Succession planning in public organizations
In the recent years succession planning has become a topical issue in the circles of public organizations in Tanzania. It is a result of unprecedented large numbers of employees retiring at about the same time without proper planning for their replacement. Not only was the need to employ new staff created but also a seniority gap. The gap between the level of existing staff and the seniority of job positions falling vacant was big. This has called for urgent measures to upgrade skills of employees and to ensure public organizations develop succession plans.
As is always the case, for every problem there is an opportunity. The opportunity created by the need for succession planning should be utilized not only to recruit staff but also to improve management and leadership systems. Improved management and leadership systems would ensure maintaining optimal organizational staffing and availability of conducive work environment for employees to give their best performance. Achieving this depends on the extent succession planning is properly conducted because succession planning is not about planning per se. It is about developing effective management and leadership systems.
Succession planning is a systematic process whereby managers identify, continually assess and develop their staff to make sure they are ready to adequately perform current and assume future roles within the organization. Through succession planning the organization recruits talented employees, develops their knowledge, skills and attitudes so as to prepare them for advancement or promotion into more challenging roles. As such a succession plan, essentially, puts in place mechanisms for recruiting talented people and developing incumbents for possible future roles.
Conducting succession planning is an opportunity to look at a whole range of management and leadership systems of an organization in order to ensure they support getting and developing talent pools. Getting the right people starts with having effective recruitment and selection procedures. During succession planning, recruitment and selection procedures must be thoroughly assessed for their efficacy and improved accordingly. If recruitment and selection procedures work well to ensure getting the right people, systems related to ensuring staff retention and effective performance must likewise be in place.
Getting staff to put in their best is inextricably linked to leadership; it is about communicating and influencing employees to do not only the right things but also do the right things right. It is also about ensuring that employees continue to grow not only in terms of technical skills but also management and leadership skills. Achieving this depends very much on how employees are managed and led. Individually, all managers including supervisors must be able to lead and develop the teams they lead. This depends on appropriate management and leadership systems being in place, not least the systems to develop management and leadership skills.
As leaders, Managers must be able to effectively communicate the vision of the organization and influence employees to move towards achieving it. To do this they must be able to develop strong results focused planning systems, provide continuous support, coaching and guidance as well as implement open and objective staff performance appraisal systems. Succession planning will require assessing and determining the effectiveness of the current planning and employee performance appraisal systems.
Managers, during their meetings, must collectively be looking at clear team performance indicators in order to assess departmental performance. However, Managers are as effective as the systems guiding them. Therefore, succession planning should entail assessing the efficacy of current leadership and accountability systems. This will involve asking questions such as: Are managers being appraised appropriately for their performance? To what extent is the current performance appraisal of managers holding them accountable for the performance of their teams? Are Managers making a difference in improving performance and developing an appropriate culture?