Managing Succession to Become Future-Proof

While every organization can develop products and/or services, it is those that develop a robust succession planning process that will become future-proof by ensuring skills for the years ahead.

Topics: Leadership Development, Talent Management

Business leaders discussing succession planning with their high potential talent

The globalisation of the workforce and the technological revolution is human-age-2-future-forces-at-work.

Over the past three years, Right Management and ManpowerGroup have focused on understanding the shifting mindsets of senior leaders around succession, as legacy approaches are not translating well in the new world of work. This global research has elicited some alarming findings:

89% of executives cite gaps in leadership as an “urgent impediment” to build a workforce that will meet their future business requirements.
87% of organisations do not believe they have future leaders identified to fill critical roles.
46% of organisations identify lack of future leaders as a top concern.
55% of high-potentials are likely to fall out of their top talent programme.
Nearly 50% of companies lack a systematic approach for identifying high-potentials and, of those that do, only 1 in 3 use robust methods.

Succession management is a cyclical process and works best if you actively manage and develop talent on a continual basis. Managing succession is the cornerstone to strategic viability, ensuring business continuity, retention of high-value talent and a formidable culture. Corporate health depends on the effectiveness, depth and breadth of your succession management efforts.

As you think about succession planning for your organisation, the following considerations may help guide your efforts:

Integrate succession management into your business strategy. Succession management is all about securing future leaders capable of driving organisational performance that wins in the changing world of work. It is vital to integrate the identification, assessment and development of your next-generation talent with long-range strategic planning.

Use the process to drive greater diversity in your global workforce. Globally, the number of women in senior positions hovers around 24% and many organisations have no women at all in top management. Ethnic minorities are also underrepresented and would benefit from a succession management process designed to ensure equal opportunity based on talent.

Expand your thinking about succession planning to create a “culture of career management.” A career culture provides each employee with a structured way to align their career goals to current and future business needs and provides clear career paths for advancement, with the ability to move across the hierarchy horizontally as well as upward to achieve success

Look for exceptional talent within and outside the organisation. Succession planning should not have an exclusive internal focus. Tap into both in-house and external talent pools to find the individuals with optimal skills, capabilities and cultural fit.

Put ownership in individuals’ hands. There has been a significant shift in the past few years where ownership of development has shifted from organisation to individuals. Let individuals self-select and commit the time and effort to invest in developing their knowledge and skills.

Make the process open. The succession planning process today in most organisations is an Informal reactionary process with a desire to retain a particular person or fill a key open position and is mostly behind the scenes. The recommendation is to make it a robust process that addresses current and long-term leadership needs at multiple levels (including individual contributors) where all levels play an active role in developing the leader pipeline.

Related Succession Planning Articles:

Identifying the Revolution Skills and Skills Revolutionaries

7 Ways to Build a Culture that Nurtures High Potential Women

How To Make The Business Case For A Talent Management Strategy

ThoughtWire

Managing Succession to Become Future-Proof

While every organization can develop products and/or services, it is those that develop a robust succession planning process that will become future-proof by ensuring skills for the years ahead.

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