Overview:
Fortune 500 companies and small family businesses alike share a business need - ensuring that they have the talent necessary to effectively lead their organizations in the future.
One of the most significant contributions a leader can make is insuring his/her business' continuity and sustainability - by having employees who are willing and capable of filling each key position with a plan for doing so when the need arises.
Succession Planning is a:
- the deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed in the future
- a strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization's current talent pool, and meeting its future needs
Not having a Succession Plan can be costly and sometimes disastrous; it's expensive to recruit, interview, select, onboard and train a new leader and significant opportunity costs are incurred when a key job is not being performed.
Areas Covered in the Session:
Succession Plan Defined
- A deliberate, systematic process of anticipating the need for talent and ensuring that the necessary employee competencies and experience are available when needed
- A strategic approach for avoiding an undersupply of talent, enhancing the organization's current talent pool, and meeting the organization’s future needs
Objectives and Benefits of Succession Planning
- Sustain the business through a systematic effort to ensure leadership continuity in key positions
- Attract, retain & develop high potentials [HiPos]
- Encourage HiPos development by:
- Identifying career paths
- Conducting performance appraisals
- Providing daily coaching
- Creating Individualized Development Plans [IDPs]
- Holding Talent Review meetings
Tools and Processes Commonly Utilized for Developing and Implementing
- Self-appraisals and career goals
- Performance appraisals, 360 feedback, and ratings
- Assessment instruments
- GE grid
- Individual development plans [IDPs]
- HiPo talent development interventions
- Talent review meetings
What an Organization, its Leaders, and the Program Participants Need to Do To Achieve an Effective Plan
What an organization needs to do:
- Supply funding/budget
- Establish a clear vision and guidance for the program
- Develop a formal, written program
- Announce the objectives of the program to all employees
- Ensure that all leaders and managers support the program
What the leaders need to do:
- Have job descriptions developed for their teams
- Conduct effective, formal performance appraisals
- Identify employee developmental areas
- share their knowledge and experience
- Involve employees in more of the leader's responsibilities
- Facilitate the completion of IDPs for all Hi Pos
What the program participants need to do:
- Conduct self-appraisals
- Identify their desired career paths
- Learn as much as they can about potential future assignments
- Perform to their capabilities
- Complete their IDPs
- Develop the employees reporting to them - so they have successors
Potential Measures of the Program's Success
- Whether there is, at least, one successor for each key position
- Having developmental goals and IDPs established for each successor
- Determining how much of their manager's job the successors can perform
- Determining whether successors can perform their manager's jobs when they are unavailable and evaluating their performance during those times
Who Will Benefit:
- HR Professionals New to the Field - seeking a comprehensive view of the subject with multiple application initiatives
- Experienced HR Professionals - seeking a refresher
- Leaders and Managers - interested in understanding how a Succession Plan benefits an organization