(Akiit.com) You need to understand that just like countries, generations in business will need to carry on the responsibilities, skills and culture when the older generation are gone. Sooner or later, your business will be in need of young talent that can fulfil the roles of the senior employees. This is often referred to as ‘bringing in the next generation’ because it’s more than just hiring. You will be training and teaching a whole new generation of workers and employees, your way of doing business at a top level. Therefore this also involves the improvement of current employees and essentially, you’re figuring out who will be in your leadership roles and very important positions soon. Hence why this needs to be taken slowly and done cautiously so you choose the cream of the crop. Every business does this every 5 or 10 years and some even sooner depending on how fast they are growing.
What is the signal?
Training employees into very important senior roles is not something that can be done overnight. It could take several weeks, a few months or even over a year depending on the roles and responsibilities. But when is the right time to go ahead with this, what are the signs that you should look out for? Retirements are the most predictable as they are easily foreseen so you should be able to adapt to them. Other times it’s when high ranking employees leave their roles for whatever reason and they have left behind a gap that no other employee can completely fill. Another sign is when you have an unfortunate cutting of employee numbers to do when the business is failing or when you’re in the midst of an economic crash.
How to go about it
So how should you go about this monumental changing of the guard? Well you need technology to help you so you can keep track of everything such as employee history, track their improvements, see their pay grade desires and their overall experience. This is why choosing the best onboarding software is so important as the key features you need will need will also have the option of automation. It streamlines the process and it won’t take up as much time as manually having to do everything. Test results can automatically be added to the database of the software and you will get a list of those that passed. Each stage of progression can be made simpler, faster and more efficient.
Take your time
Remember that when you are bringing in new employees into very high ranking roles, you need the best of the best. It will take time to weed those that are weaker out of the runnings, but the wait will be worth it. You need great leaders that could stay in those roles for many years to come. So don’t rush the process and choose someone who isn’t up to the challenge.
A changing of the guard happens in every business sometimes in a predictable manner and other times not. These are just a few things you should do to stand the highest chance of success.
Staff Writer; Peter Hall