What is succession planning & why is it important?
Succession planning is the process for identifying and developing talent to fill key positions in your company – particularly when you have key personnel leave and need to quickly replace them.
Company succession planning means being able to create the ultimate employee lineup, which can be as simple as 1, 2, 3:
- Step 1: Identify your key positions as not every position needs a backup. You really need to focus on roles that if left empty would either be expensive to fill, take a long time to fill, require specialist knowledge or impact the performance of your organisation.
- Step 2: Identify the skills, experience and personality required for the positions. Performance and potential are two key criteria to identify potential candidates. One important thing to mention: don’t underestimate qualitative data when preparing your bench. If you have a star employee who has awesome performance and potential ratings, but they’ve mentioned to their line manager they want to go on a 2 year holiday in 6-8 months, you can’t count on them to become the next CEO!
- Step 3: Create clear succession pathways and plans and make sure they’re properly defined and communicated to the team. If your team members know they can work towards a set position, they’ll be much more motivated and engaged in their role. It’ll also make it much easier to justify promotions to those who miss out when the time comes. Be as transparent and honest as possible.
If your talent knows that they’re a potential candidate for a leadership position, they’re probably going to feel more secure in their role, strive to perform better to make that promotion a reality and are less likely to look elsewhere to grow their career.
An open and transparent succession plan is a great way to give top talent a reason to pursue their career within your organisation rather than elsewhere.
Company succession planning chart example
One simple method to easily visualise your succession plans is to use an org chart, as succession planning is directly related to your organisational hierarchy. Share the chart with the relevant personnel (generally just for their team, rather than for the whole organisation) to keep them informed of where they sit within the organisation, now and in the potential future.
The example below is a best practice succession planning chart in org.manager – a solution that allows you to manage key talent indicators such as top talent potential, flight risk and time to fill a position. You can also gain insights into your workforce and ensure talent continuity by enhancing people’s profiles with performance, certifications, readiness for future positions and manager’s input regarding the next career step.
Tip: This view can be customised based on your business requirements. Use visualisation rules to highlight key information that is important for analysis, or hide fields to reduce the amount of information shown on screen for a more focused view.
How to improve your business with company succession planning software
By seamlessly integrating with your existing systems, succession planning software provides a structured framework for anticipating and addressing future leadership needs. Having dedicated succession planning software allows you to:
- Create plans using drag-and-drop
- Arrange your lists in a staging environment
- Track readiness, tenure, education and talent metrics
- Control view and edit rights for each department’s plan
- Use visualisation rules to identify gaps and risk areas
Here are 5 ways a company succession planning software will improve your business:
Talent identification and development: Succession planning software helps in identifying and nurturing talent within the organisation. It allows businesses to assess and develop the skills of potential successors, ensuring a continuous pipeline of qualified individuals who can step into key roles when needed.
Reduced disruption during transitions: With a well-implemented succession planning software, companies can seamlessly transition leadership and key positions, minimising disruptions to daily operations. This ensures business continuity and stability during times of change.
Efficient and data-driven decision-making: These tools provide valuable insights through data analytics, allowing organisations to make informed decisions about their talent pool. By leveraging data on employee performance, skills and potential, businesses can make strategic choices regarding promotions, training programs, and resource allocation.
Improved employee morale and confidence: Knowing that there is a clear and structured path for career advancement can boost employee morale and confidence. A succession plan communicates a commitment to employee growth, encouraging individuals to invest in their professional development and contribute more actively to the success of the organisation.
Cost savings through internal development: Investing in internal talent development through company succession planning can result in cost savings compared to external hires. developing existing employees for leadership roles can be a more cost-effective strategy, as it minimises recruitment and onboarding expenses associated with external candidates.
By using dedicated software, you can share a real-time company succession planning report with anyone in your organisation, as well as restrict access to specific fields based on role or user. org.manager’s succession planning software is Australian hosted and browser based, making it easy to access and share on any device.
To learn more, watch this on-demand webinar – Succession Planning: Meet your strategic objectives.
Final thoughts
By embracing tech-driven solutions that enhance internal development, you will be in a better position to reduce disruptions, facilitate knowledge transfer, boost morale and save money.
Navigo has 20+ years’ experience implementing successful workforce solutions across all industries in Australia. Book a demo today to discover how our portfolio of interactive HR reports will elevate the way you work.
