HRD in Organizational Succession Planning - Yahoo Company - Case Study Example

HRD in Organizational Succession Planning Name Institution HRD in Organizational Succession Planning Introduction Succession planning is a key notable area in the context of human resource development that Yahoo Company needs to adequately address. Succession planning process ensures that organization employees are recruited and developed ready to occupy top positions within the organization. This process involves recruitment, knowledge, skill, ability development and preparing them for advancement or promotion to undertake challenging roles in the organization. Yahoo has continued to actively pursue succession planning thus constantly developing its employees to fill needed roles (Carlson, 2015). It is notable that as an organization expand it is likely to lose its key employees, more provision of promotional opportunities thus succession planning ensures that the existing employees are ready to fill the new roles within the organization. The succession planning at Yahoo Company has ensured that the organization is well prepared for its expansion, key employee loss, required jobs, and promotion of employees and redesigning of opportunities within the organization (Carlson, 2015). The success of succession planning has enabled this organization to build bench strength. According to Hastings (2004) succession planning in an organization also enhances retaining of superior employees since they appreciate the organization investment on their time, development and attention (Hastings 2004). Through effective and efficient succession planning organization employees are motivated because it provides them with career path for their growth and development. Smooth and effective succession planning can be achieved through clear identification of the organization’s long term goals. Employees should have in-depth understanding of their career paths as well as the roles and responsibilities they will fill. In the context of Yahoo Company, the importance and relevance of succession planning became evident after the firing of its CEO. Succession planning is a necessary aspect of the corporate world (Carlson, 2015). If Yahoo had established effective successive plan before then transitions would have gone smoothly. It is notable that this organization had no properly established succession planning mechanism and faced challenge in the recruitment and selection of new CEO. Therefore successive planning should not be neglected because it can lead into organizational management disaster. In regard to Yahoo company succession planning program, this paper will explore how this program underlying the organization’s human resource development can be planned, designed, delivered and evaluated to improve the overall succession planning program in this organization. Succession Planning Program (Plan) Succession planning program will be established under Yahoo Company human resource department and a component of human resource development. Yahoo should acknowledge that its staff will stay indefinitely in the organization. Therefore succession planning program in this organization will provide a plan as well as a process of addressing changes that may occur in case of employee’s turnover notably at the senior and top management levels. The program focuses on senior manager such as the chief executive officer (CEO) and all other key positions should be included. The key positions included are mainly those considered to being important for the Yahoo Company operations. In addition, the skills, knowledge and experience to hold these key positions are relatively hard to replace (Werner, 2011). The plan for succession planning program will involve developing and nurturing employees within the organization. Yahoo company staff and employees who are considered to have desire, knowledge, skills, experience and qualities will be identified and groomed for the purpose of filling specific key positions within the organization later. Managers in each of the departments at Yahoo Company will be required to select candidates in their departments who have the necessary variety of knowledge, skills and experience (Robinson, 2013). Therefore managers will have to create a performance evaluation system to assess each employee in their departments. It is important for managers to select candidates who are high performers and possess the potential of joining Yahoo executive positions. Multiple candidates should be selected so that qualified and high performers are selected. Training is highly focused in the plan of this program, this will facilitate introduction of new skills of management to the current employees in the organization. Therefore, senior managers will be required to dedicate time, coach and mentor junior employees. Yahoo Company will be required to provide additional funds for logistics involve and hiring mentors and trainers. Senior managers and instructors will determine the training duration for each of the selected candidates. This plan depending on the available funds may focus also on other organizational positions that are highly technical or specialized jobs as opposed to only executive level positions. Succession planning program should ensure that knowledge transfer is effective and efficient. The plan should ensure that before a senior employee leaves, any candidate selected for replacement must have all the, relevant, important and necessary information to do the job (Hastings, 2004). Finally, the plan for this program should ensure that all the selected candidates have the desire and interest to receive the offer for promotion. It is important to ask candidates to make statement expressing their interests. Objectives of the Succession Planning Program The key objective of succession planning is to facilitate organizational and business continuity through smooth transfer of power to the succeeding leaders from the incumbent leaders. This ensures that the organization experiences minimum disruptions of business operations as well as the overall organizational effectiveness (Romejko, 2008). This program ensures that each of the senior managers, top executives and leaders have exigency positions and backups. The backups entail grooming of lower level managers so that they can fill these critical positions at designated periods. Another objective is to identify next generation top executive, leaders and talented managers to take over critical functional and departmental roles within the organization. Atwood (2007) provides that this program aims to apprise top senior managers or departmental heads in regard to the possibility of being