Succession planning for small teams: critical roles, talent pools and development
For team leads, managers and HR generalists in teams of roughly 5 to 30 people. You'll find the roles your team can't run without, decide who could cover them now and later, plan development that builds real readiness, and capture the knowledge only one person holds. Uses the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's six-step succession planning process, scaled down for a small team. No prior HR training needed.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 60 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Identify the critical roles in a team by the impact a vacancy would have
- Choose a pool of possible successors for each critical role instead of naming one heir
- Write development actions that build readiness through real job experience, feedback and learning
- Plan how knowledge held by one person will be captured and shared before it's needed
- Choose measures to review whether the succession plan is working
Course outline
- 1.The six-step process and measures to review whether the plan is workingLesson · 10 min
- 2.Identifying the critical roles by vacancy impactLesson · 10 min
- 3.Choosing a pool of successors for each critical roleLesson · 8 min
- 4.Writing development actions that build readinessLesson · 10 min
- 5.Capturing knowledge held by one personLesson · 8 min
- 6.Succession planning for small teams: critical roles, talent pools and development: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Succession planning for small teams: critical roles, talent pools and development: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.