Succession planning: it’s planning for the worst by expecting the best. That’s because this is your organisation’s opportunity to plan ahead of key departures while preparing current employees for future roles and developing them.
Whether you call it succession planning, anticipatory workforce planning or something else, succession planning can be a win-win for your people and your business. This article will help not only outline how to do it, but how to succeed at it, too.
For companies to thrive long-term, implementing a strong succession plan is essential This ensures critical roles always have qualified talent ready to step in, providing leadership continuity
Follow this comprehensive guide to learn what effective succession planning entails and how to strategically build a plan tailored to your organization’s needs
What is Succession Planning?
Succession planning is the deliberate process of training and preparing internal employees to take on critical leadership roles when openings arise This provides stability and continuity for the organization as veteran leaders retire or move on
The goals of succession planning include:
- Identifying high-potential candidates for advancement
- Providing development opportunities to strengthen skills
- Ensuring smooth transitions when vacancies occur
- Transferring knowledge from outgoing to incoming leaders
With proper preparation, companies can equip the next generation, retain institutional knowledge, and avoid leadership gaps.
Why is Succession Planning Important?
Investing in succession planning offers companies many tangible benefits:
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Preserves Institutional Knowledge – Outgoing leaders can share experience that would be lost if bringing in an unknown external hire.
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Promotes Internal Candidates – Opportunity to reward and retain top existing talent.
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Enhances Engagement – Employees see potential career paths to work toward.
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Reduces Recruitment Costs – No need for expensive executive search processes.
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Minimizes Disruption – Internal hires adjust more smoothly into new roles.
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Provides Stability – Lessens impact when veteran leaders inevitably transition out.
Make succession planning a priority to future-proof your leadership ranks.
How to Develop an Effective Succession Plan
Follow these key steps to implement a tailored succession planning process:
1. Identify Critical Roles
Determine which leadership positions are essential to have a pipeline of qualified internal candidates for. This likely includes C-level execs, senior managers, technical experts and specialty roles.
2. Assess Current Bench Strength
Take stock of existing talent. Who within the company could be ready to step into those critical roles in the near-term (1-3 years)? Gauge their level of readiness.
3. Pinpoint High-Potentials
Look beyond just the obvious near-term candidates to highlight younger employees with raw potential. Consider capabilities, initiative, core values and demonstrated growth.
4. Develop Leadership Competencies
Analyze the key skills, experiences and competencies required for your organization’s vital roles. This allows tailored development plans.
5. Create Individual Development Plans
For each identified successor, craft IDPs outlining the training, mentorship, education and developmental assignments to close any gaps.
6. Enable Knowledge Transfer
Create overlap opportunities like shadowing, committee roles and special projects for successors to learn from current leaders. Capture tacit knowledge.
7. Conduct Trial Runs
Test identified successors with short-term project leadership, interim roles and presenting to execs. This builds experience and exposes gaps.
8. Formalize the Program
Document the succession planning process so it can be managed consistently. Define program metrics and review timelines.
9. Align Talent Processes
Integrate succession plans into recruiting, performance management, learning and career development programs.
Best Practices for Succession Planning
Keep these vital tips in mind as you develop and execute on your succession strategy:
- Gain buy-in from leadership on the importance of investing in the program.
- Make succession planning transparent so employees understand the process.
- Start early to allow enough time to ready successors. At least 5 years is ideal.
- Customize development plans for each participant rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Conduct regular talent reviews and update the succession pipeline as new potentials emerge.
- Establish metrics like number of vacancies filled internally to track program success.
- Celebrate participants progressing through the program to motivate engagement.
Following this guidance will help ingrain succession planning into your organizational culture and ensure a bright future.
Common Challenges and Solutions
Here are solutions to some typical challenges faced with succession planning:
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Lack of formal structure – Document the program thoroughly so it is applied systematically across the organization.
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Inadequate development support – Be willing to invest budget, resources and executive time into readying successors.
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No benchmarks or metrics – Monitor key metrics like internal placement rate to gauge effectiveness.
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Unclear criteria for selection – Establish formal assessment criteria based on competencies for key roles.
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Poor visibility – Communicate the program and candidate progress to enhance visibility.
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Complacency of veterans – Motivate them to share knowledge and take an active role in mentoring successors.
With deliberate planning and commitment to nurturing talent internally, companies can build a robust leadership pipeline to stand the test of time. Use these succession planning best practices to future-proof your organization.
When Should A Key Position Be Filled Externally?
For succession planning to be successful, you need to think about whether your company currently has the talent to replace a key position. This means that, even if it is cheaper to fill a position internally, it does not guarantee that a current employee is up to the task.
In fact, an employee may not be qualified for the role, but they also may not be interested. Here is what you should consider for either internal or external fillings:
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Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|---|---|
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None or a short recruiting process, as the employees skills and qualifications are already known. |
Newcomers bring in fresh ideas, drive innovation, and help counteract blindness to the companys failings. |
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The employee can be provided with specific training to develop key skills before they take on the new role. |
External candidates provide access to new networks. |
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Short induction phase: The employee is already familiar with the company and its processes. |
Newcomers are objective and disinterested in previous conflicts within the company. |
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Investing in staff development fosters employee loyalty. |
External candidates may enjoy greater acceptance, above all in leadership positions. |
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Developing internal staff has a positive effect on the motivation and loyalty of other team members. |
New employees contribute additional skills and knowledge. |
Why Should You Build A ‘Succession Plan’?
Building a succession planning process or framework is about mitigating the risks of organisational change. This way, when a change at the very top occurs, the friction between departments, teams and employees is reduced or becomes nonexistent, because the ‘vacuum’ of institutional knowledge is removed.
HR Basics: Succession Planning
What are the best practices for succession planning?
Taking a long-term approach to succession planning and combining it with talent and leadership development are two of the best practices when creating a succession planning strategy. Why? Because succession planning generally focuses on senior leadership roles that would be replaced by employees currently in mid-level leadership roles.
What is succession planning & why is it important?
Succession planning is a proactive strategy for identifying and nurturing high-potential employees to fill critical roles when current leaders move to another role, leave the company, are fired, retire or die. Your company can ensure a smooth transition and maintain stability during leadership changes by preparing a talent pipeline of successors.
Can you do succession planning for all roles?
You can do succession planning for all roles, regardless of their level. Succession planning helps you prepare for future contingencies by preparing alternative team members with the potential to replace your current team members when they resign or retire. Why is succession planning important?
How do you develop a succession plan?
Use a combination of techniques, including mentoring, cross-training, job enlargement or enrichment, job shadowing and case studies, vestibule training, and classroom training. Employee interest in succession planning, willingness to be a part of it and efforts toward achieving goals associated with it should be part of performance management.
