Hello World. 

Every entry level programming class begins with its students building a program that displayed the words “hello world”.  Since this is my first blog, I found it fitting. 

Now that I’ve gotten the worry of sounding cliché out of the way, allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Byron Pitney and I am Ed’s guest blogger (thanks for the blogstipation intro).  I am also the Software Architect on Ed’s team here at Achievant.  I’ve spent the last seven years writing code, but this is my first year writing HRIS software.  I have always enjoyed building things that are useful to people.  Working on a system that benefits employees and their employers definitely fits that bill.

Not too long ago Ed sent me an email with an attachment he affectionately refers to as The Bus Document.  In other words, if he were to get hit by a bus we would (in theory) still be able to continue on without him based on the information in “the bus” document.    

At first I was laughing at the way he was so carelessly talking about his own demise, but then the wheels started turning in my head.   What would we do without him?   What if instead of getting hit by a bus, he got a really good offer from a start up state-of-the-art search engine and left us behind? 

Do we have a plan B?  Being makers of HR automation software we should certainly have a succession plan for our key employees.

I know that leaders of any business have a lot of responsibility (what they choose do with this responsibility might be a blog for another day).   It is important for them to groom their employees to someday fulfill their roles.   I’ve seen first-hand how neglecting succession planning can cause major headaches. 

A company that I worked for struggled with this concept.  For sake of protecting the innocent, let us call the company Company X.   During my time at Company X I worked under a manager that was heavily involved in developing his team.  Next to getting the job done, team building was his top priority.  His was a sound philosophy. 

In order to be successful, he surrounded himself with successful people.  He made sure his team had proper training, and that they were reaching their clearly defined goals and objectives.   However (this is where the neglect part comes in), Company X did not have job descriptions or career paths in place.  In the eyes of the company, his standard for developing employees did not meet the same standard the company had (or in this case didn’t) set.  When the manager eventually stepped down, he recommended his replacement.  Since Company X hadn’t given time to succession planning they treated the recommended person the same as any other resume off the street.  To make a long story short, instead of losing one employee, their lack of succession planning eventually cost them four.  In retrospect, having a plan B seems like common sense.  Unfortunately, common sense does not always prevail.