Best Practices in succession planning

If we talk about succession planning most of the companies takes this as replacement of anyone, they take it very wrong, either they are hiring from outside that may not be suitable for job or leading the company or they overpromote anybody that is not fully qualified.  So here are some of the best practices that should be followed.

Board of Directors and CEO should also be involved other than HR:

Board of Directors and CEO of the company should be involved the succession training, it is not only entirely an HR paperwork job but it is something that everybody should be involved with commitment so that a right candidate could be replaced. Board of members can ask possible question related to the position so as to see how the successor is getting along (Noe, 2006).

Regular performance reviews.

A regular performance reviews should be done starting from board of directors reviewing the performance of the CEO and then CEO takes the review of the team of executives and so on till the last level. This will ensure peak performance from every one plus those who are not performing well can be pin pointed (Cohen, 1996).

Case Analysis

Before we do a comprehensive study and analysis regarding Succession planning, what are the best practices and other things like that lets first describe what is Succession planning for better understanding?  So, to define succession planning is a process adopt or evolve specially to fill in the key positions in the company from within or may be from outside without being company or organization disturbed.

To talk further succession planning has now becoming very important in every organization, because it definitely helps the organization to ensure smooth operations. It is also known as management succession planning. It is a whole process in which an individual in promoted from inside the organization through proper process or may be hired from outside but after a through scrutinizing so that organization can get a very skilled person and ensure smooth operation. (Miles & Bennett, 2007)

Here are some very important phases of succession training that if followed will ensure smooth flow. First step in this regard is called starting or in other words, a new role is defined. Then comes initiation of the process, then selection of right candidate and finally yet importantly educating the person. So now, let take a deep insight on each step for better understanding. The first step is to define the role the company CEO or leader tells the potential successors about the company another necessary thing like company culture ethics etc (Agon, 2017).

Then comes the next important part of this and very curtail that one possible successor or key player is identified that will be going to lead ultimately. Once the right candidate is selected for the role then there are thorough trainings and steps are taken so that he can properly take the role without any problem. Once the candidate is gone through this process and finally ready, he is ultimately replaced on that position. (The economic Times, 2016).

Nominate only the best

Once the performance review will be done regularly this will help in identifying the best resources for the job that may not yet be available but once there is any situation arise you can be sure that you have some pools of best performing individuals that are ready to take the position or can be elected the best among them.

Talent development

Talent development approach should apply to all level so that every level is streamlined for best approach and productivity.

Make sure that Executive Team is performing their duty

Executive team is responsible for the training and development of there successors. So, they have to continuously analyze if their team is performing well. Or they are not performing up to the mark and if they are not, they (Executives) should be held accountable (Buller, 2012).

Make sure Executives are working according to the business goals

Executives are the key players in the organizations and if they are not performing according to the business goals defined by the organization it means they should be held accountable. They should be preparing their successors.

Deal with the effects of succession planning

Succession planning comes with a price we must say that people may feel the fear of letting go. This is not something that can be found in academics, but this is the thing you have to deal with your own experience and emotional intelligence. Every CEO, Manage or other executives feel the political or social pressure about succession and if it is not catered effectively. End results may not bas anticipated (Cohen, 1996).

Ongoing performance Evaluation

Good leaders or HR persons always jot down the best performances, keep a track record of consecutive progress or performance in other words of the anticipated successor so that actually when the time comes it is like a factual thing rather than just a blind decision on the base of past performance.

Succession planning with Rewards.

Succession planning is something that should be done performance evaluation, Hiring. Electing the right candidate, continuous development and last but not least with rewards. So as to ensure good results and smooth transition (Bratton & Gold., 2017).

Spending more time and resources on the development of the nominated successors/ Employees.

A good succession planning means continuously spends efforts and resources on the employees so that they could perform more and do more than they are doing. (McCarthy, 2013)

Organization Plan for Succession planning

As we know that succession panning is becoming of utmost importance in every organization regardless of their size or type of organization. but unfortunately, very small number of organizations plan for succession planning well in advance. Those organization that do plan for succession planning in advance are not following it in a systematic way in fact they are just following on the bases of past performance evaluation that is not sufficient (The economic Times, 2016).

They need to follow in a very systematic ways like some of the ways cited above and do ensure they plan it well in advance so that when the time is right it is just the right kind of transition and smooth rather then just haphazard transition.

Q 1) b political appointment Effect

We know that there are political appointments every where and there are certain reasons for that before we look into those reasons, we know that almost 4 out of 5 companies are led by management investors or stake holders and only 1 company may be like founder is the CEO of the company (Jayaram, 2015).

