Succession planning
Many organizations are confronted by the imminent retirement of many key personnel and leaders. In addition, there are fewer people to fill many high level or strategic positions. As a result of these two statistically significant trends, succession planning has become a higher priority if not a strategic imperative for many organizations.
Succession planning is a proactive activity focused on developing a pool of talent with the skills, attributes, and experiences that are required to fill specific, and often, senior positions within the organization. To accomplish this, organizations must undertake a comprehensive assessment and planning process to identify and forecast the leadership needs of the future.
Success criteria
There are several key success factors for a succession planning initiative. These include:
- Having visible support from the CEO and top management
- Identifying the leadership skills and competencies required by the organization to succeed
- The ability to find future leaders and motivate them
- Ensuring succession planning is aligned with and supports the corporate culture
- Include employee input
Performance evaluations
The succession planning process includes identifying and preparing appropriate employees through mentoring, training, and job rotation to replace key senior personnel. As a result, 360-degree feedback and performance evaluations are among the key methods for supporting a succession planning process because these tools are essential to identifying future leaders and managing top talent. Timely, efficient performance evaluations are crucial because top performers and self-motivated achievers - the future leaders - will quickly grow frustrated and become disenfranchised if there are no perceived differences between their performance and the performance of mediocre performers.
Automating the process
Web-based systems can automate every aspect of the employee evaluation and appraisal process within an organization including getting the right documents to right people at the right time. Effective web-based systems can be up and running in a matter of days and acclimatize to an organization quickly with a simple, intuitive User Interface. Desirable characteristics of a web-based system also include the ability to support:
- Various types of employee evaluations - focal, anniversary, interim, and probationary
- Multiple appraisal and evaluation processes at the same time
- Complex scoring and weighting
Halogen Software offers several options for implementing a comprehensive employee performance management system that complements or supports a succession planning process. For more information contact one of our knowledgeable customer service consultants by emailing or calling us today.
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