As organisations grow, it becomes increasingly important to have robust systems and approaches to the identification and development of talented employees. Proactively operating these processes can increase employee motivation and retention, and having healthy and actively managed succession plans supports business continuity and reduces risk.

Furthermore, one of the key responsibilities of anyone in a leadership or management position is to identify and develop their possible successors and ensure the ongoing continuity and performance of their organisation. They also have a responsibility for developing talent for the wider organisation.

The key stages of a successful approach to talent and succession management are:

• Define and specify a structured process which can be applied consistently and fairly across the organisation.
• Define a set of high potential competencies or indicators which will be used as the foundation to identify and assess talent.
• Use a set of tools to assess the ‘bench strength’ of key teams in the organisation, identify possible areas of concern and identify talented individuals.
• Assess nominated individuals against the defined high potential indicators using an appropriate, agreed and standardised approach.
• Identify key or critical roles which justify having succession planning activity and ensure that effort and resources are put into the areas which will have the biggest impact.
• Identify individuals from within, or outside, the organisation who would be potential successors to the roles and are either ready to fill the roles now on a permanent basis, as a temporary emergency successor or will be ready at some point in the future with appropriate development.
• Identify development interventions and experiences for high potential employees and those on succession plans to ensure they fulfil their potential and become viable successors who are ready when needed by the business.
• Regularly review the health of the succession plans and the high potential lists to ensure they are actively managed and remain up-to-date with no gaps and identify any issues at an early stage.

How can we help you?
We can help your organisation to develop robust, bespoke processes for the identification and development of high potential talent and succession management to enhance business performance and reduce business continuity risk. You’ll benefit by accelerating talented employees into key positions and leaders and managers will get the best out of their people, leading to better organisation performance and business results. In turn, this will improve your organisation’s reputation in the recruitment market, thereby helping attract talented employees.

Our thanks to Andrew for writing this page.