Franciscan Health System

Succession Planning

Franciscan Health System has approximately 5,500 employees, a medical staff with more than 1,200 members, and is part of a larger health system network with approximately 57,000 employees nation-wide.

Franciscan was challenged by the parent organization to create a succession plan with leadership development as its primary objective. The executive leadership team had previously participated in some leadership training, but they now wanted to develop an on-site program for directors and mid-level managers.

With fifty percent of the executive team approaching retirement age within the next three to four years, and having no plan in place to fill these spots, they knew they needed to create a system for identifying and grooming potential leaders so they could move seamlessly into leadership positions as they opened up.

Franciscan also wanted this system to help improve retention and quality of leadership by identifying leadership potential at the time of hire and actively developing high potential employees. With a new facility being built within the next year, they would need additional staff, and they wanted to be in a position to fulfill their stated mission of preparing future leaders for key positions in the organization.

The parent organization had created some of its own competency models and tools for diagnosing leadership development needs, but their applications applied only to a few select executives at Franciscan’s facilities. So, our client wanted to build a plan that would take advantage of the existing tools provided by the parent, yet have a much broader application.

In addition, they had been issued a “challenge” from the parent organization: Yearly bonuses would be contingent on the creation and implementation of a “Continuity Planning Program” within one year.

The first step was to ensure support for the succession management program from the President/CEO and the executive team. Meetings were held to present the challenges of promoting from within and the reasons for implementing a succession management program.

Then, all members of the executive team completed their own Caliper Profiles and received direct feedback in order to gain appreciation for the tool as well as to enable Caliper to identify the talents of the organization’s existing leadership.

A “Continuity Planning Committee” was formed out of members of the executive team. The committee worked with Caliper consultants to define the “Ideal Executive,” based on experiences, organizational knowledge, behaviorally defined competencies, personal attributes, and “derailers” or personality attributes that could cause people to fail.

The Caliper Profile was administered to 105 eligible employees at the mid-manager level in order to select the initial group of future leaders. Additional names were kept in reserve to fill spots. Invitations to join this “Accelerated Development Program” were extended to and accepted by the high potential employees with the knowledge that opting out of the program was an acceptable response.

A timeline was created that clearly outlined the steps and roles of the key players in implementing the succession management program. The process involved developing leadership competencies specific to Franciscan, training mentors and managers, creating a baseline process for filling open positions from within the organization, diagnosing development needs for high potential employees and implementing development plans, and introducing a Web-based, customized Talent Management System to track progress.

With the initial creation and development phase of the succession planning initiative completed, the executive leadership group now has clarification on the competencies, values, and behaviors required of leaders who can succeed with this organization, as well as a template and tools with which to continue identifying, developing, and preparing their future leaders with minimal outside assistance.

In addition, Franciscan was able to meet its parent company’s goals for continuity planning, resulting in financial compensation for the executive team and an enhanced preparedness for key position replacements, whether expected or unexpected. They now have the “bench strength” to fill openings at the senior level from existing staff, which will enable them to save time and money, as well as ensure that the incoming leadership shares the vision, goals, and values of the organization.

As Dave Lawson, Vice President of Human Resources for Franciscan, shares, “Our Caliper consultants acted as our partners in providing structure and focus to help us accomplish our continuity planning goals. We integrated existing tools and competencies with Caliper’s assessments, training, and processes to create a program that has already resulted in an internal appointment to the executive leadership team.”