|
Why is this important?
The UK's workforce is steadily getting older and finding skilled, experienced successors for key management roles is getting tougher every year. Furthermore, as organisational structures remain relatively flat, fewer employees are gaining the strategic skills needed for senior positions, so the competition for candidates with proven skills, knowledge and the experience required for leadership or top management is certain to become even more intense.
Succession planning is a critical business function if you are to maintain a competitive advantage and ensure a seamless transition between departing and emerging leaders and senior managers. The cost of succession planning is small when compared to the high cost of recruitment, loss of leadership or senior management capability in your business.
How O" can help you
External recruitment may eventually prove a necessity if you do not have the potential, breadth of experience or knowledge in your existing workforce. But the cost of external recruitment is high and some research shows that outsiders winning top jobs stayed in post for a comparatively short time.
New blood can bring valuable new insight, but the skills and potential of your current employees for the top jobs may offer up the best combination for your long term growth and prosperity. These are the people who already understand your organisation and its culture - they know what you want and what is expected of them. Promoting internally can send out many positive messages to your workforce and lead to healthy competition between potential candidates
O" will help you to:
-
identify the key positions in your organisation that most influence delivery of your strategy
-
develop core technical and performance competency frameworks for the identified key positions
-
evaluate the skills and potential of possible internal or external candidates
-
implement succession planning committees to develop this skill in-house
-
design and, where appropriate, deliver individual development programmes for the identified candidates using internal resources where possible
The benefits to you
If you plan for succession of your key, business critical positions you will remain competitive and profitable. Your business will be more attractive to high performing individuals and you are more likely to retain your top talent as a result of openness and transparency about succession planning and their career development.
Clarifying the relevant and desired competencies for any given position within your organisation will help you map out the experience and knowledge required to successfully fulfill any particular role. In turn, this will help you see where you need to develop your employees, often at no extra cost to you, so that they can fulfill that role in the future.
Do you know the key posts in your organisation that make the difference in successfully delivering your strategy?
Do you have a development programme in place to expand the business acumen and knowledge of your potential leaders and managers?
Are you clear whether you need an internal or external candidate to succeed that key post?
If you have answered "no" to any of the above questions, contact Robin Johnson or Philip Perry at O" Consulting on 0845 260 7700
|
