Succession Planning Tips by Daniel C. Simmons, CPCAnimal Nutrition Recruiter

We are well into the start of 2016, and you have more than likely been looking back at your achievements of the past year and determining what your goals are for this year. You are forecasting sales, preparing budgets and of course looking at staffing needs. Ordinarily, this type of planning is routine in most organizations, but as recent economic events have shown, routine planning may not be adequate.

At this point in time it is vital that companies conserve resources, and your most important resource is your people. In looking at upcoming staffing needs you may want to:

  • Identify your “core group,” the people you rely on most to run your organization
  • Devise and implement a solid “succession plan” for each of these individuals
  • Create meaningful programs and incentives to retain key players

The question is: how are you going to find the people for your succession plan? You have two options: you can either look within your organization and develop the right people, or you can recruit them. These being your choices you may want to do the following:

  • Take a percentage of your total payroll and invest that into offering training programs for your employees.
  • Reach out and partner with local school including technical and community colleges to make sure students are getting the right training so they are prepared to enter a high-performance, high-tech workforce.
  • Become familiar with all the workforce development programs provided by the government that you can take advantage of on behalf of your people.

If your plan involves recruiting top performers, where will they come from? You will want to find the best resources that can identify the type of candidates your organization will need. Take time to interview them to determine if they would qualify and fit in with your succession plan. You need to look towards the future and determine whether you have the staff you need to run your company, not just this year and next, but for the long term.

For more Succession Planning Tips contact me at dan@consearch.com