Succession Planning
Introduction
A growing concern facing many companies today is how they will replace the large number of talented folks that are at or nearing retirement. The vast amount of knowledge the baby boomer generation will take with it when it retires seems to me to be irreplaceable. Certainly, if companies do not start or have not already started planning for this mass exodus of employees, they will definitely pay the price when it happens. This is where a relationship between departmental managers and the human resources department can play a very large and beneficial role. Together the two can develop a plan, a success plan, on how to replace the talent that is retiring. Succession planning seems to be something people still think of as a fad term, a new term, a term only for big companies, but I believe it to be a term every company should be placing in their everyday vocabulary. Succession planning should be seen as something that is as important to the future of a company as that next big contract, because without a plan for at least maintaining the current level of talented employees your company currently possesses, that contract is nothing more than a piece of meaningless paper.
Methodology
Most of the research for this paper was done by reading various articles found on the internet. I also downloaded a couple of white papers from various companies that specialize in succession planning or offer a succession planning system. I also used my 11 years of Human Resources experience, some with Succession Planning systems, to assist me with the paper.
Text
Succession planning is a rather simple concept, planning for the successors of your talented employees. Sounds easy enough, yet so many companies have failed to even begin the process. The talented baby boomer generation is not going to work forever, eventually they will retire and if companies have not planned for this vast knowledge departure, what will happen? It...