Ensure your organisation is planning for tomorrow

GOOD people are hard to find, as most human resources practitioners will agree. Replacing people with someone from outside the organisation is not always successful, and can also be more expensive than an internal appointment.

Neville de Lucia, the new business development director at Dale Carnegie Training, has these tips for successful succession planning:

Everyone must have a clear understanding of why a succession programme is needed, and understand their role in the programme;

All managers need to have a wide and deep understanding of how the organisation works to make decisions that allow for effective succession planning;

Performance management is crucial, but it needs to be well managed to ensure that people are measured fairly against what they are expected to do as well as setting them on the path to learning vital new skills;

For people to be available and ready for any vacant posts, managers need to be aware of where the organisation is heading;

Any promotions need to be seen in the light of future requirements. Some people may be ideally suited to what lies ahead, and should be assessed and developed with this in mind; and

Each person needs an individual development plan so that gaps between what they can do now and what they need to be able to do in the future can be narrowed. — Margaret Harris