Succession planning
Contents
Definition
Succession planning is a methodology for identifying and developing employees to ensure that key organizational positions can be filled with qualified internal candidates, in advance of actual need, and to assist in managing diversity and workforce planning.
Succession Management is a systematic approach by an organization to safeguard leadership permanence in crucial positions, intellect retention and development, knowledge capital for the future and to encourage individual progression.
Purpose and Benefit
Succession planning should be part of a succession management program which focuses on ongoing, regular efforts to build talent, as well as help individuals recognize their potential through coaching and feedback. It refers to efforts intended to ensure the sustained effective performance of an organization, division, department or work group by identifying and providing for the development, replacement and strategic application of key people over time. Both succession planning and management highlight the importance of developing in-house talent to meet present and future talent needs of the organization.
Succession Planning and Management are beneficial because:
-Increases opportunities for high potential workers;
-Contributes to identification of group of employees with potential for advancement;
-Contributes to implementation of organization’s strategic business plans;
-Supports employees in recognizing their career plans;
-Understands prospective intellectual capital;
-Inspires the development of diverse groups;
-Better prepares employee’s to react to changing demands;
-Improves the morale of employees;
-Better manages the consequences and effects of voluntary departures;
-Identifies which employees can be laid off without loss and damage to the organization;
-Manages more effectively the consequences of downsizing;
-Decreases headcount to workers that are deemed essential.
Description
Succession planning and management aims to match organization’s present talent to its future talent needs; ensure that organization has the right people at the right time and place to achieve the desired results and meet strategic and operational challenges; ensure the continued development of leadership and intellectual talent and to manage critically important knowledge assets of organizations.
Implementation guide
Succession Management may include generation of succession plans to cover identified posts in short (1 year) to medium (2-5) term of years, identification of those individuals with potential who’s development needs to be managed and identification of skill area/vulnerabilities that includes managerial and technical competencies that the company needs to address. The important element of this process is to gather data on potential development opportunities which exist or are likely to arise in the various parts of the organization. Succession planning and management should be linked to both organizational and human resources strategy. Succession Management process is difficult to implement.
The following steps are essential:
-Integrating succession management plans with strategy;
-Identifying skills and competencies needed to meet strategic objectives; the identification and characteristics of key successors can be identified through job and competency based approach;
-Identifying high potential employees;
-Making development opportunities and experiences available;
-Monitoring Succession Management.
Success factors
-Succession planning and management should be an ongoing process that should not exist in isolation;
-It must be integrated with organizations strategy and adapt to changes as organizations strategic objectives change; organizations must start with the business plan;
-Assessing employees must be done both fairly and accurately as this is necessary for employees to buy into the process and feel that the selection process is valid and reliable;
-In succession management process, the focus in management development is on the development of competencies not just on job preparation;
-Executive team should hold the managers accountable for developing employees and organizations should allocate some of executive incentives to leadership development and assess them on the ability to retain talent;
-Organizations should take into consideration employees’ aspirations and goals when they develop them. Managerial preferences cannot be the only basis in the employee development;
-Succession management process should encourage employee’s participation to gain their commitment and ownership to the plans;
-Managers should be forced to identify backfill candidates.
Common pitfalls
Numerous challenges exist with implementation of a succession management program some of which include:
-Identifying a group of top candidates may result in those individuals drifting their careers due to their contributions being already recognized, organizations also might not invest sufficiently in the further development of these promotable employees which may result in decline of their motivation and competencies;
-Selection bias might result if the selection criteria is not clear, evaluation strategies may vary by department and rating errors might occur, such as recency, contrast, and leniency and strictness; this might result in lower morale and lack of ‘buy in’ from the employees in the process;
-Managers at times may fear that by developing their own replacements they themselves may get replaced;
-Difficulties in predicting accurately the future performance of the high potential employees under changing conditions.
Resources
INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, The Nuclear Power Industry’s Aging Workforce: Transfer of Knowledge to the Next Generation, IAEA-TECDOC-1399, IAEA, Vienna (2004).
Rothwell, J., 2010. Effective succession planning: ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within. 4th ed. New York: AMACOM
Belcourt, M and McBey, K., 2007.Strategic human resources planning.3rd ed.Toronto: Nelson.
