Succession Planning

Taking on the global business world without a clear succession plan invites disruption at best and entropy at worst.

Organisations should offer an appropriate succession plan to team members on all levels.  However, succession management systems should focus intensively on lynchpin positions.

Lynchpin positions are critical to the long-term health of the company. These essential positions are typically tough to fill and entail scare skills. Moreover, they usually reside in established areas of the business and those critical for the future.

Having a clear definition of lynchpin positions is an essential starting point for identifying the right employees and realising their probability to succeed.

The potential gains of succession planning go far beyond the apparent result of devising a steady flow of employees prepared to step into new roles. It also facilitates enhanced career development opportunities for emerging leaders, driving higher engagement and retention of top talent.

By its very nature, succession planning efforts often take years to bear fruit. Capable successors are the product of years of training and mentoring  – ideally as much as five years ahead of a planned transition – to ensure that they acquire the skills and experience they will need.

Succession planning is not replacement planning. Replacement planning suggests that an organisation merely identifies one or two potential individuals who can work as a backup, for a temporary period until someone appropriate is found.

Replacement planning assumes that the organisational structure will remain unchanged over time.

Succession planning, in contrast, focuses on developing people rather than merely naming them as replacements.

Human Interest’s Talent Review process offers your business a clear understanding of top talent at every level. Our research-based assessment evaluates whether your current succession plan will bear fruit in the future and helps you to nourish the right crop for an upcoming harvest.

Our approach aims to:

• Identify the client’s lynchpin positions and align these roles with strategic business objectives. 

• Help the client identify talent needs and high-potential candidates.

• Help the client clarify, enhance, design and implement on-point succession strategies and planning processes.

• Customise individual development to bridge role gaps as well as group development to bridge organisational gaps.