This is going to be a challenging year for business owners due to the Covid19 pandemic. The corona virus is having a serious and severe impact on the global economy. Businesses are likely to get hurt. Business owners should ask themselves a question, should this virus come again after 5 years, what will I do as a business owner to reduce the impact of coronavirus on my business? The reality is we can’t run away from the pandemic should it come again but it is crucial that we start implementing measures to counter the challenges that we are currently facing.
With the whole world now turning to digital solutions, organisations must try to normalise employees working remotely and provide employees with the necessary tools to ensure maximum productivity away from the workplace e.g. A Virtual Private Network is a simple piece of software that you can install on any device, it protects your privacy, helps you to stay online and grants you unrestricted access to the internet because due to the lockdown most companies had to arrange resources in a short period of time for the employees to be able to work from home. Organisations must plan ahead, promote good respiratory hygiene in the workplace, always advise their employees to consult national travel advice before going on business trips and must also make sure the workplaces are clean and hygienic.
The impact that it will have in our economy will be so uncontrollable, a high unemployment rate will be immense our economy has not been strong enough to allow for job creation so this will really affect most employees as retrenchment will hit them hard because of the drastic changes that businesses are currently experiencing. Small businesses across a number of sectors are already feeling the strain of lower orders and supply chain disruptions, and global chains are under threat.
This is the time for business owners to experiment with new ideas, focus on what you can control, make use of the time to come up with new strategies on how to grow your business, do not feel pressure but utilise this opportunity to make it possible for your business.
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:
Key benefits of strategic succession planning:
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?