Succession planning is a future-focused endeavor designed to ensure knowledge upgrades become an instinctive part of everyone’s positional responsibility. Another proviso is providing support for those high achievers who are candidates for increased job responsibilities.

As an organization considers succession planning, it is essential to form a cross-departmental succession planning team (SPT) consisting of executive leadership, senior managers, and HR staff whose purpose is to establish the objectives and design of the program components.

The biggest challenge in implementing succession planning is deciding on where to start; followed closely by building commitment to the process. One way to encourage participation is to frame a checklist of sequential questions that follow the natural workflow for each position being considered for inclusion in the succession plan.

The SPT then works its way through the checklists outlined below until each member can confidently answer “yes” to all ten points of the sequence.

Performance Management

Is the right person in the right place doing the right thing the right way for the right reason?

Any “no” or “don’t know” responses in the performance management section of the checklist should trigger an exploration of who is currently occupying that position and what training or development he or she might need in order to produce a “yes” response in the future.

Process Improvement

Is the right thing getting to the right place at the right time in the right quantity and right condition?

Any “no” or “don’t know” responses in the process improvement section of the checklist should instigate a deeper dive to determine which part(s) of the process needs to be upgraded in order to attain the desired outcome.

Satisfactory completion of these two-steps will take multiple sessions, so don’t be disappointed at the lack of results the first time out. After several trials it should become a natural part of the succession planning process to review key positions whenever the SPT meets.

The overarching purpose of the SPT is to support the talent management system by:

• Identifying critical positions and highlighting potential vacancies.
• Selecting key competencies and skills necessary to ensure continuity.
• Focusing on workforce training and development to meet future needs.
• Preventing the loss of critical institutional knowledge.

As the SPT will soon discover succession planning facilitates long-term commitment of key employees, which is beneficial to both the individuals and the company. Those employees with high potential selected for development are motivated to go the extra mile and stick around longer with the understanding that they have a future with the organization.