Succession Planning: A Guide for Managers
Succession planning is critical for the long-term sustainability of any organisation. Good succession planning addresses:
Continuity: Ensuring that business operations continue smoothly in the event of key personnel changes.
Risk Management: Reducing risks associated with sudden departures and maintaining organisational stability
Talent Retention: Helping to retain talented employees by providing clear career progression paths and opportunities for them to develop and grow.
And yet, succession planning is something that many organisations struggle with. Here’s a few things I have heard over my years of supporting leaders and organisations with this:
“We’re a small organisation, we don’t have time to do it.”
“We’re a flat organisation, there is no room for career progression.”
“We don’t have the budget or the time to release staff for training.”
“How do you talk to people about retirement, won’t that upset them?”
“What happens if we train people up and they don’t get the job, or they leave and take their skills elsewhere.”
Does any of that seem familiar to you? I’m sure it does, and I’m sure that you could add even more to this list!
And yes, succession planning, like many other people management processes, isn’t without its challenges.
But consider what happens if we don’t think about succession planning, and critical team members leave, taking their knowledge and skills with them, without a good fit replacement. Or staff become disengaged and disgruntled because they can’t see any development or career opportunities for them. And we’ve all probably been in the situation when a really good team member says they are leaving, and the team goes into panic mode about who is going to replace them in time to get all the work done - succession panic, rather than planning.
Our Thrive Succession Planning Framework gives you a process that simplifies succession planning, outlining concrete steps that you can take to ensure continuity, maintains organisational stability, and prepare your organisation for future challenges.
Thrive Succession Planning Framework
1. Identify critical roles
2. Create role profiles
3. Identify potential successors
4. Assess readiness
5. Develop
6. Review and evaluate
Steps to Effective Succession Planning
Let’s look at each of the stages of the framework in turn, with practical actions that you need to take:
1. Identify critical roles
Identify which roles are critical to the organisation’s success.
Focus on positions that, if vacant, would disrupt operations significantly.
Consider which roles might be difficult to fill, because of the skills and experience needed, or perhaps because of issues in recruitment in that specific sector.
Then think about when those roles might be likely to lose their current postholder - in the short/medium/long term.
2. Create role profiles
Don’t just think about this as a job for HR. As a leader and manager, you have much more on the ground information about the role and what is needed.
And don’t immediately go to the old job description. Begin by considering how the role has changed, or might need to change, to meet the strategic objectives of the organisation.
Consider the most important functions, key objectives and deliverables for the role. What are the key skills and knowledge needed for this role?
And what does it take to be successful in this role? What’s the difference between someone who would be just okay in the role and someone who would shine?
3. Identify potential successors
Consider everyone in the team, don’t make assumptions about who might, or might not be, interested in career development, or new opportunities.
Be open and inclusive in your process. It can be useful to do this a management team or a Succession Committee, to ensure that you are taking other views on board.
Talk to the people involved and be transparent in your communication and processes.
Clarify that being nominated as a potential successor does not guarantee selection as a successor
4. Assess readiness
Readiness refers to the degree to which an individual’s skills, competencies,experiences, knowledge, and motivation meet the requirements for a particular job or group of jobs.
It can be useful to evaluate potential successors into 3 categories:
Ready Now – could take up the post now and with a good handover, proper induction do well in the post, or with a little support could be ready for the role fairly quickly
Ready Soon (1-2/3 years) – have good existing knowledge, experience and skills, but need to develop more broadly, or in specific areas before they are ready
Longer-term Ready – have got great potential but still have significant room to develop, or need more experience of other roles before they are ready for this one.
Remember to focus on the long term as well. The temptation can be to focus on the immediate role priorities, but by focusing on staff with potential you are building a longer term talent pipeline.
5. Develop
Create development plans.
Offer opportunities to attend training programmes, but focus on learning and development more broadly as well.
Offer stretch assignments, mentoring and coaching, job secondment and rotation to staff.
Make learning and development part of your organisational culture. Not only will it feed into your succession planning process, but you will have a more engaged, better performing team.
6. Review and evaluate
Regularly review the progress of potential successors against their development plans.
Adjust the plan as necessary to address any gaps or changes in the organisation.
Periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the succession plan.
Update the plan based on organisational changes, new strategic directions, and the progress of employees
Top Tips for Succession Planning
Succession planning is a vital process for organisations to ensure their longevity and success. By systematically identifying key roles and developing potential future successors, you can mitigate risks, retain talent, and maintain operational continuity.
Identify critical roles: Make sure to not only think about senior leaders, consider other key roles in the organisation and include contingency planning.
Start early: Begin succession planning long before a position becomes vacant to ensure a smooth transition.
Involve Current Leaders: Engage current managers in the process to leverage their insights and experience.
Be open and transparent: Talk to team members, ask them to engage in the process, offer ideas and suggestions.
Be Inclusive: Consider a diverse pool of candidates to ensure a broad range of perspectives and skills.
Foster a Culture of Development: Encourage continuous learning and development throughout the organisation, make having conversations about careers and development normal, and focus on building an internal talent pipeline.
Implementing a well-structured succession plan requires commitment and regular review, but the benefits far outweigh the challenges. And, if you need support, or would like to talk about the framework, you can organise a chat with Marie here.