Succession planning is fundamental for the success of any organisation and is a strategic, systematic and deliberate activity to ensure an organisations future capability to fill future vacancies. It specifically focuses on ensuring the availability and sustainability of a supply of capable staff that are ready to assume key or critical organisational roles as they become available.

 

Succession planning strategies, which focus on developing employee capability, ultimately enable organisations to respond to change more effectively and attract and retain skilled and valuable employees.
Succession planning may include some reference to recruitment markets, lateral recruitment from other organisations, and in some cases, involve the short-term purchase of skills. A significant emphasis is on the development of internal capability which can contribute to organisational readiness when contingencies occur.

Succession planning forms part of workforce planning which seeks to ensure in general that the right people are in the right place at the right time to achieve successful business outcomes. Like workforce planning, succession planning involves raising strategic questions about the changing nature of work and the sorts of roles that are likely to emerge rather than focusing solely on today’s roles which may not be required in the future.