What problems are demographic shifts and layoff practices causing for

succession planning?
Demographic shifts denote the changes in the way people are pursuing their life.
Taking account of the varied experiences of the workforce, the firm stands to gain
a lot of the several aspects of the employee personal experiences over time.
However, a lot of companies do not pay heed to the demographic shift of the
population towards a more open environment, which creates an unsuitable leader
with a broad perspective. Similarly, the layoff practices have caused the employees
to fear for their job due to a culture of "Perform" or "Perish"; which includes short
term thinking within the employees to fulfill goals which may satiate the current
needs of their job.
Experts are looking more carefully at leadership needs for 21st century, &
warning of:
A shrinkage in pool of available managers.
Escalating costs in recruiting outside talent.
A lack of attention to developing leaders.
Blame inattention to succession planning on corporate worlds concentration on
cost-cutting & downsizing.
Old solutions to succession planning wont work in increasingly complex
world.
Essential to develop executives who can cope with globalization & flourish in
new corporate climate buffeted by changes.

What role do competencies play in the succession planning initiatives of

leadership organizations?
Succession Planning:
A Leaders Roadmap for Identifying & Developing tomorrows Leaders Today.
Succession planning has been identified in the Corporate HR Plan as a key
initiative for addressing a number of critical human resource issues in the New
Brunswick public service including:
An aging workforce
Increasing turnover rates
Fast-paced changes in work, and
The need for a diverse workforce at all levels.
The Strategies of Succession Planning, Recruitment & Selection, Employee
Development and Talent Management, Retention and Engagement, and Knowledge
Transfer, are reflected in the three key goals of the Corporate HR Plan: Build
Capacity, Recruit for Tomorrow and Retain and Engage.
There are five steps and process of succession planning:
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Identify critical positions.

Identify competencies.
Identify succession management strategies.
Document and implement succession plans.
Evaluate Effectiveness.

Competencies play major role in the succession planning initiatives of leadership

organizations

1. Any succession planning initiative or plan must be aligned to the medium and
long-term business strategy, thus ensuring an organization is creating sufficient
talent to manage its business growth objectives.
2. Succession planning, senior management to ensure and maintain talent
momentum and business continuity.
3. When succession planning, always look inside as well as outside the
organization to identify and maximize talent.
4. Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail it is imperative that organizations
recognize their human resources as the future success of the organization to
which we link the talent, skills and pipeline of staff capable of delivering
organizational objectives.
5. When looking at performance, look at potential as well. Current performance
isnt always an indicator of future performance, so it is prudent to test for
potential.
6. Succession candidates should be able to come from any part of a business
providing they personify organizational values and preferred behaviors.
7. Succession planning needs to be a key part of the wider employee engagement
offer and should be aligned to recruitment, training, development and
performance review.