The sudden, high-profile resignation of Jonathan Ross (external website) from his rather lucrative employ at the BBC (announced earlier today, Thursday 7 January 2009) leaves the BBC with some rather significant gaps to fill (possibly to the benefit of Messrs Norton and Kermode (external website)), thereby highlighting the ongoing and critical importance of succession planning. This is an issue that employers frequently ignore - sometimes to their cost.
A majority of employers are unprepared for the sudden departure of staff with key skills. For example, 2008 benchmarking research from IRS - looking at business continuity planning - revealed that only around one in four organisations' business continuity plans covered the sudden departure of key workers with critical skills. The remaining three-quarters made no provision for the sudden loss of key workers (subscription required).
And 2009 IRS benchmarking research on succession planning revealed that succession planning is a minority practice (subscription required). According to IRS employment expert Noelle Murphy:
[T]he IRS survey of 110 employers found that succession planning lacks priority in many organisations. Among our survey respondents, more than four in 10 (44%) do not maintain any kind of succession planning process, while a further three in 10 (28%) rely on informal methods of identifying successors. This leaves just 28% that describe their approach as involving a formal process of succession planning.
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Comments (4)
Good points, Michael. I might add that when the economy (and jobs market) picks up there will be a major succession planning challenge as people feel more confident about moving roles and more roles become available. This may not be at the top of employers' agendas right now but they need to start engaging with this and get prepared.
Posted by Martin Couzins | January 7, 2010 3:08 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 15:08
Thanks for the comment, Martin, and I agree entirely.
Recent survey research from the CBI (http://www.xperthr.co.uk/blogs/employment-intelligence/2009/12/retaining-top-talent-will-lead.html) indicates that retaining key employees will rise quickly to the top of the employment agenda for 2010 once economic recovery gets underway.
This is because a return to economic growth is likely to result in a strong resurgence in recruitment activity. Many top-performing employees - who have stayed put while they weathered the worst of the recession - may therefore be looking for new opportunities.
I'll be looking in detail at more recent survey research from PwC drawing similar conclusions in a new blog post tomorrow here on Employment Intelligence (http://www.xperthr.co.uk/blogs/employment-intelligence/) tomorrow.
Kind regards
Michael
Posted by Michael Carty
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January 7, 2010 3:27 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 15:27
I too agree that succession planning should be at the top of every business owner/company's list... I just recently had the opportunity previewing a really interesting book,on this very topic. The book is by John Warrillow. The book's main focus is on creating a sellable business... making a business worth something to someone else. I found it to be an interesting thought, because making your business sellable is not only good for selling, but in the meantime it makes your business a very competitive successful one as well.
Posted by Becky | January 14, 2010 7:55 AM
Posted on January 14, 2010 07:55
Many thanks for your comment, Becky.
Posted by Michael Carty
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January 14, 2010 8:03 AM
Posted on January 14, 2010 08:03