Slam dunking succession planning

One of the organization buzz words I've heard a lot from people lately is succession planning. If I had to make an uneducated guess as to why the issue of succession planning is getting more coverage, it would be because of the aging population, and therefore workforce, particularly in Australia.

Why is a succession plan important?

Succession planning can be summarised as the process of identifying and training suitable employees to take up key positions within an organisation once these positions are vacated due to retirements and natural attrition. Many times this can involve placing staff in shadow roles within an organisation, to pick up the intricacies of a role. Obviously this can be potentially costly for companies, however, it can also have benefits, including a smoother transitions when change over occurs in key positions.

Think of it like basketball. Your teams point guard has one solid season left. Planning for the future, the team may then give the rookie point guard more court time, and even start in some games, in order to give them the experience to step up once the veteran point guard retires.

Since I used a basketball analogy, check out this video covering the history of the NBA's slam dunk contest.

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