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6 Succession Planning Myths…Debunked

Of late, the topic of succession planning has sparked much concern. However, it seems few organizations have heeded the warning.

According to a Human Resource Planning Society and Hewitt Associates study, fewer than 60% of companies have a succession plan in place.

Learn some of the top myths and tips for creating a succession plan for your organization.

succession planning, talent management, human resources, hr, behavioral assessment, behavioral evaluation, personality assessment, personality evaluation, small business, family-owned business

Of late, the topic of succession planning has sparked much concern. However, it seems few organizations have heeded the warning.

According to a Human Resource Planning Society and Hewitt Associates study, fewer than 60% of companies have a succession plan in place.

Below are some of the most common myths about succession planning.

Myth #1: If there are no imminent retirements, succession planning needn’t be a top priority.

According to a survey conducted by Capital H, nearly 22 percent of respondents expect to lose between 10 percent and 25 percent of their top performers to retirement within the next five years.

These top performers play a significant role in a company’s success, often serving in high-level, supervisory roles.FREE BUSINESS STARTER INFORMATION — CLICK NOW

For successions to progress smoothly, the people chosen to fill these roles need to be prepared and adequately trained. That process takes time.

Myth #2: Succession planning is only an issue for big companies.

85 to 95 percent of all the companies in the United States today — more than 10 million – are family-owned or family-controlled. The smaller the business, the greater the impact is felt from a replaced employee.

This is especially true of any employee succession in a sales or operations leadership role, as a poor month or two can mean disaster for a small company. Small companies need to plan early and invest in the training necessary to help the new or promoted employee succeed.

For smaller companies, this may mean researching outside learning opportunities and setting aside a budget to cover them.

Myth #3: There need only be a succession plan for C-level team members.

During the recent recession, employees were often asked to broaden their lists of responsibilities. The Economic Policy Institute reports that employee productivity has increased 4.1% each year.

Manager and director-level professionals have been asked to take on more duties than ever before. As such, it is important to look at a cross-section of departments to ensure proper succession plans are in place for each division.

Myth #4: Succession planning should be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Continuity works best. Allowing each department to come up with its own unique process for succession planning, can be a troublesome and time-consuming endeavor.

Organizations, instead, should create a company-wide process that could then be used by each individual department.

Myth #5: Good talent is easy to spot.

As an employee moves up the corporate ladder, soft skills become more necessary and valuable components of success – management skills, emotional intelligence, leadership ability, and so forth.

However, these skills can be difficult to quantify. To spot and cultivate employees with these skills, an organization needs an instrument to help measure and assess talent.

According to a recent report by Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, organizations like Lilly, Dow and Dell have long-used talent assessment as part of their succession planning processes.

Myth #6: Succession planning only pertains to baby boomers.

According to SHRM and CareerJournal.com’s 2005 US Job Recovery and Retention Survey, 76% of all employees are looking for a new job. This means that your top performers may be leaving sooner than you imagine.

As such, it’s important to think about succession planning – not as a one-time effort – but as an ongoing process to continually grow and develop your organization.

Build Up Your Business Credit

It is very important to build up your business credit scores to be able to avail yourself of financial loans to fund your small business.

In truth, small enterprises are now clamoring for loans to improve their business by using the money for improvements or purchasing inventory to meet consumer demands.

Building up your business credit takes a lot of time and effort, and requires a paper works by the dozen. Here are some tips on how to get started in giving your business credit rating a healthy boost:

Set a business identity first

The first step in improving your business credit is to get one in the first place. This can be done by registering your business as an LLC or a corporation.

Next, you need to provide all the necessary paper works required by lenders such as legal document like business permits and licenses, financial statements, references, contracts, and so on.FREE INFORMATION

You need to keep in mind that when you register your business as an independent entity, you need to have a fixed address of your business, as well as open lines of communication. (Note that P.O. Box is not acceptable as a business address)

You might also need to register your business in a credit agency so they can keep tabs on your credit ratings and scores. These organizations will act as references when you apply for a financial loan that requires a valid credit report.

Building up your credit status will depend on the financial stability of your business as based on the financial documents during.

Also, prompt payments are a major issue when it comes to raising your credit status. Failure to pay on the date agreed; you get a negative score on your credit score if that happens.

You might also need to keep monitor credit card reports when they are delivered to you. Try to check for transactions that you did, or did not, make.

If you spot an error, report it immediately to the corresponding agency. This will result in a higher credit rating.

Get a loan

Before you can actually improve your credit scores, you need to have a credit to work with. Many small businesses are now opting for business credit cards to improve their ratings.

One reason for this is that these plastics have reduced interest rates and APR, which is quite useful for making prompt and affordable payments.

Also, since business credit cards have no principal amounts attached to them, you can easily control the interest expense you make every month. You can do some budget planning to minimize expenses and maximizing profit, without worrying about interests piling up.

Another way to improve your credit status is through credit lines. Many financial institutions, like banks, are now offering short-term lines of credit (LOC) for small businesses, with easy payment terms.

Since interest expense on LOC is dependent on the principal amount, you can easily reduce it by paying the original debt until you reach zero.

With this term in mind, you can easily make prompt payments according to the agreement between you and the lender.

The gist to build up your business credit is to make prompt payments on your debts. Whether you have multiple loans or tons of credit cards at your disposal, you need to make sure that you pay each one on its designated date.

If done right, you are well on your way to improve your credit scores, which in turn, will improve the financial future of your business.

Businesses Learn to Make SEO Work for Them

One of the most important talents any management team of a business can have is to be able to detect changes in the marketplace and adjust how the business operates to function in that new market. Some call it “thinking outside the box” and others refer to this talent as “working with a new paradigm”.

Whatever the term of the day is, without the flexibility to change as the market changes, a business is destined to fade away.

Of the many business and market trends that have changed the paradigm by which business is done in the new century, internet marketing ranks near the top of the most drastic and sweeping change that virtually every business has had to adapt to in order to survive and thrive in the new business world.

At first, most in the business world considered the internet to be a toy and perhaps a good communication tool. But in the last decade, the power of internet marketing and the need to compete in that marketplace has never been more evident.FREE INFORMATION

And just as business learns new marketing and communication methods when they enter a new market such as learning to do business overseas, the internet has brought with it entirely new tools and weapons that the modern business must learn to use skillfully to succeed in a cyberspace business environment.

Of the many new acronyms that have been added to the business vocabulary, “SEO” is one that is central to success in the internet marketing world. SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it is an entire discipline unto itself.

By learning to utilize well developed SEO methods, a business can learn to dominate their particular market niche even in a cyberspace business world.

Just as in the conventional business world, to be successful with a particular market, you have to go where they are and learn to get noticed and get your message to the consumer even as your competition is doing the same thing.

In the world outside of cyberspace that may mean various methods of advertising, promotional campaigns, good customer service and a long term promotional strategy that will grow the businesses market presence over time. Continue reading “GENERATION Y — STARTING AN ONLINE BUSINESS AND DOMINATING YOUR NICHE”