How to Turn Succession Planning into a Strategic Advantage for Your Organization

Proactive strategies make all the difference in keeping your organization running smoothly. Succession planning is no exception. Looking ahead helps you fill roles without the last-minute scramble that can disrupt operations, cause teams to lose momentum, and risk missing chances to grow talent or put the wrong people in charge. Identifying key players early and tracking their growth through promotions, certifications, and more sets your organization up for success. With the right solutions, you get a complete view of your workforce to turn succession planning into a strategic advantage. 

Using data to identify future leaders early  

When a top leader or performer leaves (or retires), it’s a loss — but not one that should be difficult to overcome. With a little prep work, your data should reveal who’s ready to step up and what their track record says about their performance, engagement, and projected impact on the business. But it goes further than that: Insights can highlight the return on investment, such as time saved, productivity gained, and recruitment costs cut by promoting from within.  

What if you could spot potential turnover risks or future leadership gaps before they happen? Solutions with predictive analytics make that possible. By analyzing workforce patterns like performance trends, engagement, and growth trajectories, your data can help flag what areas need immediate attention. This allows CHROs to plan ahead (and stay ahead) of change.  

Using AI to prepare approvals and recommendations gives you an even bigger advantage for getting through the process quickly and effectively — and giving all stakeholders access to the numbers behind the decision. 

Developing leadership readiness through continuous growth  

Russell Reynolds Associates’ Global CEO Turnover Index shows that the average tenure for outgoing CEOs is just under seven years, the shortest since the leadership advisory firm began tracking the rate in 2018. However, their data also reveals that 76% of new CEOs were promoted from within, showing many organizations are taking a strategic approach to leadership changes. Still, there’s a lot of room for growth to focus planning beyond leadership roles. It’s a sentiment 61% of HR leaders agree with, Gartner reports, noting that focusing only on senior leaders overlooks critical roles that affect other key outcomes. Afterall, sometimes the biggest impact to an organization can be the loss of employees who understand critical systems. Because when there is no training or backup in place, operations can come to a halt.  

So, where do you begin? Identify what matters to employees, where they succeed, and offer cross-training and continuing education courses to develop those skills. Ultimately, this is what strengthens your leadership pipeline and helps future-proof operations. Plus, data shows the interest is already there: 68% of frontline workers want to learn new skills, while 58% say continuous learning is important for their personal and/or professional growth, according to a 2024 UKG Global Study of the frontline workforce. Furthermore, 73% say they don’t mind learning new skills outside their normal hours — a possible indicator of their desire to contribute more to the organization.  

Leadership development programs, too, can do more than prep internal talent to take on bigger roles in the future. As AIHR notes, they can begin instilling in your employees critical skills like strategic thinking, decision-making, and communication that strengthen your workforce today.  

Collaboration across the organization