Does Succession Planning Help? Let us Find Out….

Have we seen a business successfully sustain and run without talented people? similarly when key people currently occupying certain positions in the organisation leave, the business needs to place another set of talented people to take over these roles and move in to keep the show running. That is Succession Planning.

Succession Planning is a strategy that helps in identifying and developing future leaders for the organisation. This is done across top and major roles at all levels to help the business be prepared for all odds and ends.

Planning for success

The Human Resource Department performs an evaluation exercise of the existing talent and the future skill requirement entailing the whole organisation to ensure it runs across every department and not be limited to only the C Suite

1. Critical Roles are Classified for Succession Planning

2. Evaluation for the competencies and experience required is determined

3. The Existing employees are evaluated against these requirements and key talent is identified in terms of performance and potential for meeting future skills needs.

4. The required development and skills gaps are identified to take them to the next level

5. Employees are enabled to prepare for future promotions

6. A development plan is then prepared which is mapped out to identify the progress along the way

Succession Planning and Career Path are two different exercises which must be performed as a standalone exercise to enable the HR to identify the similarities and focus on the disparities with the same employee and align the skills with the business goals and strategies. Research from Gallup suggests that listening to what your top performances value most helps to improve retention and improve your company culture. In the UAE, there are a lot of HR consultancies that may help an organization in defining distinct yet aligned strategies around career pathing and succession planning are crucial to achieving that.

Benefits of Succession Planning:

Identifies Critical Positions in an Organization

C-suites are not the only major positions in an organisation. The Mid-Level and the Intermediate are equally critical and crucial for the organisation’s success. The ideal objective of succession planning in HRM is to identify the mission-critical frontline positions essentials for the organisation’s growth.

This exercise enables organisations to outline and define a structure with role-specific job descriptions and strategic contributions along with identifying the obsolete and declining positions which brings clarity to the executives and board members.

Underlines the Organization’s Competency Levels

The strategic objective of succession planning is carrying out a mapping criterion in the organisation.

While trying to sustain and grow in a competitive market, critical competencies help in understanding the present distinction in your organisation. To identify details of talent competencies that must be recruited, promoted or developed for a long-term stability. Competency mapping is a comprehensive matrix that is practical and worthwhile when planning for succession.