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Discussion on: Management Succession Planning and why is it most important for career management

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DIPA_DHUNGANA

Management succession planning is the process of identifying and developing new leaders when the old ones resign, leave, retire, are fired or die. It is a process by which individuals are scanned to pass on the leadership role within a company. The process ensures that business continues to operate efficiently without the presence of the people who were holding key positions in the organization. It ensures coaching and development of prospective successors or people within an organization or from outside to take up the key positions through an organized process of assessment and training (The Economic Times, n.d.). It is related with identifying the different capabilities required for different management positions and matches them with the readiness of current managers to fill them. It is used to address the inevitable changes by identifying and training high potential employees for managerial roles (Robert Half, n.d.). It is a critical but often overlooked process.

Career management is the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one’s personal career. It is cautious planning of one’s activities and the jobs one undertakes in the course of life for better fulfillment, growth and financial stability. The onus of career management is more on the individual self than the employer. It is individual’s own responsibility to ensure personal development in terms of skills, competencies and attitudes. It is the process through which employees became aware about their own interests, values, strengths and weaknesses, obtain information about job opportunities within the organization, identify career goals and establish action plans to achieve them (Armstrong, 2014).

Succession planning is an important part of career management. In career management, people look for opportunities to develop themselves and succession planning provides them the opportunity to some extent. The importance of succession planning in terms of career management can be outlined in following points:

  • Identification of future leaders: Succession planning identifies the current skills of the employees along with the additional skills they need to develop to move to the higher level. By providing the opportunity to develop new skills, succession planning helps in career management.

  • Beyond Training: It helps in the career management of the employees by providing training and assistance required to promote them to the higher level managerial posts.

  • Competency Gaps: Succession planning assists in identifying the gap between what the potential successor knows and what he needs to know to take up higher role with higher responsibilities. Increased competency supported by succession planning is also an integral part of career management.

  • At the Board Level: For the employees with being in the board as a career goal, succession planning provides this opportunity by identifying vacancies, considering internal talent that can fulfil the vacancy and providing coaching to make them fit for the position.

References
Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong’s Handbook on Human Resource Management Practice.

Robert Half . (n.d.). Retrieved from roberthalf.com/blog/management-tip...

The Economic Times . (n.d.). Retrieved from economictimes.indiatimes.com/defin...