see a different version of the plan at each one, and each will be at a different stage.

Identify the key roles

Key roles are the jobs whose sudden vacancy would stall revenue, delivery, or a whole team. They're often leadership seats or essential stakeholders. A lone engineer who owns a critical system, for example, would also qualify.

Ask the client to list these roles by name and team. Keep a copy for each client, since every client draws the line in a different place.

In tech, a key role isn't always senior. A staff engineer who alone understands the billing system can hurt more on the way out than a director with a strong deputy.

Define what each role will need

Write down the skills each key role will need over the next few years. A role often changes before the person in it leaves. A head of data hired to run reporting may soon need to lead a machine learning team.

To prepare for these changes, ask for this future view at intake (the kickoff call where a client briefs you on a role). It's the same scoping you'd do for a req, done before the req exists.

Assess internal candidates

Next, the client names internal candidates for each key role and rates how ready they are to move into it. A simple scale works: ready now, ready later, or not yet ready.

Watch the roles with nobody in the ready-now column. That's where a sudden exit becomes an urgent external recruiting search, so start sourcing for those roles first.

Build development plans

Each named successor gets a development plan to close their gaps, such as stretch projects, mentoring, or training. Give every action in the plan an owner and a deadline to ensure successors are upskilled appropriately.

Note that if you are agency-side, you won't run this step for a client––they will take care of it internally. You can ask whether a successor's gap can be closed in time. If it can't, that role may need an outside hire.

Decide where outside hiring fits

A standard succession plan states, for each key role, whether the company will develop a successor or hire one. Some plans treat outside hiring as a last resort. A stronger plan highlights roles where no internal candidate will be ready in time.

This is the step where you belong in the plan. Ask the client to flag those roles and to tell you before the person in the seat gives notice. A flag with a target date gives you a real window to map the market.

Write it down and review it

The last step of creating your succession plan is to put it in a shared document and set reminders to review it on a set schedule, such as each quarter or after a reorg. People leave, get promoted, and change goals, so a new plan can get stale quickly.

Ask each client when their next review cycle is. Then put a check-in on your calendar for the week after.

What a succession plan template should include

A succession plan template is a one-page table with one row per key role and columns for successors, readiness, and next steps. Here are the fields to expect and what each one tells you.

You don't need the whole document from a client. The readiness column and the outside-hire flag are the two that point to future searches.

Ask which client roles are exposed before the req opens

At intake or your next check-in, ask each client which key roles have no one ready now. Those roles are exposed. If the person in one leaves, the client will call you with a req and a deadline.

Start a talent map for those roles now, while no clock is running. That way, when the req opens, you'll already know who's out there and who might move.

When you inquire about the role, keep the question about the role, not the person in it, so it doesn't sound like you're predicting an exit.

With several clients, keep one short list per client: the exposed roles, the person in each seat, and the date of the next plan review. Say one client has two exposed engineering leads and another has none. Your mapping time goes to the first client this month.

Clients with no plan at all need a simpler question. Ask, "If this person quit Friday, who runs the team Monday?" If a long pause is your answer, it's the first row of their plan to tackle.

Ask before the gap becomes an open req

Pick one client this week and ask for their list of key roles and who could fill each one. You don't need to teach them how to create a succession plan from scratch. You only need the rows with no ready successor.

If they have a plan, ask for the readiness column and the outside-hire flag. If they don't, walk through the six steps in one call and write down the roles with nobody lined up. Then open a talent map for the most exposed role, so your first shortlist is ready the day the req lands.