You were promoted to a leadership position, whether it is in HR, Finance, IT, or Operations; it does not matter. What a succession plan does is to identify what talent you have available in your teams at present, their skills, their growing opportunities and when in the future they would be ready to assume higher responsibilities. Basically, you need to identify the following key elements for each team: The Needs, The Skills, the Who, the Chosen and the When. What Skills we need in our organization in order to become the type of organization we would like to become, both in the short term and long term. Short term is usually 1-3 years; Longer term is normally 5-10 years.
Let us take a closer look at those key elements:
The NEEDS:
Based on the nature of what we do, and a quick assessment of who our competition is, we determine which core skills are required to create a competitive edge. Is it data processing, laboratory technologies, food production, telecommunications, imaging, weather science, information systems, public accounting, space exploration, transportation, to mention a few.
When analyzing the needs think: at what level do we want our promotable to be? This is called the depth. Do we need personnel with at least three years of experience in their career field? In some areas three years is enough, but in some others, over three is more desirable.
The WHO:
I must remind you that in order for a Team Manager to identify who is a “High Pot” {aka Hi-Pot} in his/her team, he/she needs to have in place a reliable Performance Appraisal System {PAS}. The PAS gives you a good summary of who is performing at par with the present job expectations, who is underperforming, and who is exceeding current job expectations. Knowing this much about the team members creates the first feeding group of High Pots. The PAS is especially useful when the team is more than three years old.
Once you have prepared one or two performance appraisals on each individual on your team, you should be able to predict who is promotable immediately, ready in six to 12 months, in 12 to 18 months and 24 to 36 months. Warning: not everyone is promoted, not now, nor in the near future. These are known as maintenance workers, because they maintain the team going. The promotable or High Pots are known as Movers and Shakers. This article is focused on this latter group.
The SKILLS:
The skills that the team members possess are either acquired by education or by experience. Either way this is what makes them skilled workers and what made them hired in the first place. The forced question is: Would these previously acquired skills be enough to succeed in the envisioned organization?
Or do they need to acquire more skills in order to be considered for promotion?
Here is when Additional Required Skills come into the equation. If the potential promotion is to a job which is not supervisory in nature, such as from Buyer I to Senior Buyer, all you possibly need to do is making sure he/she gets certified in this field before you recommend this employee as a candidate for Purchasing Supervisor or Manager. When the potential promotion is supervisory in nature or if it is considered a leadership position, then the desired skills to be developed are identified through a time sensitive career development plan that needs to be put in place for the high potential. A time sensitive career development plan now includes the following skills: Organizing, Planning, Directing, Motivating, Coaching, Strategizing and Executing.
The above-mentioned skills are by nature more ambiguous and not everyone exert them the same way. This characteristic in itself makes its practice and application more personalized. There is not a one size fits all possibility here. Some leaders organize by due dates, others organize by management priority, others yet by product or service demands. When it comes to Planning, some leaders like to plan by quarter, others by month and yet others by year.
When it comes to motivating, some leaders believe that lavishing the new managers and leaders with additional benefits and compensation is the most effective tools. Others propose that giving them more time off and allowing them to work remote is what’s in for today’s workers.
Companies have tried different approaches to developing young prospects into effective leaders.
The CHOSEN:
Once the individual candidates are identified and given a High Potential label, the next step is to design a Career Development Plan or CDP to take them to the desired promotion.
- Think of a Mentor for the promotable employee-The Mentor, normally his/her immediate supervisor, makes sure the CDP is carried out accordingly. This responsibility is normally coordinated with the organization’s HR Leader.
- Shadowing-Consider this technique. The Mentor and or some other seasoned employee within the same career field as the Hi- Pot could be the successful profile to emulate.
- Relocation of high potential employees-Sometimes the best career development opportunity for your Hi-Pot is available in another company/agency facility. The Succession Plan Team-the HR Manager, the employee’s supervisor and Career Mentor-agree that the best option is relocation to that company’s branch or subsidiary. The employee has accepted the challenge and is willing to relocate.
This personnel action creates expectations. The company expects that the relocation produces the desired results. The transferee expects to be promoted after successfully completing his assignment. Relocations are unique in its class. Plans do not always turn out as expected, and by a certain date, this action is delayed by six months or even larger periods. Delays may disappoint the trainee and if not handled appropriately, it could end up by the employee quitting his/her job.
Good communication with the relocated employee is paramount.
On the more positive side of the process a well-managed relocation can be the best training ground and effective preparation for climbing the ladder in the corporate world.
Summary: A well-engineered Succession Plan is the backbone of any successful organization. This is especially true when the Succession Plan is preceded by a solid Performance Appraisal Program, which is the platform that produces the feeding groups which are used to determine the Who is Who and Who goes Where in the organization.
*This article was written by Ramon Santiago, Copy Writer and former HR Leader for organizations such as American Hospital Supply Corporation, Baxter Healthcare International, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Perdue Farms, Inc., and Ana G. Mendez University
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