Succession Planning Diversity Heat Map
Challenge
Achieve more diverse representation in our executive leadership to better reflect the diversity of our broader workforce and our customers.
Actions
As we formally captured the succession plans for each EVP during our annual talent review process, we created a heat map view that indicated both the presence of at least one successor in each readiness timeframe (i.e. emergency, ready now, ready in 1-3 years) and the presence of gender and ethnic diversity for each role. These heat maps were reviewed during our Executive Talent Review with our CEO and his direct reports. Our Executive team was able to discuss strategic development for internal talent by focusing on areas of opportunity where there was limited diversity (i.e. coded Red or Yellow). This included action planning to ensure we were providing key development roles and experiences for women and/or people of color including identifying high potential diverse talent in corporate functions for potential business role opportunities. For roles where we were unable to identify diverse internal succession candidates, we engaged Talent Acquisition to begin identifying diverse external talent for opportunistic hiring and networking.
Outcomes
EVP leaders and their aligned HRBPs captured specific actions they own for specific diverse talent. Examples included:
- Connecting/introducing an associate to a fellow EVP leader to build awareness and exposure
- Discussing an assignment or role opportunity that is outside of their direct team
- Acting as a mentor for identified associates
In this session we identified a gap in the diversity in our commercial leadership. A high potential woman had been identified as a candidate for the CEO Chief of Staff role. As a result of the succession plan heatmap and subsequent discussions, the leadership team determined that the associate had the right skills required for a commercial role and that a commercial experience would better position her for inclusion on an EVP succession plan. The associate vvas approached with the Chief of Staff and Commercial Leadership opportunity and chose the commercial opportunity after a discussion on her long-term career interests.
We plan to continue this approach each year and are tracking commitments/actions with our EVPs on a quarterly basis.
Contact
Lashana Jackson
Quote
At R1 we're committed to being a company where everyone feels included and valued for their unique strengths. We recognize that inclusion and diversity are critical to driving innovation, retaining top talent, and helping serve our customers. Learning from each other and being better together is what motivates me to keep inclusion and diversity as a top priority at R1.