Change is a constant in every organization. Retirement, promotions, relocations, and unexpected exits can all leave critical roles vacant. Without a plan in place, these transitions can disrupt operations and slow business momentum.
Succession planning helps organizations prepare for these changes by identifying and developing talent to step into key roles when the need arises. In this article, we break down what succession planning is, why it matters, and how to create an effective succession plan that supports continuity and long-term success.
What Is Succession Planning?
Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal talent to fill critical roles when employees leave, retire, or are promoted. It involves identifying key positions, selecting high-potential employees, and creating targeted development plans to prepare them for future responsibilities.
Rather than reacting to vacancies as they occur, succession planning enables organizations to plan ahead and maintain continuity in leadership and other essential roles.
Why Is It Important?
Succession planning plays a critical role in the long-term sustainability and success of organizations of all sizes—from small, family-run businesses to large, complex enterprises. Key benefits include:
Guides Training and Development Plans
Succession planning requires organizations to assess employee skills, strengths, and development gaps. These insights help shape targeted training and development initiatives that improve performance and prepare employees for future roles.
Reduces Hiring Costs
With a succession plan in place, organizations can fill key roles more quickly using internal talent. This reduces reliance on job boards, recruitment agencies, and advertising, while also minimizing indirect costs such as onboarding, background checks, recruiter time, and productivity losses caused by prolonged vacancies.
Improves Talent Retention
Clear succession pathways signal to employees that growth and advancement opportunities exist within the organization. This strengthens engagement, boosts morale, and reduces the likelihood of high performers leaving in search of career progression elsewhere.
Support Strategic Business Planning
An effective succession plan ensures the organization has the right talent ready to support its long-term goals. It helps leadership transitions reinforce strategic priorities rather than disrupt them, allowing the business to maintain direction and momentum over time.
How To Create an Effective Succession Plan
An effective succession plan doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a structured approach to identify critical roles, develop future leaders, and prepare the organization for change. The following steps explain how to create a succession plan that works.
Identify Key Leadership Positions
The first step in succession planning is identifying the roles that are critical to the organization’s long-term success. These are positions that would cause significant disruption if left vacant for an extended period or are particularly difficult to replace.
Key roles typically include:
- Positions with significant decision-making authority (e.g., Chief Executive Officer)
- Roles that require specialized skills, training, or experience (e.g., Principal Engineer)
- Positions with high talent scarcity in the labour market (e.g., Quantitative Risk Experts)
- Roles that are essential to the organization’s future growth and innovation (e.g., Head of Innovation or R&D)
Identifying these roles helps organizations focus succession efforts where they matter most.
Anticipate Future Vacancies
Once critical roles have been identified, the next step is to anticipate when those positions are likely to become vacant. This requires considering factors such as planned promotions, retirements, contract expiries, and projected business growth.
Organizations can also rely on historical data, including turnover trends, workforce demographics, and industry outlooks, to make more accurate predictions about future staffing needs. This proactive approach reduces disruption and ensures continuity when the transition occurs.
Also check out: How To Reduce Employee Turnover in Kenya
Define Your Succession Criteria
Define your succession criteria by detailing the skills, competencies, and experience required for each position. Clear succession criteria ensure that potential successors are evaluated consistently and objectively.
These criteria typically include:
- Core skills: technical, functional, and leadership skills
- Key competencies: strategic thinking, decision-making, communication, and collaboration
- Relevant experience: role-specific, cross-functional, or industry experience
- Leadership capabilities: people management, influence, and change leadership
- Training and education: formal education, certifications, and leadership development programs
- Performance history: consistent results and delivery against goals
Mapping these competencies creates a structured framework for assessing and comparing potential successors.
Assess Current Talent
With roles and succession criteria clearly defined, organizations can then assess their existing talent to identify potential successors. This involves evaluating employees’ performance, potential, and readiness to take on higher-level responsibilities.
Employees should be assessed against the established succession criteria to identify those who stand out. To improve the quality of selection, organizations should consider a diverse pool of candidates, looking across departments, teams, and functions rather than limiting the search to a single area.
