Supporting Succession Planning and Restructuring with TeamDirectory
In today’s fast-changing business environment, maintaining a clear view of your organization’s structure isn’t just helpful, it’s essential.
Succession planning and workforce realignment are critical responsibilities for HR and leadership teams. Organizations must identify future leaders, track headcount accurately, and communicate structural changes effectively, often while also managing hybrid work and evolving business demands.
Recent studies show that only about 19% of organizations have a formal succession plan in place, and 46% of HR professionals cite leadership pipeline gaps as a major barrier to growth.
Having an up-to-date picture of who sits where in the organization is vital for everything from resource planning to restructuring.
In this post, you’ll discover how TeamDirectory helps organizations:
- Identify and develop future leaders
- Keep employee data accurate and accessible
- Streamline restructuring and communication
What is TeamDirectory?
TeamDirectory is an employee directory built for Microsoft 365 that helps you stay connected, organized, and informed.
It provides a single, searchable source of truth for employee information that automatically synchronizes with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory).
Seamlessly integrating into Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, TeamDirectory eliminates manual updates and reduces the risk of outdated information.
With TeamDirectory, you can:
- Access rich employee profiles and organizational chart view
- Integrate seamlessly with your existing Microsoft 365 workflow
- Eliminate manual data entry and ensure real-time accuracy
- Empower HR and leaders to make confident, data-driven decisions
Let’s explore how TeamDirectory supports both succession planning and organizational restructuring.
How TeamDirectory Supports Succession Planning
Identify Potential Successors
Succession planning starts with visibility into skills, roles, and reporting lines. TeamDirectory’s detailed profiles display each employee’s department, office location, and reporting structure, automatically updated through Microsoft Entra ID synchronization.
Profiles can be customized to suit your organization’s needs using Entra ID’s extension attributes, allowing you to include any additional fields required for leadership planning.
HR teams can quickly search by department, role, or location to identify potential successors and plan for upcoming promotions or transitions.
Use Smart Categories to Segment Talent
Succession planning often requires grouping employees based on specific criteria, such as readiness for advancement or key role coverage. TeamDirectory’s Smart Categories feature makes this simple.
HR teams can define logic-based filters to create categories like:
- “Ready for Leadership”
- “Critical Role Holders”
- “High-Potential Employees”
These lists automatically update as employees meet the set criteria, keeping your talent pipeline current and diverse.
Only 33% of organizations report feeling prepared for leadership transitions, demonstrating why tools that simplify visibility into potential successors are essential.
Smart Categories in TeamDirectory
Gain Insights to Inform Decisions
Reliable data powers smart decisions. TeamDirectory provides real-time headcount and structural data synced from Microsoft Entra ID, helping leaders identify skill gaps and align resources effectively.
Over 52% of HR teams say their biggest challenge is accurately forecasting workforce needs.
Empower Managers with Actionable Data
Beyond HR, TeamDirectory supports managers by offering:
- Instant visibility into team structures and reporting lines
- Quick access to employee profiles and contact details
- Up-to-date headcount data for planning team expansions or transitions
- Confidence in data accuracy when making people decisions
Facilitating Restructuring and Resource Alignment
Organizational restructuring can be disruptive, making communication and clarity paramount. TeamDirectory supports restructuring in several ways:
- Connect instantly: Search by role, location, or any Microsoft Entra ID attribute and start a chat or call directly from the directory—fully integrated into Microsoft 365.
- Visualize team alignment: See who reports to whom, where expertise resides, and plan future reporting lines with clarity.
- Make data-driven changes: Gain insights into current headcount and structure to confidently plan team merges, reassignments, or downsizing.
- Deploy securely: Benefit from Single Sign-On, Microsoft Defender protection, and automatic updates through Azure, ensuring your directory stays current and secure.
Best-in-class organizations achieve headcount accuracy within 2 hours and fill high-value roles within 45 days, making up-to-date data essential for efficient restructuring.
Final Thoughts
Succession planning, headcount management, and restructuring are complex tasks that demand accurate data and strong communication.
TeamDirectory simplifies these processes by offering a central, automatically updated directory with powerful search, detailed profiles, and a clear org chart view.
With Smart Categories, actionable insights, and Microsoft 365 integration, HR and leadership teams can make better decisions, faster.
By turning organizational complexity into clarity, TeamDirectory helps every team thrive through change and plan with purpose.
