Page of People

Executive Summary

If they are to survive the continually evolving business landscape, organizations need to adopt a Succession Planning and Management (SPM) approach that will develop their talent pool of adaptable, skilled individuals who embrace learning, mobility and change. They need to ensure that critical jobs have sufficient resources. The SPM system enables organizations to lower costs (e.g. through reduction in time to fill roles, fewer recruitment fees, greater retention rates) and increase productivity (e.g. through developmental opportunities, improved employee motivation).

There has been too much emphasis on succession “events” (replacement of key individuals) instead of considering the process by which individuals are developed during their careers in preparation for their next challenge.

Highly successful organizations emphasize the building of a comprehensive set of assessment and development practices that support the entire pipeline of talent across the organization. As the current uncertainty means that it may be impossible to sustain all employees in their current positions, succession planning should be used to identify possible lateral movements as well (eg. to different functions, project teams or geographic locations). The competency of Learning Agility should also be a key corporate competency of all staff.