Succession Planning – Why Your Company Needs a Talent Management Strategy?
One of the many rules in life is to be prepared for the unexpected. Anything can happen at any time…a sudden leaky roof or an emergency medical issue. Whatever it is, being ready with an emergency fund in your back pocket is what it means to be prepared. The same holds true for business. Many successful businesses owe their strength to strong leaders and teams. The equivalent to an emergency fund in business is a talent management strategy that looks out for the future of your organization.
Also known as succession planning, it is defined as a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available.
The concept of succession planning should become an important part of any companies strategic planning, but not many have adopted it. Not having a strategy that plans for the future can be seen as a weakness for a company’s future. Depending on the nature of your company, it could take a few years to create a succession plan. Here are three steps for developing your plan:
- Put your plan in writing. Once you have a decided to move forward with a talent management strategy, put your plan in writing. Working with a staffing specialist can help you to develop that strategy by determining the staff that you need, if they are in house or require external recruitment and the core skills that are required to build a good succession plan for your company.
- Find & train a new manager and/or team. If there is already a member of your team that possesses the core skills to become a good leader, start training them now. One idea used by many is to provide mentorship to these talented individuals. If you don’t have the skills in house, then start the search for new employees. With the help of a staffing specialist, you can tailor a search that is specific to the needs of your company. They can help you to find the person that fits your specific niche or the person that has the core tools that your organization can build upon to make a great leader and team.
- Have a Plan B. Things don’t always go as planned. It could be that an employee you have in mind for a key role is not interested or not ready to move on to another role. For this reason it’s always smart to have a back-up plan that allows for change.
The New Year has begun and it’s now time to think of your businesses future beyond 2016. Creating a successful talent management strategy will help you to ensure the success of your business for years to come. A succession plan shouldn’t be a quick, do-it-yourself project, but a strategy that incorporates everything from legal and accounting advice to transition planning. The first step to a successful 2016 is working with a staffing specialist to secure your businesses future with a strategy that works for you.