Where significant skill or experience gaps exist, external recruitment may be necessary to bring in capabilities that are not currently available within the organization.
Conduct Gap Analysis
Conduct a gap analysis to assess the potential successors’ readiness for future roles. This involves evaluating what each candidate can do today against the requirements of the role they are expected to take on.
A gap analysis highlights both strengths and development needs, making it easier to determine what skills, experience, or exposure candidates must gain to succeed in the role. These insights form the foundation for targeted development planning.
Create Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
After completing the gap analysis, organizations should prepare potential successors through individual development plans (IDPs). These personalized plans focus on closing identified skill and experience gaps and preparing employees to perform effectively when they step into new roles.
IDPs may include:
- Training: Formal or informal learning, delivered in-house or off-site, including eLearning, mobile learning, and blended learning approaches
- Mentorship: Current role incumbents mentoring potential successors for a defined period and evaluating their readiness
- Job shadowing: Allowing successors to observe and participate in the incumbent’s daily responsibilities for hands-on, real-world exposure
- Developmental assignments: Temporary promotions, stretch assignments, or project leadership opportunities; where these are not available, simulations or virtual learning tools may be used
- Rotational assignments: Cross-functional or cross-geographical placements to broaden experience and perspective
- Leadership coaching: Focused support to strengthen decision-making, communication, and emotional intelligence
Well-designed IDPs ensure potential successors are not only identified but systematically prepared to assume critical roles when the time comes.
Test Their Readiness
Once potential successors have completed their individual development plans, the next step is to test their readiness in real-world situations. This involves giving them opportunities to make meaningful decisions and evaluating the outcomes.
Practical readiness testing may include assigning successors to lead strategic projects, manage a business unit, or represent the organization in external partnerships. These experiences allow potential leaders to operate in higher-level roles while still benefiting from guidance and safety nets.
For example, an organization preparing a successor for the CEO role might assign them to lead a major strategic initiative or act as interim CEO during a planned absence.
This approach delivers two key benefits:
- The employee gains hands-on leadership experience
- The organization can assess how effectively the individual handles the responsibilities of the role
Review and Adjust Succession Plans Regularly
Succession planning is not a one-time exercise. As markets evolve and organizational priorities shift, succession plans must be reviewed and updated to remain relevant and effective.
Organizations should review their succession plans at least annually to assess the progress of potential successors and confirm that development efforts still align with business goals. Making timely adjustments in response to changing needs helps prevent skills gaps, leadership disruptions, and future operational challenges.
How To Track the Performance of Your Succession Plan
After implementing a succession plan, it is important to track its performance to determine whether it is delivering the intended results and to identify areas that may need adjustment. Regular monitoring ensures the plan remains aligned with organizational goals and continues to support leadership continuity.
The following metrics can help you assess how effective your succession plan is and whether it is working as intended.
| Metric | What It Means and Why To Monitor It |
| Time to Fill Critical Roles | Measures how quickly key positions are filled when vacancies occur. Shorter times indicate strong readiness and reduced business disruption. |
| Internal Fill Rate | Percentage of critical roles filled by internal candidates. A higher rate shows effective talent development and succession depth. |
| Successor Readiness Levels | Tracks how many successors are “ready now,” “ready soon,” or “ready later.” Helps identify capability gaps and development priorities. |
| Bench Strength Coverage | Assesses whether each critical role has one or more qualified successors. Reduces risk from unexpected departures. |
| Post-Transition Performance | Evaluates how successors perform after assuming the role. Confirms whether development and selection decisions were effective. |
| Retention of High-Potential Talent | Monitors turnover among identified successors and high-potential employees. High retention signals engagement and confidence in career paths. |
| Development Plan Completion Rate | Tracks how many successors complete required development actions. Indicates execution discipline and program effectiveness. |
| Risk Exposure for Critical Roles | Identifies roles with no ready successors. Helps leadership prioritize urgent interventions. |
Also check out: 6 HR Metrics That Every Kenyan Employer Should Track
Mistakes To Avoid During Succession Planning
To create an effective success plan, make sure you don’t fall into the common traps below:
- Starting too late: Delaying planning until a role is vacant, missing the window to develop talent.
