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Economic uncertainty often triggers HR budget cuts exactly when companies need to secure their top talent. In this environment, future-focused efforts like succession planning can fall behind immediate business needs. But building a strong leadership bench is key to long-term stability and performance.High-potential employees are 3.7X more likely to leave when they lack growth opportunities, according to DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2025. This creates major risk, especially when development budgets are under pressure and top talent plays a considerable role in driving results.Succession planning reduces this risk and helps companies stay competitive. The same research shows that organizations developing leaders from within are 2.8X more likely to outperform their industry peers. Despite external instability, there are practical steps talent teams can take to safeguard their leadership pipeline. With a focused 90-day plan, you can protect your critical talent—even on a lean budget.In uncertain times, succession planning isn’t a luxury. It’s a business necessity. Here’s how to accelerate your succession strategy in just 90 days.Month 1: Identify Critical Roles and High PotentialsStart by quickly determining which roles are most essential to the business. Focus on positions that directly affect revenue, operations, or customer outcomes. This is especially important during economic instability. Next, use objective assessments to identify high-potential employees and evaluate their readiness to step into larger roles.To keep high potentials engaged and feeling valued, use quick-win visibility strategies. For example, pair them with senior leaders for mentorship, invite them to contribute to strategic projects, and recognize their achievements. These low-cost actions clearly show valuable employees that their growth matters.Month 2: Create Retention-Focused Development PlansOffer targeted development experiences that close skills gaps and keep high potentials engaged. Prioritize skillsthat address current business needs, such as managing change or driving cost-saving initiatives.Transparent career conversations are also critical during unstable times. Honest dialogue provides clarity and tells top talent that their growth is still a priority—reducing the risk they’ll seek opportunities elsewhere.You don’t need to have all the answers. Acknowledge the uncertainty while reinforcing your commitment to their development.Finally, shift the focus from promotion to growth. Even if upward moves aren’t possible right now, meaningful stretch opportunities can build trust and prepare high potentials to step into a different role as needs evolve.Month 3: Implement Accountability SystemsIn the third month, focus on sustaining progress and making measurable impact.Assign clear ownership to leaders to retain high-potential talent. When accountability is shared, retention becomes a business priority, not just HR’s responsibility. Support leaders with a simple, consistent talent review process to keep succession efforts on track.Use early warning systems to detect high-potential flight risks. Recurring check-ins build trust and offer insight into emerging engagement or succession concerns.Finally, track succession plan health with tangible metrics:High-potential engagement scores Internal mobility rates Behavior change in future-focused skills Conclusion: Protect Your Talent, Protect Your FutureWith a focused 90-day plan, you can protect your company’s leadership pipeline on a tight budget. Prioritize vital roles, develop high potentials, and sustain systems over time to strengthen organizational capability and reduce costs.And remember: the cost of replacing a high-potential employee far exceeds the investment to retain them. In an unstable business climate, succession planning isn’t optional. It’s your most reliable strategy for resilience.Now is the time to act. Taking the right steps today can help you shape a stronger, more stable future.Explore how DDI helps companies build stronger pipelines, even in uncertain times.

90-Day Succession Acceleration Plan: Protecting Your Talent During Economic Uncertainty

A coach’s guide to choosing the best tool for leadership development, team performance, and career growth.

Which Corporate Assessment Is Right for You?

Modern sales training has a gap. Not a knowledge gap, but a performance one.Salespeople today aren’t just pitching products. They’re navigating complex conversations, adapting in real time, and building trust with increasingly discerning buyers. And while most training programs focus on delivering information, knowing what to say isn’t the same as knowing how to say it—or when, or why.That kind of readiness only comes from active practice. That’s where role play comes in.Research Shows Role Play Is EffectiveRole play is one of the most effective ways to prepare reps for high-stakes conversations. It gives them space to try, miss, adjust, and improve, but without risking deals. Reps can test out messaging, practice objection handling, and sharpen their instincts in a low-pressure environment.The data backs it up. Retention from active practice like role play averages around 75 percent, compared to just 5 percent for lecture-style learning. Sellers who regularly role play have been shown to close more deals—research shows by as much as 20 to 45 percent.The impact is quantifiable. Organizations implementing structured role play programs report ramp time reductions of two to four weeks. For a team of 25 new reps, each generating $40,000 monthly when fully productive, accelerating readiness by just three weeks translates to $750,000 in additional revenue—before accounting for improved win rates and retention.Despite all this clear data, many sales enablement programs treat it as an optional add-on. Why?The Challenge in Scaling Role PlayScaling role play isn’t easy. Coordinating live sessions across time zones takes time. Informal practice often lacks structure or useful feedback. Plus, many frontline managers aren’t trained as effective coaches. Without a way to track participation or outcomes, it’s hard to prove impact—or even know what’s working.So, despite being one of the most effective training strategies, role play often goes underused, replaced by easier but less effective alternatives.How to Incorporate Role Play Into Your Sales Enablement TrainingThe teams getting the most from role play are building it into their overall training flow. Some are using simulations for solo practice. Others are embedding structured peer exercises into onboarding and coaching. The common thread is consistency—making role play part of the culture, not just a one-off activity.This approach doesn’t just improve rep performance—it also gives managers and enablement leaders better insight into skills, progress, and where to focus coaching efforts.Tips for Getting StartedIf you’re looking to implement or improve role play, start simple. Here are a few tips to keep it effective and repeatable:Make it specific. Each role play should have a defined scenario, goal, and skill focus, like objection handling or pricing conversations.Keep it short. A 5- to 10-minute exchange is often enough to surface skill gaps and generate useful feedback.Pair strategically. Match newer reps with more experienced ones to build confidence and enable peer coaching.Provide a feedback framework. Teach reps how to give constructive, focused feedback to their peers. Use prompts like: What worked well? Where did they lose momentum? What would you try instead?Debrief as a group. Encourage reps to share what they learned to the wider group after the session. This helps reinforce takeaways and normalize growth through practice.Use AI tools to extend learning. Let reps practice with AI-powered simulations before and after live role play. It helps them warm up, get unstuck on common challenges, and reinforce learning through repetition.Track outcomes. Build in ways to measure participation, improvement, and skill adoption over time. This helps refine training and connects the dots between practice and pipeline impact.Involve managers early. Equip frontline managers with role play guides or rubrics so they can reinforce the same standards in coaching conversations. Their participation sends a clear message: this isn’t extra work—it’s core to performance.Build it into the rhythm. Tie role play to weekly team meetings or coaching sessions. When it becomes a habit—not an event—reps show up better prepared and more willing to improve.The more consistent the effort, the more measurable the return. Reps don’t need dozens of sessions they need regular opportunities to apply what they’re learning and reflect on what’s working.For more strategies about implementing role play that drives real outcomes, download the full guide here. 

