Creating and implementing plans for the future of your organization can be daunting — especially when it comes to making sure that your key employees are aligned and help progress your succession goals. Since many business owners come up short in that area, we were able to discuss from our previous blog post 5 ways to align your key employees with your growth and succession goals. Here’s a quick recap:
With that, we’re hoping that 2023 will be just as good, or even better, as it was for us last year. So, let’s start the year right with this question…
1. Create a One-Page Strategic Plan
2. Set the company’s main priorities
3. Set a series of distinct, measurable goals.
4. Implement one-on-one check-ins
5. Keep the feedback loop open
In this blog post, we’re going to talk about the benefits of succession planning.
There are several advantages to having a plan that enables you to control and sustain organizational capabilities and workforce stability. We’ve listed five advantages of succession planning for your business to think about below:
1. Disaster-proof your company or organization
Life can be unpredictable, and failing to plan for these surprises can entirely tip the organization of balance. For this reason, succession planning contributes to the quick recovery of your organization in the face of sudden change.
So, when can you talk about succession planning? It should start as early as now. The sooner you discuss and work on your succession plan, the more secure your organization will be in the long run.
Think of it as business continuity insurance that protects all of your company’s investments.
2. Identify weak points and skills gaps
By having a succession plan, it gives you an assessment that will reveal gaps and vulnerabilities in your workforce and skills base. By reviewing each department’s organizational structure, you can see points of weakness that could impact your business strategy.
With this information, you can plan on your next steps to mitigate those risks and motivate your key employees in the process. Having a succession plan also shifts the focus of talent planning from external to internal.
3. Encourage learning and growth
It’s important to keep in mind that succession planning isn’t always about linear professional advancement. If there isn’t a clear path for advancement for your finest employees, they can decide to leave the company. Not unless you can provide them other options.
Succession planning, when backed by a comprehensive training and development program, can point out chances for workers to move laterally into roles where their abilities are complementary. Your greatest employees may not have thought of these rewarding job options before.
In addition to courses and learning materials, a strong training and development program should also give opportunities for coaching, mentorship, work shadowing, and support for professional certifications.
4. Knowledge exchange and process improvement
When experienced key employees retire or leave the organization, they carry with them knowledge that will be hard to replace. Another goal of succession planning is being able to stop that cycle to make transitioning more smooth.
By prioritizing the succession paths of whose departure are either planned or anticipated, at least their knowledge and experience can be passed on to those who will take up their role.
This knowledge transfer also becomes an opportunity to look at current processes and procedures and look for opportunities to improve them even better.
5. It provides the company with a sense of direction and allows it to make long-term plans.
No matter the organization’s size or structure, having a clear succession plan gives everyone a sense of security and frees them to concentrate on more important tasks like expanding the firm.
When a succession plan is in place, retiring staff are aware of the appropriate time to begin passing along their years of hard-won expertise and to end their long-standing working ties.
It is also best to accept the fact that change comes quickly. No organization is immune to catastrophe or crisis. This knowledge should make CEOs more modest and empower them to take the necessary action to safeguard the future of their company.
In a nutshell
It’s understandable why leaving succession plans to chance does not show smart judgment given how much effort and commitment it takes to create a successful firm. A succession plan’s primary goal is to assure the survival of your business.
So, if your company or organization needs help and support for developing a succession plan, especially when aligning your key employees, we have an upcoming online CEO Forum event that can help you walk through the process.Â
All you have to do is click here to join an interactive learning experience that can make a different for years to come.
