How Do We Use Skills and Competencies to Inform Succession Planning Efforts?

Using skills and competencies to inform succession planning efforts is key for many organizations. In this article, we will outline which skills, competencies, and processes work best for succession planning in your organization. On top of this, we will help you gain a better understanding of how skills and competencies make a difference when it comes to creating effective succession plans.

To begin, let’s ask the question:

What is succession planning?

What is Succession Planning?

Succession planning is an ongoing process to identify and develop individuals that will be successful in key positions within an organization. Succession planning helps organizations to manage employees and talent to ensure future continuity in roles. This is through both short-term and long-term leadership needs.

Succession planning proactively assesses candidates with the aim of replacing or filling in different positions in an organization. Positions may become free due to retirement, relocation, or promotion. Organizations assess the skills, competencies, and experience of candidates to identify who fits best for each role.

This means that succession planning requires more than just evaluating resumes and application letters. Instead, you also need to use aptitude tests, personality profiles, or interviews to get a full profile of employees and candidates. If effective, you can better identify top prospects for specific roles.

Why Skills and Competencies Matter in Succession Planning

A key piece to the succession planning puzzle is understanding why skills and competencies matter.

Begin by looking at the skills and competencies your current employees have. This gives you an insight into which ones are best for specific roles. Use these insights to inform your succession planning efforts.

Taking into account current and future trends in relation to employees’ skills and competencies can also help you identify weaknesses in different areas. From here, you can develop plans to address these weaknesses. With well-defined skills and competencies in place, organizations can ensure that they have the right people in the right roles. This ultimately leads to greater success.

How to Identify the Skills and Competencies Needed for Succession Planning

To identify the skills and competencies needed for succession planning, you need to first assess the current and future needs of your organization. You should examine job roles and responsibilities, look at internal and external trends, identify gaps in skill sets, determine training plans for employees, and assess your organizational structure.

Once you understand this you can take a closer look at the specific skills and competencies that are needed for successful succession planning. Ensure you look at both technical and soft skills, as well as any other competencies that aid employees in their roles. Record your findings and use them to outline which skills and competencies are best for each role.

By assessing your organization’s needs, you can develop a succession plan that is tailored to your specific requirements. This ensures that you have candidates who possess the skills and competencies required for the roles within your organization. When effective, this makes the transition smooth when it’s time to fill roles.

Developing Skills and Competencies for Succession Planning

To ensure that succession planning is successful, you need to develop the skills and competencies that are needed for roles within your organization.

Here are some tips that you can use to develop skills and competencies:

• Devise training programs that focus on developing skills. You can provide external training courses or on-the-job learning opportunities to make it more hands-on.
• Encourage your employees to take on any additional training they can. For example, employers may offer free courses or discounted prices for employees that are willing to personally develop themselves.
• Leverage technology such as virtual learning platforms or webinars which provides learners with access to relevant resources.
• Set specific goals for employees to work towards. This helps motivate them and they can measure progress over time.
• Monitor the progress of individual employees to track their development over time. When doing this, provide feedback when necessary.

When promoting skills development, employers are investing in their employees to make them ready for roles that need filling in the future. This is a vital moment of succession planning as openings can occur suddenly or unexpectedly.

Conclusion

When speaking about succession planning, it is vital to see where skills and competencies fit in. Your organization needs to know which are best for individual jobs and how they can provide resources to make employees ready to fill in roles. If effective, you will have the right people in the right job when the time comes for succession planning.