Read our short article on Succession Planning
A succession plan benefits the company and the employee
If your business has a growth plan, how will your employees grow with it?
Tips to implement succession planning
Does your business have a growth plan? If so, have you thought about how your staff can grow with your organisation?
A succession plan focuses on what you need to provide those employees so they can grow as you grow. Most businesses spend time focusing on their growth strategy and fail to focus on their employee strategy.
The benefits of succession planning for your business include:
Saving money – developing and promoting employees from within saves you time and money on recruitment, onboarding and training
Stronger people – promoting from within means you are not just promoting people based on their performance, you’re helping them acquire management skills so they’re better equipped when the time comes
No holes – it’s hard to predict when the right candidate will come along for a role, especially a highly-skilled or senior level role. By planning ahead, you’ll have employees ready and waiting to fill that gap when the time comes
Investing in people’s future – a succession plan is a clear indicator that you’re willing to invest in your people, which can sometimes be worth far more than a bonus or a pay rise
Increased engagement – by showing you value your people and provide recognition and reward for high performers, employees have a goal to work towards, thereby keeping them more engaged
Less downtime – where your succession plan includes multi-skilled and developed employees, you can expand your workforce capabilities, meaning its easier to deal with absences
Better recruitment plans – a good succession plan will help you recruit for the long term, rather than just for today
The benefits of succession planning for the employee include:
Feeling valued – the fact you are willing to invest time and money into their development shows them how important they are and how valued their potential is, not just their current performance
Sense of purpose – succession plans provide a clear path for advancement and give employees a goal, thereby reducing that feeling of aimlessness
They’re prepared – stepping into the spotlight can be scary, but by giving employees the right tools, they’ll be ready and waiting when that bit moment comes
So how do I go about designing a succession plan?
Set overall development goals – what do you (and your employees) want to develop, is to managers, multi-skilled employees, experts in certain areas?
Make a list of requirements – tasks, reading, training, courses, projects – everything an employee needs to do to be considered ready for the new role
Create a timeline for succession – you need to know where to begin, a timeline will help show how long development will take
Set a budget – what materials will the employee need? How many hours will they need on development? Set a budget that you can work with
Create a strategy – how will you introduce, conduct and measure progress – is it reading lists, mentoring, training, trial periods? Will you measure using checklists, gradings, peer feedback?
If you’d like some help implementing and managing succession planning, feel free to give us a call.
Do you have questions about Succession Planning?
Give us a call at CUBE HR, we’ll be happy to advise you and we have policies and templates available to meet every HR need.
Why not check out our other blog on the same topic Career Ladders and Other Employee Investments
You can also watch a range of other videos on our YouTube channel
