Succession planning is the process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the company. In this process, you ensure that you will never have a key role open for which another employee is not prepared. This is also significant as you develop your talent bench strength within your organization. 

Sure, you will have an occasional situation arise for which you are unprepared, but for the vast majority of employee movement, your succession plan is in place. You will have had a systematic process for preparing employees to fill key roles as they become vacant. 

Through your succession planning process, you recruit superior employees, develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and prepare them for advancement or promotioninto ever more challenging roles in your organization. 

The preparation for the employee’s next role may also include transfers to different jobs or departments and on-the-job shadowing, so the employee has a chance to observe various jobs in action. 

Actively pursuing succession planning ensures that employees are constantly developed to fill each needed role in your organization. As your organization expands, loses key employees, provides promotional job opportunities and increases sales, your succession planning guarantees that you have employees on hand ready and waiting to fill the new roles.