Why Role Play Delivers 75% Retention (Vs. 5% From Lectures) 

Discover what truly keeps young talent thriving and why it matters for your organization.

Beyond Traineeships: The Power of Purpose, Challenge, and Care in Young Talent Programs

Hours. That’s how long it takes for a frontline worker to decide if they’re in or out. One rough shift (and a slightly better offer), and they’re gone! At Axonify, we know that great onboarding makes all the difference. We’ve worked with millions of frontline associates—and we've asked them directly what matters most when starting a new role and what sets them up for success. The results are in: It all starts with the right onboarding.Onboarding boosts retention by 82 percent and productivity by more than 70 percent (BHG). Yet, only 12 percent of employees say their organization does onboarding well (Gallup). That’s a big problem on the frontline, where people often get hired and start the same day.Nearly 75 percent of organizations say high turnover is one of their biggest frontline challenges (ATD). If you bury new hires in “click next” e-learning or overload them with classroom sessions, you can’t be surprised when they leave—especially when those sessions aren’t built to stick. If they don’t feel confident doing the job or find it enjoyable, they leave.Fixing onboarding takes more than training videos. Frontline leaders need to rethink the purpose of onboarding—and how it sets the tone for the entire brand experience.The Onboarding TrapFrontline onboarding usually goes one of two ways.The new hire gets handed to a peer with training called “they’ll show you how we do things.” There is no structure or manager support—just hope. Then, we’re shocked when performance is shaky and confidence is low.The other version is total overload. We cram every detail into training to satisfy subject matter experts and check compliance boxes. Meanwhile, employees are just trying to remember people’s names and figure out where to buy non-slip shoes.They might pass the test, but most of what they learned is forgotten in a few days because it’s outside the flow of work, lacks consistent reinforcement, and misses the role-specific context that connects to the bigger picture.Shift to EverboardingOnboarding is just the starting point. Shift from front-loaded training to everboarding: continuous learning that’s built into every shift.Start with support. On day one, show new hires how to find answers using your knowledge base, digital assistant, and any other tool that gets them unstuck fast.Pre-assess. Fast-track experienced hires by validating what they already know. Focus training where it actually makes a difference.Embed microlearning. Reinforce critical skills with short, targeted practice during every shift—just a few minutes at a time.Equip managers. Push real-time insights to frontline managers so they can coach in the moment and enable personalized growth.Everboarding ensures support from day one—putting the right tools in your frontline’s hands so they feel confident and capable every shift.Repurposing the First Few DaysWith always-on support in place, we can stop treating the first few days like a firehose and start focusing on the experience.Yes, compliance still matters. Safety training must happen. But we all know new hires won’t retain every policy and process thrown at them on day one.One global retailer took a smarter route. They capped how much training a new sales associate can do on their first day. Instead, they spend most of this shift on the floor meeting the team, connecting with the manager, and getting a feel for the job. Training starts in earnest on day two and rolls out in focused chunks over the first few weeks.The result: reduced turnover, greater consistency, and stronger frontline performance.Retention Starts on Day OneHalf of hourly workers quit within the first 120 days (UKG). It’s not a training problem. It’s an employee experience problem.Everboarding shifts the focus from delivering content to building confidence. This approach fosters a continuous learning and support experience that meets frontline workers in the moments that matter—giving them the tools they need to succeed, exactly when they’re needed. 

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