Leadership succession planning is used in Human Resources management to ensure leadership successors are able to continue the management and achieve a firm’s mission and goals. However, when planning for leadership succession, HR managers face a significant challenge of trying to decide who to promote since most eligible successors feel that they deserve the promotion. Due to the emerging competition from within the firm, HR managers must use the best techniques for selecting competent candidates for new jobs. There are specific procedures that managers should employ to introduce a pool of employees who are worthy of new positions. This essay will address the challenges and identify assessment tools that are used to ensure the right candidates are selected.
Challenges When Selecting Who to Promote
The first challenge is deciding the candidates that are best qualified for the leadership position. Sometimes, competent candidates lack skills that are required for the leadership position. HR managers are faced with pressure to rewards specific employees with promotion due to the loyalty that they have shown to the firm. Sometimes, it becomes hard to give publicity to one employee and leave the other because they start feeling hurt. The second challenge is resisting bias, which entails competent successors feeling confident that they deserve the position and that the job should not be given to others. Consequently, managers and executives are biased; so, they are compelled to provide some candidates with a promotion. Some men naturally depend on other men to get promotions while women rely on their female bosses hoping to receive a promotion as a favor. Managers are also faced with the challenge of maintaining company morale when some employees feel unappreciated through getting a promotion for all the contributions they have made to the firm. This is one of the negative consequences of leadership succession planning because those who are not selected tend to become less productive at work. Scott and Reynolds (2010) reveal that deep down, every employee worries about not getting a promotion in their work-life before they reach retirement. As a result, those with many years of working experiences tend to feel that they deserve a promotion in comparison to freshmen employees.
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There are factors that managers should consider in identifying candidates for leadership positions. The first one is the management feedbacks, which involves the HR personnel investigating what managers from other departments say about leadership successors (Al Rahbi, Khalid, & Khan, 2017). For example, the HR manager should gather information regarding how a candidate relates to employees who work under the same department with him/her. The review of candidates’ feedbacks can help determine if the new candidate qualifies for the promotion. The second factor is performance reviews, which are used by the HR manager to check past performance scores of candidates. These reviews assist the HR managers in identifying the leadership skills of candidates and comments from employees, which provide valuable information for evaluating candidates for promotion (Khan et al. 2015). The third factor is skill assessment, which involves reviewing records that indicate skills that employees have gathered during their time of employment. Lastly, HR managers should check certifications, degrees, and professional development of the candidates to select the best-qualified employees for the new leadership position.
Six fundamentals of growth-focused assessment
Clarifying the Organization’s Vision
Growth-focused succession planning involves training workers to fill in new job roles when managers and top leaders step down. Thus, employees must train the candidates for leadership succession by helping them to understand the vision of an organization, such as by involving them in business planning and development ( Paese, 2010). As Scott and Reynolds (2010) explain, engaging employees in business planning is essential for helping employees to understand the company culture and history. A clear vision of a company is required to ensure that successors can align their personal goals with those of the organization. The planning helps to prepare employees that are able to lead an organization after leaders step down from their leadership positions.
Aligning Employees Objectives with Those of the Firm
Leaders must demonstrate to ambitious employees desiring their leadership positions how to turn a vision into a reality (Williams, 2016). This can be shown by involving employees in implementing long-term business strategies. Successors for leadership positions should have knowledge of the leadership that is used by the firm, which must be developed from market research, customer relation, competitor analysis, organizational management (Williams, 2016). The candidates should show that they are capable of implementing a business strategy that is flexible to adjust to changing business landscapes.
Identifying Leadership Requirement
Candidates that demonstrate having a clear vision and strategy for the firm are able to apply the best leadership styles that are required in a given business context. So, the next move is organizational assessment, which entails finding out what employees know about the current organizational structure of the firm (DuBrin, 2015). They also need for candidates to have a vast knowledge regarding immediate change management they can implement as a result of taking up leadership positions. They should also have leadership strategies for long-term executive changes to achieve the firm’s vision. Thus, effecting succession planning should be designed to maximize the leadership ability of leadership candidates without them relying on the current leadership (DuBrin, 2015). For example, they should demonstrate that they have leadership traits, competencies, and skills that are needed to take a business through hurdles of different business environments.
