The team at Bishop have been talking about the ways in which companies develop talent from within – or sometimes don’t apparently!
A number of senior leaders have recently been asking about succession planning as a tool to mitigate retention issues. We’ve also had feedback from some candidates who feel they must leave their jobs to further develop their careers. Whilst it is tempting to keep a team member in a role they perform well, it is a massive retention risk if they aspire to more. Assuming the cream will rise to the top is a dangerous strategy – active attention to your top talent is needed to ensure your best people stay with you throughout their journey.
Effective succession planning is essential to ensure a smooth transition of leadership, minimize disruptions to operations, retain top talent, plan for the future, and build a strong company culture.
Here are some simple steps that might help:
- Identify Critical Roles: What are the key roles within your company that are critical to success? These may include executive leadership positions, technical roles, or other positions essential for business continuity.
- Evaluate Skills and Competencies: Once you’ve identified critical roles, assess the competencies required for each role. This will help you determine the specific skills and experience that potential successors will need to develop.
- Identify Potential Successors: Once you understand the competencies you will need, identify potential successors within the company who may already have some of the right experience and who may wish to develop their skills further.
- Provide Development Opportunities: Engage with prospect successors to offer development opportunities to help them grow appropriate knowledge and experience. This may include training, coaching, mentoring, or other forms of professional development.
- Monitor Progress & Provide Feedback: As potential successors develop their skills and competencies, monitor their progress to ensure that they are on track to meet the requirements of the roles they may be filling in the future. Provide regular feedback and discuss with them how their development will look within the company.
- Review and Revise the Plan: Finally, review and revise the succession plan periodically to ensure that it remains up-to-date and aligned with the company’s current needs and priorities.
Don’t forget to communicate with your business that you are keen to see your people develop and open to discussing how this might happen – if they don’t know your plan, they can’t buy in to it!
Companies that actively support the growth and development of their people get the added benefit of ensuring continuity of critical roles, reducing unwanted turnover, improving engagement and maintain business growth and success.
So if you haven’t been actively talking all things succession – now might be a good time to start!