Successful Succession Planning. Succession planning involves a cycle of four key activities. One. Identifying future skills needs and important roles. Two. Analyzing the skills of people already in the organization. Three. Finding successors and developing them to fit key roles. Four. Analyzing supply and demand of talent for key posts. Why succession matters [1] Thirty four percent of externally recruited senior executives fail compared to twenty four percent of internal hires. [2] Forty three percent of companies have had an unexpected change in leadership in the past year. Twenty percent said this slowed business growth and productivity. Thirty one percent said that this reduced morale and employee engagement. Succession planning today [3]. Thirty two percent of companies say they have a CEO succession plan. Forty eight percent have succession plans for technical experts and specialists. Fifteen percent have no succession plans at all. Twenty two percent have effective leadership transition programs in place. [4]Four benefits of succession planning. Prepared for the future. People will be ready to move into key roles. Positive reputation. You’ll be seen as an employer that invests in its people. Engaged employees. Employees will understand that they are valuable. The big picture. You’ll get a ‘bird’s eye view’ of talent in your organization. Five tips to get it right. One. Only twenty two percent of executives think their HR team is good at succession planning. [5] Don’t leave it up to HR. Senior leaders need to lend their full support. Two. Create a strong pipeline of future leaders. Recruit people with high potential and ensure you retain them. Three. Keep talent by paying attention to these top five retention strategies. [6] Pay. Do your pay packages match up to your competitors. Benefits. Do you offer flexible working, medical cover or additional holidays. Work-life balance. Do you encourage people to balance their home and work lives. Learning and development. Are there opportunities for people to grow and develop their skills. Recognition. Do managers give regular praise and feedback. Four. Identify your business critical roles and plan for them. Think about. One. The importance of the role to the business. Consider the risk and impact of the role being vacant. Two. How difficult it would be to fill the role. Three. People who could step into the role now, and those who need development to fill the role. Five. Identify core leadership skills in your organization. Develop future leaders so they can. [7] Drive and manage change. Deliver organizational strategy. Coach and develop others. Make difficult decisions. Identify and develop future talent.

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