Succession Planning-Tip #3- It’s a process, not a one-time event

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We’ve all heard the saying that “failing to plan is planning to fail”.  This adage certainly applies to succession planning where sound, strategic execution is vitally important to a company’s long-term success.

The truth is, it can take several months, if not years, to get the right people in the right jobs.  This lengthy timeline needs to be mitigated by effective planning.

Six steps need to be followed in the process:

1.   Understand your business strategy. 

Have a clear understanding of your business strategy. Know how far and how fast you can reasonably move. It takes time to hire, deploy, and train talent.

2.   Research the labor market. 

Research the salary you should expect to pay for the job, and potential challenges to filling the job. Common factors to consider include macroeconomic forecasts, demographic trends, regulatory changes, and talent movement trends within your industry.

 3.   Anticipate your future talent demands.

Critical roles are those jobs that are mission critical to your future business strategy. If you don’t have a solid plan for filling these roles with capable people, the business strategy simply won’t come to life.

  4.  Assess your current talent inventory.

Inventory your current talent pool.  How many “A”, “B”and “C” players to you have?  Which ones can be “coached up” and which ones need to be replaced?

5.  Identify talent gaps and strategies to close them

Determine a time frame for closing those gaps, and create specific tactics for meeting the future needs of the organization.

6.  Implement your strategies

The last step is to run scenarios in order to understand how the availability of these critical roles or segments impacts the rest of your business plan.

At Key Corporate Services, we partner with companies every day in filling middle management to C-level strategic positions.

Let us put our expertise to work for you.

From The Key Corporate Services Blog Team