Succession Planning - Refilling the Pipeline

When Jack Welch has announced his retirement from GE, there were three replacements waiting in the wings. When the President of McDonald Jim Cantalupo died suddenly, his replacement was literally a heartbeat away. In both cases, the plans were in place and the transition to the new leader has been ordered, with little or no impact on the organization.

Not all organizations are ready. Hewlett-Packard had to go outside the company to tap Carly Fiorina from Lucent Technologies to be their CEO, and then endured six years of trauma, bad, and the cessation of the public was once again forced to bring in someone from 'exterior to be their CEO.

GE and McDonald exemplified the importance and effectiveness of succession planning. They were ready with an able successor. But there must be a Fortune 500 company to have a plan, rather, each organization must be prepared for the inevitable. More and more organizations realize that their success depends on a smooth continuity of leadership and talent development increased at home. But most companies have come on board. In a recent SHRM survey done with the National Center for older worker career, only 29% of participants reported having plans for succession planning. Why are not all companies get on board?

Too often organizations focus on the crisis facing them. Making plans for something that will happen in the future does not seem to rise to the level of urgency. It 's just easier to defer to another time. For others, the problem hits too close to home. Thinking of their home and when you will no longer occupy it, it makes them feel very uncomfortable. Planning time and replacing them in the developing world, it makes them feel superfluous. Succession planning sometimes forces them to confront their own board and brings a lot of problems that many would rather not deal at all. It can be painful. And for others, who can be a bit 'tired, succession planning is not just their problem. As one manager told me cynical, "I'm gone, so why should I care?" Although this may be myopic view shared by a small number, will harm the long-range health of their organizations.

Over the next 3 to 5 years, the first wave of baby boomers is expected to exit the workforce. The volume of sales would be unprecedented and its impact on all organizations will be dramatic. Beyond the loss of people, there will be a significant loss of experience, knowledge, perspective and wisdom. This prospect of losing so much talent and knowledge in a short period of time has forced even the most reluctant to acknowledge and begin to focus on succession planning.

So what is succession planning? This is a process for the identification and development of talent to ensure that the main organizational positions can be filled with qualified internal candidates in advance of their actual need. It is a dynamic process, focused on creating talent pool available to meet immediate needs and long-term company.

There is more focus on succession planning, simply on the executive suite, where the regime of the plot, and few would choose the first anointing the heir apparent in a sort of chess kingmaker. Today, succession planning is pushed further down the organization. With the development of increasing levels of the workforce, replacements are ready to place when necessary.

A well-developed succession plan should be integrated into the global workforce plan of organization and management must be intimately linked to the recruitment, retention, training, performance management and knowledge-retention initiatives. After organizations to define their own goals in the short and long term, they may assess whether the skills of the workforce to achieve these strategic objectives. The gap between capacity of current workforce and what is needed to meet expected future needs, along with methods to reduce this gap, is the crux of succession planning.

But what are the main elements of a successful plan?
1. Active CEO involvement: this can not be simply an HR plan. CEOs are increasingly partnering with HR and active management of this strategic initiative.
2. Integration with your business plan: estate planning can not work in a vacuum, while the business plans can not be achieved without talent.
3. Process to identify key positions and their critical skills, not all positions must be part of the plan.
4. How to identify, promote and select "high potential", along with this is an individual career development plan.
5. To monitor the development of individuals using coaching, mentoring and assessments essential elements of a good plan for performance management.
6. Method to identify gaps in succession to determine if you can build inner strength, or if there is a need to quickly take the outside.
7. Periodic review of the plan to ensure its effectiveness. Succession planning should be ongoing rather than annual look-see.

Turnover may not want to derail the best laid plans. While the plan is to grow and develop internal talent for future opportunities and needs, things happen and employee leaves. Organizations must implement strategies to identify potential problems of turnover and talent "at risk" in order to minimize the impact. Employee satisfaction surveys have proven to be an effective predictor of turnover and should be an annual initiative.

While the focus of the plan is to identify and nurture talent, you should take care in preventing valuable knowledge walking out the door. Organizations must focus on capturing knowledge workers before you leave or retire. Through "the preservation of knowledge" or "knowledge" of the mapping plans, managers can gain critical knowledge from the heads of their employees. Common elements of conservation plans include documentation of knowledge, guidance, training, shadows, and sharing of know-how. The acquisition of knowledge has become the fabric of an organization. When employees and managers can easily share their knowledge, experience and know-how, the operation runs without any beeps.

Today we are at a critical moment. We know that left unchecked, the flow of talent out of the workforce is steadily increasing. Succession planning can begin to fill the pipeline. Begin the process should not be difficult or complex. But the process must begin. Start slowly, but start slow drip before it becomes a steady stream leaving the workplace drained .......