We know that company CEO doesn’t want to be changed and it is sometimes disastrous, because employees’ interests are mostly with the CEO of the company and when he is changed without any proper planning things don’t go well. According to the recent studies most American CEO’s were not there in the companies in there fourth year.

Most of them were forced to let down by investors or management to be replaced with others. CEO’s like Bill gates etc. who remained as a CEO and founder for such a long time. In order to make the change smooth there should be a proper plan devised for it in addition to that if investors or management is also loyal or in other words, they are honest (Ezhilarasan, 2017).

Everybody motives are to make money or in other words money or management are the main source of motivation behind the startups. But what happens is that some of the CEO’s or Founders are not clear about what they want? They want to be either in the Leadership role or make money and ultimately lose both.

So, what happens is that every single-phase Company CEO or founder is challenged for both. The reason behind this is that investors or management interests most of the time conflicts with the investors or Management thus they are forces to be leave the organization or Leading role (Jayaram, 2015).

Besides this there are some other reasons why political hiring’s are made some of them are that to support those who have been helping the government and now they have to be rewarded in one way or other and mostly they are rewarded in this form by giving them the leading roles. (Wasserman, 2008)

Then sometimes as discussed socio-economic pressure that leads to political hiring. But whatever the reasons may be results are not as expected. Now let see some of the effects of political hiring on the organization.

Less productivity and higher cost.

The first and foremost effect is less productivity, because they are not aligned according to the organization goals plus, they are not on merit or they have not been given proper expo so what happens is that their decisions will lower the productivity thus end results will be at higher cost and lots of damage.

In fact, what happens is that since they are politically assigned, they spend more time in preparing things or doing things that deem necessary to make those happy those have appointed him. The will be either doing noting or may be doing such things that are not productive according to the company agenda (Bratton & Gold., 2017).

Unnecessary delay and waste of time and resources

There is an enormous amount of resources are sometimes spend to just fill some positions, there is sometimes an unnecessary chain of hiring and firing is started because once the top level position is filled with a non-competent person. As a result he may elect those employees or senior executives that are in favor of him and thus a complete chain till end is followed as everyone wants to have a person that is in his favor (Ezhilarasan, 2017).

So, this means that uncountable number of human hours will be spend for unnecessary hiring and this will not only delay further the important tasks that are due timely. In addition to that each new hiring is costing money to the company and that is another negative element. Aside from this sometimes there are positions that are created that were not necessary, which could be another burden on, company financial (Ezhilarasan, 2017).

Nonproductive time is spent.

As we know that since political hiring is made, they will spend more time on those aspects that are not productive for the company, mainly securities are the most one effected as they will be doing those task as assigned by their bosses and that may be of no value to company or they will be asked to stay for long to do extra task. again, they may not be of any value to organization or may be an extra burden.

Likewise, they know that they may not be accountable so they may not pay heed to what someone are asking them to do. So that means that they are getting paid for doing nothing. Which is again something a loss of time and efforts. Then it happens that secretaries may be asked to cover the minutes of meeting or prepare for the meeting or do any tasks that may require them to travel from their original office to another floor or somewhere else that again is waste of time or doing tasks that there job role doesn’t require them to do (Cohen, 1996).

Political appointees are not aware of ripple effect.

Political appointees are not aware that each of their action has a ripple effect means that if they are not doing anything, they were meant to do means other persons in the chain will be affected too. They are more concerned to make happy who have appointed them. Things have to be done many times (Ezhilarasan, 2017). There is another effect that same things are asked to do multiple times, because the manager or Leader was very unsure what is actually, they require. They only start making sense as soon as product is front of him and that means that it will be asked to do twice or thrice or may be more.

Lack of Planning

There is no proper planning involved in doing anything as cited above that they don’t care or pay no heed to what is going on so many things go unplanned and results are sometimes devastating.

Obstacles in doing tasks for subordinates.

Sometimes there are a lot of obstacles one may have to face while doing any tasks just because one is said to be do this or that according to the political appointee or any senior person and the subordinate rejects the task or not do the task according to the things as requested, he will have to bear the consequences. Political appointees want things to be done quickly or dramatically to show their progress. That may include sometimes starting totally a new avenue without proper planning. They want things to be done quickly by hook or by crook.  There is no proper planning involved behind that. It may be just a haphazard decision.

No proper vision about planning or costs effective solution.

Political appointee may not have a proper vision in following the company policy or as to how many times a product is revised or hours has been put to produce any specific outcome. He just wanted to have things according to this will. Nor will he plan in advance for next time to do things in a systematic way.

