Over the past decade, many organizations have implemented talent review meetings and succession planning to discuss employee career paths and organization talent needs. Some organizations have found these processes to be highly beneficial, but others have not seen the results they were hoping to achieve. So the question is—what are keys to success and what are pitfalls to avoid?

If development actions for successor candidates are not taken seriously, they will not be ready when positions become vacant. The organization will likely hire an external candidate and complain that succession planning doesn’t work. Business leaders don’t always understand the business value of talent development and succession planning. So it is important as HR professionals to patiently provide training and talent tool kits for managers on these topics.

Many organizations have more employees (and contractors) working to recruit external talent than they have working on internal talent development and succession strategies. Another common challenge is having enough qualified employees who are able to facilitate talent review-succession meetings to meet the internal need to review hundreds or thousands of leaders and key experts across an organization. In smaller organizations, and in organizations with low turnover, a common challenge is trying to retain people and keep them challenged while they are “waiting” for a position vacancy.

The key is to continue to review your progress, look for improvements, and enlist the cooperation and assistance of others to create success in your succession strategy.

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