Succession and Pipeline Planning

To stay competitive, businesses must address tomorrow’s workforce concerns today. A top priority among those issues is identifying a company’s future leaders and preparing them to take the reins when executives and senior managers change jobs or retire.

Succession planning is easy to put aside while striving to keep business initiatives on track. But when a key executive or top performer unexpectedly departs — taking years of institutional knowledge with them and forcing the company to find a suitable replacement — projects can go awry, morale can suffer and investors can lose faith in the company. Having plans in place helps minimize disruptions and reputational risks.

Lack of
strategic
clarity Lower quality
of products/
services Low trust in
leadership Diminished
company
reputation Decline in
expertise Failure to
support
business needs Lack of
strategic
clarity Lower quality
of products/
services Low trust in
leadership Diminished
company
reputation Decline in
expertise Failure to
support
business needs

C-suite C-suite

Executive Executive

Director Director

Manager Manager

Make sense of shifting job market dynamics

Our Labor Market Overview connects the dots between U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, job postings and hiring trends, giving you a clearer view of employment shifts, workforce turnover and where opportunities are growing. 

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Company leaders use a range of strategies to plan and manage their talent pipelines to ensure they have the right people in place to meet future needs. Those who are proactively building up their pool of pre-evaluated candidates do so in several ways.

Encouraging
employee
referrals Working with
talent solutions
firms Offering higher
pay for entry-
level roles Providing
mentorship
programs Encouraging
employee
referrals Working with
talent solutions
firms Offering higher
pay for entry-
level roles Providing
mentorship
programs

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The survey cited was developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives and hiring managers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000+ employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the U.S.

Over 4 million new positions from more than 8,000 independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including 340,000-plus placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 450 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, healthcare support, and human resources professions. 