Finding clarity in planning succession

Succession planning is seen as a crucial process by most major organisations and is a phrase that I see used a lot across the Gulf, but to be honest I'm not sure there is a clear understanding about the complexities of the process and how to do it well.

There seems to be a misconception that as long as there is a list of good people available then an organisation can draw on that list to fill important jobs.

I see succession planning as the process by which one or more successors are identified for critical business jobs across the organisation; first incorrect assumption is don't always assume that is a process exclusively for senior roles.

Think about those critical jobs that ‘touch' or interact with your clients as they shape your customers perception about you, your organisation and your brand. Successors may be close to being ready to do the job (short term successors) or seen as having longer-term potential (long-term successors).

As you can see already succession planning is closely aligned in many ways to both recruitment and development processes.

Organisations tend to use succession planning to either: 1) improve their quality of recruitment for key business roles by having a stock of capable people ready to fill those jobs, 2) provide a framework for career development across the organisation and/or 3) use it as way of developing their talent pool on an ongoing basis so that resourcing and development strategies can be put in place to drive forward the identification of high performing people for business critical jobs.

Incorrect

A second incorrect assumption is that succession planning isn't just about having a spreadsheet with a list of names on it; it's about having aligned people processes and practices that support the improvement of capability across the organisation. Succession planning merely focuses upon those ‘value add' or business critical jobs.

Succession plans normally cover both short and longer term successors for these key jobs with focused and active development programmes and actions (not plans, because plans tend to stay in that format, a plan that tends to gather dust!).

The typical challenges that succession planning brings include: what are the business critical jobs? Who are the possible successors and why? What data are available to back up the judgments of managers about people? What range of development options are available across the organisation and what is the review process to ensure that action is taken that actually improves individuals' capabilities?

Openness

One issue that commonly emerges is the degree of openness about the process. All employees should understand how the process works, what it is trying to achieve and how they could be involved in the process in terms of their own career aspirations, capabilities, experiences and possible constraints.

They should also get feedback from the process in terms of how they are viewed by the organisation, their perceived development needs and the kinds of job moves for which they would be considered.

Succession planning cannot stand alone. It is only of value if it is aligned with the business strategy and if its outputs (succession and career plans, and associated capability information) actually influence the filling of job vacancies and/or provides focused development action.

It therefore needs to link with resourcing practises and the broad human resource planning that exists, learning and development strategies that drive success from individuals, the changing needs of the organisations talent pool in terms of numbers of people, capabilities required etc. and most importantly ensure that robust assessment processes are in place to quantify those capabilities using actual data.

There is no ‘one fit' all process that can be implemented across an organisation as succession planning is a journey that takes time to become truly effective.

Dave Millner is Consulting Director of Kenexa EMEA and Director of Kenexa HR Institute.