Businesses are growing and changing all the time and keeping that on track may be a bit difficult. That’s why working on a Succession Planning Template is crucial to keep things in order and the engine of your organization working properly. This article addresses everything about this planning and gives you relevant templates you can use for such purposes.

In general, two types of succession plans allow you to respond to eventual changes and deploy development opportunities.

Succession plans consider candidates before starting the succession process. Candidates are qualified employees capable of developing and fulfilling critical roles. A good number of potential candidates for each role is two or three. In the case of leadership roles, it is the same. This way, you have a backup in case of unexpected leadership losses.

Business owners choose the best candidate for either novice or senior positions. Creating a succession plan includes a rating system that measures any candidate's knowledge level and how prepared they are for the role.

For instance, when using a business succession plan template, you can measure the skills of an inexperienced but highly-potential candidate and give them a readiness rating of five or six. On the other hand, an older employee with critical competencies and over ten years of experience may receive a readiness rating of eight or even more.

This way, you can identify promising employees and potential successors for workers with low readiness ratings.

Timeline is another crucial factor of any efficient succession plan. When you draft this document, you should consider several events that may happen to your current employees. For instance, retirement should be a relevant milestone set several years in advance. Any unexpected transition should also be an aspect to consider when you create a timeline. Other unexpected events, such as accidents or death, can be considered.

Source: Techtarget.

Now, we're giving you a brief guide that includes all the steps involved in creating a good succession planning template.

When you draft your succession plan, the first step is identifying critical roles and skills. To do your best in this regard, involve other members of your leadership team who help you identify the above since they may provide you with valuable insights. They may have better knowledge about employees and candidates, helping you to identify successors. So, gather senior members with leadership skills and run the plan.

You and your collaborators must be capable of identifying key positions, skills, and knowledge for the continuity of the business. It's good if you prepare a list of these positions and skills in order of importance to ensure that the prominent roles will continue to be executed best.

Generally, key positions and skills correspond to technicians or specialists who support the organization, i.e., engineers, programmers, etcetera.

Some questions you can ask yourself are the following:

• If a position becomes vacant, does the organization have a replacement with the proper ability to cover the position?

• If not, how would it affect the organization?

Identifying talent is crucial for having a successful transition and keeping progress despite new structures and changes in the business.

With the help of your organization's senior leaders, you should be capable of finding the proper candidates to create a succession. It's one of the most crucial business challenges while performing business continuity.

Generally, business owners prefer to leave their company to their closer partners or children as long as they are the ones who maintain the operations of the companies.

On the other hand, if you need people for new positions, finding several candidates is crucial to finally choosing a suitable replacement for the vacated position.

Some questions you may respond to are the following:

• Which candidate makes sense to fulfill this role?

• What kind of benefit may this candidate bring to the organization?

• What skill does the candidate possess that may be significant for the position?

Speaking to candidates is not mandatory, but it can be wise since you can determine if they're interested in fulfilling the role and the organization's criteria.

Do not make promises or give relevant details, but let them know that the business is considering them for leadership in the potential event of restructuring.

Succession planning may adopt many forms. Some business owners prefer a short form to keep their succession plans simple. Others prefer a multiple-page document through which they can explain everything thoroughly.

The type of format you choose to use will depend on the nature of your organization. For instance, if you have a small business, a short form is enough to evaluate any potential successor for your succession plan.

On the other hand, if you're a prominent business owner, the best thing is to use a more effective development plan with more space for including as much data as possible. This way, you can also prevent competency gaps and perform better development plans.

Calculating the value of your business is crucial if you're planning to retire or sell your organization in the near future. This also helps you to calculate your own net worth. Maybe you intend to sell a part of your organization to help your business grow. In this case, calculating the exact value of the part you're selling is the best way to save money and get new leaders in your company.

This point is strongly related to the previous one. If you're thinking of another person taking care of your business, you should ensure that the interested one can do it.

Selecting the proper successor who is financially capable is vital to ensure the operation of your company. If the successor does not have essential critical competencies and the capacity to maintain functionality, it will result in negative effects.

Now we're giving you some succession plan examples and templates you can use to manage a smooth transition process successfully.

Since most templates you find on the web are Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files, it is preponderant that you have the Microsoft Office suite to edit them and identify critical roles and critical skills. And as we know that getting a copy of Office on the Microsoft Official website is expensive –over USD$150– we offer you a reliable and legit copy of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global or Home and Business Key Mac at the lowest price.

This template is ideal for developing a good succession plan and evaluating high-potential employees and candidates. Managers can use this template to describe responsibilities, measure key skills, check status and priority, and more. This is a great Microsoft Word template to make your employee development plans ready and valuable.

You can download this basic succession planning template from Templatelab.

As its name indicates, this template is suited for performing and managing an emergency succession plan that ensures a flawless transition. You can use this document for strategic plans and to handle the company when unexpected leadership changes come.

This template is larger than the previous one. It contains enough space for rationale, plan implementation, priority functions, describing development activities, approvals and maintenance of records, and more.

Download this template from Smartsheet if you need to elaborate more on the specific plan.

This simple and free succession template ensures that when senior management roles open up, you have several candidates available to fulfill the role and all the sections needed to describe any key role within your company. You can also describe all the successors for high-ranking roles and qualified individuals to get the best future potential worker.

This template also integrates sections to describe successors' profiles for either novice or senior roles, i.e., qualifications, key skills, years of experience, and more. Thanks to this, you can lead the selection process to fruition.

You can download this simple succession plan template from Indeed.

This extended template incorporates multiple sections to define all the succession planning aspects clearly. It integrates a special section for the successor where you can broadly describe their key competencies, certifications, skills, experience, and even lack of knowledge. It also has a business evaluation section to check whether the business grows and the current financial situation. An attractive template will help you decide who is the best successor.

You can download this extended succession planning template from Fitsmallbusiness.

It is essential to review and update your succession plan regularly. Changes may happen at any time, and considering all the factors in advance is a practice that can save your organization. A succession plan helps to define possible ways to face restructuring, promotions, retirements, changes in ownership, etcetera. Be prepared and establish the steps you must follow in a possible transition.

For other significant documents and templates for your organization, browse our blog. There you will discover many exciting tools for your business. RoyalCDKeys is engaged in providing you with the most valuable weapons you can use to develop your business.