Our research shows that although 86% of leaders believe succession planning is a priority, only 14% of managers believe they do the exercise well.
If not carried out properly, succession planning can be a challenging task which can have adverse effects. Poorly managed succession planning can cause employee engagement and retention issues, especially if existing leaders perceive the exercise as a threat to their own employment. Some of the challenges that organisations face when carrying out succession planning are:
- Establishing assessment criteria
- Eliminating bias
- Making it worthwhile for those affected by the results
- Owning and advocating for the process
- Orienting towards the future
- Creating short term goals to sustain long term goals
- Using appropriate tools to promote transparency and trust, among others.
At Deloitte, our Human Capital team specialises in powering enterprises in an ever-changing world where the future of work demands a human experience and new work outcomes through transformation.
We help businesses carry out succession planning from start to finish. We can help you identify your high potential employees as well as assess their potential and performance against our criteria to determine what each individual’s next step should be. Our process is data-driven to minimize bias, however we validate and calibrate all scores through in-depth discussions with evaluators to keep the process ‘human’.
In addition to providing a complete succession plan, we are also able to provide organisations with insights about their strengths and weaknesses at an organisational level. We can assist with individual development plans and help bridge the identified learning and development gaps.
We will ensure your organisation always has the right leaders in place and even help you assess the ‘bench strength’ (ability to fill vacancies with existing talent) of your organisation to determine if your internal development strategy, external recruitment strategy and employer branding are strong enough.
Together with our Regulatory specialists, we can assist you in managing all facets of board composition, board suitability and underlying succession planning exercises. We can achieve value-adding succession planning by assisting you in developing a skills inventory based on your business strategy and risk profile, envisioning what your board should look like in the months and years to come and planning for the present and the future.