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Identifying Critical Roles to the organisation

Sajjad Mazaal

We're working with the business managers to identify roles that are critical to the business, mainly to identify succession/business continuity/retention plans for these roles. Whilst in theory, this is required for all roles, with over 100,000 employees globally we're planning to start with a handful of positions/roles first. 

Whilst I can agree that Critical roles' are identified as roles that are crucial to the achievement of organisational outcomes. These roles would be identified as having a combination of the below: 

  • Roles that have an impact on the designing of business strategy 
  • Roles that have an impact on stakeholders and customers 
  • Roles that have an impact on revenue 
  • Roles that are required due to licensing requirements (many in operational areas) 
  • Role that are difficult to replace due to skills or availability (externally or internally) 

A vacancy in a critical role will have a significant tangible impact on the ability of the organisation to deliver outputs, achieve milestones, or meet budget requirements. 

My challenge is trying to make this assessment objective if possible through a criteria/matrix/tool thats easy enough to use. 

Has anyone put something together previously that can help as a starting point?

Thanks,

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  • Nice project Sajjad

    I would like to suggest that you add a couple more dimensions into your analysis for it to become useful. A person leaving a critical role may or may not have a "critical" effect. In this way a poor performer leaving a critical role may be good news. In many  "critical" roles, if finding/appointing a successor is not a problem, then the overall degree of "criticallity" will drop. Similarly, it's worth evaluating whether there is a genuine and likely risk of a "critical" person leaving the company - I've had many discussions over the years where a manager has insisted that "if Joe left, we would be in trouble" - I've usually asked if he thinks Joe is likely to leave and if the answer is "yes" what ould his reason for leaving be; many discussions have been cut short because after discussion, the liklihood of departure is felt as being unlikely.

    In summary, four axes to the question

    • Is the role critical?
    • Is the jobholder likely to leave and why?
    • Would a departure create a medium-term problem (as opposed to an inconvenience)?
    • Can we source a replacement easily and quickly?

    Over the years I have also asked like mangers to complete this matrix of questions in advance of undertaking salary reviews at times when little or no money was available. This helped them to decide where their priorities lay.

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  • Nice project Sajjad

    I would like to suggest that you add a couple more dimensions into your analysis for it to become useful. A person leaving a critical role may or may not have a "critical" effect. In this way a poor performer leaving a critical role may be good news. In many  "critical" roles, if finding/appointing a successor is not a problem, then the overall degree of "criticallity" will drop. Similarly, it's worth evaluating whether there is a genuine and likely risk of a "critical" person leaving the company - I've had many discussions over the years where a manager has insisted that "if Joe left, we would be in trouble" - I've usually asked if he thinks Joe is likely to leave and if the answer is "yes" what ould his reason for leaving be; many discussions have been cut short because after discussion, the liklihood of departure is felt as being unlikely.

    In summary, four axes to the question

    • Is the role critical?
    • Is the jobholder likely to leave and why?
    • Would a departure create a medium-term problem (as opposed to an inconvenience)?
    • Can we source a replacement easily and quickly?

    Over the years I have also asked like mangers to complete this matrix of questions in advance of undertaking salary reviews at times when little or no money was available. This helped them to decide where their priorities lay.

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