“Succession planning is a perfect opportunity to attract good quality candidates who want to stay and develop with the organisation, and an opportunity to retain those same people.” - Pam Molyneux

Put simply, it's a business strategy to plan who is next in line for key positions within your business.

There is usually a focus on senior management positions, however more savvy businesses ensure that each of their management positions have a pipeline of talent to fill the position as and when needed.

Within this pipeline pool, availability and readiness of the talent can be established, from there appropriate development plans and journeys can be worked on. 

So why is this important for your business?

Think of it this way...

What would happen if your top manager walked out tomorrow? 

Just take a moment and think about that...

What impact would that have on your organisation and the running of its operations?  How long would it take for you to get someone to replace them and get up to speed with how things are run? 

Think of all that knowledge, gone.  Think of the costs associated with the crisis period to find a replacement and to get them up and running.  So the main purpose of succession planning is about risk mitigation.  Whilst it is not 100% full proof, a benefit is, it's work in progress rather than being on the back foot and starting from scratch.

Let's think about the importance of succession planning for wider people management areas also. 

This is all closely linked to retention.  Have you ever worked in a role and organisation and there was absolutely no prospects?  In time, that usually results in the individual looking elsewhere and in the meantime, them not performing to the best of their ability. 

Attraction can also be impacted.  Have you ever been asked at interview by a candidate, so what are the career prospects? It would be somewhat disappointing for the candidate to hear, oh we don't have any career paths.  Succession planning is a perfect opportunity to attract good quality candidates who want to stay and develop with the organisation, and an opportunity to retain those same people.  Further benefits can be drawn from this that your reputation is good and so people want to come and work for you.  And once working for you, people want to stay as they feel wanted and invested in.

A really important angle succession planning creates and makes an organisation look at is preparation - preparation in training and development.  This should never be underestimated.  I have worked with so many businesses in which newly promoted managers are provided with a quick induction to their new management role and then let loose.  This has an impact eventually.  Competence and confidence wise, the new manager will need to go through thorough development.  So why not start investing in that now, in an approach to laying good foundations.

Linking succession planning to your overall People Strategy and having an holistic approach to people management in the wise words of Richard Branson, "Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't want to."


In the meantime, if you would like to discuss succession planning further, please do get in touch - we love to help with all things people management related.