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Succession Planning

Succession planning is a long-term plan involving the process of identifying and developing individuals with the potential to fill key leadership positions when existing volunteers leave the position. It ensures a club will continue to operate efficiently without the presence of people who were previously holding key positions.

Contingency planning is similar to succession planning in that it is a plan stating who could step in, if someone had to leave for some reason, became ill or worse. Contingency planning can form part of risk management. It ensures there is cover in key positions vs waiting for someone to leave.

Successful succession planning processes include recording and storing important information in a central location that is easily accessible. This includes:

• Club planning documents e.g., strategic plan, communication plan, recruitment plans etc.
• Position Descriptions, work instructions and handover notes
• Various club databases e.g., volunteer database, sponsorship database, key contact database etc.
• Policies and procedures

The following steps will help guide the club committee when establishing a succession plan.

Step 1: Examine the club’s position

The club should start with identifying current critical roles within the club, who (if anyone) is in the role and when the role may become vacant. The club should also refer to the strategic plan and the club constitution to determine if any additional role need to be added to the club structure.

Step 2: Identify skills required to fill critical roles

Next, identify what teach critical role is for and what is needed to be successful in the role. Answering the following questions will help in this step:

• What are the main objectives of this role?
• What skills are needed to do this role?
• What training and education options are available for the role?

This information can be used to develop or review the job descriptions for each of the positions. Position descriptions are crucial to affective succession planning and volunteer management.

Step 3: Assess the skills gap in your club and identify potential successors

Identify vacancy and potential vacancies in the short term and identify potential successors for the role. Compare the skills required for the role with the skills of current volunteers as listed in the volunteer database to identify any potential internal successors. The club may need to look externally for new successors.

Step 4: Develop and prepare potential successors

Training and education are recommended to prepare the successor for their new role to help ensure a smooth transition. Create a training and development plan outlining the training, coaching, mentoring or work experience activities that a successes will engage in over a certain time period.

Step 5: Evaluate the succession plan

Like any plan, the succession plan should be reviewed and evaluated regularly to ensure its effective and relevant.

 TEMPLATE Succession Plan Database