Succession Planning

What Is Succession Planning?

Succession Planning is a strategy for identifying and developing future leaders within your company at all levels. Succession plans are used to address the inevitable changes that occur when employees resign, retire, are fired, get sick, or pass away. Succession planning ensures that businesses are prepared for all contingencies by identifying and training high-potential workers for advancement into key roles. Knowing the importance of identifying potential future leaders and developing a succession plan, you help employees feel valued for their contributions, and eager to realize their potential within the company. Recruitment and retention are tied to issues associated with whether employees feel that their professional potential is being developed. Having opportunities across the organizational spectrum to participate in leadership development efforts is something that can provide an incentive to join and remain with an organization.

It is important to remember that an overall systems wide perspective on leadership development helps to build a broader leadership capacity and a deeper pipeline of leaders. Focus is not just on those at the top, but includes most or all management levels with increased focus on high-potential employees to maximize the return on investment from developmental efforts. Strategic Workforce Innovations Succession management strategy identifies successors (replacement planning), and develops them (succession planning), with the overarching goal of having a pool or pipeline of prepared leaders across all organizational levels to fill vacancies in key positions when needed.

Succession Planning Advantages

• Employees know that there is a chance for advancement, which can lead to higher satisfaction.

• Knowing that the company is planning for future opportunities reinforces career development among employees.

• Management keeps better track of the value of employees so that positions can be filled internally when opportunities arise.

• With Baby Boomer business owners and leadership retiring in huge numbers, a new generation of leaders will be needed.

How Can Strategic Workforce Innovations Help?

Strategic Workforce Innovations will help your business by developing and implementing a strategic workforce optimization plan which will move employees horizontally across the organization, not only decreasing the need for upward mobility with promotions, but strengthening employee skill-sets and creating a more versatile workforce. By optimizing the workforce, business can address workforce planning needs internally which will reduce recruiting and hiring costs, and retain high performing staff as they take on a variety of work assignments to further enhance their career development. With individuals changing careers and jobs more frequently, businesses need to prepare for a workforce with employees looking to continually expand their skill-sets cross-functionally.