Evaluating the Organization and Candidates
When training the next leaders for a given position, Hr managers should ensure that they will be capable of growing the business. Therefore, leaders must include the interests of a company in the training program before considering how the new job position will impact the candidates (McCleskey, 2014). The assessment must prioritize the impact of new candidates on the company by testing them to identify whether they are capable of achieving an organization’s long-term goals. The business development training program can help to identify gaps among the designated candidates for the leadership succession.
Identifying Potential Successors
A development process is used to create a team of candidates who possess leadership capabilities for an organization’s long-term vision. This is why training programs are essential in preparing the next generation of leaders. As Miltenberger (2016) explains, training events should not be arranged only when a leadership position emerges but should be part of the organization's long-term strategy. Furthermore, each candidate should be enrolled in a program that is designed to maximize his or her potential. Overall, the application must be updated continuously to help the candidates in processing the focused needs of the new leadership position.
The Transitioning Assessment
During the transition period, succession should happen in advances of anticipated changes. This is done to leverage the experience of the current leadership position with that of the incoming new leader. Lussier and Achua (2015) explain that a transition should be in place to help the new leaders adjust to situational needs of the new position. This helps the selected leaders to think to be well prepared to adjust after the takeover is completed.
Succession Planning Tools
Cognitive Ability Tests
Cognitive ability tests include the psychometric 360, which is a tool that helps to evaluate candidates based on feedback from their team members (Griffin & Moorhead, 2013). The tool is used to provide information about potential challenges and strengths that people possess in their respective positions. Psychometric tools include feedback from supervisors, coworkers, and direct reports from others.
Personality and Biodata Tests
This test is commonly given after candidates have completed the psychometric 360 test. It is a tool that helps individuals to identify their personalities based on simple questions that they answer in a Myers-Briggs test. The tests help candidates to identify leadership skills they possess and how they can be applied in the business environment (Griffin & Moorhead, 2013). It helps leaders understand their approach to business environments and in identifying the type of leadership style that suits them.
“ Best Practices” For Using Assessment for Succession Planning
Focusing on Leadership Success profiles
This assessment involves checking leadership profiles that are written on resumes of the candidates who want a leadership position (Dyer, 2015). Candidates who are great leaders must illustrate clearly where new and different ideas can be applied in order to take the business to the next level.
Identifying a leader’s ability to grow
Since resources for implementing a training program are scarce, and time is short, HR managers can select candidates that are able to make crucial investment decisions (Dyer, 2015). Competent candidates should demonstrate the ability to growth opportunities in any given business context.
Assessing Readiness for Leadership at Higher Levels
A high-quality assessment should serve three important functions in succession planning, which include confirming potential candidates who are ready to become leaders, targeting developmental actions, and targeting promotion decisions (Dyer, 2015). The assessment method should fully assess the entire success profile of a candidate by rendering a deeper assessment of competencies, such as by assessing the ability to demonstrate strategic planning, leading change, and the ability to make executive decisions
Conclusion
Succession planning is a term that is used to describe the process of the takeover in leadership positions. This process can be done secretly and have negative consequences on the part of the employees’ morale. This is why leadership succession should be well planned. Based on various readings, planning should involve using unbiased methods of identifying potential candidates. Those with the best qualifications, which include having leadership traits, should be chosen for the promotion. Moreover, there are fundamentals of assessment that organizations should use to ensure that they have a pool of the best candidates for the leadership position. This includes using assessment tools to test their leadership potentials and how they align their goals with those of the organization. Lastly, in any leadership succession planning, the HR should incorporate the “best practices” in the training program, which are inclusiveness, self-identification, and targeted training.
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