Succession Planning

Succession planning is the procedure of identifying potential leaders in an organization to fill important positions in near future. It is important for an organization to find the right people who will fill key positions. Any organization needs to select the candidates carefully, as they would in key positions and strategically significant roles with great responsibility and power. Thus organizations need to adopt a detailed and broad system of selection, inspection, grooming and orientation.

This process of succession planning enables organizations to:

•  Assess if they have the right skills mix to achieve company goals – and determine what gaps exist that must be closed. 
• Identify talented employees and provide education to develop them for future higher level and broader responsibilities 
• Identify which employees are at risk of leaving. 
• Retain superior employees 
• Build “bench strength."
• Determine where people belong on the bus. 
• Determine if they should be on your bus - or someone else’s.

Succession plan ideas can be

• Strategic succession plan - It is done when organization knows about any upcoming key vacant position. Generally at such situations, current (or outgoing) key role holder is involved in the lookup for a successor and also gives initial guidelines about the role.
• Emergency succession plan – It is done when a critical key role holder departs unexpectedly due to illness or accident.

Also, succession plan depends upon the company policy.

• Some organizations prefer to use the talents within the company to grow and lead
• Some companies adopt talents outside the organization to avoid collision amongst employees

Further, strategic succession plan can be

• Immediate (0 – 1 year)
• Mid-term   (2-5 years)
• Long term  (beyond 5 years)

Key elements of succession planning:

• Identification of key position
• Identification of key talent
• Assessment of key talent
• Grooming and development
• Support through transition

Steps to ensure Effective Succession Planning

• HR and business leaders should monitor succession plan.
• Rather than just recording performance, potential for future roles need to be assess. 
• Manage succession data on individuals and talent pools.
• Balance talent development and acquisition in achieving future objectives.
• Integrate succession planning systems with other businesses and HR systems in the organization to achieve efficiency, consistency and impact.

Barriers to succession plan

• Projected shortage of talents
• Cost and Time
• Talent retention 
• Conflict within employee and employer
• Insecurity feeling
• Lack of learning opportunity
• Expectation of organization