1. June 6, 2011 SHRM Poll: Succession Planning

3. What are the most common job levels covered in succession plans? Approximately one-half of succession plans include president/CEO (49%), executives (54%), senior management (58%) and middle management (51%).

4. Are succession plans regularly evaluated or reviewed? Almost one-third (30%) of organizations evaluate or update their succession plans once a year.

5. Why have some organizations not developed a formal succession plan? Almost one-half (43%) of the respondents indicated that more immediate requests take precedence in the organization over developing a formal succession plan. Other organizations stated that they have not yet given consideration to succession plans (16%) or feel that their staff size is too small (15%).

7. Does your organization have a formal succession plan in place? 4 Comparison by organization staff size Larger organizations (2,500 to 25,000+ employees) are more likely to have a formal succession plan or process in place compared with smaller organizations (1 to 499 employees). Comparison by organization sector Publicly owned for-profit organization are more likely to have an informal succession plan or process in place compared with privately owned for-profit and nonprofit .

8. Generally speaking, who is primarily responsible for selecting successors for positions? 5 Note: n = 213. Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.

9. Generally speaking, who is primarily responsible for approving successors for positions? 6 Note: 2011 total does not equal 100% due to rounding.“*”denotes the response was not available in 2006 survey.

10. Generally speaking, who is primarily responsible for leading the organization’s succession planning efforts? 7 Note: .“*”denotes the response was not available in 2006 survey.

11. Which of the following levels of employees does your organization’s succession plan include? 8 (n = 228) (n = 223) Note: Totals do not equal 100% due to multiple responses. “*”denotes the response was not available in 2006 survey.

12. How often does your organization evaluate or update its succession plan? 9 Note: “*”denotes the response was not available in 2006 survey. “**”denotes the response was not available in 2011 survey.

13. Does your organization’s succession plan incorporate methods that: 10 Note: Totals do not equal 100% due to multiple responses.

14. HR department’s responsibilities in connection with the organization’s succession plan 11 Note: Totals do not equal 100% due to multiple responses.

15. Does your organization currently use software that is exclusively designed to manage the succession planning process? 12

16. What is the primary reason your organization has not developed a formal succession plan? 13 Note: “*”denotes the response was not available in 2006 survey.

17. Demographics: Organization Industry 14 n= 350

18. Demographics: Organization Sector 15 Note: n = 352. Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.

19. Demographics: Organization Staff Size 16 n = 353.

22. Sample composed of 426 randomly selected HR professionals from SHRM’S membership

23. Margin of error is +/- 4%

24. Survey fielded February 25 - March 4th, 2011 18 Methodology For more poll findings, visit: www.shrm.org/surveys Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research