The pandemic has placed many organisations in survival mode, with a focus on the day-to-day requirements to keep businesses open. While this has complicated the traditional practice of succession planning, it’s also presented a valuable opportunity for leaders to develop agile processes and to think outside of the square when it comes to their people and capability.
Robust contingency planning to address sudden changes and immediate needs within the workforce benefits the organisation in the long run – while also providing your humans with a sense of assurance for their future.
How do you do this?
By utilising cutting-edge HR technology, you can easily identify potential successors through data-driven insights – enabling you to track and train new leaders and key people by creating a growth or leadership plan for every human you have in your backyard.
In this article, we’ll explain why technology plays a critical role in succession planning, and how it can be leveraged to ensure your greatest assets are engaged and retained.
What is succession planning and what are the benefits?
Put simply, succession planning is planning for the worst by expecting the best.
Here’s your opportunity to plan ahead for future resignations or shifts in capability demand, while developing current employees to be future leaders or to fill key roles within the business. This ongoing process involves mapping your capability, identifying or recruiting talent, unlocking their natural talents and capabilities, equipping them with additional skills and competencies, and training them for career advancements (vertical or lateral).
Active and strategic succession planning ensures you have the right mix of strengths, skills, and talents during times of change. Without them, you open your organisation up to risks and unexpected costs in future.
And when done well, the benefits to the business are endless. These include:
Greater employee engagement and trust
Faster turnaround time to fill roles
Stronger cultural alignment and attraction factors
Reduced recruitment costs, with the ability to retain key performers.
According to a report on utilising software, 62% of employees feel more engaged at work with succession plans in place, while 94% of employers say that succession plans positively affect employee engagement.
So by investing in your employees’ professional growth, you’re creating an environment where they can see a promising future at your organisation – and be more likely to stay and go above and beyond in their roles.
Taking succession planning to the next level through technology
As a people leader, it’s essential to elevate the succession planning process. This is because it:
- enables leaders and teams to be agile
- provides a holistic view of the future talents in order to achieve business goals, and
- identifies key competencies and skills necessary for business continuity and adaptability
- So how can technology be applied to ensure a seamless and efficient outcome?
To establish strong successors, people leaders need to define key metrics before beginning the succession planning process. These metrics should focus on a mix of competencies, skills and human attributes that the organisation requires to accomplish business goals. The technology can then be used to determine which employees are excelling in those areas, uncover hidden talent and also provide great diversity across your hiring decisions.
HR software can also be incredibly useful in tracking employee performance and identifying capability gaps. Technology can be the genuine differentiator for any organisation as it strengthens the succession planning strategy, while guiding your humans throughout the entire employee lifecycle #everyonematters
Which software is right for your organisation?
If you want to be a HR leader of tomorrow, you need software that will remove the complexity from succession planning, map current and future critical roles, and allow you to proactively develop employees with great potential.
Our Humanico platform does all the above and more. Our technology supports continuous and collaborative talent planning, enabling leaders to map out different scenarios. This gives them the ability to observe the impact of changes made within their organisation.
Humanico’s succession planning solution not only assists with uncovering and investing in the next generation of leaders and the broader talent within your business. It also helps drive knowledge transfer across the entire business.
In summary
Recent times have highlighted the need for robust contingency planning – and the necessary revaluation of future leaders in this dynamic and ever-changing landscape.
To retain top talent, it’s up to the HR leaders to create an agile environment where their human assets have continuous opportunities for growth. The key to this success is an effective succession planning process.
Combined with a comprehensive technology-driven capability map, a well-thought-out succession plan will promote successful business continuity and a high level of employee engagement.
For more information about how Humanico can support your succession planning process, get in touch with us today.
