How many times did I receive a personnel requisition with the instructions from the hiring manager to find someone from the outside? A lot. This happened even when we had a formal Succession Plan in place. The excuses I would get were, “Well, she is not ready yet,” or “I have to have someone who can do X and there is no one in the company who can do that.”
Everyone meant well when we instituted the Succession Plan. We all believed that it was the right thing to do. The managers filled out forms providing names of the employees who could replace them and other key roles. We felt good - our employees were being groomed for advancement and our Promotion From Within Policy would be honored.
Most of the time it did not happen. It didn’t happen because we treated succession planning as a stand- alone process. Succession Planning has to be an integral part of the whole system which includes Performance Management, coaching, personal development, and individual goal setting. The managers should also be evaluated on how well they develop their people for future opportunities and the actual results (promotions).
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