offered new extra roles and responsibilities in the future and establishing new leadership programs (Atwood, 2007). Succession planning programs aim to effectively facilitate grooming by creating and managing pool of candidates who possess the potential of taking over the organization leadership roles and responsibilities. It also aim to provide a platform where current organizational top leaders and managers can mentor, encourage and advice the identified selected future leaders on organizational challenges, management of people, conflict and crisis situations and sharing gained expertise and experiences. Succession planning program aim to promote sustainability and organization’s effectiveness, this program will ensure that organizations have a means of sustaining its important operations beyond the tenure period of executives and departmental heads who currently execute them (Romejko, 2008). Benefits of the Succession Planning Program The program has a positive direct impact to the employees of the organization especially when managers and leaders pass the baton to groomed generations who have been working within the organization. Employees are motivated when they experience continuity in the business practices and the organizational culture which are defined by the organization’s top executives and management. Succession planning program provides a means of ensuring that an organization is well prepared for support service continuity in scenarios where to executive directors or senior managers leaves the organization. It also ensures that the organization has a continuous supply of motivated and qualified staff through the process of identification and they are prepared and have the desire to take over the retiring or leaving senior staff within the organization. Succession planning program provides an alignment in regard to the organization vision and the human resources thus giving the organization deep insight understanding on the need to recruit and select suitable and qualified staff to achieve its strategic plans (Werner, 2011). This program also provides a platform for a commitment to developing its employees career paths, this facilitates the organization’s capability to recruit and retain it top-performing staff. It brings the organization the perception and the message of valuing its employees. Succession planning promotes internal employee elevation thus the selected candidate for the top job position has been working within the organization for some time (Rothwell, 2010). The benefit is that whoever selected understands fully the organization workflows, ethics, hierarchies and the authority-responsibility structures. It is important for the top management executives to know and understand all the organization processes, strengths and shortcomings. Employees will be notably motivated thus increasing the overall productivity of the organization. The succession planning plays important role in the current organization’s decision making in regard to the future direction (Atwood, 2007). This gives enables employees to see the bigger picture of the organization and gives employees the opportunity to be recruited and selected to fill the top positions of the organization. Succession planning through the identification of backups facilitates organization’s knowledge transfer enabling the junior employees to be prepared to join the new senior positions within the organization. Succession planning has an outline on how knowledge transfer occurs ensuring that they have necessary information on how they will succeed such roles. Design and Implementation of the Succession Planning Program The succession plan program is designed to set up a system to fill positions that have fallen vacant within the organization. These positions that have fallen vacant can be attributed to senior staff leaving due to retirement or going for another job. The design of succession planning facilitates junior employees to assume these vacant positions unless otherwise the organization will need to recruit employees from outside. This program is designed to keep the key talents as well as the specialized knowledge which benefits the organization and prevent its loss. The design provisions make individuals within the organization to be ready to assume the office positions and to fill the knowledge gap that arises within the organization (Hastings, 2004). Therefore, there is the need for senior staff endowed with knowledge skills and experience to train the organization junior employees in order to address the knowledge gap to enhance organizational performance. This program is designed to safeguard the critical positions within the organization through the prevention of specific talented employees and the critical positions critical for the organizational performance. The program identifies the organization’s critical positions in the context of organizational mission that results into devastation if not properly managed. This program is designed to keep the knowledge and experience that the veteran executives have in regard to the organization. The design ensures that any leadership roles transition maintain the successful organizational culture, best employee performance and morale. Succession plan program has its design have overall positive impact on the organization. Top executives or senior staffs are facilitated to train their possible replacements before they leave the organization (Mandi, 2005). The design provides how best the new selected and groomed candidates can lead in the organizational culture. Succession planning program is also designed to entail temporary plans and it does not only determine which positions to be filled, underlying replacements and also which positions to be replaced through external recruitment. The design also entails other approaches of management regarding the positions to be filled that may affect the performance of the organization. This is where an organization can plan temporarily for certain positions to takeover key job responsibilities while they organize to be filled externally. In this case a manager form a certain department can assume duties and responsibilities for the vacated position. Research based approach will be used whereby the human resource experts of the organization have to anlyse the key positions within the organization that can be affected by the internal and external events. These events can be massive retirement of the Baby Boomers. It also entails the prediction of the future staffing levels and determination of the possible additional talent that the predicted levels require and how it can be sourced either within the organization of outside (Romejko, 2008). In regard to the implementation underlying this design the organization or the corporate managers must be prepared to effectively oversee its leadership transitions. Therefore it must implement the key important modern policies. It is important for the organization to put in place the succession plan policy that will effectively address the expected and the unexpected leadership changes within the organization. This policy shall explain the overseers such as the board of directors who will be obligated in the selection of suitable successors for the positions within the organization. One or two candidates suitable for succession will be identified for training to succeed the senior managers. According to Robinson (2013) the identified candidates should be introduced to the organization, staff, stakeholders and the community as early as possible (Robinson, 2013). They will be provided with boss-in-training leadership authority so that they can run the organization authority while they are under the senior staff authority and direction. Also underlying the implementation of this program it is important for the organization to be fully committed in the provision of leadership development and training programs to the internal candidates selected for the succession. This will prepare them to handle the underlying future organizational challenges that wait the organization. Focus on the universal leadership skills is required during the implementation of succession planning program and this encompasses effective communication, risk management skills and innovation. These aspects of leadership development are essential and critical for the achievement of future success in the organization (Robinson, 2013). During the implementation period instructors and trainers should utilize maximally the performance review process so that they can gain clarity on the programs accomplishment, individual employee performance as well as its shortcomings. This is critical in regard to the future leadership possibilities within the organizations thus preparing and equipping the selected candidates for succession. Training Methods or HRD Practices There are notable human resource development training methods that organization can adopt in regard to succession planning. These practices are vital for the achievement of effective succession planning and its underlying improvement of the organization human capital. It includes career development, training, tuition assistance, and coaching and evaluation feedback. These methods can be applied in an organization through workshop training, constant communication, coaching and mentoring between the senior staff and the junior subordinate staff within the organization. The above encompasses training and development, employee performance evaluations, overall organization development and employee career development. It is notable that training the development methods will include activities that will facilitate and aid employees to acquire, knowledge, skills, key competencies and the adoption of organization cultures that will enable the junior staff and employees to take over senior and critical management roles of the organization (Rothwell 2005). Employee performance evaluation will involve assessment and judgment of the employee efforts that will enable employees to provide feedback on their current job tasks and responsibilities aiming to improve the performance of the organization. The organization development methods that will be used include team building activities and all other initiatives that aim to improve the quality of the workplace life that enables the organization to prepare and groom its employees for top management and executive jobs (Robinson, 2013). Underlying this it is important to focus on the organizational restructuring and the improvement of the reward systems so as to motivate employees and instill them the desire and interest to participate in the succession planning programs. Career development is also another human resource development method suitable for succession planning. Underlying this consists of programs and activities that are intended for career planning within the organization. This is intended for both employees and departmental managers who are suitable candidates for succession within the organization. Training Outline A training outline for this program is crucial and has to be considered suitable by the organization board of directors, top executives, senior staff and all the individuals who are responsible for governance in the organization. Succession planning training programs is designed to promote the transfer of knowledge, skills and experience to the selected candidates for grooming and preparing them to take over top management roles in the organization. This training program is designed to assist the junior staffs who have the potential to succeed top roles in an organization have the ability to perform them (Fenner, 2005). Succession training programs provides an outline for the training goals and learning objectives. Succession planning program outline is also vital for the achievement of effective execution. This outline should adopt various succession planning techniques and various materials that safeguards the project’s objectives, selected candidates interests and other appropriate stakeholders for the achievement of the organizational success. The instructors should begin with the development of the overall training goal; this provides the expected results on the selected candidates for training after completing the succession planning program. It is also important to set the learning objectives and made available to the trainees and this gives them the sense on whatever they will be going to learn at the end of the program (Bagley, 2008). Instructors and trainers should plan the required activities so that they can achieve the set learning activities. It is important to continuously develop activities so as to achieve the learning objectives. These activities should notable match the learning styles of the selected candidates. The learning styles can be reading, listening or doing and it should enable the trainees to think and reflect on what they learn from the training program. Also embedded in the training outline is the development of materials and resources for effective completion of the training program. In the succession planning program the materials required include training videos and guest speakers notably the instructors and trainers and other aides. It is important to incorporate this into the underlying programs in the organization. It is also important to develop a budget that