5 Tips for Succession Planning You Can Start Today
Too often we don’t think it can happen to us, and then all of a sudden, here it is! You are ready to transition out of your current position, perhaps onto a new one or perhaps onto a new adventure altogether. Now the job that doesn’t seem so overwhelming on the day-to-day all of a sudden seems massive when you consider handing the reins over to someone else.
Cross train for necessary tasks.
Too often we fall into a possessive mentality with tasks related to our position. Some call it job security - making sure you are the only one who knows how to do some important thing correctly. Some have the “I can do it best” mentality. And some just like to be busy and don’t want to share their tasks and risk having nothing to do! None of those are invalid! However, none of those attitudes are particularly helpful when considering things from a business standpoint and what the business would do if you were no longer able to perform the tasks. Cross training employees on important tasks just so they know the basics to keep everything running if you are suddenly unavailable is invaluable. Also, it will make your life easier to have someone who can step in for those times when you need to take a few days off, have too many extra tasks on your plate, or get called away for an emergency close to an important deadline.
2. Keep a calendar
Whether this is a day planner, a large wall calendar, or tasks on google calendar, keep something that you can refer back to at the end of the quarter or year and use to determine which tasks should be done in which months. Use that calendar to create an ongoing list or living document that you can add to and will be a guide to your successor if you decide to leave. Something that simply outlines what necessary tasks happen in each month such as:
January:
Assemble Budgeting Committee
Policy Review
February:
Quarterly Staff Training
March:
Inventory at Branch A, D, and F
You get the idea. Doing this continuously will make it easier when the time comes to transition out of your position because you won’t be trying to remember everything for a whole year at once AND it will ensure you don’t accidentally forget something crucial while trying to remember everything you ever do throughout the year.
3. Keep a list of important accounts that would need transferred over in the event you left.
When someone starts a new job there is SO MUCH to learn and be done that the last thing they or the organization need is to be hunting down login information for different accounts.
4. Along that same vein, get a password manager!
Password managers are relatively inexpensive and provide so much organizational value. Having all your logins and passwords stored securely with access only given to a trusted staff member in case of emergency can be so helpful!
5. Review your job description.
If you leave your position then the first place those hiring within the organization will look to begin the hiring process is to your job description. Regularly reviewing job descriptions within your organization can ensure that each description is accurately reflective of the job being done and the requirements that need to be met. Too many people and organizations write a job description when someone needs to be hired and then push it to the back of a file somewhere until years down the road when that position needs to be filled again. Not only can job descriptions quickly become outdated, but also trying to update that description in a mad dash before a call for applicants is posted is stressful and can lend to important aspects of the job being left off or mislabeled which then can cause problems down the road when the person hired does not have the qualifications or feels the reality of the job does not match the job description for which they were hired. Do your organization and also your successor a favor and make sure the job description they have for your position stays accurate by regularly working with those in charge to make any necessary updates or revisions to your job description.
Bonus Tip!:
Sometimes people have a really hard time considering succession planning because it sparks anxiety around not being able to do their job anymore. Consider changing the term in your organization from succession planning to something less connotatively negative. Perhaps job organization, or succession development. Sometimes just reframing the way we think about or refer to things can make them a lot less scary and a lot more doable!
Succession planning can seem like an impossible task if you sit down and try to do it all at once, but if you plan over the long term for that “just-in-case” scenario then transitioning when the time comes will be infinitely easier and more successful!
