Introduction
Succession planning is not just about identifying potential successors; it is also about tracking their growth, assessing their readiness for future roles, and maintaining historical records of succession decisions. The Talent Pool and Past Cycles modules in uKnowva HRMS help HR teams and managers accomplish exactly that.
The Talent Pool provides a centralized view of employees who have already been assessed as potential successors. It displays their skill match, skill gap, readiness, retention potential, and other important succession metrics, allowing managers to compare candidates and make informed succession decisions.
The Past Cycles section, on the other hand, acts as a historical repository of succession planning activities. It enables you to review assessments from previous appraisal cycles, compare succession decisions over time, and understand how employees have progressed throughout different evaluation periods.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to access the Talent Pool and Past Cycles, search and filter records, view and edit succession assessments, raise Individual Development Plans (IDPs), review KRA ratings, and analyze historical succession data.
Step 1: Opening the Talent Pool
To begin, navigate to the left-side navigation panel and click Succession Planning. From the available options, select Talent Pool.
If you are already on the My Team's Succession page, simply click the Talent Pool tab located at the top of the page.
The Talent Pool displays employees who have already been assessed and rated as potential successors. This consolidated view helps managers identify the strongest candidates for future leadership positions without having to review each succession record individually.
Step 2: Understanding the Talent Pool
The Talent Pool page displays succession information in a structured table containing details such as Candidate, Incumbent, Designation, Action, Skill Match, Skill Gap, Readiness for Change, Retention Potential of Incumbent, and Updated.
The Skill Match percentage indicates how well a candidate satisfies the required skills for the target role. A higher percentage means the employee already possesses more of the required competencies and is better prepared for the position.
The Skill Gap score measures how closely the employee's current proficiency aligns with the target role requirements. Higher scores indicate a smaller skill gap and greater readiness. The system also represents this score visually using star ratings, where higher scores receive more stars.
The Readiness for Change field indicates how soon the employee is expected to take over the target role based on the succession assessment.
The Retention Potential of Incumbent helps managers understand the likelihood of retaining the current role holder, which can influence succession planning priorities.
The Updated column displays the most recent date on which the succession assessment was modified.
Step 3: Searching and Filtering the Talent Pool
Finding the right candidate becomes much easier using the built-in search and filtering options.
The search bar allows you to locate records by entering the Candidate Name, Incumbent Name, Readiness for Change, Retention Potential, or Updated Date. After entering the desired value, click the Search button to display matching records. If you want to remove all applied filters, simply click the Reset button.
For more advanced filtering, click the Filter (Funnel) icon. Additional filter options become available, including the Nomination filter. Here, you can choose options such as Nominated Only to display only employees who have already been officially nominated as successors. After selecting the desired option, click Search to apply the filter.
Step 4: Viewing and Editing Successor Assessments
Under the Action column, you will find two icons for each employee.
Click the View (Eye) icon to open the successor assessment in read-only mode.
This page displays the complete succession assessment, including readiness, retention potential, remarks, justification, structured skill gap analysis, and other configured custom fields.
From this page, you can also quickly access options to Edit Rating, Raise IDP, and Open KRA Team Ratings without returning to the previous screen.
If you need to update an assessment, click the Edit (Pencil) icon under the Action column.
This opens the editable succession assessment where you can modify details such as the target role, overall rating, readiness for change, retention potential, remarks, justification, structured skill matrix, and any custom fields configured by your administrator.
After making the necessary changes, click the Save button to update the assessment. Once saved, you can immediately review the updated assessment by clicking the View Rating button or analyze the employee's appraisal performance through the Open KRA Team Rating option.
Step 5: Accessing the Past Cycles
The Past Cycles section stores succession assessments from previous appraisal periods for assessed employees, allowing organizations to review historical succession decisions and monitor employee growth over time.
To access this page, click Succession Planning from the left-side navigation panel and select Past Cycles.
If you are already working within My Team's Succession, simply switch to the Past Cycles tab.
This page provides a historical view of succession planning records across different appraisal cycles.
Step 6: Searching Historical Succession Records
The Past Cycles page includes search options that help you quickly locate historical succession records.
You can search using fields such as Incumbent, Candidate, Target Role, and Updated Date. After entering the required information, click the Search button to display the matching records.
You can also change the Appraisal Cycle from the available list and click Search to load succession assessments from that specific review period.
The results are displayed in a table containing details such as Incumbent, Candidate, Action, Period, Target Role, and Updated, making it easy to compare succession planning activities across multiple appraisal cycles.
Step 7: Viewing, Editing, and Analyzing Historical Assessments
Each record in the Past Cycles table contains three action icons.
Click the View (Eye) icon to open the saved succession assessment for that appraisal cycle in read-only mode.
Click the Edit (Pencil) icon if you need to modify the assessment details for the selected record.
The third Statistics icon allows you to view the employee's Current Role Skill Gap.
Here, you can view and update the employee's Current Proficiency for the skills mapped to their current designation.
The Desired Proficiency is automatically determined based on the role requirements and cannot be edited.
Conclusion
That's it!
You've now successfully learned how to use the Talent Pool and Past Cycles modules in uKnowva HRMS Succession Planning.
By following this process, you can efficiently review successor assessments, monitor candidate readiness, analyze historical succession records, and make informed succession planning decisions.
If you have any questions or need additional support, feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..