How Succession planning is a long term process ?

The challenge with succession planning is that it is a process aimed at long-term continuity. Succession is a planning where you think in years. It takes quite a bit of commitment as an organization to set this up and, above all, to keep it up to date. Not infrequently, those involved become impatient and expectations are insufficiently managed, causing people to drop out prematurely.

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This process is very visible in politics: you regularly see a “crown prince” drop out. They peak too early and the incumbent does not want to make room yet, so they have to leave politics.

In succession planning, it is important to keep the process clear and simple. Only then will everyone remain motivated to keep up, without creating expectations that you cannot or do not want to live up to. It is important to use the plan successfully.

How do you make good use of succession planning?

Succession planning is a process that basically consists of three steps:

Make critical functions transparent

Organize the follow-up

Follow the result and celebrate your success

Below we describe the most important facets of each step and provide practical tips that you can use to properly implement your succession plan.

Make critical functions transparent

Succession planning is a time-consuming process aimed at the continuity of the organization in the medium term. As long as no one leaves, there seems to be little need to think about succession. And it is also not that difficult to organize replacements for regular functions.

The focus of the succession plan should therefore be primarily on the most critical functions in the organization. This is where the biggest challenges lie when someone leaves and the effect of timely follow-up will therefore be greatest.

You discover the critical functions by measuring the impact of the function on the overall business. You can determine the impact score by rating each function from 1 to 4, based on at least the following four criteria:

Supply of suitable candidates in the market

Time to familiarize yourself with the company-specific situation

Number of employees with a similar position

Impact on business operations

By scoring these characteristics, you get an idea of ​​what the impact will be if an employee leaves the position. For example, a function with a score of 16/16 will present a very big problem and a score of 1/1 will be low.

By valuing all functions in relation to each other, you can see where the most important continuity questions are in the organization.

Organize the follow-up

From the critical function overview you can prioritize the impact of the critical points. This means that you zoom in on the most specific pain points for each function. If you have a clear picture of where the pain in the job is greatest, you can also look more specifically for a solution and start making a plan to limit the impact.

Mathematics teacher example : At the moment it is difficult to find a maths teacher. The supply in the market is limited, so there is a shortage for everyone. It has a direct impact on business operations, because it is a compulsory subject that must be offered at every secondary school. The training time of qualified teachers is not high, but it is for non-qualified teachers, which makes it difficult to increase the range. And due to the shortage, many schools do not have a surplus of teachers who can absorb the drop-out. In addition, the available mathematics teachers are often fully deployed, so there is little room to accommodate any drop-out.

In examining the continuity question, you will probably arrive at the critical point: the mathematical knowledge . There are enough teachers in the school who can teach competently, just not in mathematics. And as a core subject, that is a risk for an educational organization.

Example of CEO : As a CEO you are unique in your position and your influence on the course of the organization is great. As the figurehead of the company, many relationships come together. In many organizations you see that succession is an important theme for the continuity of the organization. Both internally and externally, a new person means that relationships are reconsidered. Customers and employees start thinking about their own relationship to the organization. That is why you often see that when the CEO changes, many other management members also change, which naturally has an impact on the continuity of the organization.

The challenge in the continuity question is probably mainly in: managing the relationships .

By having an overview of the critical points associated with the replacement, you get an idea of ​​what you have to take into account in the follow-up. This, in combination with the competence profile of the position, allows you to start organizing your succession.

For each critical position, you will receive an overview of the required competencies that someone must have, along with a specific addition to the critical points associated with the position.

Visualize follow-up

Now that it is clear what makes a function critical, you can manage the risks associated with the critical points. This consists of two parts:

Determining the potential candidates

Identifying potential candidates

These can be concrete names of people who are able to take over the position, but you can also choose profiles that suit people who are able to take over a position.

In the case of a CEO, it is often a person or persons designated to participate in a development program. The challenge in naming an heir to the throne is that they want to peak too early. Not everyone has the patience to wait for the feature to become available. The challenge is to be transparent in the progress, without increasing the pressure on the existing employees.

Design follow-up and development program

In the case of a CEO, it is often a person or persons designated to participate in a development program. The challenge in naming an heir to the throne is that they want to peak too early. Not everyone has the patience to wait for the feature to become available.

The challenge of a personal development plan is to be transparent in the progress, without the space to increase the pressure on the existing employees. You must therefore ensure that your program has sufficient critical capacity to follow the development of potential successors. Not only to ensure that the best candidate is selected, but also to be able to assess the effectiveness of your program yourself.

Measure talent development over time

Within the team navigator , the use of the criteria analytics in addition to the HR analytics is an important tool. From your succession planning you want to know who has the potential to take over the position, but also whether the development and ultimately the succession of the position is successful.

With the team review you gain insight into where the talents and the potential for succession in the organization are located. These talents are based on criteria that are important for the (future) filling of the position. When moving on internally in the organization, you want to know which criteria have a predictive capacity for future success. To find out, you have to measure someone's development over time.

Because you can follow the development of everyone in the organization over time with the Team Navigator, you know the impact of the investment in the development of your successors. By using the option: critical function you can filter and measure the success of the successor, but also of the control group

A development program

In the case of a math teacher, the problem is a structural shortage of people. A structured approach to solving the problem fits here. In your succession planning you can think about organizational solutions that make a structural contribution to the problem in the longer term.

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Examples include the training school within a school in which you train mathematics teachers yourself. You could choose to use the capacity of the teachers differently, collaborate with other schools or colleges and universities, use digital tools, use plenary lectures with a teacher and small tutorials supported by (former) students, etc.

An additional advantage of a shortage of generic functions is that it is an organization transcending need. There is a shortage in the market, which means that an employee who cannot grow within his own organization can do so at another school.

You also see initiatives emerging from sector organizations or semi-government. The problem with this is often that these are slow processes, where it does not solve a problem of an individual school. Organizations compete with each other (own problem first), which makes it difficult for collective programs to really get off the ground.

You can get started right away with succession planning within your own context. Sometimes it can even be turned into a business model. In this way you can set up your own training model, just like Ajax has committed to the youth academy.

Specialize on your own development program

As an organization you can immerse yourself in what it takes to become a maths teacher. by making a good Employee Journey you gain insight into how you set up your program, with which you support new potential mathematics teachers to successfully enter. You map the 'bottle necks' and provide solutions that help the employee to successfully remove them.

By offering a unique program, you automatically become attractive for employees to come and work for you. Succession planning not only helps you to properly implement your primary process, but also contributes to a culture in which learning is stimulated.

Follow the result and celebrate success

Succession planning is not something that immediately yields results in the short term. That is why it is important to properly record the goals you have. Only then will the subject receive the attention it needs to set it up successfully.

The success of succession planning can be divided into individual success. This concerns the success of the individual employee in achieving his personal ambitions. You can measure this by comparing personal development plans with reality. Do employees succeed in realizing their ambitions in the organization or do they drop out?

The second form of success in succession planning is achieving the organizational objective. Does succession planning indeed ensure that the continuity of the organization is better guaranteed? To make this transparent, you must link the objective to indicators that you can make visible in the organization.

Key figures that you can use to record your success are:

Occupy critical positions

Internal mobility/flow

External mobility, especially potentials, stars and achievers

Internal development on critical functions

Successful fulfillment of critical functions

By following the development of the key figures over time, you gain insight into whether your efforts are leading to results. At the same time, it is a tool to better understand the effectiveness of interventions. Which is important to increase the impact of future interventions.