The fact that people are the lifeblood of any company is already heavily emphasized by several professionals and academia and their critical importance need not be highlighted further. But there are also some employees who are significant to the functioning of the organisation. These people are involved in some of the company’s most vital processes. Without them the company will not be able to function just as much as an airplane cannot fly without a pilot.
Organisation al change is inevitable and must be planned for. The organisation’s critical people may also change. They may leave the organisation, they may go abroad for better employment or they may just retire. The company should be prepared for this change with a succession plan so that this will not be detrimental to the organisation. You have to choose tomorrow’s leaders today.
The succession plan - Just another contingency plan?
A succession plan details what happens when an employee leaves an organisation. It includes the leaving employee’s successor or successors, details of knowledge that has to be transferred and all other considerations that has to be taken into account when they leave. A succession plan must be formulated proactively by the HR department by consulting the concerned employees themselves. Consultation is fundamental as the employee himself will only best know how his role can be carried forward after his departure.
Choosing future leaders
In choosing a successor, a ranking system must be formulated by making use of the key skills and characteristics required by the perfect successor. This can be done by a thorough job study looking into the way the tasks are done as well as the predecessor profile, looking at how he as the predecessor matches the requirements of the job. The most capable prospective successors must be listed in order of priority. You also have to think out of the box, consider external candidates and those in other departments or SBUs.
Transfer the how-to, not just the how
Business and Operational knowledge, which is required by the successors of the employee, must also be clearly documented. If the company uses a Knowledge Base, there must be documentation about how the Knowledge Base can be utilized and where the relevant information can be clearly located. Sometimes all the information may be stored in a knowledge base but the successor may not know it exists. The difference between the knowledge base and the succession plan is that the succession plan tells the successor where to find the knowledgebase and what to do with it.
Do the fire-drill
Without only choosing the right people for the future, you also need to do several things before the key employee actually leaves. You need to make sure they could actually do the job. Very often in Cricket, we see the captain of the team step down for one game, just to see if his vice could carry out his job. In the same manner, businesses too must put successors into the hot seat for a week to see if the plan works. They should then be trained in the areas they find difficult.
Simulate Scenarios
When planning, you always have to expect the unexpected. You may have the same person set to succeed two key employees. What happens when both leave? One person cannot handle both jobs. To solve this problem, you have to make these multiple succession decisions beforehand. Apart from multiple successions you also have to look at successor-succession, and consider who is going to succeed successors as well.
After all, planning is a complex process and the degree of planning depends on the amount of risk you are willing to mitigate. But a well-planned organisation with a solid roadmap will seldom fail. Plan your succession right so that your organisation will not hit any dead ends anytime soon.
