Planning for core changes among a business’s key players is essential to help ensure its longevity. A business is not often placed in such a strong cone of uncertainty as when business leadership is up in the air. To calm the rough waters that can be in place when a business’s leadership team is in a transition period, a business succession plan can be critical to everything from managing employee anxiety to helping the business thrive throughout the process and with minimum upsets.
Why Plan for Business Succession?
Business succession planning is a business strategy employed by companies that want to have a plan in place to fill key leadership roles if and when the need ever arises. This may involve tapping other employees to step into these roles to planning for the transfer of ownership should there be a qualifying event necessitating such action. When successfully established, business succession planning can help ensure that a business is prepared to promote employees and groom them for advancement opportunities at all levels, including those of the management and executives.
A well-crafted business succession plan should consider leadership skills, both those of employees and those necessary for leadership roles within the company. In evaluating leadership skills, internal replacements should be selected to include in the plan. The plan should also detail how those employees should be trained so that they are prepared to step into the leadership role when the time comes. In larger businesses, business succession planning often involves planning to train mid-level employees who will later take on more high-level positions. In smaller businesses, particularly in family-owned businesses, succession planning focuses on training the next generation to take over when the current leadership generation retires or passes away.
If business succession planning isn’t on your priority short list, it should be. The benefits to succession planning are clear and all of the benefits are not necessarily delayed to some future point in time when employees are called to step into new leadership roles. Having a succession plan in place in and of itself can act as motivation to employees. They will see that a clear plan for advancement is in place and this can lead to more empowerment as well as a higher rate of job satisfaction. It is important to many employees to know that their employer is considering their career development and advancement. A succession plan acts as concrete proof that this is that case.
Succession planning also helps ensure that current management and company leaders are taking an active part in passing their knowledge and expertise to those that will eventually fill key roles in the company. It also allows management to stay focused on those employees that are bringing measurable value to the company and helping to ensure that those valued employees continue to grow and thrive with the business.
Business Law Attorneys
Sometimes, we get so caught up in the day to day business to-do list that we make the serious mistake of failing to plan for the future. Trust the team at Jones, Gregg, Creehan & Gerace to help set up a business succession plan that helps ensure your company’s continued success far into the future. Contact us today.