HR Basics: Comprehensive Guide to Effective Succession Planning (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: HR Basics is a series of short courses designed to highlight what you need to know about a particular human resource management topic. In today's HR Basics, we explore succession planning. Succession planning is the process of identifying high-potential employees, evaluating and developing their skills, and preparing them for advancement. Planning for both the foreseen and unexpected absences of people who hold key roles in an organization is a task that we as employers often avoid or engage in only in an informal manner. Succession planning involves understanding the organization's long-term goals and objectives, identifying high-potential people, and determining workforce trends and predictions. To avoid vacancies in key positions and ensure the stability of business operations, succession planning is critically important. It also provides meaningful developmental opportunities to employees at all levels of the organization. It also develops a diverse workforce by enabling decision-makers to look at the future makeup of an organization as a whole. There are many succession planning models. Depending on the needs of an organization, a customized approach may be utilized to best integrate into work practices and culture. However, most models follow a five-step process. Identify key positions, identify high performers, prepare participants, provide developmental opportunities, and monitor progress. When succession planning is carefully conducted and the plan is periodically reviewed, organizations can avoid extended and costly vacancies. Succession planning must be a priority for every employer and should be a part of its strategic business plan. A key position is critical to the viability and continuity of an organization. Identifying key positions takes a holistic approach and needs the input of managers and executive sponsors regarding the knowledge, skills, abilities, and outcomes of an individual, current and future competency gaps, and the environmental scanning to identify opportunities and obstacles in this process. Owners and sponsors of succession planning will need to continuously and systematically assess critical positions, KSAOs, and competencies needed and plans for future roles each time a new strategy or mission is created. To maximize succession planning initiatives, it's important to identify critical employees through performance metrics and outputs. It's also important to ask not only who is ready now, but who might be ready in three to five years. Otherwise, organizations are depriving themselves of longer-term pool diversity. Organizations will need to determine relevant competencies and experiences necessary for each of the potential areas of succession. The nine-box grid shown here is the most commonly used succession planning tool as a method for evaluating an organization's current talent and identifying potential leaders. It's an individual assessment tool that evaluates an employee's current potential and level of contribution to the organization. Succession planning requires individual input of each participant. An employee's self-assessment can be an invaluable component of a gap analysis. This activity becomes a catalyst for productive conversation as well as an agreed understanding of what gaps should be addressed. We need to provide opportunities and solutions that address talent gaps and create accountabilities for leaders to develop successors. Employee development is almost universally recognized as a strategic tool for an organization's continued growth, productivity, and ability to retain valuable employees. Adherence to the plan in assessing current competencies and determining where the skill gaps are and taking steps to close the gap over time is all part of our monitoring obligation. The success of our succession planning is determined by the efforts to keep the succession moving forward over time despite the predictable intrusions of operational needs and unexpected organizational changes. Succession planning is a critical component of an organization's workforce planning and strategic human resource management efforts.