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How Do I Assess the Success of My Company�s Succession Plan?

Home » Management » Succession Planning » How Do I Assess the Success of My Company�s Succession Plan?

It is important to remember that succession planning is not a destination, but rather a journey. Keeping in mind that recruitment and hiring of well-qualified employees is an ongoing process, it will also be part of the process to offer continual training to each employee, supervisor and manager. As each employee moves from one role to another of increased responsibility, the process does not end there. It will be expected that as they gain competence in their new role, they will continue to train and stretch toward even more demanding roles in the future.

As the recruiting, hiring and training phase is progressing, the process by which long-term corporate goals were set will regularly be evaluated and adjusted, if necessary, to continue to reflect both short and long term goals. Part of this evaluation will include continuing, regular assessments of the company�s technology assets, new technology that has become available, and plans for incorporating those technologies into current and future corporate strategies.

When evaluating each of these ongoing processes, it is important to keep the management of the succession plan simple. Allowing it to grow into a maze of assessments, planning meetings, and training schedules, defeats the purposes for which it was created. The process should manage itself, boosted by individual initiative and be monitored on a regular basis through the corporations assessment interview schedules that are already in place.

Take advantage of the technology already owned by the company to allow individuals to help track their own progress through monthly or quarterly progress reports of activities, sales, training, etc.

Enlist support for the process within the ranks of current high-level managers. A good manager will realize that well-qualified support from all levels of the company makes their job easier. If management looks at the succession planning process as the company�s plan for replacing them when a younger, more energetic, lower paid counterparts, their support of the process will, understandably, be anemic. However, when senior level managers are also offered incentives for increased productivity and training, they are able to see how the succession management process benefits them as well. Show them how their long-term employment and knowledge which is based on experience are of increasing value to the company as they also participate in continued training.

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