Is your succession planning up to scratch?

To answer the question above, you need to start by asking yourself some other questions.  

They may be the tough questions that you’re asked by your senior management team – that you wish you had the answers too by the spreadsheet and information you have is simply out of date and too difficult to keep fresh.

But perhaps you’re not asked the questions. 

If so, imagine how great it would be to be able to access real time, up to date succession planning information, so you can proactively share this with the business. So what are these key succession planning questions to which you really need to know the answers?

They include questions such as:

• Who are the people in your organisation with high potential to move onwards and upwards – or those you value for their skills and what they bring to the business?
• And which of these may be at risk of losing if you cannot support their career and growth goals?
• What about upcoming retirement? Do you have people in place to step into these roles – and are they being developed and exposed now to what is needed?
• And critical posts for the business. Do you have thought through, realistic succession plans for these roles?
• Which of the succession plans you have now, are at greatest risk of failing to deliver?
• How many of your successors, are in fact successors for more than one post?
• How up to date is your skills database? Can you see who is ready and willing to relocate – and has the desired skillset?
• Can you match people to deliver a specific programme of work or project, such as a merger?

They’re tough questions we know. But these questions needn’t be difficult if you get the right software in place.

Perhaps your HRIS software already has a succession planning component that you’re using – or looking to use. But it probably has limitations when it comes to needing specificity, interrogation and real-time data. 

You may still need to do some work around who are your key, strategically important posts, or the people you see as potential successors to roles - and we see this when we work with clients facing just the type of challenges you are facing.

And if you think your succession planning simply isn't up to scratch, then talk to us about our succession planning software.

Take a look at a short video of how effective succession planning could be in your organisation - and how you would be able to answer those tricky succession planning questions you are asked. When you're ready to explore how to introduce succession planning, do get in touch. You may also like to take a look at some other articles about updating succession planning.