Succession Planning - The Ultimate Retention Tool

Do you have an active plan to address career succession? I mean more than performance appraisals, folks. I mean do you have a plan for their careers based on their performance and career goals? 

Now, before you get frustrated, I am not asking you to map their career all the way to the CIO, but I am asking you to take an active part in planning their careers with your company and more specifically in your department. Why? It is the age-old advice that you get out of something what you put into it. If you want to hire top talent, you are going to promise cutting-edge technology, training, certifications, hot projects--everything an eager candidate could ask for in a new job. Now realty hits home. Your person has all of these qualities you promised, but they don’t know where to apply it either in your department or in the company as a whole. That person can’t see where all these skills are going to take him in his current environment. That means he is not only keeping a close eye on the internal postings, wondering if they are a “fit,” but also answering those recruiter calls faster than you can blink an eye.  

Let’s review some simple aspects to succession planning for your current team members. Keep in mind it is never too late to begin this process. Implement it at any time during the year, but for …