Preparing Employees
for
Advancement
with
Succession Planning
By: Therese Aillen Y. Jayme
Succession Planning
This began in the corporate and business
world as a reactive process of job
replacement.
Later, evolved to developing the skills of a
pool of individuals for future positions
within the company ( Hall, 1986)
Succession Planning
Leibman, Bruner and Maki (1996:22)
define succession planning as the
deliberate and systematic effort made by
an organization to identify, develop and
retain individuals with a range of
leadership competencies who are capable
of implementing current and future
organizational goals.
Succession Planning
This should be based on agreed
principles, provide a breadth of
experiences critical to leadership and
be active at all levels of the
organization ( Friedman, Hatch and
Walker, 1998).
What Every Manager Needs to Know About Succession Planning?
Vision
Organizations need to ensure that
their resource practices support the
recruitment, development, and
retention of appropriate leadership
personnel.
Identify and document the future
goals of the school or organization
Succession Planning Ensures You
Have Employees Prepared for Roles
Importance of Recruiting
• Through succession
planning process,
you recruit superior
employees, develop
their knowledge,
skills, and abilities,
and prepare them
for advancement or
promotion into more
challenging roles in
your organization.
Selection
• Selection processes need to be structured
so that they encourage and support the
organization in its attempt to locate and
appoint highly qualified and appropriate
applicants to leadership positions.
Attraction
To attract applicants, the position needs to not
only provide job satisfaction, but be perceived by
others as providing job satisfaction.
Schools need to review the following:
Job design for all positions
Procedures for advertising new positions
Procedures for handling prospective applicants
Procedures for handling unsuccessful candidates
Tap the Power of Internal Training
Internal
training reflects a solid
knowledge of the
organization's culture.
Theinternal
training uses real-life
examples, problems, and
challenges that
participants encounter
every day at work.
Development
Career
development of
current and
potential leaders is
now considered to
be an essential
element of
succession plans
Who Needs Succession Planning?
All organizations, no matter their size, need
succession planning. While it is less likely that
you will have potential successors for every
role in a ten-person company, you can
minimally cross-train.
• Cross-training ensures that employees are
prepared to babysit the key job when the
employee resigns.
Future Leaders
Potential future leaders would include the
current top 10% of performers who would be
capable of doing a job two levels above their
current level.
School and school systems should identify these
teachers and use them to fill acting leadership
positions as a matter of priority.
Current Leaders
Similar opportunities need to be provided
for current leaders as for future leaders.
They need to have their career
development promoted, time spent with
them on career issues, and actions taken
to further their development.
Benefits of Succession Planning
• Aligning strategic goals and human
resources to enable the “right people in the
right place at the right time” to achieve
desired business results.
• The development of qualified pools of
candidates ready to fill critical or key
positions.
Benefits of Succession Planning
• Providing stability in leadership and other
critical positions to sustain a high-
performing public service and ensure the
uninterrupted delivery of services and
programs.
• Identifying workforce renewal needs as a
means of targeting necessary employee
training and development
Benefits of Succession Planning
• Helping individuals realize their career
plans and aspirations within the
organization
• Improving employees’ ability to respond
to changing environmental demands, and
• The opportunity for timely corporate
knowledge transfer
