Have you got a succession plan?

Losing a critical member of staff is upsetting enough; don’t let it become a tragedy for the business.

Business Continuity covers all aspects of the operations of a business: including what to do when a critical member of staff leaves unexpectedly. The management of a business has a duty to ensure that the organisation can continue serving its customers and generating value for its investors, and this includes managing the issues surrounding the loss of staff.

As well as being a good strategy for managing the progression of staff, succession planning is also a good strategy for minimising the impact on the business of losing a critical member of staff unexpectedly. More broadly it seeks to move the organisation to a position where none of its staff actually are critical to its continued operation as individuals.

Of course this may challenge many perceptions about the role of people within the organisation. “The business depends on me: it wouldn’t survive with out me” is a commonly held belief: either self held or held about others.

I once worked as a graduate engineer in a large multi-national and the general perception was that one of the senior engineering staff was key to our unit’s success. As a young engineer, I couldn’t conceive how the business could survive without this man. Then one day he died unexpectedly at quite a young age. There was consternation and grief, but the organisation survived with no visible sign of disruption because there was a clear line of succession. Although he was indeed critical to our success, the management team had recognised this and ensured there was sufficient capability in the unit to cover his absence until a successor was appointed: a process that took two weeks.

This taught me some valuable lessons:

• Succession planning is vital for the long term success of a business.
• No well run organisation is dependent on one person.

I encourage you to look hard at your staff and their duties and consider:

• whether that person is critical to the success of the business; and
• whether you have adequate cover for the unexpected loss of that person.

Image by Magnus D (Flickr: The royal family on the balcony) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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