Who steps in if they leave?

Twenty-four roles matter enough that a resignation letter becomes a board topic. Thirteen have someone ready now, six have someone on the way, and five have nobody named. This page keeps that count honest, dated, and impossible to hide in a deck.

RuleCover every key role with a named, dated plan: ready now, ready later, or none. The none rows are the report; everything else is bookkeeping.

Nevercall a role covered because a name was typed into a plan two years ago. Coverage decays; date it, and re-verify it every cycle.

◆ The bench, counted24 key roles, three states, no remainder.

Key roles, May 2026	Roles
Ready-now successor named	13
Ready-later successor only	6
No successor named	5
Key roles	24

Five uncovered key roles is the finding. Each one is a business-continuity risk with a name, a department, and, from the turnover page, a base rate for how often the risk fires. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.

◆ Coverage by departmentwhere the bench is thin.

Department	Ready now	Ready later	None	Key roles
Sales	5	2	2	9
Technology Delivery	4	2	2	8
Support	4	2	1	7
All key roles	13	6	5	24

The ready-now names should be recognizable: most sit in the high-potential column of the nine-box, which holds 54 workers. A succession plan drawing from outside that column is either seeing something the ratings missed or filling a slide.

◆ The owned answerplans as dated facts, decay made visible.

Each plan row carries the role, the candidate, the readiness call, and the date it was last affirmed. Coverage that has not been re-affirmed in a cycle shows as stale instead of green, which is the difference between a bench and a slide.

-- coverage with staleness, by department
SELECT o.department,
  SUM(CASE WHEN p.readiness = 'ready_now'   THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS ready_now,
  SUM(CASE WHEN p.readiness = 'ready_later' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS ready_later,
  SUM(CASE WHEN p.plan_id IS NULL           THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS uncovered,
  SUM(CASE WHEN p.affirmed_date < DATE('now','-365 day')
           THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)                                  AS stale
FROM dim_key_role k
LEFT JOIN fct_succession_plan p ON p.role_id = k.role_id
JOIN dim_org o ON o.org_key = k.org_key
GROUP BY 1

Use case

Problem

Succession lives in a deck refreshed before board meetings: names go stale, uncovered roles hide in the formatting, and the bench is a feeling.

What we build

Succession plans as dated facts joined to key roles: ready-now, ready-later, none, and stale, by department, drawing candidates from the rated population.

What you get

A bench you can count: five uncovered roles named today, stale plans surfaced before they are needed, and a pipeline that reconciles to the nine-box.

Which key roles have nobody behind them?

We build the dated succession fact that keeps the bench honest.

Talk to us

Terms on this page

key role: A role whose vacancy the business cannot absorb quietly.
ready now: A named successor who could step in this quarter.
ready later: A named successor on a development path.
coverage: Key roles with a current, affirmed plan behind them.
stale plan: A plan not re-affirmed within a cycle; green that has expired.
bench: The set of ready candidates, usually the nine-box high-potential column.