Although HR professionals may get their degrees from universities, there are few of us who would look to the higher education sector for lessons in succession planning. Universities are often seen as quasi-government institutions with management practices out of step with the commercial world, and concepts like 'tenure' which scare most of us away from benchmarking with them.

Having worked for two universities in HR, I think there are indeed some lessons we could learn in the private sector and adapt from the university model.

Institutionalised demotion
IR practitioners are already cringing at the thought, but at universities it works like this. An academic's job is teaching and research, and they will start as a lecturer, rising to full professor in their respective disciplines. For many, this is all they want, but there are those who would then rise to Head of Department, assuming some administrative duties (they generally despise the word 'management'), the next step being to contemplate applying for a Head of School or Deanship.

Most professors will only apply if there is a guarantee of returning to their professorship post after a stint in management. Promotions are normally by means of five year contracts, possibly renewable for a second term. They key element is that a returning Head or Dean is welcomed back into their former department with dignity and respect by proud colleagues (former subordinates), where they can spend the rest of their career (to well past retirement age) teaching and publishing. Without this right-of-return, few academics would venture into senior management positions.

Nice for the academic, but would it work in the private sector?

  • Firstly, this system greatly facilitates succession planning, as everyone knows when the contract term finishes. This career certainty fosters security for the talented individual, who now does not start looking around for other opportunities a year before the contract ends.
  • It also minimises the frustrations for tomorrow's leaders who do not have to sit and wait for dead-men's-shoes. Even for the second contract term, it is an open race, so a new star might depose an incumbent who applies for a second term, but you needn't lose either of them.
  • It overcomes the flawed reality of the private sector that career progression in management is either 'up or out'. The academic system actively encourages yesterday's executive to pursue several years back in the discipline which was their passion. Wouldn't it be great to have our former high fliers back in software development, product design, actuarial or investment specialist roles after they have done their time in management.
  • It is a practical way to allow for work-life balance for those who have possibly passed 50 and want to scale back those crazy hours, even if it means a reduced salary and grade, without all the politics and stress of the executive role, but still working for their employer - rather than 'consulting'.

If we could re-energise and harness the experience of yesterday's leaders into individual contributor roles, possibly mentoring tomorrow's bright sparks, we would not see so many top performers having to leave the employer to ensure a change of pace.

Sabbatical
The private sector often believes that a sabbatical is just a long holiday every five years, but not so in academia. This is when academics get to 're-tool' for a period of time, writing books, conducting research overseas, but getting away from the workplace completely. They are replaced by someone who assumes full responsibility for their duties. It is not beach-leave, but even if it were....

The private sector talks 'work-life balance', but practices and rewards workaholism. Hard work and long hours is not evil, but prolonged 60+ hour weeks has its consequence, as those employee well-being people have been saying, but we were too busy to attend the wellness day! So, why should we consider the sabbatical in the private sector?

  • Despite our naïve assumptions, key people can be away for more than a week, and organisations will survive, as they do when these people leave for good, or get transferred. Saying that we can't afford to have good people off on sabbatical is not good enough.
  • Getting good people out on a planned basis allows a promising subordinate the chance to step up to the plate and show their mettle, frequently with surprising results. Think how many sporting heroes got their 'break' when the incumbent un-replaceable star was injured.
  • The sabbatical is a great opportunity for your key players to benchmark practices among competitors, especially overseas. A cutting edge Business School program is another great investment during this time, as part of the re-tooling process.
  • The cost is minor. If you want, you can put in place a claw-back relating to repayment, but consider the cost-benefit proposition.

For many HR professional, benchmarking best practices is something we do with similar organidations, so that we can copy what they do in similar circumstances. A bolder move is to benchmark with dissimilar organisations, such as universities, to see what we can learn from practices which are not endemic to our particular industry. Perhaps we can learn again from the professors.