Succession Planning Masters Summit
Recently The American Strategic Management Institute held a two day conference on the importance of succession planning at its facility in Arlington, VA. The participants came away with a view toward improving their organizations’ existing succession plans or, in those cases where such programs do not yet exist, how to develop and implement a plan appropriate to their needs. The conference made clear that there are several “hot topics” that need to be dealt with soon. In particular with the mass of the baby boom generation reaching retirement age in the next few years, U.S. firms are facing an ever expanding skills and knowledge gap. In addition the retiring work force must work at retaining follow on talent while developing a new generation to take their place.
The corporate world is starting to listen to the warning signs, and someone needs to guide businesses toward developing effective and efficient succession plans. Individuals are resisting the idea of retirement and as a result, they aren’t sharing their knowledge with the rising X and Y generations. Companies are faced with the task of predicting where the skills and knowledge gaps will develop and how they are going to prevent a potential crisis. In the next three to five years fifty to seventy percent of the workforce is expected to retire. To complicate the whole problem, too few members of the upcoming workforce have the breadth of experience to become managers in today’s complex work environment. Therefore, issues such as talent retention and compensation are becoming increasingly important.
Generational divides increasingly inhibit the process of succession planning. Current management has a lack of faith in the ability of the rising generations to produce strong leaders. This lack of faith is preventing effective communication between management and their employees. The baby boom generation is well established in the corporate world and possesses the skills and talent needed in today’s workforce. However, due to changing social expectations and technological advancements, today’s skills will be outdated in the near future. This leads to the question of what skills will be needed in the future. Corporations are being forced to look ahead and predict technological advancements and the needs of the future workforce. It’s a chance that companies are taking to stay ahead of the curve.
It is obvious that more attention needs to be placed on succession planning, and through conferences and the resulting guidance, plans will develop to ensure the future of the corporate world. Passing along the knowledge and skills possessed by professionals today is essential, and this will only happen with guidance from professionals in Human Resources/Capital.
Corporations need to put more emphasis on their Human Resources departments giving them more authority and even encouragement to work on succession planning. Chief Executive Officers (CEO’S) in general haven’t been receptive to implementing a plan until now. Accordingly they have a problem, time is essentially running out and without corporate buy in and leadership it is an overwhelming task for the workforce to put together an effective plan. HR and Human Capital professionals have to work together with the support of corporate management in order to prevent a panic.
The greatest success is having CEO’s and companies as a whole recognize the importance succession planning. The next step that then needs to be taken, is actually relinquishing control to HR professionals to produce and implement a plan. At that point and time, training and mentoring will help fill knowledge and skill gaps. The ultimate result will be the prevention of a human capital crisis.
