Succession Planning

Mohsine Gdid , Vice President Human Resources(CHRO), Greater Omaha Packing Co., Inc.

When you think of the term "succession planning," what comes to mind?

Maybe it's a business school course you took in your early 20s or the last time your HR department sent you an email about succession plans. If that's the case, you're not alone—many people don't know how important succession planning is for their organizations.

But here's why it matters: Succession planning is one of the most critical components of an organization's success. In an era where talent competition is fierce, and labor challenges are real, having a strategy for identifying key positions and finding qualified candidates who can fill them is vital.

We all know that people are the foundation of every organization and their most critical asset. No one can afford to have critical positions remain vacant to achieve excellence. But it's much harder to attract talent, especially in today's labor market. That's why internal strategies and initiatives focused on talent development are so important—they'll help keep your best employees happy and engaged, ultimately leading to better performance.

The three most important aspects of succession planning are training and development, employee engagement, and succession management.

Training and Development: The first step in succession planning is ensuring that all employees have the tools to succeed in their roles today and in the future. This means providing training on the skills needed for each position within your company and ongoing support from managers and supervisors who can help employees develop those skills.

Employee Engagement: Employees need to feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves—that their work matters not only for them but others as well—and this will help them remain engaged with their jobs throughout their careers at your company. Your employees should feel like they have input into how things run here because it makes them more invested in doing their best daily work.

Succession Management: Finally, you need to make sure that there are processes in place so that when someone leaves or retires, you can easily find someone else who can fill that role while keeping continuity within your organization's culture

Strategic planning: Succession plans should be part of a larger strategic plan that outlines what goals are most important for the company over time and how those goals will be met through various initiatives

Succession planning is a crucial component of any organization's success. Without a succession plan, companies lose valuable knowledge and skills, which can be detrimental to their future growth.

"Succession planning is a critical part of any organization’s success. While it’s not as exciting as other parts of running a business, ensuring that your company continues to operate in the future is essential."

Succession planning is a critical part of any organization's success. While it's not as exciting as other parts of running a business, ensuring that your company continues to operate in the future is essential.

Benefits:

Organizations must have a robust total rewards strategy to remain competitive and attract top talent. An effective strategy includes the hard and soft benefits an employer offers. The hard benefits are clearly defined and comprise part of the employment terms and conditions—salary, vacation time, and health insurance. Soft benefits can be more difficult for employees because they often have a more personal connection with them—things like tuition reimbursement or flexible work arrangements.

To ensure the effectiveness of these strategies, organizations must ensure that their offerings are innovative and fit with what employees want and expect.

It is important to identify these needs and expectations to focus on their individual situations. For example, if an employee has a young child at home, they may be interested in having access to a flexible work schedule to attend their child's school events. On the other hand, another employee may want access to employer-sponsored retirement savings to plan to save for retirement without having to make additional contributions on their own.

Each employee will have different needs and expectations when it comes to benefits. Therefore, employers need to offer them a wide range of options to find something that works well for them.

In today's market, being agile and innovative in your offerings is essential for growth. Organizations need to be able to adapt quickly if they want to stay ahead of competitors who may be developing similar products or services at a faster pace than yours currently does.

As a leader in your organization, you know that a total rewards strategy is essential for your success. You've built your business around the idea that you have something unique to offer the market and that you can stay competitive by constantly innovating and improving your offerings. But what happens when your employees' lives and families begin to change?

How do you continue to support them as they grow into the next phase of their lives? How do you build a culture that's inclusive of everyone?

The solution is simple: it's time to ensure that the benefits are inclusive and include the dependents. Not every employee would be willing to take advantage of your benefits based on where they are in their career and life, but many of them will be excited to share those with their families and loved ones, such as education reimbursement.

Taking care of employees' dependents in your benefits is one essential step in building an inclusive culture in your organization.

Agile