Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Succession Planning: Cause for Panic?

Succession Planning continues to be a hot topic in the world of talent management. Even with current economic conditions, organizations are realizing that they may not be well equipped to address changes within their workforce.

A recent study, "Ensuring Leadership Continuity: Currrent Trends In Succession Planning for C-Suite Executives", by Acheive Global found the following:
* 49% do not have an established succession plan for C-level exectuvites
* 16% have an executive vacancy
* 37% expect to have a vacancy this year

So what are some of the barriers identified?

*31% - doesn't seem urgent
* 26% - time investment
* 21% - Complexity of What Needs to Happen
* 7% - Budget Expense
* 6% - Not Applicable
* 6% - don't know

Many of you will recall that last year at this time I participanted in a webinar series for Succession Planning for Small and Medium Size Businesses in York Region, Canada. The estimates in early 2008 were that approximately 75% of business owners would be retiring within the next 10 years, with a limited number having succession plans in place. The importance for York Region, like many regions across Caanda is that small and Medium Size Businesses make up a significant proportion of the economy. In York Region, this has been estimated at 97% of all businesses. Even with the current economic conditions, while many business owners, and C-Level employees are delaying retirement decisions, ulitmately succession plans will be needed by small, medium and large businesses.

A major barrier identified by the AcheiveGlobal program is that many organizations don't know how to implement succession planning approaches effectively.

Questions? Please feel free to give me a call as I have been working on the development of several succession planning strategies with SMEs as well as larger companies, at C level and middle management over the last year.

Warmly
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPT, CHRP
Potentials Realized
Phone: (416) 996-TEAM

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