A discussion with a friend ended up with a question, “When Bill Gates moved up the ladder, do you think he had a successor all ready and groomed for the position and responsibility?” Or when a chairman of group of organizations retires, does he have a successor waiting in line?
Strangely theory suggests that succession planning is the most important function in the organization and our Organization Behaviour, Organization Development and Organization Structure books back at college all talk about its significance. A relatively large chunk of strategic HR deals with useful succession planning tactics every HR Manager aspires to carry out as a part of his KRA. Yet are we really able to create a line of distinction of those people who would occupy critical spaces?
The FIFO principle (First In First Out) definitely gives way to positions going vacant and the scurrying HR Department on a lookout of a suitable tenant. Many times, change of orders take place from within the organization and still at times new entrants from a competitor industry are sought after. If both fail, some organizations prefer keeping the position vacant. Higher up the management some consideration on succession planning is still planned out, however at the lowest level or mid level are we planned on our needs? Do we have any such model being worked upon?
There are many organizations where the fear of attrition prevents fresh blood from being trained for processes and activities. They constantly face the dilemma - whether they should train and make new employees fit enough for new roles and they quit within 2 months. Or whether they should continue extracting work however not tune them for future needs and even if they quit the problem can be dealt with then and there. Or they believe very frequent job rotations can solve the problem and provide an exposure to all activities in a short span. However this leads to a frustrated employee who doesn’t understand where he fits and what process is calling his skill. Plus frequent readjustments make a sure shot make up of mind that the first best opportunity and he is out of his current workplace. But aren’t majority of employees similar, waiting for the next best opportunity and salary hike from previous? Would this mean that they never get proper training and grooming for the roles that may come up across the desk?
With the continuing tiff between high paying and extremely rewarding IT industry and not really matching levels manufacturing sector, recruitment is an easy step. But retaining fresh blood as in employees from fresher levels to below 5 years of experience is always a tough call. People keep looking across green valleys and in the process neglect assigned responsibilities. Or even if they so wish to fulfil them dutifully they are bound by a sea of non related work they get to do. Though grunt work is necessary and is a part of the learning process, however longer stances of dry runs disappoint them and assure quicker resignations.
One option is harnessing the training cell in all its strength along with delegation of authority. The other can be promoting and entertaining the freshers as well as people coming in for internships. At several organizations a proper internship is denied let alone being allowed to work on things. The Tier-I T-Schools and B-Schools do not have to worry, however Tier-II and below have some grave issues in their kitty. Instead of providing a certificate just to waive off the responsibility or lack of projects, one can instead think upon building competence and manpower through this resource found in abundance. They seem to be the most excited lot who would want to be a part of the organization force and seem very eager to learn. Besides training and development has always been seen as a mode to develop competitive advantage by the organization, so when operation flow is in stake why not give serious thought to the same. Why not be prepared for hard times that may come and situations that may require fresh ideas and brains! Why not have someone lined up and ready to take on the initiative without wasting much of organization’s capital and time!
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