Succession planning should be a key concern for any business, whatever the size.
For small businesses, often the head of the company is the founder, and it’s easy to feel like that person will always be around.
For larger companies, the complexities of managing a large corporation, combined with the importance of senior executives’ experience and expertise, as well as their web of close relationships, mean that it can be difficult and time-consuming to fill their shoes.
Succession Planning Beyond the C-Suite
But HR professionals need to be concerned not only about succession planning for the senior ranks but also about considering all critical positions and how they would fill them if incumbents were to suddenly leave the company or be the victim of some tragedy.
“Extending succession planning to all positions in an organization may make sense since workers at every level have valuable knowledge and expertise that can be passed along,” says one expert.
This is particularly true in a fast-paced and quickly changing environment and marketplace where specialized skills can be increasingly hard to find. Here are some strategies that can be used to help avoid the risk of brain drain within your organization.
Be Proactive
Even if a key employee is far from the age of retirement, it’s never too early to start preparing for succession. Consider also that retirement is only one reason employees might leave.
Rather than focusing only on impending retirements to identify positions where succession planning may be needed, focus on key positions that, if vacant, would cause substantial burden to the company.
Transfer of Learning
Once key positions have been identified, develop ways that the knowledge those in the positions today have can be documented and/or transferred to others so that it will not be lost if and when they leave the organization.
Consider putting your essential staff in mentorship positions with younger or more junior employees who can start to pick up some of their knowledge.
Staggered Retirement
Retirement doesn’t need to be considered an inevitability simply based on age. Today many workers are choosing to stay in the workplace long past the “traditional” retirement age both because they love their jobs and, in some cases, because they need the income.
Recognizing this, some companies offer soon-to-be retirees options like staying on part time or as consultants to help ease the transition to new staff.
Succession planning tends to have a connotation of being associated with top executives and founders, but that shouldn’t be the case. Any number of other individuals throughout an organization may have valuable or specialized knowledge and experience that is crucial to the company. That knowledge needs to be preserved after they retire or leave the organization for other reasons.