Lesa Hanlin is the executive director of Roanoke Regional Initiatives Outreach and Internal Affairs at the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center.
Photo by Aila Boyd
By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce held its first “Lunch & Learn” of 2020 last Wednesday at the Botetourt Golf and Swim Club in Troutville.
Lesa Hanlin, the executive director of Roanoke Regional Initiatives Outreach and Internal Affairs at the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, spoke about the importance of succession planning in the workplace. Succession planning, Hanlin explained, is defined by the Society for Human Resource Management as “the future focused practice of identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform certain functions and then developing a plan to prepare multiple individuals to potentially perform them.”
“From resignations to retirements, businesses and corporations must be deliberate about succession planning. Change happens fast,” Hanlin said. “The first decade out of college, Generation X changed jobs an average of two times. Millennials change jobs an average of four times, and today’s graduates don’t stop there, they even change industries.”
Hanlin explained that those in charge of hiring often think that they have to replace the specific employee when someone leaves for whatever reason. Instead of trying to find a new hire who can do the former employee’s specific job, consider the tasks that they performed and then see who else in the company is capable of executing them. Succession planning should be focused on ensuring that specific tasks are covered when someone leaves, not simply finding someone to pass a job title to, she cautioned.
Best practices for succession planning, Hanlin said, should include the following:
- Have commitment and involvement of senior leadership.
- Have regular talent reviews.
- Identify and develop talent of all levels of an organization.
- Hold the executive team accountable.
- Align with business strategy.
- Manage the irrational, political and emotional dynamics of succession.
- Assess performance and potential.
- Integrate succession planning with performance management, recruitment, selection, development and rewards.
- Make a serious commitment to develop time and resources.
She went on to note that succession planning is proactive, part of workforce planning, preparation and not pre-selection. She also said that it involves planned developmental activities, should not violate human resources policy, and should build bench strength.
