Talent Management and Succession Planning: Future-Proofing Your Workforce

Imagine you’re a coach of a championship-winning sports team. The hard work that you and your team have put in to ensure success doesn’t go unnoticed. The fans are loving it. There is never a dull moment at your games, and the crowd roars as your team scores another goal. Everyone is living their dream and riding the high of win after win. Then the day comes when your star players begin to retire. They have put in years of service, and now they are ready to hang up their shoes. As they retire one after another, your team’s performance starts to drop. With the decrease in performance, your team becomes frustrated, and your fans start to fall away.

Why? Because you were so focused on the present and failed to plan for the future. So, as the top performers begin to take their leave, the environment within the team shifts. The morale of the team starts to suffer, and so does their success. Does this scenario sound familiar? It may not necessarily be a sports team, but maybe in business, you have seen a decline in a company due to retirement or other organizational leaders leaving. Did you know there is a way to plan for the leaving of top talent not only in sports but also in business? This preparation is encompassed in Talent Management and Succession Planning.

What Exactly Is Talent Management?

The employees in an organization make up the talent within that company. An organization’s employees are more than mere workers; they are the backbone of the organization. Employees are your most entry-level persons all the way up to even the executive team. Often, the front-facing employees who interact with the public, provide customer service, and are the face of your organization are the entry-level talent within your organization. These individuals are the lifeblood of the organization and are often full of potential to become exceptional leaders.

However, the talents within your workforce must be planned for and nurtured to reach their full potential. Talent management starts with hiring the right people, nurturing them through offering learning opportunities, and room for growth and cultivating the right environment by creating a strong company culture.

From recruitment to employee development and retention, talent management is a complete strategy aimed at making sure your workforce is not just ready for today but equipped for tomorrow.

The Insider Secret: Succession Planning

While it would be nice if the seasoned employees – the ones who know the mission, goals, and values of the organization inside out – never left, never got old and retired, that just isn’t feasible. This is where succession planning steps in to build the bridges needed to fill the gaps left when seasoned employees vacate their positions.

Succession planning is crucial when it comes to the future success of the company. It is about finding the potential employees or leaders already within the organization. Once these individuals are recognized, it focuses on developing them over time. Succession planning focuses on the future, by looking ahead, and preparing the path forward with the talent already inside the organization. Planning ahead doesn’t just cover the present it creates an environment of investing in the future of the company.

Why Should You Care?

When things are going great in life, we often lose sight of what is just around the corner. This is true also in business. Businesses that are seeing success day after day, month after month, and even year after year, can become complacent. However, the only constant in business is change. So it is paramount also to be focused on the future of the company, the talent within, and the direction that the company is going. Employees leave, retire, and even get promoted or demoted. Without proper planning, one can find themselves in a talent drought and scrambling to fill the critical roles to keep the momentum moving forward.

Another reason to care about talent management and succession planning, from an employee perspective, is that an employee who knows the path for growth within the company that they may follow is more likely to stay, put in the work, and strive for their growth potential. Plus, a solid succession plan ensures a seamless transition, and will eliminate the productivity dips that are often associated with the leaving of talent.

Your Workforce Wants to Grow

In today’s environment, if you stop growing your potential stops, your paycheck maintains the status quo, and this often leads to dissatisfaction in a job and life. For this reason, talent today search for organizations where there are opportunities for development, learning, and growth. It has been proven that an advanced talent management program and succession planning strategies leads to higher employee engagement rates. A happy and engaged workforce will perform better and will benefit the bottom line.

Talent Management and Succession Planning Best Practices

1. Identify Key Roles: Not all roles are critical roles within an organization. So, they will not all require a succession plan. So, the first step is to review every role in the organization and identify the ones that would create issues should it ever be vacant. These are the roles that are essential to the success of the company.
2. Spot Future Leaders: Every employee should be considered; their performance and skills should be monitored. Even a new joiner could show promise to become a team leader, manager, or even an executive given the proper development.
3. Invest in Development: Develop, develop, develop. After the hidden gems have been identified in the organization and they have expressed interest in learning and growing, this is when the development should start. Employees can be developed through mentorship programs, training, and even by providing them with the ability to cross-train within the organization. The purpose is to ensure they are exposed to different aspects of the business. During the development of an employee, it is important to track their strengths and areas of opportunity.
4. Create a Culture of Learning: Businesses are constantly changing and growing. An organization that fails to evolve will eventually see its success stagnate. By fostering a culture of learning and developing a growth mindset within the organization, you will cultivate an engaged workforce prepared to tackle any challenges that may arise.
5. Keep It Dynamic: Like all aspects of business, the succession plan will need to evolve with the growth of the organization. It is essential to schedule a regular review of the plan and to update it as needed to address any blind spots or gaps that may become evident as the organization grows.

Final Thoughts

Talent management and succession planning are essential to maintaining a successful organization. It starts with hiring and ends with nurturing, planning, and development. By creating a plan to develop the talent already in the company, you will be one step ahead. A solid plan will ensure that as people leave the knowledge stays, and no one skips a beat.