Succession Planning: An Essential Guide for HR Professional
Many employees leave organizations for various reasons, including retirement, resignation, shifting to another organization, or facing unexpected events. Without a proper succession plan, businesses tend to struggle. These unanticipated changes can hamper its overall operations.
With succession planning, one can groom top talents, fill vacated roles, preserve institutional knowledge, and future-proof the workforce. According to a study by Deloitte, 86 percent of leaders agree that succession is the top priority, but only 14 percent get it right.
In this article, let’s understand succession, the role of HR in planning it effectively, and its advantages.
Succession Planning
Succession planning is the process of identifying the crucial roles in a team and figuring out ways to fill them when they’re vacant. For businesses to thrive, it requires to eliminate the moments of crisis and lack of leadership. It helps prepare a person for a planned or emergency replacement. It might be due to the occurrence of retirement, a new opportunity, or in the event of death. It is an organization’s safety net to ensure that business operations are running smoothly.
A robust planning process will help identify the individuals who can fill essential leadership positions. In the best-case scenario, one can also get advance notice when an individual plans to leave their current job in the form of gathering feedback from the employees, one-on-one meetings and more. A succession plan prepares for the worst-case scenarios to avoid any undeniable concerns. A well-crafted succession plan will help the business run smoothly and pass it on to the next generation without any hassles.
Role of HR in succession planning
HR plays a crucial role in planning succession, such as understanding successors in the company, creating and applying development models and programs, monitoring progress and giving feedback, nurturing a culture of succession, encouraging all the employees to focus more on their career paths, promoting diversity and inclusion throughout the process and adapting with the evolving internal and external aspects.
The role of an HR professional is much more than just filling the needed vacancies. It uplifts an organization that easily adapts and continues to thrive today and in the future by focusing on results and growth-driven goals.
☝️ Types of Succession Plans
There are two kinds of succession plans which HR must consider before moving further. It will allow the organizations to focus more and proactively deal with emergencies.
✍️ Long-term succession plan
The first kind of succession plan is a long-term succession plan. This plan will relate to the standards to replace the essential positions in an organization. This plan gets reviewed and altered as the organization keeps growing. For large organizations, this can be the best plan that gives details of succession for all crucial positions.
✍️ Emergency succession plan
A secondary emergency succession plan is helpful during an emergency. This plan involves temporary measures to make the operations run smoothly and effectively. It can also make other senior members take on extra responsibilities while a replacement takes place.
✌️ Advantages of Succession Planning
Many small and medium businesses have no succession plan. A few of these only have some informal plans. It can be a risk, as there might be unforeseen incidents that can occur, like death. A plan is always worth creating, if is formal, written, developed, and easily accessible. A few of the advantages that businesses can get are:
✍️ Candidates ready to begin
When an upcoming promotion, retirement, or departure is about to happen, the organization gets equipped with the next generation of leaders ready to take off. Thanks to the succession plan, the replacement will be available with the necessary competencies and expertise to take over the role.
✍️ Encourages managers to build junior employees
The succession plan can help the managers begin building lower-level employees. It helps define clear progression routes via the organization so managers can share proper training and information with junior members. They will initiate the training process and replacement during the promotions.
✍️ Leads to more job satisfaction
Employees report greater job satisfaction when there is a succession plan. It helps define paths to progression and decreases job insecurity. It also helps to know employees should get a promotion, set goals, and have a clear vision and direction at work.
✍️ Progress tracking
Succession planning helps managers track workforce progress through performance reviews. Internal opportunities usually get filled with knowledgeable staff that are highly skilled and well-trained.
✍️ Makes shareholders be confident
Whenever a high-ranking postholder quits, it can leave shareholders feeling uneasy. In most cases, they might sell their shares. With an active succession model, they can help keep investors on board. For positions like CEO or CFO, the board might consider some insights as the choice of successor. It will give the shareholders confidence in the organization of the new postholder.
✍️ Nurture and maintain loyalty
Promoting a strong culture can help increase the organization’s loyalty. It also attracts talented employees to remain and work effectively in an organization for a long time. It is helpful for the employees to understand the business, morals, and expectations.
A final word
Effective succession planning is crucial so that roles get filled. A robust plan nurtures the most promising talent and offers organizations clear career paths that boost engagement and retention efforts. An organization doesn’t have a plan for the most critical positions. It is time for a proactive approach and planning for the future.
