Are your big fish looking for a bigger pond?

Have you considered what you will do when your key players decide to move on to ‘pastures new’ or retire? What plans are in place to secure a seamless exit strategy? Don’t underestimate how quickly a business can fail without robust leadership and structure.

Succession planning is a process to identify and develop internal and external candidates who can demonstrate leadership/skill potential and to prepare a reliable contingency plan to cover business critical positions.

58 per cent of family-run businesses in the UK do not have any form of succession plans in place according to Legal & General. Without wishing to drag tired clichés up already, handing over your business to the next generation or a third party is very much a case of “fail to prepare and prepare to fail”.

This is a great opportunity to bring in external candidates; ‘new blood’ who can inject ideas, enthusiasm and innovation into the company. However, don’t overlook the ‘home grown’ approach to succession planning. 

There will be ambitious employees who are hungry for promotion, this is their opportunity to progress more rapidly within the company. You will not retain these people if you do not offer the career advancement they are looking for.

“69 percent of non-Millennials and 87 percent of Millennials, who are the bread-and-butter employees of startups — cite continued development as a workplace must-have, few feel it can be found at current employers,” reports Falon Fatemi in an article for Forbes.

Prepare a strategic plan to develop people who can add value to your business, not only those who demonstrate academic skills but leadership qualities.

How to achieve this? ASSESS, REVIEW, IDENTIFY, EVALUATE & STRATEGY    Active HR can help you with this, call 07798 788719