6 steps you can take to help streamline succession planning in your company

Businesses and HR processes need to be streamlined to improve talent management and to ensure consistency in succession planning across your company. It is also critical to understand that succession planning strategies must evolve as corporate strategy and development needs adjust to keep up with market changes. In order to identify key positions and talent that are critical to business continuity, a flexible succession planning strategy is fundamental.

Here are six steps you can take to help streamline succession planning in your company.

1.       Define what succession planning means to your company

Before an organization can strategically plan for succession, it must identify the long-term vision and direction of the company. Succession planning must be connected to the strategic business objectives and values of the organization.

2.       Identify key positions and analyze potential skill gaps

One of the best ways to begin talent planning is to pinpoint key positions across the organization and to determine the current supply and anticipated demand.

3.       Identify high potentials and talent pools

After identifying high potentials, key positions and roles that require specific skills, you need to identify high potential talent to secure as successors into these key positions in order to build a talent inventory.

4.       Analyze talent data and determine

With a clear understanding of high potential talent and key positions and responsibilities, management and HR can identify existing talent gaps that could impede delivery on corporate objectives. This analysis guides management in its efforts to fill the gaps between the existing talent pool and the employee base required to compete and drive revenue growth.

5.       Execute succession strategies

Equipped with relevant information about the state of the organization’s talent pool management and HR can implement succession planning initiatives to maximize individual workers’ value to the enterprise. After identifying a talented employee that could be named the successor for a key position, organizations can strategically build a career development plan for the individual in a way that moves their career forward.

6.       Measure and monitor succession plans and evaluate their effectiveness

Succession planning technologies make it possible to monitor global talent management strategies and determine talent needs. By implementing succession planning technologies, proactive HR departments are taking the necessary steps to ensure the continuity and flow of talent through-out the organization and achieve the long-term vision of their business.

Organizations that execute succession planning strategies benefit from:

·         Alignment of the availability of appropriate resources within the company with business strategy;

·         A single source of truth that provides visibility and synchronizes into the succession planning process across the organization;

·         Improved business results such as revenue growth, hiring/training cost reduction, productivity improvement and reduced downtime;

·         Competitive advantage of having a high-performing, well-qualified workforce and talent pipeline.

·         Continuity of company culture through talent retention.

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