8 Major Stages of Succession Planning

Succession planning is an approach for identifying and developing future leaders at your company not just at the top but for major roles at all levels. It helps your business prepare for all emergencies by preparing high-potential workers for development. Here are 8 stages of succession planning process to kick-start your company. 

1. Be Proactive With A Plan:

Sometimes, you will know well in advance if a highly efficient team member is going to leave the company, for example, a planned retirement. But other times, you will be caught unaware by a sudden and potentially confused employee departure. That’s why you need a plan now.

• First, consider all the key responsibilities of your team and answer these two questions:
• What is the everyday impact of X’s position on our company or department?
• If the person currently in X position left, how would that disturb our management?

2. Identify Needs:

If we get to know the key qualifications that impact success, now there is a need to plan where we might lose those skills. So, evaluate and plan the key positions that might become vacant in near future. Think of:

• Which employee is going to retire?
• Which employee is currently pregnant?
• What is your general attrition rate?

You can also take a top-down method in this step, and plan for your whole company’s succession plan beginning from your CEO to executive leadership and further down the organizational chart. 

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3. Pinpoint Succession Candidates:

Once you have a handle on the rise and fall effect that the departure of certain employees might cause, select team members who could step into those positions.

Question yourself:

• If we were to hire for X position within the team, which employees would be the strongest and most eligible candidates for stepping into this role?
• Would those candidates need to be trained? And, if so, what type of training?

While the evident successor to a role may be the person who is straightaway next in line in the organizational chart, don’t ignore other promising employees. Look for people who exhibit the skills necessary to succeed in higher positions, irrespective of their current titles.

But don’t just imagine you know how people on your team consider their career goals. You may have a few team members on your list for senior management roles, but who is to say they will even be interested in the idea once it is offered to them? If you haven’t already, discussed with these employees how they think about their professional future before making your succession choices.

4. Let Them Know

In private meetings, explain to each apprentice that they are being singled out for positions of growing importance. Bring out an understanding that there are no guarantees, and the situation can change due to circumstances come across by either the company or the succession candidates themselves.

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5. Step Up Professional Development Efforts:

Preferably, you have already been participating in the professional development training of those you select as your succession choices. Now that groundwork needs to be ramped up. Job rotation is the best way to help your applicants acquire additional knowledge and experience. And introducing them to mentors can boost their abilities in the important area of soft skills: The best leaders have a strong command over communication skills and refined interpersonal abilities, such as empathy and diplomacy. Professional personality development classes can also in professional development efforts.

6. Do A Test Run Of Your Succession Plan:

Don’t delay until there is a crisis to test whether an employee has the exact stuff to assume a more advanced role. Have a budding successor assume some responsibilities of a manager who is taking some time off or on a break. The employee will attain some valuable experience and gain the opportunity to shine. And you can evaluate where that person might need some further training and development.

7. Incorporate Your Succession Plan Into Your Hiring Strategy:

Once you have recognized employees as successors for crucial roles in your organization, take note of any talent gaps they would leave behind if recruited. That can help you categorize where to focus your future recruiting efforts.

8. Think About Your Successor:

The best corporate coach of India suggests that when making a succession plan for your organization, keep in mind that your role will someday need backfilling. Maybe you will choose to take advantage of a new opportunity, or you will spend your time and retire from the workforce. So it is important to question yourself, which employee could step into your shoes in the future? And what can you do, starting now, to train that person to prepare for the change?

The employees of your workforce aren’t fixed assets and alterations in your team’s line-up are unavoidable. You may not always be able to expect a treasured employee’s departure from the firm. But through stages of succession planning, you can concrete the way for the continuity so serious to your business’s future.