Succession Planning for the People, by the People
The past few years have seen nothing less than a revolution in the world of work. Many of the old ways, long known to be outdated and unfair to workers, have been deposed by the new and the just. The work landscape we operate in today is far more democratic than it has ever been, but some aspects remain unchanged and continue to hold us back. One of these holdovers in dire need of democratization is succession planning.
Traditionally, succession planning has meant one thing and one thing only: the ranks of the C-suite developing action plans to replace themselves while maintaining business continuity and shareholder confidence.
Here’s the thing: a company is more than its C-suite. Applying succession planning solely to that level leads to countless other valuable employees walking out the door. We need to redefine and democratize succession planning across all levels of the workforce if we want that to change.
For starters, implementing formal succession planning on a broader scale allows us to be proactive. If we’ve already identified potential situations where we a) will need a plan and b) already have said plan, then we’re good. Short-term quandaries like an impending retirement, for instance, won’t hurt us. Long term talent development also becomes a lot easier to pull off when we’ve been planning it for, well, a long time. Wait, why haven’t we always been planning for our organization’s situational needs again?
The “formal” component is crucial to avoiding issues with bias and diversity (or the lack thereof). Informal planning can very easily lead to these problems, real or perceived, because it’s hard to see the big picture.
Where formal succession planning becomes truly democratic is its transparency. When we’re doing it formally, employees should have some input on what roles they would like to fill and how they would like to grow. They should be able to opt in, if selected for a certain path. Most importantly, they will all know they’re getting the same chance as everyone else. They will know what the inner workings look like.
Formal, democratic succession planning will be the way of the work world sooner or later. If you’re looking to get ahead of the game, WORQDRIVE can make your company’s transition possible… and easy.