Have you ever thought about your career growth?
If yes, there must have been some plan for it. But did you know about career planning and succession planning?
People often confuse the two, but it is important to have clarity about these practices as you will need them for your career growth.
Career and Succession planning are critical practices that can impact you massively.
So, in this article, we will answer questions like ‘What is career planning?’, ‘What is succession planning?' and the difference between the two.
Let’s begin!
What is succession planning?
Succession planning basically implies finding/identifying replacement ensuring that a company can replace an employee if they resign.
This process requires you to make a list of potential candidates by assessing their qualifications and skills and providing them the training to take up the positions.
Succession planning is a critical practice as businesses rely on the smooth running of a company.
A Succession planning is executed in these 5 steps;
- Note down the key roles for succession/ & replacement planning.
- Chalk out the capabilities and motivational reports for undertaking those roles.
- Assess people accordingly with a focus on future orientation.
- Recognize talents who could fill in and perform those key roles efficiently
- Help enable employees transition to keyroles with the right set of experiences.
Importance of Succession planning
Succession planning, like career planning is a critical experiment that every organization must undertake.
It allows a company to continue its business without hiccup incase of a sudden exit of a key employee.
Through this experiment, companies identify potential candidates to take over the soon-to-be vacant position and groom them appropriately for the same.
What is career planning?
The continuous process undertaken by a working professional to explore his talents, interests and skills to achieve his goals is called Career planning.
Career planning is a practice you undertake before you join the workforce and continue throughout your professional life.
This practice helps shape your career graph and scale up on your skillsets for the same.
Find out more about career planning on What is career planning and how to do it.
Importance of career planning
Career planning is a critical practice in every professional's career.
It allows you to check your progress and weaknesses to improve in order to achieve your career goals.
Carrying out this self-discovering experiment can provide insights into your strengths and weaknesses and work on upskilling to bridge any skill gap to progress in your career.
Difference between career planning and succession planning
To sum it, here are the points of distinction between career planning and succession planning.
| CAREER PLANNING | SUCCESSION PLANNING |
|---|---|
| Firstly, Career planning is a personal experiment. | Whereas Succession planning is a process undertaken by an organization Content |
| Career planning includes 6 stages of self-discovery to determine and define your career path. These discoveries are crucial to make sound career choices. | Comprising of 5 steps, succession planning includes many recurring activities to ensure smooth sailing of business. |
| In this experiment, one professional will work towards taking up various roles as he progresses his career journey. | While succession planning involves many people performing the same role over a period of time. |
| Through career planning employees can identify and work on their career choices to advance. | In contrast to career planning, succession planning allows a company to manage its top talents appropriately for the benefit of the business. |
Conclusion
Going by the facts, you may feel that succession planning and career planning are separate matters. However, that's not the case.
You see, apart from the differences between career planning and succession planning, they are interlinked.
It is for the organization to ensure the smooth transition when it changes hands you could also work on your skills to progress in your career.
For example, if you are in an Assistant Manager position, work towards upgrading your skills to aim for a Managerial position.
So, don’t be afraid to ask yourself, ‘What is you succession plan?’ when you sit down to update your career plans.
All the Best!
