Succession Planning

Organizational stability

A well-structured succession plan contributes to the organization’s overall stability, ensuring smooth and orderly leadership transitions, which can positively affect employee morale and confidence in the company’s future.

Knowledge transfer

If a leader leaves unexpectedly, how much knowledge is walking out the door with them? Proactively preserving institutional knowledge ensures that valuable insights and expertise are not lost when key employees depart.

Retaining top talent

Succession planning gives high-potential and high-performing employees a clear career path in your organization. In turn, that boosts engagement and allows you to save money on hiring external senior employees and executives.

Helping to plan and prepare for the future based on different scenarios

This reassures shareholders that the business is well taken care of in the long term. “Organizations who fail to plan or create a succession pipeline successfully run the risk of losing the confidence of their stakeholders and investors from uncertainty and unfamiliarity,” explains Jenna Fisher, Managing Director at the executive search and leadership advisory firm Russell Reynolds Associates and author of To the Top: How Women in Corporate Leadership Are Rewriting the Rules for Success.

Leadership development

A succession plan presents a structured approach to preparing a new generation of leaders to steer your organization forward.

Preventing conflict

Without a clear succession plan, power struggles may arise within the company. Different people and groups might start competing for dominance. This dysfunctional conflict makes it more difficult to achieve organizational goals.

Protects leadership continuity

Company leaders may retire, receive a promotion, or leave suddenly. When this happens, succession planning ensures continuity by preparing successors in advance.
Changeovers happen with minimal disruption to employees and their workflows. This maintains stability
and stakeholder confidence.

Promotes growth and development

Succession planning prepares your employees for the roles they’re best suited to. You can help them develop the skills they need and stretch their capabilities. You’ll help them grow as individuals with a clear career path, boosting engagement and satisfaction. Then, when the time comes, they can take on their new role with confidence.

Highlights skills gaps

Succession planning involves regular talent reviews: They can highlight skills gaps in your workforce, as well as workflows your employees are missing (or aren’t doing effectively). You can then create a plan to address these gaps. For instance, you can create upskilling and reskilling programs. It’s a good idea to align this plan with your company’s roadmap so people can see how it helps achieve the company’s

Improves retention

Research shows over a fifth of employees leave their jobs because they saw becer growth and development opportunities elsewhere. To retain your talented employees, they need to see a future with your company. Succession planning can help. It prepares employees for the future and shows them you value them and want to help them grow.

Preserves knowledge and skills

Succession planning can aid knowledge transfer through mentorship programs and coaching. Current leaders can teach potential successors the skills to do the job. This helps to prevent the loss of vital company knowledge. It’s also a good way to ingrain knowledge sharing into your company culture.

Fosters agility

Part of succession planning is looking ahead. How is your company likely to grow? What skills will you need? How is the market predicted to change? By answering these questions, you can help your organization stay agile. You’ll have a pool of talented individuals ready for future challenges and opportunities.

Start With The End In Mind

You need to take the time to clearly understand what you will be looking for in terms of roles to fill, requirements for those roles, and what is important for success at your company. Identify the core competencies, skills, abilities, and other required criteria for someone to be successful at your company in a specific role. As you take this step, ensure that you are as inclusive as possible and interview your strongest incumbents and their bosses for input. The output can include leadership competency models and updated job descriptions, as well as a list of those roles to be included in the process.

Be Clear About The Roles That Will Be Included (and not)

As soon you start talking about successions planning, people start to get nervous because they feel their careers are now in someone else’s hands. So, up front, identify and communicate the positions and the people involved in the process. Will it include all supervisory roles? Senior leadership? Or only executive roles? By narrowing the focus, you can help to alleviate your team member’s guessing and wondering about their future with the organization.

Engage All Stakeholders Who Will Be Impacted In The Process

HR should not own the process, rather the business leaders should drive it and HR’s role should be to facilitate the process and provide appropriate tools along the way. Engaging stakeholders, particularly senior leadership, is critical. You should conduct interviews with them, invite them to take surveys and to provide input, and acend focus groups. Involving key stakeholders will not only help you get buy-in for every step of the process, but also you will receive some ideas about how to make it a becer experience and process for everyone.

Look Ahead 1-3-5 Years

Of course you need a plan if executives in critical roles get “hit by a bus”, however, you also need to focus on longer term succession planning, which means you need to forecast out your workforce needs. An important step to take with the forecasting is to identify “mobilization factors” for each individual and level of management under consideration.

Conduct Talent Assessments At Least Annually

Succession planning is not and should not be considered as a static event, but rather a fluid process constantly evolving and changing. As soon as you create the plan, it is outdated so; I recommend that you review your talent on a regular consistent basis. That begins with ensuring role requirements are current and talent assessment is timely. Consider using validated assessment tools i.e. 360-degree feedback, and other competency-based tools that assess skill, interests, and abilities as well as conduct evaluation interviews with managers and incumbents and review past performance evaluation data. Once you have a fuller picture of the individual’s strengths and opportunities, you can then summarize his/her strengths, growing edges, development needs, career desires, and potential. The nine-box grid tool is an easy visual diagnostic to use where you plot each person inside one of nine boxes based on past performance and future potential.