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Succession planning is vital to help organizations gain advantage in today’s competitive climate. This practical methodology will help you to establish a new, or review an existing, succession planning strategy within your organization.
When to Use This Guide
Signs that you should create a new, or revise an existing, succession planning strategy include some or all of the following:
- There is no record, or recognized process of recording, the skills and talents held by employees throughout the organization.
- There is a tendency for senior positions to be automatically filled by the next in command, with limited structured analysis of other candidates throughout the organization.
- When a senior position becomes available you are unable to establish if a suitable internal candidate exists.
- If any member of senior management (or other key posts where there is a skills shortage) were to leave the organization, their position would be difficult to fill internally.
- No shortlist exists of successors to the present CEO, or senior management team.
Suggestions
The following advice sets out a number of good practice suggestions which, when combined, form the basis of a highly effective succession planning methodology. You can use the advice offered to review your existing succession planning strategy, or as the basis for a new strategy.
1. Create a Pipeline to Leadership
Succession planning must start on appointment of promising individuals and form a ‘pipeline’ or ‘fast track’ route to management and leadership. This will ensure adequate depth of talent when it comes to choosing successors for senior positions. Ensure that this ‘pipeline’ is in place by:
- implementing a recruitment strategy which identifies potential managers and leaders at an early stage (you could, for example, keep a database of skills and experience)
- designing and developing a retention strategy which will encourage talent to remain within your organization
- identifying the positions (or level of positions) that you wish to plan for – e.g. which positions could you least afford to lose?
- pre-empting resignation/retiral with adequate planning and a short-list of potential candidates
- acknowledging that your strategy will need to adapt in line with organizational change - try to predict positions which will no longer exist in the future, or alternatively new positions which may arise
2. Recruit Future Managers and Leaders
With regards to recruitment, you need to implement a strategy which will ensure that you win the ‘war for talent’:
- A competitive pay package is a starting point, although employees today often look beyond financial rewards.
- Identify the skill set and characteristics required for managers and leaders within your organization, and ensure that potential recruits fit the template.
- Highlight that the conditions exist in your organization for talented people to progress and develop.
3. Retain Your Talent
There is little use in recruiting to a high standard if you are unable to dissuade your talent from moving on to other organizations. Retention can be approached in a number of different ways.
- Pay package. As with recruitment, pay alone is not going to persuade an employee not to move on, but if your basic pay package does not match up to that of other organizations, you are immediately disadvantaged.
- Work-life balance. Promoting a balance between work and personal life can ensure that an employee remains happy in the workplace. A work-life balance policy that discourages excessive working hours and puts measures in place to help avoid stressful working situations should be implemented.
- Benefits. Additional benefits such as gym membership, child-care vouchers and access to services are becoming an increasingly popular addition to traditional financial benefits such as pension schemes.
- Job satisfaction. Perhaps losing an unappealing element of a job could encourage an employee to stay. Often, people enjoy a challenging job more than one which does not stretch their abilities.
- Ethical policy. An organization’s ethical beliefs and practices can have a profound effect on employees. Organizations with rigorous ethical standards can benefit from an increased ability to recruit and retain the best people.
- Learning and development opportunities. Talented employees will want to continue to learn in the workplace. If they are not sufficiently stimulated and challenged by the opportunities in your organization then they may go elsewhere.
4. Identify Key Players/Mapping
A useful tool to assist with succession planning is a skills and experience database. This enables you to identify highly skilled key players at a glance and ensure that they get sufficient training and experience.
- Compile accurate and consistent ‘people’ and ‘position’ plans. Ensure that the same categories exist and are completed on each person/post plan. On a position plan, include information regarding the position past, present and future. These plans allow posts and people to be matched.
- Include a shortlist of current potential candidates on your position plan.
5. Encourage Learning and Development
Once you have identified your potential talent, you need to ensure that they are adequately supported with learning and development opportunities to allow them to fulfill their full potential.
- Identify possible candidates and ensure that they are receiving adequate training and development.
- Use your skills database to identify and remedy any skills shortfalls either within the organization or within an individual’s skill set.
- Ensure that talented individuals do not miss out on promotion due to a lack of experience. Identify areas where more experience needs to be gained, and ensure that the individual has sufficient opportunity to learn from their experience. This can be done through development programs, secondments, and delegation opportunities, as well as traditional learning activities such as courses and workshops.
6. Implement a Thorough Selection Process
When you have to identify and select a candidate for a management or leadership position, ensure you go through a thorough and fair selection process. Mistakes made at this stage can be costly. It is essential that you have assessed all of your candidates in an objective manner.
- Identify the skill set required for the post in question and ensure that your candidate matches this as closely as possible.
- Embrace a diverse selection pool and be open to the benefits a range of talents and backgrounds can bring to a role.
- Allow plenty of time for changeover and development of the chosen candidate if appropriate.
7. Measure the Effectiveness of Succession Planning
It is vital that you regularly review the effectiveness of the succession planning process. It must be in a constant state of development to make sure it remains easy to use and relevant. The following questions will help you to reflect upon its current effectiveness: [1]
- Do management and leadership vacancies get filled by potential successors?
- Do vacancies get filled quickly?
- Is the data gathered useful, i.e. is it used when a vacancy arises?
- Is planned individual development actually taking place?
- What happens to potential successors as they progress through the pipeline?
- Have retention and motivation improved?
[1] Wendy Hirsh, Succession Planning Demystified, The Institute for Employment Studies (2000).
References[1] Wendy Hirsh, Succession Planning Demystified, The Institute for Employment Studies (2000).
