Preparing people to take on important roles when their current holders move or leave.
Succession planning connects future staffing needs with the development of people who could take on important responsibilities. It involves identifying the capabilities a role requires, considering potential successors and arranging learning or experience that helps them prepare. Competency profiles can provide a common basis for linking recruitment, development and performance evaluation. A succession plan concerns readiness for future responsibility and does not itself promise a promotion or appointment. It also needs to account for employees’ own career decisions and circumstances, because their willingness and availability to move cannot simply be assumed.
In job listings
Louis Vuitton asked a London HR advisor to work with retail leaders on future staffing across stores in the UK, Ireland and South Africa. Identifying a potential successor was one part of the remit. The advisor also helped colleagues plan the development that person would need before taking on a different role. Search local jobs for “human resources”.
