Movin’ on up
When I think of training and social care, I think of the progress the sector has made over the years from a regulatory, operational and person-centred perspective, but I wonder if the sector applies the same approach to succession planning?
Succession planning is a vital tool in any organisation’s armoury, as it helps organisations to identify, develop and prepare people for leadership roles. It also helps them to ensure that they have a pipeline of talent in place when key staff members leave or retire - something that is a specific challenge to the social care sector. Our friends at skillsforcare.org.uk tell us that 28% of adult social care workers are 55 years old and over, compared to 21% of the economically active population. The average age of the workforce is now 44.4 years old, which is an increase over the last ten years.
In a sector with hundreds of thousands of vacancies, and by the very nature of the work, the temptation is to place people in roles to fit the challenge (when someone leaves for example), rather than preparing them for success in advance. When seen in this light, the process of identifying and developing future leaders, as well as ensuring that there is a pipeline of talent to fill vacancies, becomes an essential part of any organisation's overall talent management strategy.
So, what does that look like? Many of you reading this will be onto this already in some way, but here are a few things to ponder on:
Congratulations on the promotion – let me know how it goes.
This isn’t – I’d suggest - a good look. This is a classic variant of the Peter Principle where colleagues who are good at one thing are promoted to roles that they haven’t been prepared for, based on a (dangerous) assumption that if they were good at that, then they must be good at this. Doing this can set the person up to fail and that is simply not right nor good for anyone. Recognising your emerging stars and supporting them in advance with all they need to become the best leaders they can be, is time and money well spent, which brings us neatly onto…
Define leader…
Often a good starting point.
We know that there has been a substantial “job creep” in terms of what a care manager’s role looks like, so taking some time to work out what you see as the definitive ingredients will help a lot. Make a plan of what you need to do to prepare colleagues to be ready for that next, or first, leadership role.
Walk the walk.
For those in the organisation with an appetite to move to that next, or first, leadership role, their views on what good looks like will in a large part be a consequence of the values that the existing leadership team display each and every day. Do your leaders of tomorrow want to grow within an organisation whose culture isn’t appealing? I think not.
The secret of getting ahead…
Is getting started, so what does the succession plan look like? To implement a succession plan, you need to define roles and responsibilities. One way might be to create a mentorship program that allows employees to learn from more experienced colleagues. It's also important to establish a system for monitoring progress so everyone knows how they're doing in their role. It's essential that you ensure all staff members are aware of their career paths at every stage of their development. This way, they'll know what skills they need to move up within the organisation. Once you've put your succession plan in place, it's important to evaluate its success. Adjusting this as needed based on feedback from staff members about their experiences will help you to promote from within your own organisation, rather than recruiting new employees from outside who may not be familiar with your culture or practices. It also ensures that there are no gaps in service delivery when key staff members leave or retire because they have been trained up as a replacement before their departure date arrives.
Now, the above are only elements of a much larger plan which, if done correctly, can help make your employees engaged in their work by ensuring there are clear career paths for them to follow within your organisation. It’s also probable that staff will be more likely to stay with you for longer because they will feel valued and appreciated. Finally, it can help reduce the costs associated with hiring new employees who need training before they can start working; instead, you'll already have someone ready-trained who knows exactly what they're doing.
So, if you don’t feel you have a robust succession planning process in place, it’s time to have the debate to work out the approach, decide on the way forward, and then deliver it.
Yes, it’s a 3D thing.