41 Talent and Succession Management Metrics
Talent and succession management are at the heart of modern HR strategies. Attracting, developing, and retaining high-potential employees is no longer enough — organizations must now rely on data to anticipate needs, plan successions, and maximize skills development.
As part of our “List of Lists” series, we present 41 HR metrics to help you track and optimize your talent and succession management practices. These indicators can help you assess your talent pool, evaluate the performance of your development programs, and determine how prepared your organization is to face internal and external changes.
Succession Planning and Key Roles (13)
- Number of key positions identified
- Percentage of key positions among all roles
- Number of executive positions identified as strategic
- Number and percentage of vacant key positions
- Percentage of key positions with an identified successor
- Percentage of key positions with a ready successor
- Percentage of key positions without a successor
- Number of successors identified per key position
- Number and percentage of executive positions with an identified successor
- Number and percentage of executive positions with a ready successor
- Number of key positions filled internally vs. externally
- Average time to fill a vacant key position
- Percentage of succession plans updated within the last year
Successor Management (13)
- Number of identified successors
- Number of successors ready immediately
- Number of successors ready within 1–2 years
- Number of successors ready within 3–5 years
- Percentage of key positions with an immediately ready successor
- Percentage of key positions with a successor ready within 1–2 years
- Percentage of key positions with a successor ready within 3–5 years
- Average skills gap between successors and key position requirements
- Number of identified successors with a development plan
- Promotion rate of identified successors
- Average performance of promoted successors
- Retention rate of successors after appointment to a key position
- Turnover rate of identified successors
High-Potential and Talent Development Management (12)
- Number of high-potential employees
- Percentage of high potentials among all employees
- Number and percentage of high potentials with a development plan
- Number of employees per box in a 9-box matrix
- Number of employees per box in a 9-box matrix
- Percentage of high potentials promoted
- Number of high potentials who participated in a mentorship program
- Percentage of high potentials who completed a specific training program
- Average number of years before a high potential is promoted to a key position
- Retention rate of high potentials after appointment to a key position
- Turnover rate of high potentials
- Internal mobility rate of high potentials
Succession Plan Optimization (3)
- Number of formalized and implemented succession plans
- Alignment rate of succession plans with the company’s strategic needs
- Number of strategic succession reviews conducted annually
Tracking the right talent and succession metrics allows organizations to shift from a reactive to a strategic approach to human resources management. By effectively measuring your talent pool, internal mobility, and successor readiness, your organization can better align its decisions with business objectives.
Want to go further and turn these insights into actionable levers? Our team can help you build a data-driven approach tailored to your organization — from selecting the right metrics to interpreting them effectively. Contact us!
