Expert Advice - September 2005

Where Did All My People Go?

Contingency Planning for Your Company

by Mark Keays

The office phone on the empty desk rings and rings, but no one is there to answer it. Not a problem in your organization today – but how about tomorrow, next week or next year? Take a look at the people in your organization. How many of them are nearing 65 or are eligible to retire? In most cases, the list is a lot longer than anyone expected. It is estimated that over 76 million baby boomers will be retiring in the next 10 years and only 45 million Generation X’ers will be available to replace them. There is also the "beer truck" scenario. One of your key employees, vital to the ongoing success of the company, doesn’t look before stepping off the curb into the street and – bang – immediate job opening.

Far too many organizations wait until people announce they are retiring or leaving to decide it is time to find replacements or fill positions vacated by attrition. The leadership of any organization should complete an analysis of retirement-eligible personnel and key personnel and then look at who is being prepared to fill those slots.

Looking at the retirement-eligible group, many organizations take the approach that "Good old Joe will be with us forever," and then get a rude awakening when Joe makes it known he plans to retire in six months. Depending on Joe’s role in the organization, there may be a short or very long learning curve for someone to gain the level of proficiency and knowledge needed to effectively fill his shoes.

Another major issue is the corporate knowledge that will walk out the door when Joe leaves. Far too often, the rationale for decisions, programs, projects or plans are never documented. Walk around your organization and ask some of the long-term employees why certain software programs were written the way they were, or why a specific contract or deal was written the way it was, and you’ll find a lot of that information is stored only in the heads of those directly involved.

Contingency planning or succession planning is not just an organizational initiative; it should be a shared responsibility with employees. Employees need to understand that it is up to them to continue to grow and learn as much as they can, so they continue to be a valuable asset to the organization and be ready to move up as opportunities arise. For its part, the organization needs to define the criteria necessary to move into various positions so employees know what knowledge, skills and experience are needed for the position.

The benefit to the organization is that it has a pipeline filled with people at various stages of readiness that can move into positions the organization knows they can handle. Additionally, employees are going to be more productive, better trained and in almost all cases, more motivated to perform because they can see where the organization is going and the roles they can play in its future.

Relying on an ad in the Sunday paper to find the right employees when you need them is an iffy way to run a business. Those organizations developing and implementing contingency or succession plans are the ones that will be the strongest in years to come.

Mark Keays
Mark Keays is president of Desert Management Services, a Las Vegas-based management consulting firm, and a faculty member of the University of Phoenix, where he teaches in the areas of organizational change, human resources and management.