Best Practices for Succession Planning

Succession planning is not a separate function from your organization’s strategic business processes. In fact, it plays critical role in your organization’s continual success because succession planning is a strategic approach to filling critical positions that might otherwise be left vacant due to employee turnover or retirement and mitigating the effect of losing the of skills and knowledge departing employees take with them.

When those critical positions aren’t filled with the talent you need when you need it, your organization’s sustainability and ability to grow are at risk. To stay strategically viable, you must implement a sound succession planning process.

To get started doing so, take a look at the best practices for succession planning.

Senior Management Must Champion the Plan

No succession plan can be succeed without full and enthusiastic support from the senior management team. They are an organization’s puppeteers and they’re holding all the strings.

Without the senior management’s support, it will be hard to get employees on board and chances are the succession planning process won’t result in any real action.

Focus on Critical Positions and Key Talent

Focusing your succession planning efforts on critical positions and key talent will help you target and reduce your immediate risk quickly.

The critical positions in your organization are those that, if suddenly vacant, would negatively affect your ability to your business goals. After you identify your critical positions, determine how critical each is to the organization and how scarce the knowledge and skills needed to be successful in each position are. Finally, you must identify the talent within your organization that’s ready for you to start preparing to step into those critical positions.

Use a Competency-Based Assessment

Thanks to years of leadership research, companies now understand the competencies an employee must possess to be successful across all levels of the organization, so analyzing employees’ potential to get to the next level has moved from a subjective, gut choice to an objective science.

Competency-based assessments are created on that science and can provide an objective view of which people and positions, if lost, would hurt your organization the most. To create a successful succession plan, your organization needs to utilize this science to make assessments and judgments about employee performance and potential.

Integrate Performance and Development Systems

If you aren’t providing your employees with serious development plans to get to the next level, your succession plan is nothing more than a list of names. Effective succession plans integrate performance and development systems to prepare employees to move up as needed.

Providing your employees with a plan of action and an understanding of their career path within the organization will not only help your organization establish a pipeline of high-potential talent and build your organization’s bench strength, but also will help boost employee engagement and retention rates.

Don’t Make it Too Complex

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the succession planning process, but there are ways to keep it simple enough to avoid getting bogged down and create a plan that works. The advice above -- particularly starting with a focus on critical positions and key talent -- will make for a manageable process.Read our white paper to learn more best practices for succession planning:

Success Labs is a full-service, strategic organizational and leadership development company located in Baton Rouge, La. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.