I read an interesting article in Workforce Magazine this week that indicated that most succession planning aims to replace senior management and ignores middle management.
According to a report by Ernst & Young, as a large segment of the workforce nears retirement, large U.S. companies are woefully “unprepared for the looming brain drain” that will result. Based on responses of human resources executives at Fortune 1,000 companies, it found that most companies are not actually focusing on employee development.
One in four companies (25%) say their middle management ranks will be most affected as these “boomer” employees exit the workforce. Even so, three-quarters (75%) of those with formal succession strategies in place focus exclusively on replacements for top senior executives, rather than identifying would-be middle managers.
This lack of deliberate succession planning results in higher costs: 52 percent of those surveyed say costs of recruitment have increased, while 43 percent have seen an increase in their training and development needs. The report warns that many companies will be exposed to “economic and productivity challenges” within five years unless they implement strategic succession plans.
Does your organization have a succession plan for all levels?
