Retirement and Succession Planning

Succession planning is the process of identifying younger talent to fill vacant positions. Progressive businesses, both big and small, can’t afford to wait until the moment senior members of their staff announce their retirements to start planning replacements.

The benefits of having a formal succession plan are numerous:

●A seamless transition from one leader to the next, avoiding vacant positions.

●A motivating force for young leaders in the company, knowing there is a structure for promotion to higher positions.

●A focus point for the company to look at all their higher-level leadership positions and assess the potential of every employee.

Retirement

By 2024, baby boomers will have reached ages 60 to 78 and will be retiring in droves from the workforce. OfficeWork Software’s new version offers a clear picture of employees in key positions nearing retirement age. A clear visual allows managers to assess the risk and urgency to have a replacement ready in the wings.

Assessment

Once potential gaps are identified it’s a process of assessment and development of the talent remaining. Measuring an employee’s suitability to fill a more senior position in the organisation can be both qualitative and quantitative. This can take many forms from internal interviews of peers to performance reports. Skills, flight risk, and leadership potential may all be factors in tagging employees as future leaders.

.OrgChart automates the organisation mapping and visualisation process making it easier to view talent assessment metrics. In the example below, we’ve bundled the results of these assessments in a metric named “bench strength”. In other words, a rating of the readiness of a particular employee to step up into a more senior position. Representing this in an org chart, in concert with other key metrics related to succession—such as age, experience and headcount—can give management and HR professionals a clearer picture to be able to make decisions in response to leadership departures.

.Development

Once an assessment of employee readiness has taken place, a process can begin to either hire external talent to meet the potential succession needs of the company or develop the existing workforce. Using OrgChart, existing gaps in the organisation become clear immediately by the color coding of key metrics displayed within the context of the company hierarchy. Where a lack of skills or expertise buttressing more senior management is apparent, steps can be taken to better prepare those lower ranking employees. Management training is an example of the type of strategy a company might take to elevate an employee’s readiness for a more senior position.

.Tracking the talent assessment and development process on a company-wide org chart can facilitate the complex but important task of succession planning. Creating a robust succession plan, which accounts for the breadth of talent currently available, as well as plans to fill the future needs of the company, is time well spent. Displaying an organisation’s current situation with compelling visuals can communicate the urgency for sound planning and act as a stimulus to take action.

.Start a free trial of the OrgChart Now or OrgChart Platinum today or schedule a demo with one of our experts, to boost your organisational planning for the future.