How HR Can Become a Chief Architect in Succession Management

What if your company’s top executives are wooed by any of your competitors? Do you already have a pipeline of upcoming future leaders who can fill up those key positions in the hour of need? If you are not ready with the next generation leaders, you may end up filling key roles with under qualified employees or keeping them empty, as you have no one better to take control of that position.

Why Organizations Need a Succession Plan?

Succession planning is the best way to minimize the effect of losing employees working in critical positions. It enables an organization to identify, nurture and prepare potential leaders through training & development, cross-functional transfers and exposure to multiple roles. Succession management also identifies key positions and their requirements to prepare potential successors who can take control of the entire situation when the need arises.

As organizations expand,it becomes difficult to oversee succession planning and talent management manually. The managers and HR can’t effectively track the career development status of hundreds of employees, if managed manually. Thankfully advanced HR technology has given a new paradigm to talent management. An integrated HR tool supports recruitment of skilled employees, development of their skills and knowledge so that they can be prepared to manage more challenging roles. Irrespective of the size, all employers require succession planning software to have ready employees to fulfil sudden vacancies.

Having a succession management tool enables HR to easily identify the key employees in all departments of an organization. This helps them to nurture and prepare potential leaders, when a key vacancy comes up.

HR managers can follow few simple tips to easily recruit, identify, nurture and prepare next generation future leaders.

·        Define Job Role Clearly : While recruiting, define the job role such that the behaviour, attitude, skills, knowledge, experience and roles and responsibilities necessary to succeed in the role is clearly outlined. It helps employees to understand what is expected from them in their current role and what it is required to move forward to be potential leaders.

·        Identify and Prepare Potential Leaders : HR managers need to ensure that their succession management substantially fulfils existing as well as future requirements for the key positions.

For instance, Catherine is identified as the potential leader, if her manager John suddenly exits or is promoted to a new role. So, Catherine is more likely to take John’s position in such a situation. 

                           Figure: Manage employees on critical position

·        Maps the Gaps : In performance management process, HR managers need to evaluate all the employees in an organization with an eye towards who is ready to take up the key leadership role. It is important to map gap analysis so that employees may know what are they expected to be ready for and how they can get there. HR managers need make efforts to train, mentor and develop key employees for their career progression.

All this may sound too difficult if HR managers have to perform succession planning manually. To avoid these complexities and experience a smooth succession plan, HR and managers need Empxtrack succession management software. It is an integrated and configurable talent management and succession planning tool that enables HR and managers to identify and nurture potential talent to take key leadership positions. This tool makes it easier to:

1.     Identify and monitor key positions for succession planning
2.     Follow top performers through their development plans
3.     Assess an employee’s experience, skills and career goals
4.     Appraise individuals using competency-based criteria

Still unsure? You may like to take a free trial of the world-class talent management and succession planning software for better understanding. Good luck!