Succession Planning

Succession planning is the procedure of identifying potential leaders in an organization to fill important positions in near future. It is important for an organization to find the right people who will fill key positions. Any organization needs to select the candidates carefully, as they would in key positions and strategically significant roles with great responsibility and power. Thus organizations need to adopt a detailed and broad system of selection, inspection, grooming and orientation.

This process of succession planning enables organizations to:

•  Assess if they have the right skills mix to achieve company goals – and determine what gaps exist that must be closed. 
• Identify talented employees and provide education to develop them for future higher level and broader responsibilities 
• Identify which employees are at risk of leaving. 
• Retain superior employees 
• Build “bench strength."
• Determine where people belong on the bus. 
• Determine if they should be on your bus - or someone else’s.

Succession plan ideas can be

• Strategic succession plan - It is done when organization knows about any upcoming key vacant position. Generally at such situations, current (or outgoing) key role holder is involved in the lookup for a successor and also gives initial guidelines about the role.
• Emergency succession plan – It is done when a critical key role holder departs unexpectedly due to illness or accident.

Also, succession plan depends upon the company policy.

• Some organizations prefer to use the talents within the company to grow and lead
• Some companies adopt talents outside the organization to avoid collision amongst employees

Further, strategic succession plan can be

• Immediate (0 – 1 year)
• Mid-term   (2-5 years)
• Long term  (beyond 5 years)

Key elements of succession planning:

• Identification of key position
• Identification of key talent
• Assessment of key talent
• Grooming and development
• Support through transition

Steps to ensure Effective Succession Planning

• HR and business leaders should monitor succession plan.
• Rather than just recording performance, potential for future roles need to be assess. 
• Manage succession data on individuals and talent pools.
• Balance talent development and acquisition in achieving future objectives.
• Integrate succession planning systems with other businesses and HR systems in the organization to achieve efficiency, consistency and impact.

Barriers to succession plan

• Projected shortage of talents
• Cost and Time
• Talent retention 
• Conflict within employee and employer
• Insecurity feeling
• Lack of learning opportunity
• Expectation of organization

Green HR

Modern day organizations are becoming environment conscious and adopting thinking green initiatives; environment management is being included in business operations. Green initiatives are practices that help in natural resource conservation by reduction in usage of raw material, energy and water or elimination of pollutants. Thus reducing employee carbon footprints. Green HR involves two elements: environment friendly HR practices and the preservation of knowledge capital.

It is done as promoting and implementing – ‘Going digital’ by using teleconference or videoconference, virtual interviews, virtual training, printing less paper. Also, it includes recycling, reusing resources, car-pooling, energy efficient office, sapling plantation, etc. Green HR is about retaining, recalling, preserving, and growing talent, therefore reducing and/or eliminating workplace inefficiency. Along with creating a more efficient workplace, retaining knowledge capital forces employers to properly evaluate their staff and look for the best options available. HR efforts on the same include increasing process efficiency, revamping HR procedures and tools. A lot of HR processes need bulk paper documentation; hence it adds cost and challenges the green initiative. Organizations should adopt online applications as online attendance and leave record, employee personal data, online pay slips, online assert and manpower requisition, travel plan, team reports, PF details, Form 16 etc.

Green ideas and concepts are commencing to grow in HR domain, acting as add on to sustainability-based initiatives. Tangible benefits of Green practices are - contribution to environment, employee education and awareness, brand image of company, improve productivity and efficiency.

Mitch Albom's ''The five people you meet in heaven"- Book review

From the author of bestseller ‘Tuesday with Morrie’ Mitch Albom, ‘The five people you meet in heaven’ gives an idea that heaven is more than the story told with floating clouds and white angels, and unforeseen life connections.

Eddie, an old wounded World War II veteran living an uninspired life. He works at an amusement park as maintenance man. On his 83rd birthday he died in a horrible accident while saving a little girl. He wakes in his afterlife and find himself traveling with five people to reach his heaven. Here, heaven is not the same place for all souls; heaven is also not the destination.

Eddie meet five people at their heaven; he knew some of them, some were unknown but have connection in his life. He met them one by one from his childhood till old age; together they revisited earth and Eddie learns something new about himself, significance of their encounters and life. He is enlighten by to his own worth and value of his life.

The story gives insights about life, love, sacrifice, human connection but at times emotions are forced, as a reader might feel emotionally manipulated by different five characters. The book had aimed to reach a message of humanity with simple story in afterlife.

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 65th Independence Day India!!!


After uncountable known and unsung heroes sacrificed for the future of country we got this freedom. Our military, police and similar organizations still fight to maintain that freedom. But are we really free, do we know what freedom is?

How can we be free in a country divided by caste, inequality, injustice, fear and terror?

A country where an infant girl still doesn’t have right to birth; where a girl still doesn’t have freedom to live with honor; where honor killings exist; how free is that country?

64 years back our freedom fighters freed the land from foreign rule and gave us the base to recreate the golden bird. We are still a young country and racing fast to development, but as we develop we are gradually missing out important and necessary segments to develop. We still lack the basic medical and education facilities. There are many untold and unknown barriers against freedom. I feel it is a pity as every second Indian blames only the governing bodies for any problem and issue faced is it a pothole in road or garbage overflow from any dustbin or any other (starting from the minimal).

Freedom is not free; we have paid for it and must bear the responsibility for it.
Take account of your responsibility and create a better tomorrow.

Again, Happy Independence Day!!

My march as I pave my road...

It is going to be a month soon. I finally started a new step to do my post graduation.

I was a software engineer working in a SWITCH company, realized am missing a lot in my life and my journey to discover me started as in here. For almost a year I converted as a homemaker, HR blog reader: D, learnt new cuisines, read more than 50 books I always wanted to read, watched all the movies I always wanted to, earned online, started reading and following fashion blogs, painted again as here and decided what I want from my life.

This post is to unleash the words hold tight for so long. I decided to become a person, who would drive an organization, grow with it and help it to grow more. I decided to be a HR. I fall for it, more than my last love for coding and Oracle but it ended soon. So, to be sure that it is not going to be a just another encounter I networked and read about people in the field.

When I became more than 200% sure this is the thing I want to be in, I joined my current alma mater Madras School of Social Work, Chennai. Now I want to be a superstar HR.

Hope I can contribute my 2 cents here.

Wish me luck!