Succession risk indicates the level of organizational risk associated with a potential vacancy. It helps answer the question: If this job became vacant, how exposed would our organization be? Succession risk appears in the Pipelines table and Pipeline details. For information about using these pages, see Manage pipelines.
What affects succession risk?
Succession risk combines two measures:
-
The job’s criticality
-
The job’s bench strength
Criticality represents the potential impact of losing the role. Bench strength represents the depth of the internal succession bench available to fill it.
Job criticality
Job criticality reflects the organizational impact of a vacancy, independent of how easy or difficult the position might be to fill.
|
Criticality |
Meaning |
|---|---|
|
High |
A vacancy would have a significant impact on organizational performance or continuity. |
|
Medium |
A vacancy would have a moderate and manageable impact. |
|
Low |
A vacancy would have a limited impact and could be managed through normal staffing processes. |
|
Undefined |
Criticality hasn’t been assessed for the job. |
You can set job criticality from the Pipelines table or details.
Bench strength
Bench strength represents the depth of qualified internal succession coverage for the job. For succession risk, Quinto groups the 0–10 score into four categories:
|
Bench-strength score |
Category |
|---|---|
|
0 |
No bench |
|
1–3 |
Weak |
|
4–6 |
Moderate |
|
7–10 |
Strong |
For information about who contributes to the score and how it is determined, see How bench strength is calculated.
How are criticality and bench strength combined?
Quinto uses the following matrix to determine succession risk:
|
Job criticality |
No bench |
Weak bench |
Moderate bench |
Strong bench |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
High |
High risk |
High risk |
High risk |
Medium risk |
|
Medium |
High risk |
High risk |
Medium risk |
Low risk |
|
Low |
Medium risk |
Medium risk |
Low risk |
Low risk |
|
Undefined |
Undefined |
Undefined |
Undefined |
Undefined |
The matrix is intentionally weighted toward the potential impact of losing a critical job. Strong succession coverage can reduce risk, but it doesn’t completely remove the significance of a highly critical role.
Why can a strong bench still have medium risk?
A strong bench reduces succession risk, but it doesn’t eliminate the organizational impact of losing a highly critical role. For example, suppose a highly critical leadership job has a bench strength of 8. This represents a strong internal bench. Because the job has high criticality, its overall succession risk is medium, rather than low.
A highly critical job never receives a low succession-risk rating, even when its bench is strong. This reflects the residual risk associated with losing a role that has a significant impact on organizational performance or continuity.
Can a job with no bench avoid high risk?
Yes. A lack of internal successors doesn’t automatically mean a vacancy would have a severe organizational impact.
For example, a low-criticality job with no bench has medium succession risk, rather than high. Although no internal successors currently qualify, the organization has determined that a vacancy in the role could be managed through normal staffing processes.
This lets succession risk distinguish between:
-
How much succession coverage is available
-
How consequential a vacancy would be
Why is succession risk undefined?
If a job’s criticality is undefined, its succession risk is also undefined, regardless of the strength of its bench. Bench strength can show how much internal succession coverage exists, but Quinto can’t determine the overall risk until the potential organizational impact of the vacancy has also been assessed.
Set the job’s criticality from the Pipelines table or details to enable a succession-risk rating. See Manage pipelines for instructions.
What can change succession risk?
Succession risk can change when:
-
The job’s criticality changes.
-
Its bench-strength score moves into a different category.
-
Potential successors become eligible or ineligible for bench strength.
-
Employee readiness changes.
-
Job match information changes.
-
The minimum job match or readiness configuration changes.
To understand why the underlying bench score changed, see How bench strength is calculated.