Lack or Quality and Ethical standards

Like we have discussed above one simple solution may be repeated multiple times or may be asked to do those things that may not be in his job role that means that is against the ethical standards. Likewise, if things are producing repeatedly or may not of that up to the mark standards that means quality standards are compromised. Or may be the Leader or senior executive is not clear enough about the standards company is seeking. (Cohen, 1996)

Q 2) HR and succession Planning

HR and succession planning are two things that are inseparable now a days as more and more focus is laid on succession planning. So, let’s see what is succession planning?

What is succession planning?

Succession planning refers to the effect or process in which lead to a smooth transition of key roles in the organization according to a specific plan from within the company or sometimes from outside the company but with a very specific plan. This is also important because it will enable or equip HR persons with a strategy to follow and keep a record of top performing employees. That means that they have to evaluate them continuously and should not solely promote employees based on there past records that may be inaccurate at the time of transition (Miles & Bennett, 2007).

Why should organizations focus on succession planning?

The succession planning is getting very important day by day because the thing is that in order to avoid any unpleasant seen or haphazard seen it is very important to lay down a plan and organize trainings evaluations etc. to the employees that will ultimately help in smooth transition.

as stated in the article when the CEO of P&G died back in 2000 company the new CEO had to face a very tuff situation. (ERC, 2018)

Some of the steps for smooth Transition of Leadership and Succession planning.

If an organization wants to have a smooth transition, they do need to have follow some steps that will not only help them in smooth change of management plus it will be very systematic thus ensuring right people for the right place. And saving a lot of time and resources of the organization. So, let’s take a look at these steps.

Top Level Executives and Board members should also be involved in the changing process.

If the company want to have everything smooth and sound then everyone from the top-level executives plus members of board should be involved so that they can ask the potential employees the possible questions that could help them evaluate them plus also help the potential successors to overcome their shortcomings. This will also further help in developing a proper plan on how further employees can be trained in their respective field further so that they can become more productive.

Everything should be well planned

Good HR Manager is that who makes things planned. So, in this regard HR should lay a proper plan how things would be and how and when everyone included in this process should be engaged and make a proper layout about employee’s performances and noticeable things they have done. This will help in a well structured and authentic decision rather than a haphazard decision. That could result in unexpected loss or unnecessary delay when the time is right.

There should be some Mock exercises done once in every few while

Once there are few mock excelsis are done in the presence of top-level executives and Board of directors or management this will ensure quality process and smooth transition when the time is right. Besides this the HR could also help reduce the fear of replacement with emotional intelligence. This is another important factor in low productivity and less smooth change at the right time as the successor may not be fully prepared.

Make the plan simple

The plan should be simple and constructive so that everybody could be taken into confidence and again this is not a one man show, as stated above it requires the involvement of board of directors and CEO so that possible replacement can be well trained. Other than that, if there’s any doubt that can be treated properly without creating any fuss.  (Sabbag, 2016)

From the discussion above and the article, we can conclude that succession planning is of utmost importance it is not a one man show or not a single person job, it requires a proper planning and structural decision. Succession planning is not limited to made decision made on past evaluation but in short it should be done on the basis of continuous evaluation and performance notes.

This is also entail that political Hiring should be not favored but it should be very structured and based on that decisions should be taken this would avoid any unnecessary challenges like in the case of P&G back in 2000 once the new CEO joined things were very difficult from him. However, once the succession planning was done in 2009 transition was not only smooth but very favorable.

References

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Bratton, J. & Gold., J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. s.l.:Palgrave.

Buller, 2012. Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight.. Human resource management review, 22(1), pp. 43-56.

Cohen, D. M., 1996. Amateur Government: When Political Appointees Manage the Federal Bureaucracy, NW Washington, D.C. : The Brookings Institution.

ERC, 2018. What Is Succession Planning and Why Is It Important?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/what-is-succession-planning-and-why-is-it-important.aspx

Ezhilarasan, 2017. Data Mining in Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS). s.l.:Roultedge.

Jayaram, S. V., 2015. Top 6 HR Strategies for Effective Succession Planning. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hrinasia.com/leadership-2/top-6-hr-strategies-for-effective-succession-planning/

McCarthy, D., 2013. 10 Succession Planning Best Practices. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ivyexec.com/executive-insights/2013/10-succession-planning-best-practices

Miles, S. A. & Bennett, N., 2007. Best Practices In Succession Planning. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/2007/11/07/succession-ceos-governance-lead-cx_sm_1107planning.html#3babab6c668d

Noe, R., 2006. Human Resources Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. s.l.:McGraw-Hill Education.

Sabbag, M., 2016. WHY WE NEED TO INVEST IN SUCCESSION PLANNING FOR HR. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/rework/why-we-need-invest-succession-planning-hr

The economic Times, 2016. Definition of 'Succession Planning'. [Online]
Available at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/succession-planning

Wasserman, N., 2008. The Founder’s Dilemma. [Online]
Available at: https://hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma