Succession Planning - Make It A Plan

Make succession planning a plan as it is true that "those who fail to plan, plan to fail."

The notes below assume there are a number of roles that should be covered by the succession planning process.

The same criteria still applies if your organisation needs to only plan for a succession of one key person only.

These are the key steps to consider in your succession planning process:

1. Limit the people to which the succession plan covers to those who perform critical roles only.
2. Define the core skills, experience, and competencies for each role.
3. Identify who should be considered for the critical role or roles.For a small business usually the list of candidates or a candidate will be internal. If for various reasons there are no suitable internal candidates leverage existing networks,attend conferences and seminars and also scan social media to identify external candidates.
4. Compare candidates' attributes with role requirements and categorise candidates into three sections:
• Emergency, caretaker role
• Suitable immediately
• Suitable now but requires some further development
  Perform an analysis of the above for each considered candidate. Critically asses what if any further development they may need and incorporate these now into each candidates career development plan.
5. Incorporate an action plan. Keep potential candidates engaged and continue to develop them and continue to keep their job satisfaction levels high.
6. Ensure execution of the succession plan and periodically review same as it is not an idle process. Keeping candidates engaged  results in increased retention rates, job satisfaction levels and resulting increase in efficiency.