Succession planning & the big picture

Is your succession plan a well thought-out program or does it only come into play when the CEO asks you a question like: "Do we have someone to replace our regional manager next month?"

All HR Directors should understand the overall succession planning concept and that way they won't ever worry about answering a question like the CEO's example in the first paragraph. Coming to grips with succession planning is extremely important because there are too many succession planning initiatives that fail to live up to expectations.

In fact, if you do a Google web search for information on "Succession Planning" you'll find over 6,980,000 matches. That's too many sites to visit so let's try to refine the search: Using succession planning as the main topic and then with the key words "organization vision" the search results drop to 311 hits. Why is there such a difference between the two? The main reason is that many companies think of succession planning as a stand alone program.

I publish a column in the "Human Assets" magazine and often refer to "putting the puzzle together" because it's a common mistake to try to focus on only one HR issue at a time. Succession planning efforts should be completed in context with every other piece of the puzzle if you want the organization's succession planning efforts to be successful!

Before a company embarks on creating (or improving) a succession plan for their organization they need to sit down and review the entire picture. The first place to start is with the company's vision and mission statement. Are they still current? Will major changes be taking place during the next 3 to 5 years? Is the current organization structure capable of supporting the changes? Will new divisions, departments or positions be created to handle the new (or expanded) business objectives? By examining these factors it becomes easier to determine what skills and abilities are needed by the organization's future leaders.

Understanding the competencies that are needed to meet the organization's strategic objective is just the first link in a long chain. The process actually starts by ensuring your recruitment, compensation and benefits package can attract and keep the right type of people in your organization. Without having a dependable workforce in place it will be almost impossible to carry out long-term succession planning efforts.

Another factor that has a direct link to succession planning is the training and career development program. Having a robust program will ensure you have the right people, with the right skills, at the right time to meet the current and future business objectives. Business research also shows that people tend to stay with a company much longer when their professional development goals are being met. This leads to a motivated workforce, a more productive working environment and a positive impact on bottom-line results.

Remember, succession planning needs to be part of the company's strategic planning process because succession planning and the development of future leaders do not exist in isolation!