The best talent pipeline decisions happen before a role opens

“Can an employee see where they could go next, and do we know what experiences we need to create to help them get there?” Chaaya says. “If we, at the end of the day, cannot answer that question, then you don’t really have a system yet. You just have really good programs that aren’t necessarily connected.”

In his organization, early-career pipelines, apprenticeship pathways, development programs, internal mobility, and succession planning are being deliberately linked into a single architecture – not to layer on more initiatives, but to ensure people can move through them from one career stage to the next, with the organization actively creating the conditions for that progression to happen, according to Chaaya.

“You can’t just attract someone to the industry and then expect them to figure everything out for themselves – there needs to be very intentional structural design work that happens in terms of career pathing,” he says. “If we genuinely want new talent entering insurance, we have to make it possible for someone who doesn’t already know the industry to see it in a way where they consider it as a serious career and also see a future once they come into it.”

Succession begins earlier than some leaders think

The most counterintuitive element is about the timing of succession planning, says Chaaya. Succession is commonly treated as a late-stage conversation – a shortlist assembled when a senior vacancy is imminent. But he believes that by that point, the pipeline has already been shaped by decisions made years earlier.

“A lot of what determines that succession pipeline – those decisions already happened long before that conversation,” says Chaaya. “Those decisions typically happen when we first hire somebody for a specific skill set or capability – and it happens when specific people are given opportunities or secondments, or when they’re promoted into a specific job, or when we move them and give them exposure of the business from a different perspective.”