Succession Planning: Where to Start?

Succession planning is one of the most important elements of an effective staffing strategy, especially for managers and employers in the driver’s seat of smaller companies and start-ups. With a clear workforce deployment plan in place, employers and managers always know exactly how to proceed when a position becomes vacant. Employees who are ready to advance have already been distinguished from those who haven’t yet attained the necessary skills, and as soon as a position opens up, the right in-house candidate is ready to step in. If no in-house candidates are ready then the external hiring process can begin, but with strong succession planning in place, no qualified internal candidates go overlooked or unrecognized.

How the right software can take your succession planning from Good to Great.

In order to groom candidates for advancement, managers need to pay attention to ambition, skill acquisition, and growth among their team members. They also need to conduct multi-layered evaluations that are based not only on performance, but also on potential. Three factors contribute to the selection process during a hiring transition: 1.) employee needs and desires, 2.) employee readiness, and 3.) the objectives of the company. The Nine Box Talent Matrix provided by emPerform can help managers, HR staff and executives keep track of all three.

How does the interactive Talent Matrix work? As part of the emPerform Succession Manager, the nine boxes of the Talent Matrix help managers organize data drawn from a history of performance reviews, 360 degree ratings systems, and internal company surveys to identify the employees who are ready for the challenges of advancement.

Using the Nine Box system, managers can access a snapshot or cross section of the overall health of the organization and the potential contributions of a candidate for succession. This system can help employers find answers to vital questions like the following: Does the employ demonstrate the necessary leadership and vision to ascend to the level in question? Will the employee be ready to advance to the level in question within one year? Will the employee be able to advance to the level in question within 2, 3, or 5 years?

With easy access to data sets that are both broad and relevant, managers can take the risk out of succession decisions and move employees forward according to a finely tuned assessment of skill, need, readiness, and company goals.

See also: Building Your ‘A’ Team – Assessing Employee Performance vs. Potential

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