Succession Planning: How To Identify And Develop High-Potential Employees

Is your organization prepared for a smooth transition in the event of an expected – or unexpected! – vacancy in the leadership team? Do you have promotable employees who are fully ready to step up into leadership roles when the time is right for them and the company?

Being in this situation is the key to preventing avoidable gaps in key leadership positions, but it's not something that just happens naturally. Even if you have high-potential, leadership-minded employees on your team, you'll only be in a position to deal with leadership gaps without skipping a beat if you have identified them and taken steps to ensure that they're ready to transition to leadership roles at the appropriate time.

This is why succession planning is such an important part of any company's strategic talent management and staffing plans. Utilizing effective succession planning strategies is the best way to proactively identify and train team members who have the potential to move into high level leadership roles, thus reducing the chances that you'll face a leadership crisis when attrition occurs at the highest level of your organization.

Companies that don't properly utilize succession planning strategies often find themselves in the position of having no viable internal candidates when there are openings on the leadership team. This leads to looking outward to source key positions that greatly impact the company's vision and mission – and it's hard to find just the right person with the right skills who is also a perfect fit for your company's culture.

While there are always situations when external recruiting is the best option, succession planning keeps you from having to look outside your own ranks every time, with no possible internal candidates. It also helps you keep you high performing workers because high performers want to work for companies where they see potential to advance to the highest levels.

Learning Objectives:

Attend this informative training session to learn key strategies for effective succession planning. Topics covered include:

• Why and how succession planning should fit into an organization's staffing and talent management plans, as well as its overall strategic plan
  
• Risks of failing to implement effective succession planning strategies
  
• How succession planning programs can help your company keep its most talented workers
  
• How to identify current employees with the potential and desire to become your company's future leaders if provided proper training and preparation
  
• Personality and attitudinal traits critical for leadership effectiveness, as well as those that run counter to the ability to lead effectively
  
• Tips for encouraging buy-in for succession planning among the organization's current leaders
  
• How to involve current members in succession planning by setting a positive leadership example and being willing to coach, mentor and nurture high-potential team members
  
• Benefits associated with implementing a formal mentoring/training program to develop future leaders
  
• Important components of mentoring/training programs focused on successional planning efforts

HRCI Credits

This program has been approved for 1.5 re-certification credit hours for HRCI's PHR and SPHR designations through the HR Certification Institute. For more information about certification or re-certification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org. The use of this seal is not an endorsement by HRCI of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met HRCIs criteria to be pre-approved for re-certification credit.

SHRM Professional Development Credits

This program is valid for 1.5 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP designations. For more information about certification or re-certification, please visit www.shrmcertification.org.