How can I plan for succession?

A key question to ask yourself any time you consider plans for your organisation’s growth is, “Do I have a sustainable work force? In literal terms do I have “backup” for the key positions in the organisation? Key positions should not be limited to the very senior positions but must trickle down to the lower level positions, focusing also on the activities and skills of the individuals performing them.

In Ghana, and possibly across most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, companies have suffered greatly due to the lack of a proper succession plan for management and critical positions. On a recent review assignment we discovered that our client, a large multinational, did not have a working succession plan. This had created several difficult situations for them in the past where less than ideal solutions had been the only solutions achievable. The fastest remedial action in some cases had been to recall employees from retirement and offer them fixed term contracts.

In another instance, they had to bring in a specialist from overseas as a temporary stand-in when a key employee unexpectedly resigned. We also discovered that some of these crisis situations occurred even at the lower levels. The list of examples is long and will continue to grow until the company fully implements a workable succession plan.

We have also had instances where clients have requested recruitment services, as they are desperate to fill vacancies within unreasonable time frames – all because a key person had suddenly resigned and there was no one internally to step in his/her place. Such cases tell us that the organisation’s functioning depends on individuals. Having a succession planning system in place ensures that no single individual can bring work to a halt at any point in time due to his or her unavailability.

Succession planning must be based on the overall corporate strategy of the organisation. It must be an ongoing activity, which constantly seeks to align an organisation’s business demands with its human capital requirements. It is therefore critical for organisations to also have well developed corporate plans. A good corporate plan will incorporate the strategic concerns of the organisation and the requirement for achieving them. This then enables proper planning of human resource requirements.

A succession plan does not operate in isolation; it must be linked to the human resource strategy of the organisation. This strategy is defined in the systems and policies that are used to manage the human resource. These include recruitment, training/development, career development planning and an effective performance management system.

A succession plan also forms part of the broader human resource plan which seeks to ensure that at all times the organisation has the right people performing the right jobs. Whereas a human resource plan will be looking at the appropriate staffing numbers and skills mix for the entire organisation, a succession plan will focus on ensuring that there is a steady pool of candidates with the requisite skills, knowledge and attributes to perform the identified critical roles in the organisation.

Key Questions

• Does your organisation have a well-defined corporate plan?
• Do you have a well-defined organisational structure?
• Do you have the right skills to achieve the goals set out in the corporate plan?
• What next?

Finding answers to questions such as these will set you thinking about what the critical measures/systems to put in place are to ensure that your organisation becomes a success and/or continues to grow.