Ensuring Business Continuity Through Proactive Succession Planning

Objectives

Over the years, succession within VIA Rail Canada’s executive leadership team has relied primarily on external candidates, bringing diverse and complementary experience and expertise. Over time, the imbalance between internal and external succession candidates led to three key observations:

1. A risk to business continuity

2. The loss of key talent

3. A practice misaligned with a development-focused culture

VIA Rail quickly moved the needle by adopting a succession management approach that prioritizes clear expectations, transparency, and personalized support for identified key talent.

Solutions

VIA Rail chose SuccessFinder for the depth of its SuccessFinder Profile Insights report, which highlights the uniqueness of each individual. The insights provided help explore behavioral preferences and professional interests, supporting the definition of relevant development goals and concrete action.

Its ability to make psychometric data accessible and actionable through the competency profile. Using a shared language, Normandin Beaudry’s energy scorecard is designed to facilitate leadership discussions around the level of energy required for each expected competency.