BY Rakshith & Namita Mba-hr

Succession Planning
It is the process of ensuring that qualified persons are available to assume key managerial positions, whenever this fall vacant due to Untimely deaths Premature firing Resignations Retirements Promotions Growth Expansion Creation of new positions

Why is it necessary
The aim is to ensure a smooth transition and operating efficiency. A succession persons to fill key positions over time is essential for the survival and success of an organization. Studies reveal that executives hired from outside are more expensive than those chosen through succession planning.

Interlinkage with a Talent Management Aspect

Talent assessment
What kind of talent does the organization need? What kind of talent does the organization have? What are the high impact positions?

Talent Aspiration
Who are our top leaders? What are their career aspirations? What do we need to do to retain them? Do we successors in the pipeline?

Continued
Talent Selection
Are we attracting the right talent to meet our current and future business objective? Can we identify internal and external expertise?

Talent Development
Are there on the job opportunities? Do they need require internal experiences/external training?

7. KEY ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESSION PLANNING

1. Active CEO Involvement

2. Integration with your strategic plan.

3. Process to identify essential positions

4. Procedure to identify, promote and select high potentials

5. Manner to monitor individuals development

6. Method to identify gaps in succession

7. Regular review of the plan to ensure its effectiveness.

Succession Planning - A 5 Step Process

Step 1: Identify critical positions Step 2: Identify competencies

Step 3: Identify succession management strategies

Step 4: Document and implement succession plans

Step 5: Evaluate Effectiveness

Key Advantages

The advantages of succession planning include the opportunity to

Conduct a SWOT analysis of the business to determine its leadership needs now and in the coming years Develop a strategic Leadership Human Resource Plan that includes comprehensive position descriptions, needs analysis and plans to bridge the gaps

Build relationships with and carefully study the performance and behavior of successors over a long period of time
Provide a sense of direction, stability and expectations for all key stakeholders: employees, customers, shareholders and vendors Retain a critically important employee who might otherwise leave if not formally recognized as the successor

Key Disadvantages
Its difficult to think that there might be disadvantages to succession planning but here are some things to consider Appointing the wrong person can lead to a variety of problems that result in poorer company performance and turnover Pulling the trigger too quickly to appoint someone only to have a better candidate appear later on Engaging in succession planning when the business is immature may lead to erroneous conclusions about leadership needs A poorly conducted succession planning process will lead to poor decisions, disharmony and ultimately poor company performance as well