The Retention Dividend from Effective Succession Planning

Of the many significant variables to ensure a company’s competitive edge, one of the most important is its ability to attract and retain top talent. Top talent leaders possess the right skill sets, capabilities, experience, and enthusiasm to achieve corporate goals and objectives.

Although most companies focus on “recruiting the very best,” there is an unfortunate lack of emphasis on keeping high-achievers and providing ways to motivate and value their contributions. We see constant evidence in today’s business environment and business practices—downsizing, rightsizing, restructuring, reorganizing, etc., which all seem to support a sense of non-caring corporate behavior. Employees, especially top talent or high-potentials, recognize this turbulence and act accordingly….they leave. They want, and will have, control over their careers.

Losing your star performers results in lost productivity, creating cracks in the organization’s foundation; it produces uncertainty with customers, with possible negative impact on shareholders. Trying to reignite business growth without top talent is nearly impossible. The loss of intellectual and high-performance capital can truly be catastrophic for any company!

Effective senior managers understand the need to look beyond the traditional compensation approach to retention. Business research confirms that high-potential employees tend to stay longer where they experience personal and professional growth instead of receiving only financial reward. Those companies that actively partner with their top talent and help align their individual career direction with long-range goals, realize better retention rates.

This underscores the importance of having a strategically-designed Succession Planning Program, since the very nature of succession planning incorporates the concept of building replacement candidates from within the organization. The tools of succession planning—training initiatives, mentoring, coaching, competency assessment, and enhanced communication all serve to motivate the organization’s best performers in a manner well beyond merely increasing their paychecks.

Effective Succession Planning Programs easily become a cornerstone in building trust, increasing professionalism, and retaining top talent. When succession planning and leadership development strategies are fully implemented, companies grow, develop, and keep the key people they need, for what they need, and when they need them. Mutual commitment is high, and communication & trust are enhanced. We know that top talent thrives in this kind of environment, staying longer with the organization that provides them innovative opportunities for professional growth.

Leadership development and succession planning synergy creates motivated, enthusiastic, and more productive employees within any progressive organization. Combine these positive attributes with high retention rates, and you have a remarkable formula for business success!

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