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Strategies for Succession Planning

Succession planning is a key aspect of risk management.

Succession planning is the practice of ensuring that key employee skills and key business functions are able to be performed by more than one person in your organization.

Often the succession planning process is approached not so much by the aspect of a key employee moving out of the business, but rather moving through it, or having the opportunity to take an extended break.

Sometimes key skills hold someone in a job - effectively preventing them moving forward into a larger or more senior role in your business – increasing the risk of them moving on for professional growth.

Often key skills prevent an employee (or business owner) from taking a real break

Often key skills prevent an employee (or business owner) from taking a real break – adding pressure to their work life that could easily be mitigated by careful planning and training.

Pressure or perceived pressure and not being able to take a break is very often a serious stress driver. Productive employees need to take regular breaks – when they need them, as opposed to when you can spare them.

Creating a training and development plan to successfully put in place a career plan for people at all levels covers the succession paths for many employees while also giving your employees a great reason to stay with your business. Nothing bonds employee teams together more than being inter-reliant and co-reliant at the same time.

Your business should be able to continue to operate effectively despite the absence of any single person.

Getting started with your succession plan means drawing up all the skills required for each job and a matrix identifying the skills for all of the people in the jobs – thus identifying any situations where a single skill has no overlap (and of course any gaps).

From there training needs to be identified following meetings and discussions for the team members concerned. This is a strategic HR initiative that not many business owners conduct regularly. We are happy to work through this critical process with you at your convenience. External focus is often really valuable.

Every employee in the business should have an annual training & development focus and be able to have a vision of their future with your business. This will engage and empower employees.

Following this process will not only reduce your business risk and skill reliance, it will deliver a more engaged and more committed team of employees.

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Contact us to find out how we can help your business.

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Tanya Gray is your strategic HR partner, passionate about driving clients’ productivity with innovative solutions and collaboration.

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