At its core, succession planning ensures an organisation's continuity and stability.
By identifying and grooming future leaders, businesses can mitigate the risk of disruption and maintain a steady course even in times of transition. In addition, a succession plan helps build confidence among employees, customers, and other stakeholders, who rely on the organisation's stability to achieve their goals.
However, succession planning is more than finding someone to fill a vacant position. It's an opportunity to foster leadership development and talent management, creating a pipeline of skilled and motivated employees ready to step up when the time comes.
As a business leader, by investing in the development of your people, the organisation can create a culture of growth and opportunity that attracts and retains top talent.
How can you cross-train your employees to help them develop skills, knowledge, and an understanding of the business? What can organisations do to build a robust leadership pipeline that can take over key roles when needed?
In this deck, you will learn the tools, steps and practical strategies to begin implementing the succession planning process.
You will also learn;
- How your organisation can implement successful succession plans
- Six (6) critical mistakes to avoid during succession planning
- Key business benefits of succession planning
4. x
Succession Planning
A proactive and systematic business technique used by
organisations to transfer leadership roles to another
person/group of employees or to groom future leaders
for significant responsibilities throughout all levels of
the organisation, is known as succession planning.
Planning for succession makes sure that organisations
keep operating efficiently and without disruptions even
if key personnel leave for better opportunities, retire,
or pass away.
It is a process wgere organisations identify those
positions considered to be the core of the organisation
and then create a strategic plan to fill those postion
with qualified and high-potential employees.
5. Types of Succession Planning
01 02 03
3 Types of Succession Planning
Strategic
Leadership
Development
Creating a culture of continuous
learning, accountability and
aligning talent with strategic vision
Departure-Defined
Succession Plan
Thoughtful planning and
activities to ensure
organisation sustainability
Emergency/Interim
Succession Plan
It appoints a specific acting
successor or successors by role,
defines their scope, designates their
reporting lines, and identifies back-
filled support.
Click here to read: Build to Last: Succession Planning Steps for Your Organisation
6. Main Objectives of
Succession Planning
Succession Planning can achieve a number of
goals that not only helps candidates succeed
in their new roles but also offer a wider range
of advantages to the business as a whole. It
includes:
Improved Retention
Business Continuity
Individual Development and Engagement
Reduced Risk
7. Common mistakes to avoid when planning succession
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03
05
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06
Don’t create a succession
plan for every role in the
company
Playing favouritism Not addressing
disappointment
Don’t expect immediate
results
Turning the process into
a competition
Having no objective
process for spotting
successors
8. 6 Succession Planning Steps for Your Organisation
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02
03
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4
05
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6
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an action
plan to develop
successor(s)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
Here are 6 insightful and actionable succession planning steps that you can employ for any position or title.
9. 01
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4
05
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6
In succession planning, the
first step is to choose
positions in need of
successors. Two
factors to priortise are the
positions of vulnerability and
criticality.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an
action plan
to develop
successor(s
)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
10. 02
01
02
03
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4
05
0
6
Assess Skills
and abilities
identify the behavioral
requirements of a
specific role to find the
perfect fit to make your
evaluation more
streamlined, objective,
efficient and effective.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Create an
action plan
to develop
successor(s)
Evaluate the
succession
plan
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Click here to read: Effective Strategies for Developing Your Leadership Pipeline
11. 03
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02
03
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4
05
0
6
This should span the whole
organisation. Besides senior
management, look across
departments, positions, and
teams for any employee who
can be a potential
successor.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an action
plan to develop
successor(s)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
12. 04
01
02
03
0
4
05
0
6
The next step is to identify
employees in the qualified
positions who could temporarily
fill the
vacancy and potentially apply as
candidates for the position
should the need arise.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an
action plan
to develop
successor(s
)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
13. 05
01
02
03
0
4
05
0
6
Creating a
development plan for
potential successors
facilitates the
discovery of significant
growth prospects.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an
action plan
to develop
successor(s
)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
14. 06
01
02
03
0
4
05
0
6
By evaluating your
organisation’s succession
planning efforts each year,
you can continually
improve your succession
planning strategy and your
organization’s effectiveness.
Identify critical
and vulnerable
positions
Assess Skills
and abilities
Create an
action plan
to develop
successor(s)
Identify a
talent
pipeline
Nominate
successors from
the qualified
positions
Evaluate the
succession
plan
15. x
5 Business Benefits of
Succession Planning
✔ It disaster-proofs your business
✔ It helps you identify your most-promising
future leaders
✔ It creates a structure for training and
development
✔ It helps to maintain board and shareholder
trust
✔ It gives a sense of direction to the business
and enables it to plan for the long term
✔ A stronger company culture
Click here to read: 5 Key Benefits of Succession Planning (& Importance for Business Success)
16. Let’s help you create highly-effective succession strategies to improve your
leadership pipeline and drive superior results. With our learning and
leadership development solutions, your organisation can maintain its
operations and strategic direction during a leadership transition.
Leverage Workforce Learning solutions to evaluate your employee
competencies and eligibility status for critical positions. Our bespoke
succession strategies are adequately tailored to meet your organisation’s
goals, values and current business demands.
Need a helping hand? Workforce Group can help your organisation promote
right through our modern and effective evaluation methods. Send an email
to hello@workforcegroup.com.
Scale the advantage…
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Programmes
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Occupational testing
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