Critical Jobs

A critical position is one that, if it were vacant, would have a significant impact on the organization's ability to conduct normal business, deliver outputs, achieve milestones or meet budget requirements. For the purpose of succession planning, the critical jobs within the organization must be identified and an action plan identified for high potential individuals to assume those positions. These jobs may be managerial, technical or a support type job.

Criticality Levels can be determined by analyzing both the impact of the job on the mission of the organization and whether or not there is a successor position identified. Critical Levels can be defined as:

1. High Criticality
2. Moderate Criticality
3. Low Criticality

Different criteria and questions can also be asked can be used to identify critical jobs including but not limited to:

• Is there only one person who can perform the duties of the position? Who will fill their role if they are absent?
• Is there a role where the incumbent has specialized knowledge and training acquired over time through specialized training and education? Does the organization have the capacity to train and develop an individual to such a capacity?
• Are there employees who may retire within five years? Has the process for transfer of knowledge started?
• Is the position both strategically and operationally critical?

Once the critical jobs are identified, reports can then be generated with a listing of these jobs and other required information such as competencies, skills, etc.,  to take the next step of starting to identify talent for succession planning.