Succession planning required to retain future leaders
Career strategies essential to keep employees
Retaining the best people, including those at the beginning, and the end of their careers, has never been more important. Mismanaging transitions for leading employees bears a high cost for any business – and that cost will grow in a skills shortage.
It will take innovative leadership, succession plans and smart career strategies to retain younger employees as future leaders and at the same time retaining mature aged workers.
Section 11 of Where is your next worker? examines:
- The danger of losing key staff and future leaders
- Reflecting on the business opportunities
- Case study: the value of planning ahead.
Reflections on the business opportunities
- To what degree are your employees connected and looking for their next challenge in your business – or in someone else’s?
- Are your talented people restless? What are you doing to keep these people and make “restlessness” work for you?
- How much does your business focus on career coaching, mentoring, succession planning and leadership development?
The value of planning ahead
Forward-thinking small and medium businesses use succession planning to allow owners to step away from day-to-day management to focus on business strategy.
Early planning avoids one of the most common skills and workforce challenges that threaten the survival of small and medium businesses – the loss of knowledge associated with the retirement of the long-standing business owner.
Business owners of Superior Food Services, Craig Phillips and Michael Jeffs, for example developed a management succession plan though both only being in their early 40s.
“The decision to step away from day-to-day management and subsequently hire a general manager has allowed us to redefine our roles, upskill and focus on longer-term business opportunities. Coupled with ongoing coaching and mentoring, succession planning is allowing us to drive growth,” said Craig Phillips.
Productivity: Where is your next worker?
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Enhancing workforce productivity to beat the skills crisis The combination of Australia’s national productivity decline since the late 1990s and the looming skills shortage, means businesses need to consider new and better ways to get work done. |
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Developing workforce talents and skills for evolving roles Personal growth and internal mobility strategies are the key for many businesses as they overlook the enormous potential of their own staff in the struggle to meet skills shortages and the race to recruit external talent. |
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Engaging employees for greater productivity The cost of disengagement for Australian businesses is more than $39 billion a year, so it makes sense that beating the skills shortage, and improving productivity, will come from greater engagement. |
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Where is your next worker?
Video [03:35]
Where is next your worker? addresses the positive actions business and government can take to maintain momentum in the face of a looming national skills shortage