Managing succession and career planning
and why it is important for your business

Replacing a leader is not an easy task. It requires years of careful planning to find the best man for the job. But not many know how to manage succession and plan their employees’ career correctly. So when a manager or CEO suddenly steps down from their position, companies that don’t have a succession plan will crumble.

Take, for instance, Uber, one of the world’s biggest peer-to-peer ridesharing companies. When its CEO Travis Kalanick suddenly resigned, there was no one who could immediately take over his position and keep the company on the right track. And because several positions were also vacant, the company had to delay its IPO listing.

Why is managing succession and career planning important for your business?

One thing we can learn from Uber’s incident is that companies without proper succession planning will certainly struggle. For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), this uncertainty brought about by sudden resignations can significantly impact their bottom line or worse, close down. That’s why we highly recommend companies to plan ahead and start thinking of potential individuals who can fill in crucial managerial positions as soon as possible, either through internal or external hiring.

From experience, we found that many companies -- especially SMBs -- prefer filling key positions from within their company mainly because internal hires are already familiar with the business and the company culture, and are therefore relatively easier to train.

How do I find the right person for the position?

A common mistake that many managers and leaders make is to consider only employees in high-level positions. Doing this limits your choices and may force you to settle for candidates that aren't fully qualified.

Considering every employee may be easy to do if you only have around five workers, but not if you have more than 50 personnel and a complex organizational structure. You’d have to spend an inordinate amount of time interviewing potential candidates, while managing your own work.

If you’d like an easy-to-use, time-saving solution for such a dilemma, Zentech I.T Solutions offers ZenHRMS, our integrated human resource management system. ZenHRMS compiles all your employees’ information into one platform -- including their qualifications, training details, past experience, key performance areas (KPAs), and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also allows you to understand a specific position’s requirements in terms of skills and location. Using this data, ZenHRMS will analyze every employee in your company against the requirements of the position, and give you a shortlist of appropriate candidates so you spend less time reviewing every employee's details.

What should I take into account when building a succession plan?

Now that you know the importance of managing succession and career planning, you should also learn how to pick the best candidate and plan their succession and career plan. Here are several questions you should ask yourself during this stage:

• Do they have the right skills and experience for the position?
• What do their peers and direct managers have to say about their performance?
• Will they be able to develop the necessary skills needed for the role, after following a development plan?
• What special skills can they offer that will benefit the company?
• Are they interested in assuming the position?

It’s important to thoroughly plan their succession and career plan for a seamless transition and sustained company growth. But we understand that this may be too time-consuming and challenging for some organizations. ZenHRMS can help you plan your successor’s career path by designing their skills development plans and managing and monitoring their training progress. Contact us if you want to learn more about ZenHRMS.