South African organisations find themselves in a war for talent and competing for a shrinking pool of talented workforce. Strategic planning for any business needs to ensure that there is sufficient talent workforce to meet the future business demands. What is also imminent in the ever-changing economy is the retirement of skilled workforce and high staff turnover. People change jobs all the time. It is for this reason why a planned strategic succession planning is imperative.

In today’s aggressive market it is important for organisations to take steps in attracting, developing and retaining of critical employees. There is a perception that succession planning costs a lot more for organisations, however organisations need to come up with creative ways for implementing succession planning. I still believe the cost of implementing strategic succession planning is better than the cost suffered when having none.

Imagine what would happen in an organisation that has no strategic succession planning in place should a CEO/ CFO or any position deemed critical decides to submit a resignation letter? This can create unnecessary panic amongst employees, customers and suppliers and over and above this would mean that a recruitment of a new CEO/CFO would need to be underway. It may take up to 6 months to find a suitable best fitted CEO and recruitment of such critical position costs a lot of money too.

What does strategic succession planning mean for organisation:

• Investing in Human Capital
• Top management commitment
• Align with strategic objectives of the organisation
• Being Proactive
• Keep an open mind
• Being flexible
• Make the strategy known to all employees through effective communication tools

Key benefits of strategic succession planning:

• Organisation preparedness
• Retention of critical skills
• Talent pipeline
• Less cost and time to spend on recruitment
• Reduce effect of reorganisation
• Employees have well defined road map
• Creates a positive work environment
• Employees feel satisfied in terms of their career progression

Mike Jackson (68), CEO of AutoNation was quoted by Automotive News saying “We have a very robust, professional succession plan in process which the board and I worked on together”. This is after the COO Bill Berman’s abrupt resignation. The question is, does your organisation have succession planning in place should a critical skill resign?