8 Effective Steps for Proper Succession Planning
Planning is a term we all are familiar with. But what does it exactly mean? Planning is the process of setting objectives, implementing them, preparing side plans to support main objectives and putting them into action and finally measuring the performance of the implemented plans. It is one the most important task for any organisation.
Succession planning is usually described as – any efforts or plans made for the continual and competitive performance of the company along with a certain growth of the company as well as of its employees by preparing plans for development, replacements and strategic application of key people over time.
It aims to retain the effective and well-performing employees, develop them through giving them well planned targets and attract the available best talent from the pool of applicants.
It helps the organisation to ensure long-term growth and continuity. Let’s get to know about some steps that will help in proper succession planning.
1. To guide the succession planning programs, measurable plans should be prepared
Organisations strategic goals must be closely aligned with the measurable plans of succession planning programme.
2. Annually revise the succession planning programs
The plans are needed to be revised annually so that if there is any need for changes in the plan to improve the performance, then the changes could be made timely.
3. To make clear what needs to be done, proper job descriptions must be prepared
To make a company successful, every employee must know that what are his/her duties and what are the tasks that they need to perform and for which they accountable to their superior.
4. It needs to be made clear that what role does each stakeholder has to play in succession planning
Key stakeholders usually include CEO, middle manager, senior executives, supervisors and the labour union i.e. workers too. The top level management must be interested and busy in making and formulation the succession plans.
5. On the basis of strategic strength of the organisation, talent pools must be established
Talent pools are the high performing employees of the company. Every organisation has unique strategies and requirements. So it is important that these talent pools must be given the responsibilities that play a vital role in the growth of the company.
6. Competency model should be prepared on organisations chart
A company must perform an examination to determine the performance requirement from the objectives that has already been set. The company must ensure that all objectives are measurable and help in company’s growth.
7. Prepare an inventory of talented employees
Every individual plays an important role in the growth of a company. So the strength and weaknesses of all the individuals must be kept in the records to balance the functioning of the plans.
8. The entire succession plan must be evaluated on regularly specified time intervals
The performance of these succession plans must be evaluated at the end of the year and must be compared with the performance at the beginning of the cycle. This will help the company to know about their growth rates.
Every company dreams of achieving greater heights in the future and every person working in that organisation plays a vital role. Succession planning must be adopted which will help to reduce risk and provide stability and growth at a much faster rate.