Drivers of Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement has transcended from being the latest business buzzword to being recognized by organizations as a tool that positively influences business performance. This linkage between organization performance and employee engagement was researched by ISR in 2006 by means of world-wide survey. The ISR study reveals that companies with high engagement scores saw an increase […]
Evolution of Performance Management
The term performance management gained its importance from the times when the competitive pressures in the market place started rising and the organizations felt the need of introducing a comprehensive performance management process into their system for improving the overall productivity and performance effectiveness. The performance management process evolved in several phases. First Phase: The […]
Social Entrepreneurship at its best Microfinance and the Revolution in the Third World
How Small Entrepreneurs face lack of access to capital In recent years, prominent among the revolutions in personal finance and savings has been the rise of microfinance or microcredit as it is also known as. To understand how this works, picture yourself as a small businessperson (you can be a farmer with a marginal landholding, […]
Characteristics of Engaged Workforce
The level of employee engagement can be measured by the willingness and ability of employees to contribute to the success of their organisation. It is their discretionary effort which is an essential element for the good health and well being of a company. A highly engaged workforce shows the high level of engagement in their […]
Why Governments are Restricting and Regulating After Hours Work of Employees?
Why Worried Governments and Business Leaders are Regulating after Hours Availability In our 24/7 breakneck speed and hyper-connected world, employees are expected to put in many hours and also be responsive to calls and emails as well as other forms of communication even after working hours. Indeed, ask any professional in any field and invariably, […]
In one our write ups we mentioned the problem of succession planning in organizations. The basis was the SHRM survey of 2003 that found out that 60% of organizations have no succession planning at all. We discuss the phenomenon in detail here. What is succession planning and when did it emerge as a problem? What is the way out? Questions like these will be discussed in the coming lines.
Succession planning is a systematic process of identifying and developing talent for leadership positions in the future. According to SHRM survey of 2003 it was found out that 60% of the firms that they interviewed had no succession planning in place and contrastingly about 70% of the major corporations globally had a proper succession planning in place in the late 1970’s. Similarly IPMA HR survey of 2004 found out that 63% of companies have no manpower planning at all which was commonplace in every organization till the late 1950’s. So the question that arises is when did succession planning emerge as a problem? Who is responsible - is it because of some demographic changes or because of the apathy on the part of management?
Marshall Goldsmith one of the world’s leading executive coaches recently wrote that many executives complained about succession planning being such a waste of time. Still many CEO’s complained about lack of bench strength in their organizations - lack of talent principally. Finally the role of demographics cannot be ignored! United States, for example has an aging population. India on the other hand has a population that is young by demographic standards. The combination of all these factors we may say has made a mess of succession planning in the past few decades.
What is the way out ?
‘Tell me and I will listen, show me and I will see and let me do it and I will learn’, how can we forget the age old adage! Plans specially pertaining to succession it seems do not work anymore, it is the development experiences that engage and motivate people at work. Perhaps renaming your succession planning to succession development may go a long way in reviving the succession planning process in your organization. The planning processes have lots of do’s and don’ts that make people think of it as another plan that is an end in itself and no a means to future position. Let them realize the focus is on development and not on the planning process.
The next step would be laying emphasis on outcomes rather than the process. This would underline in the eyes of employees what gets measured and what gets rewarded and elicit necessary behaviors and behavioral changes. Their ownership in the development process can increase as a result. Then there is a need to make the assessment process as simple as possible. Organizations have a tendency to make the assessment process complex unnecessarily. Complex assessment processes make assessment difficult for the average line manager. More complex assessment processes can be developed at the level of people development, while planning for succession, keep it simple.
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