Succession planning is a strategy used by companies to help them plan for future recruitment needs.
It involves identifying where vacancies will arise and how these will be filled. When a business focuses on succession planning, it allows them to develop their current employees, rather than continuously looking out with the company to fill roles. For instance, employers can use succession planning to plan for replacing employees due to retirement, employees leaving, and expected new roles within the organisation. Without succession planning in place, employers can find themselves scrambling around trying to find candidates to fill roles, leaving projects collapsing and even losing clients consequently.
These are some important benefits of introducing succession planning into your organisation.
Increase Retention
With succession planning, you can increase your retention levels. You can plan for future recruitment needs and train your current staff to be able to fill future vacancies, rather than always recruiting outside the company. For instance, you may have an employee due to retire in two years, and through succession planning, you can already start to plan to train employees that sit under them, with the view that one will eventually fill the role. Employees want to work for companies that value them and are keen to develop them. You will not hold onto staff if you constantly ignore them for promotion opportunities, especially when you are advertising for candidates outside of the company.
Better Hires
When recruiting from outside of the company, there are always risks involved. You only really have the candidate’s CV and interview to go on, and if you end up recruiting the wrong person, it could be a costly mistake. When you hire someone internally, you at least know how they work and fit into the culture. You could say that succession planning can create better hires in most cases or at least, gives you peace of mind that you are not hiring the wrong person.
Reduce Hiring Costs
The cost of hiring a new employee can be very expensive, with an average £3,000 and 27.5 days spent on the process. With succession planning in place, you can plan properly for your future hires, and fill some of your roles without having to advertise externally. You can significantly reduce both your hiring costs and the time it takes to fill your vacancies through succession planning, as the positions you may need to back fill as a result of internal promotion will typically be more junior roles which can make for faster and more cost-effective hires.
Improve Employer Brand
A strong employer brand is created through being a company that people want to work for. If you don’t look after your employees, your brand will suffer. A poor employer brand will be a consequence of, amongst others, a lack of opportunity for development. With succession planning, you can ensure that you are promoting employees before recruiting new members of staff, and consequently, the reputation of your company will increase. It can only have positive effects on your employer brand.
Continuity of Staff
Vacancies are not always straightforward to fill and having gaps can lead to the collapse of projects, and even the potential of losing clients. When you have succession planning in place, you can plan well into the future, which allows for a continuity of staff. This makes it less likely that there will be long gaps, and you will be unable to fulfil your work demands.
Motivate Employees
Most employees join an organisation with the hope that they will progress within the company. If you don’t offer this opportunity, you are likely to have unmotivated employees that are not working to their capacity. However, if employees are aware that there is a clear line of progression and that they will be upskilled, they are more likely to be motivated. This can help ensure that you are delivering a higher quality of work to clients.
Using your ATS/CRM to support Succession Planning
It is not always easy for companies to implement succession planning. It can be costly, and it may seem far too time-consuming. This is why a CRM system can be extremely useful. You can store candidate data in your ATS or Recruitment CRM, including the skills and experience of your staff, and by understanding their history, you can make future hiring decisions quickly and effortlessly. You also can share this data with team members, so you might want to delegate the task to others so that you don’t even need to get involved. An ATS or CRM will ensure you can develop your succession planning, even with no prior knowledge or experience.
It is essential that you choose the right ATS/CRM solution for your business that will ensure you can implement succession planning within your company. With Rectec Compare, you can quickly determine the provider that will be best to suit your needs. You can click here to find out more. The provider will be able to show you how to use the ATS/CRM system for your succession planning needs.
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