Course Overview

What is Strategic Succession Planning? Strategic Succession Planning is a process for identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to assume key business leadership positions in the company.

Succession Planning in a further formal definition is the process of identifying one or more successors for critical positions and preparing them for expanded organizational responsibilities through job assignments and other developmental activities.

Why Strategic Succession Planning? Succession Planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume strategic & leadership roles as they become available.

The success of every world-class organization can be traced back to a visible or invisible leader who possessed world-class leadership qualities. But we can’t completely rely on a single leader.

The organization should have a pool of leaders who can take larger responsibilities and roles as and when it becomes available. The foundation for coping successfully with last-minute hiring surprises is Succession Planning.

Organizational survival in a globally competitive business environment depends in part on having identified and developed replacements/successors for business-critical positions. This is the essence of succession planning.

This Strategic Succession Planning course by ZOE Talent Solutions will provide you deep knowledge about various key aspects of Succession Planning so that you can design, develop & execute holistic Succession Planning process to create a wider pool of future leaders across departments and levels.

These added skills & competencies will enable the HR department in helping organizations not only in surviving but also thriving in a globally competitive environment.

Course Objectives

By the end of the Strategic Succession Planning course, the participants of this course will be able to understand:

• Basics of Succession Planning
• Importance of holistic succession planning process
• Prerequisites of Success Planning
• Approach to Succession Planning & Management
• Choosing internal vs external successors
• Key aspects of an effective Succession Planning & Management System
• Continuum of Succession Processes
• Succession Planning in family-owned businesses
• Obstacles to the effective succession management process
• Mistakes to avoid in Succession Planning process
• Measuring the effectiveness of Success Planning intervention

Training Methodology

We at ZOE Talent Solutions use a variety of proven adult learning methodologies for enhancing participants overall learning experience. This program will be experiential and interactive. The tools and methodology used for learning will include presentations, individual and team activities, case studies, audio-video clips & knowledge reinforcement evaluation tests (MCQs/Quiz).

Organizational Benefit

The organization will reap the following benefits by taking this course for its employees:

• Holistic succession planning ensures business continuity after a company’s most critical people move on to explore new career opportunities, retire, or pass away

• Opportunity for career advancement and possibly ownership will lead to more empowerment and higher job satisfaction among employees

• Ability to anticipate and respond faster to the dynamic business environment & customer needs to maintain a competitive advantage
• Ability to attract top talent for business-critical roles
• Availability of a larger pool of talented resources across levels & departments who can take leadership positions as and when required

• With succession planning, leadership and employees work towards shared vision, mission & values

• Competent & Skilful Workforce which ensures business profits
• Culture of continuous learning and development
• Increased rate of retention of business-critical talent
• Increased level of stakeholders delighted

Personal Benefits

Participants who enrol in this Strategic Succession Planning Training Program will benefit in the following ways:

• Gain expertise to help organizations in strengthening ‘Leadership Bench Strength’
• Understand the basics and importance of Strategic Succession Planning
• Equipped with required knowledge and skills to design, develop & execute well-defined Strategic Succession Planning approach/framework
• Understand key aspects of an effective Succession Planning & Management System
• Key characteristics of Succession Management process
• Understand the Continuum of Succession Processes
• Know Succession Planning in family-owned businesses
• Comprehend the best practices of Succession Planning
• Recognize & overcome obstacles to Succession Planning process
• Implement an organization-specific Succession Planning approach
• Improved job satisfaction and sense of achievement
• Learn a holistic approach towards talent development
• Learn key Talent Retention & Engagement Strategies

Who Should Attend?

Zoe Talent Solutions recommends this course for:

• HR Business Partners
• HR Generalists
• Human Resources Managers
• HR Leaders
• Talent Management Professionals
• Organization Development(OD) Professionals
• Learning and Development(L & D) Professionals
• HR Consultants
• CEO’s
• Line Managers
• Organizational Leaders across industry
• Management Students

Course Outline

Below is the course outline and the modules that would be covered during the Strategic Succession Planning Certification Training Course:

Module 1: Basics of Succession Planning

• What is Succession Planning?
• Importance of Succession Planning
• Key stakeholders in the Succession Planning process
• Succession Planning Vs. Succession Management

Module 2: Key characteristics/framework of Succession Management process

• Various characteristics of the effective Succession Management process

Module 3: Key Steps in Succession Planning

• Identify future business/customer needs
• Identify key positions and competencies.
• Select high potential candidates
• Select & implement appropriate training & development interventions
• Monitor and evaluate

Module 4: Selecting High Potential Candidates

• Criteria for selecting high potential employees-Performance & Potential
• 9 box model(9 x 9 grid)
• Use of psychometric tools for selecting high potential employees
• Selecting Internal Vs External talent

Module 5: Various Learning & Development Strategies

• Adult Learning Theory
• Experiential learning strategies
• Social learning strategies
• Formal learning strategies
• Measuring the effectiveness of various L&D strategies

Module 6: Succession Planning in family-owned businesses

• Key factors which detrimentally impact the succession of family-owned businesses
• Things to be followed in Succession Planning in family-owned businesses

Module 7: Obstacles to the Succession Planning process  

• Understanding potential hurdles to the Succession Planning process
• Key mistakes to avoid in Succession Planning process

Module 8: Talent Retention Strategies in Succession Planning Process

• Importance of retaining talent/potential successors
• Various talent engagement initiatives
• Communication initiatives for improving talent engagement
• ‘Employee Connects’ as a talent retention tool
• Competitive Compensation and Benefits

Module 9:  Key pointers to consider in Succession Planning Process

• Importance of individual employee career goals and objectives in the Succession Management process
• Effective communication with individuals who are identified as high-potentials and designated successors
• Career coaching/counselling
• Role of mentoring in developing top talent

Module 10: Succession Planning case studies

• Succession Planning case studies in various industries/sectors

Module 11: Measuring the Effectiveness of Strategic Succession Planning Process

• Different methods/metrics to measure the effectiveness of Strategic Succession Planning process