- Overlooking mid-to-lower-level leadership gaps: Ignoring crucial mid-level or support roles, leading to skill gaps.
- Playing favorites: Letting personal biases or popularity override objective skill assessment.
- Using a one-size-fits-all approach: Using a single template instead of tailoring plans for specific roles and individuals.
- Treating it as a one-time event: Creating a static plan that isn’t updated as the business evolves.
- Not planning for “what’s next”: Failing to account for the entire “domino effect” of internal promotions.
Should You Be Transparent About Your Succession Plan?
Succession planning is an important strategic process that requires the involvement of key stakeholders. However, full transparency has pros and cons that you should consider to determine the best approach.
| Pros | Cons |
| Builds trust and reduces uncertainty among employees | Can create unhealthy competition or internal politics |
| Signals stability and long-term thinking to stakeholders | May demotivate strong performers not selected as successors |
| Helps develop internal talent with clear expectations | Limits flexibility if business needs or people change |
| Reduces the risk of disruption or confusion if the leader leaves unexpectedly | Can trigger premature departures of overlooked employees |
| Encourages accountability and performance in potential successors | Investors, clients, and other outsiders may interpret it as a sign that a leader is about to leave |
To address the downsides of full transparency without sacrificing credibility, you can adopt a graduated or selective transparency approach.
It involves disclosing different details to different audiences, such as full visibility (names, readiness, risks, timelines) to the board and partial visibility (roles, capability gaps, development focus) to senior leadership. To the wider organization, you can share how successors are identified without naming anyone too early.
This approach helps maintain trust, reduces internal competition, and provides for course correction as people and strategies evolve.
The Role of HR in Succession Planning
According to research from SHRM, HR is critical to the structure, execution, and consistency of succession planning. It ensures the key positions are filled with the right talent at the right time by handling the following responsibilities:
- Identifying the key roles: Identifies critical roles by linking business strategy to roles with the highest impact, risk, and difficulty to replace, in partnership with leadership.
- Defining and identifying potential successors: Finds individuals with the skills, experience, drive, and aptitude required to take on greater responsibilities in the organization.
- Creating personalized development plans: Works with management to create development plans that target the potential successors’ weaknesses with training, mentorship, and stretch assignments.
- Tracking progress and readiness: Uses competency assessments, performance data, development plans, and talent reviews to measure the development of successors against role requirements.
While business leaders typically own the final decisions, the HR department is critical in driving the plan’s implementation. That said, succession planning works best when HR and leadership are true partners, not when either operates alone.
Implementing an Effective Succession Plan
Succession planning is not just about replacing leaders—it’s about protecting continuity, reducing risk, and preparing your organization for the future. When done well, it ensures critical roles are filled on time, high-potential talent is developed deliberately, and leadership transitions strengthen rather than disrupt the business.
However, effective succession planning requires structure, objectivity, and consistent follow-through. Bridge Talent Group supports organizations through HR advisory, talent development, and recruitment services to design and implement succession plans that align with business strategy and workforce realities.
If you’re looking to build a reliable leadership pipeline and future-proof your organization, partner with Bridge Talent Group to turn succession planning into a practical, sustainable advantage.
FAQS
1. When should an organization start succession planning?
Succession planning should begin as early as possible. Ideally, organizations should plan for succession long before roles become vacant to allow sufficient time for identifying and developing internal talent.
2. Is succession planning only for senior leadership roles?
No. While leadership roles are critical, succession planning should also cover key technical and mid-level positions that are difficult to replace or essential to business operations.
3. How often should a succession plan be reviewed?
Succession plans should be reviewed at least once a year or whenever there are major organizational changes such as restructuring, rapid growth, or leadership transitions.
4. What if there is no suitable internal successor for a key role?
If internal talent is not ready or available, organizations may need to recruit externally while continuing to develop internal employees for future opportunities.
Contact the HR experts at Bridge Talent to learn more about succession planning for your organization.
