How HR managers fail in succession planning

Accelerated management training programme is one of the strategies human resource managers use in succession planning. PHOTO | FILE 

By SUSAN KIHATO

In Summary

• Businesses replace employees who leave without considering how roles meet future needs of a company.

Succession management is a key concern for most employers today. Inevitably the workforce is greying and job seekers in the market lack the skills and experience that organisations need to sustain high productivity.

The war for talent is at all-time high for skills and experience — which are generally lacking.

Many human resources (HR) managers and senior management will say that they do succession management in their organisations.

However, upon deeper investigation, what they actually mean is that they have someone in mind to replace one or more key positions, should they fall vacant. According to Aon Hewitt, these leaders are actually conducting replacement planning.

Replacement planning largely assumes that the responsibilities of the position will remain the same and thus focuses on ensuring that the current incumbent is replaced on the same job description, sometimes sadly not even imminent redundancy of the role is noticed.

Talent needs

By looking at the role in isolation, replacement planning does not consider how the role addresses the larger future needs of the organisation.

Replacement planning looks to replicate the skill levels of the incumbent, instead of finding the best person to realise the future potential of the role.

Succession management on the other hand speaks to the organisation strategy and looks at ensuring the continuity of the organisation.

It’s a process that ensures that employees who have high potential are identified and their skills developed to even higher levels than those of existing incumbents in identified key roles.

Succession planning addresses talent needs of the future planned roles, to ensure that suitable candidates are already lined up to succeed these roles.

An important characteristic of succession management is creativity and innovation, to ensure that the most effective methodology is used to identify suitable candidates.

Replacement planning is very myopic in practice, encourages promotion within ‘silos’ of specialisation rather than encouraging managers to focus on the growth strategy of the organisation.

What is succession management?

Success management is the process of identifying and developing internal talent to meet the needs of the organisation now and in the future.

Allow me unpack five key words from the above definition, which I consider essential to succession management.

A process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end and in the case of succession planning the end is a talent pipeline.

The process can be simple or complex and is largely guided by the organisation needs, the process can also be as granular as the organisation deems fit for its roles.

To develop means to cause to become better or advanced. When applied in succession management, it means the systematic transfer of relevant skills and organisational knowledge to the identified talent. It will involve coaching and mentoring relationships.

Needs are the non-negotiable talent requirements of an organisation, that affect its survival in the market place.

The pressure on succession management is to effectively allocate resources, in a manner that can clearly demonstrate return on investments by addressing the needs of the organisation.

Now and future, refers to time which is very vital for any organisation. When an organisation takes cognisance of the two aspects of time, their actions are deliberate and seek to meet these needs.

Should you be concerned with Succession Management?

Yes you should be! A successful organisation should live beyond the individuals who works in it and planning is the key.

The war for talent will only be won through strategic thinking and therefore begs for the human resources managers to be vigilant and apply the best industry practice in succession management.

In Kenya some organisations have taken up succession management as a long term strategy to ensure the continued growth of the organisation.

Some of the strategies adopted included talent pools of qualified internal candidates who are not only capable of being successful in a role, but have the potential to transform the said role.

Another strategy applied is the accelerated management training programme, whereby the incumbents are accelerated through the system into entry level managers.

Ultimately the senior leadership must drive succession management and ensure that it is directly aligned with overall business strategy.

Ms Kihato is senior HR consultant at Aon Hewitt, a human resources consulting division of Aon Kenya Insurance Brokers Ltd.