determines the costs required on the materials for the overall training program. Also in the training outline it is important to prepare the documentation of the learning from training in the form of writing or evaluation (Mello, 2014). This documentation provides prove that the trainees have acquired the learning skill, knowledge and experience throughout the training program. Evaluation Plan The implementation of succession planning program should have effective and efficient measures for monitoring its short-term and long-term success. Evaluation plan is important for the continuous refining and adjusting of the program based on the ongoing feedback attributed to the evaluation measures. It is important for an organization to focus on the results and processes so as to develop best evaluation practices. In regard to the evaluation of results it is important to evaluate whether the organization top talent have the ability to fill the current vacant positions. It is important to assess the qualified candidates taking into consideration the talent possessed and the key competencies in order to fulfill the job requirements. It is also important to evaluate the current workforce of the organization to determine suitable qualified candidates. The organization human resource department has the obligation to provide any available historical data in regard to hiring practices s well as the workforce analysis (Bagley, 2008). Another result evaluation aspect is carrying out appraisal and objective assessment whereby the promoted leaders attributed to this program offer vital data for evaluation. It is important to determine whether they have adequate confidence to perform their new roles and responsibilities. Other areas to determine underlying this is the level of competency and accountability (Atwood, 2007). This data can be used for future and subsequent evaluation programs within the organization. It is also important to investigate how successful is the leader from the program in carrying out their new roles. This evaluation can be achieved by conducting the focus groups in order to attain feedback. Under evaluation of results, it is important to determine individual development plans. This is important in the attainment of data required in regard to successor’s development. This should be documented in the yearly performance appraisals (Hastings, 2004). The identified competencies can be developed from the previous year delegation skills and it measured aspect is to determine if the delegation skills are effectively executed within the organization. Concerning the evaluation of the process it is important to rotate the top management leaders so that they gain diversified experience in the organization. This exposes them to various departments giving them accountability experience in various departments. The successors are able to learn and they can be evaluated accordingly. Underlying evaluation, it is important to assess whether the top leadership is moving and placing suitable and qualified individuals to positions aligned to their skills and competencies. It is also important ensuring that the succession planning program is operative throughout the year and it is fully integrated into the organization (Kim, 2006). Therefore, annual review engagement should be put in place in order to identify deficiencies in the program that needs improvement. It is also important to use other programs in regard to evaluation. These program initiatives include on-boarding programs for new employees and integrating employees to the organization systems. It is also important to establish web-based training programs for the future leaders thus facilitating and sustaining the succession process. Evaluation plan is essential for the ongoing improvement of the succession planning program and tracking the successor’s individual improvement (Carlson, 2015). Conclusion In conclusion, it is notable that most organizations have little or no successive planning fully established in their organizational structure. Organizations with no well-established succession planning lose important human capital when experience and senior executives leave the organization because of life or corporate events. Succession planning play important role in the organization strategic management in regard to minimizing the leadership gaps as well as developing skills and competencies necessary for undertaking future roles within the organization. Therefore, organizations should develop their own succession planning programs and initiatives to address these human resource challenges. Succession planning should be planned, designed and implemented effectively in order to achieve its objectives. Finally, it is important for organizations to develop their succession planning programs within an evaluation program so that its progress and success can be measures and determined. References Atwood, C. G. (2007). Succession planning basics. New York, NY: American Society for Training and Development. Bagley, T. L. (2008). Employee retention and succession planning. Boston, MA: ProQuest. Carlson, N. (2015). Marissa mayer and the fight to save Yahoo! New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing. Fenner, D. E. (2005). Linking succession planning to employee training: a study of federal employees. San Diego, CA: University of San Diego. Hastings, S. (2004). Succession planning. New York, NY: American Society for Training and Development. Jon M. Werner, R. L. (2011). Human resource development. New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Kim, Y. (2006). Measuring the value of succession planning and management: a qualitative study of U.S. affiliates of foreign multinational companies. Boston, MA: ProQuest. Mandi, A. R. (2005). Key a case study exploring succession planning: supported by a quantitative analysis of governmental organizations in the kingdom of Bahrain. Washington, WA: ProQuest. Mello, J. (2014). Strategic human resource management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Robinson, K. E. (2013). Evaluation of succession planning to improve court employees' career development opportunities: An evolutionary concept whose time is now! Chicago, IL: Dorrance Publishing. Romejko, M. A. (2008). Key characteristics of a succession planning program at a government research center. Boston, MA: ProQuest. Rothwell, W. J. (2005). Career Planning and Succession Management: Developing Your Organization's Talent--for Today and Tomorrow. Chicago: Greenwood Publishing Group. ROTHWELL, W. J. (2010). Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within. New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Read More