Build leadership continuity. Align talent to the business.
Succession and workforce planning is the discipline of making sure you have the right people ready for your most critical roles — now and 12 to 24 months out — and that your talent strategy keeps pace with where the business is headed.
In today’s environment, organizations can’t afford to rely on informal “who’s next” conversations or static headcount plans. Catapult helps you create a clear, actionable plan that connects business direction to people strategy — so you can reduce risk, strengthen your bench, and make confident decisions about hiring, development, and internal mobility.
Talk to a Succession Planning Expert
What is succession and workforce planning?
A proactive HR practice that identifies your most business-critical roles, assesses where you’re exposed if a key leader leaves, and translates business strategy into practical talent actions — hiring, development, and internal mobility — so leadership continuity is built in, not left to chance.
From strategy to a plan leaders can execute.
We meet you where you are — whether you need a full succession and workforce planning cycle or support strengthening one part of the process.
Clarify critical roles & talent risks
We identify the roles most essential to business continuity and performance, assess vulnerability, and prioritize where succession coverage is most urgent.
Build a practical succession plan (not a binder)
We facilitate structured succession planning for key positions — defining readiness, development needs, and realistic timelines — so leaders have a plan they can actually execute.
Strengthen your bench through development & mobility
We translate succession insights into targeted development plans, training, internal mobility strategies, and coaching support to accelerate readiness and retention.
Align workforce plans to business strategy
We evaluate future capacity and capability needs, anticipate gaps, and create an integrated plan for hiring priorities, development investments, and internal talent pipelines.
A strong plan should drive decisions — not sit on a shelf.
Common deliverables, end to end.
We move you from discussion to execution by establishing clear owners, timelines, and measurable milestones across three phases.
Assess & Diagnose
- Critical role identification and risk assessment
- Key-person and single-point-of-failure analysis
- Workforce gap analysis — capacity and capability
- Current bench-strength and readiness baseline
Plan & Design
- Succession slates with readiness definitions and timelines
- Individual development plans for identified successors
- Internal mobility and pipeline strategy
- Prioritized action plan tied to business objectives
Activate & Sustain
- Facilitation of talent reviews and leadership calibration discussions
- Clear owners, timelines, and measurable milestones
- Coaching support to accelerate successor readiness
- Cadence for revisiting the plan as the business evolves
From reactive to prepared.
Growth, turnover, evolving skill needs, and changing priorities make a proactive approach essential. Here’s what changes when leadership continuity is planned rather than improvised.
| Dimension | Reactive “who’s next” approach | Planned with Catapult PREPARED |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership transitions | Scramble to backfill; disruption to operations and morale | Named successors with defined readiness and timelines |
| Key-person risk | Hidden until a resignation exposes it | Risk-ranked in advance; continuity plans in place across departments and locations |
| Talent decisions | Guesswork on build vs. buy; over-reliance on outside hires | Clear logic for when to develop internally vs. hire externally |
| Development investment | Spread thin or tied to who asks loudest | Targeted at the successors and capabilities that matter most |
| Workforce capacity | Static headcount plans that lag the strategy | Capacity and capability mapped to where the business is going |
| Retention & engagement | High performers leave without a path forward | Visible growth paths strengthen internal pipelines and retention |
When succession & workforce planning pays off most.
This work delivers the strongest return for organizations navigating change or exposed to concentrated leadership risk. Our clients often share one or more of these characteristics:
Outcomes you can expect.
A Catapult succession and workforce planning engagement is measured by the decisions it enables and the risk it removes — not by the size of the document it produces.
- Greater leadership continuityReduced disruption when critical roles turn over, because coverage is planned in advance.
- Clear visibility into bench strength & riskYou know exactly where you’re covered and where you’re exposed, department by department.
- More targeted development investmentDevelopment dollars and coaching go to the successors and capabilities that matter most.
- Stronger internal pipelines & retentionVisible growth paths keep high performers engaged and reduce costly external hiring.
- A workforce plan aligned to strategyCapacity and capability mapped to where the business is heading, not where it’s been.
- Confident, defensible talent decisionsA clear rationale for when to build internally, when to hire, and where to invest.
Meet the HR & organizational development consultants behind your plan.
Succession and workforce planning is led by Catapult’s HR Solutions leaders and our HR & Organizational Development (HROD) consultants — senior practitioners who facilitate talent reviews, coach successors, and translate strategy into practical people decisions alongside your leaders.
Jill Feldman
Kendra Stewart
Angela Medley
Lea Wharton
Mary DeLuca
Terra Ylizarde
Susan Sabath
Carmen Preddy
Flexible support — start anywhere.
Whether you need a full succession and workforce planning cycle or help strengthening one part of the process, we scope the engagement to your situation and build on the HR foundation you already have. Succession planning works best alongside talent management, performance management, change management, and compensation strategy — and if a critical seat opens before a successor is ready, we can bridge it with interim HR support. We connect the dots across all of it.
Frequently asked questions about succession & workforce planning.
What is the difference between succession planning and workforce planning?
Why is succession planning important for mid-sized organizations?
Which roles should be included in a succession plan?
How often should we update our succession and workforce plan?
Do you help develop internal successors, or just identify them?
How long does it take to build a succession and workforce plan with Catapult?
More on talent, continuity & change.
Practical perspectives from Catapult’s HR experts on building resilient, future-ready organizations.
Ready to strengthen your bench?
Let’s build a practical succession and workforce plan that supports your business goals and gives your leaders clarity on next steps. Our HROD consultants will learn your business, assess your risks, and scope an engagement that fits.
Request a Consultation Full cycle or one focused piece — we meet you where you are.