Succession Planning
Job mobility is increasing; people frequently change roles, join or leave a company and roles are created with no one having the correct skills set; in all circumstances, key knowledge can be lost. Succession Planning prevents this loss by providing a structured and formalised process to support the knowledge transfer and to minimise disruption to the business.
Succession Planning provides an efficient and effective method to support this movement, which are usually one of three scenarios: one-to-one, a direct replacement, one-to-many, as a role is redistributed, or many-to-one, as a new role is created.
How does it work?
Our methodology has evolved over many years and ensures that the process occurs smoothly and completely, avoiding common pitfalls. The activity is split into two groups: the Transfer Network and the Transfer Cell.
The Transfer Network
The Transfer Network is responsible for the overall transfer needs of the business. People movements are escalated to the network so that they maintain a consistent approach to the transfer needs. It is usually a multidisciplinary network that meet regularly to plan actions and to review the obtained results.
The Transfer Cell
The Transfer Cell is created for each transfer operation. It is composed of the givers, receivers and facilitators, and is responsible for the completed operation. They follow a simple plan-do-review cycle:
Plan: The participants of the transfer operation are identified; these include the current person exiting the role, their successor, the manager and colleagues where appropriate. A kick off then identifies the timescales for this transfer operation, and when the participants are available.
Do: The business needs to retain critical knowledge. This is identified by interviewing the employee exiting the role, their manager and where possible their colleagues, so that it not just the knowledge that the employee thinks they should leave behind.
The identification of key skills, who else in the business has these skills, the exiting employee’s network, and other undocumented knowledge are collated an action plan. It also takes into account the actual environment: the participants involved, the transfer needs expressed, the type of knowledge to be transferred, and the business circumstances. The activities are then undertaken to complete this transfer.
Review: The benefits of the individual transfer operation are reviewed and any lessons learnt are recorded to aid future transfer operations. The knowledge captured during this operation is the promoted to encourage its reuse. The benefits for the overall transfer needs of the business are also reviewed.
Key benefits
- Supports the movement of people within an organisation with minimal impact on the business.
- Comprehensive process which anticipates and plans the knowledge transfer needs. These planned operations avoid of last minute actions and the consequent loss of knowledge.
- Structured transfer period, with planning, activities, milestones and deliverables.
- Incorporates all relevant participants, and presents an environment which answers a specified need using agreed and relevant means.
- Tested set of means, methods, and best practices that can be easily and quickly implemented.
- Defines the relevant related organisation within the business and provides effective support.
How we can help
hut31 can support you throughout the entire project life cycle and provide comprehensive training, support and facilitation.
We can help you establish the transfer network, provide refresher training, and support and advise on how to improve your current KM practices.
We can even perform the whole process on your behalf, from establishing the transfer network and facilitating the movement of your staff to transferring the expertise, as you to benefit from our methodology and experience.